Jesus was transfigured on the mountain top and revealed, to these privelged disciples, a truth that would soon become known to countless generations. Jesus in the only begotten son of God.
The important thing following this is, “did the dicsiples become transfigured (or changed) by this revelation……” It is important that the eventually did. Because this revelation was for them and us…. To encourage us to look deeply into Jesus life and learn from what it tells us about God……. Jesus life, his words, his actions, his parables, who he ate with, how he treated sinners and outcasts, his way of living, his way of dying… shows us just what God is like…… and encourages us to learn and take in the values embodied by Jesus life, words and actions…….. to be transfigured, by his example.
The old testament has the example of Moses, who after speaking with God came away literally glowing….his face shining……. The encournter with the God of transformation made him glow…….. I think we can all think of people who, because of their love, compassion, and energy, appear to be radiant… glowing….. filled with grace and light….. such people are contagious…. Their energy, vitality, radiance also is transforming…..
Jesus is the best example of them all….. he glows with the divine light of God…… he did this all the time…. Even when this was not physically visible,,,,, he shone with God’s light in happy times, in times of suffering………. His life was a transformation, and he invites his followers to walk this difficult path of transformation too….
The feast of the transfiguration is a special one….. the date also coincides with other world events…. Such as today also being, the 61st anniversary of the first atomic bomb over
I also note that it’s the anniversary of the death of Pope Paul the VI who died on the feast of the transfiguration in 1978. Reading his biorgraphy a few years ago….. anjd being struck by Pope Paul’s passion and love and his vision for the world, including a vision for peace….. it was Pope Paul who ensured that the Vatican Council begun by Pope John the XIII and so transofmring with the spirit the church to address the needs of today…. It was Pope Paul who kept it going after Pope John’s death halfway throuhg the council threartened to derail the work begun…….. they said of Pope Paul, it may have needed a saintly man like Pope John to laucnh the second vatican counctil. But the spirit seemd to need a man of the vision and clarity of Pope Paul to bring it back to port…….
This weekend and next weekend is vocation awareness week.. and there are articles in the catholic leader about the important of various catholic vocations.. including the vocation of the people of God, the laity, who are in and amongst thew world working with God’s Spirit to transform it into the world God wants… and of course also religious and priestly vocations too… which we will hear more of next week……
So this weekend… let us pray that God will tranform our heart and minds and transfigure them according to the mind and heart of Christ and his vision for a world made new….
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