READINGS: GENESIS 15:5-12, 17-18; PHIL. 3:17-4:1; LUKE 9: 28-36.
Peace and good!
Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke recounts the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration, which I am sure all of us have heard many times. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to a mountaintop where His appearance radically changes to show some of his divine self. The reaction of the three Apostles is fear and probably wonder. What in the world can we glean from this account that will help us today?
Who doesn’t want to change?
Perhaps to be more, easy-going? To lose weight? To adopt a healthy diet? To drink less? To obsess less? Or perhaps to spend more time in prayer?
Everyone is painfully aware, unless we have some mental illness, that no one is perfect and strives to improve ourselves. Often, we want this to be an instantaneous change, like Jesus during the Transfiguration.
But the Transfiguration is not a model for personal change but a sign of hope. This event is named by theologians as the ‘eschaton breaking into the present’ Christ is giving us not only evidence of His divinity but hope that at the end of time we will be transformed into the unblemished likeness of God. It is a sign of hope for us that the present is passing and goodness will triumph in the end through God’s grace and power.
Change for us will never be immediate. Instinctively, we know this from our experience but still, we often are conned by those who promise immediate results. But this should not lead us to despair or nihilism but to turn our focus onto the God of love. Change, personal, communal, or institutional, takes time as we are people who live in time past, present, and moving towards an unseen future. Through seeking God’s grace/help and focusing our eyes on God change will occur, perhaps not the change we want; a change to who we really are in God. Focus not on our weaknesses, even as we acknowledge them, but the power and grace of God to change hearts, habits and over time mold us into clearer images of Christ.
So, during this week perhaps we can focus on God’s love and ask for help with our habits, relationships, and life.
Please support MDA as the doctors bring healing to the poor which radically changes lives.
Happy Second Sunday of Lent !!