The Second Sunday of Lent – Transfiguration of Jesus

This post is part of our Lenten Reflection Series: Be A Fountain of Mercy
Authored by Sister Mary Regina Robbins, SND

The Entrance Antiphon for this Sunday is a beautiful plea:

“Of you my heart has spoken:
Seek his face.
It is your face, O Lord, that I seek.
Hide not your face from me!” (Ps. 25)

As we continue our Lenten journey we experience an increasing desire to be pure of heart, to have eyes of faith, to be all that God is calling us to be. We want to see the face of Christ so we can reflect his goodness to our world. However Satan wages a relentless war against our efforts. We hear God’s call in our hearts but the evil spirit uses twists and turns to suggest excuses, and butters up our already-puffed-up egos. The journey is rough at times. Like Saint Paul we say we do not always do the things we resolve to do. We experience our human weaknesses and realize more and more how much we need Lent to discipline ourselves. We turn to God for the grace and strength to be Christ-like. “Hide not your face from me, Lord!”

This Sunday we have the wonderful Gospel of the Transfiguration. Let your imagination enter the scene. Climb the hillside with Jesus. His transfiguration is to empower us as it did the apostles, for our own transformation into his likeness.

The apostles had some kind of mystical experience on Mount Tabor. It changed their lives and they held in their hearts forever that memory. They had a personal God-experience, an intimate encounter with Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

This Gospel event is so important that the liturgical calendar celebrates it as a feast day on August 6. It is recorded in all three synoptics (Mtt.17.1-8, Mk. 9.2-8 and Lk. 9.28-36). Jesus manifests his glory and divinity, impressing upon the apostles who he really is, giving them a truth which they will later be able to refer to in times of temptation and difficulty.

Have you had a “transfiguration” personal encounter with Jesus? Yours may not be recorded in any book and it may not be as dramatic, but if you look into your heart you may be able to recall some moment or event that changed you in some way. We know the story of Jesus’ transfiguration because the apostles experienced it, recalled it, reflected upon it, and then shared it, giving testimony. Do we willingly share our God-experiences as testimony of what God can do? This is a grace to ask for during Lent as we deepen our prayer and meditation and pray that God will show us his face.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

The Second Sunday of Lent – Transfiguration of Jesus

The Second Sunday of Lent – Transfiguration of Jesus

By Sister Mary Lisa Megaffin, SND

The account of the Transfiguration, a rather mysterious segment in the life of Christ, provides many reflection points about the presence of God.

It almost seems as if Peter, James and John experienced a bit of an emotional roller coaster. First, they had heard (but probably not grasped) Jesus’ previous challenging messages as recounted in the gospel of Mark:

• That the Son of Man should suffer many things—a message which Peter tried to discount,
• The necessity of losing one’s life for the sake of the Gospel,
• That genuine disciples of Jesus must be ready to deny themselves and take up their personal crosses.

What a juxtaposition: from hard and potentially painful sayings, to the radiance of Christ’s clothing and countenance, to the ecstasy of the apostles–“it is good that we are here.”  It is no wonder that Peter was at a loss for words–“he hardly knew what to speak because they were so terrified.”

What we can learn is that even in times of emotional turmoil, or perhaps especially in times of emotional turmoil, God is present and he will reveal himself to those whose hearts are ready to listen. During Lent, we have many opportunities to unplug, still our hearts, be led up a high mountain apart by ourselves, and embrace and surrender to the deep graces which this solitude fosters. Deep within, I hear “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” In this solitude, I can experience the radiance of God’s presence as I grow even closer in my personal relationship with Jesus, asking him:

• How is he, as the Son of Man, suffering today in my brothers and sisters around the world?
• What does losing my life for the sake of the Gospel mean, in light of this suffering?
• For the grace to be aware of the radiance of God’s presence even in difficult moments, as I deny myself and take up my cross, becoming a source of that radiance and grace for others.

“The grace of the Transfiguration is not just a vision of glory…its primary purpose is something greater: to empower us to live in the presence of God and to see the radiance of that presence in all events, people, the cosmos, and in ourselves.” …Thomas Keating.

Read Full Post »

Lenten Reflections From the Sisters

Second Sunday of Lent
The Transfiguration: Between Two Mountains
By Sister Mary Kathleen Burns 

Two mountains figure prominently in Jesus’ Life: Mount Tabor and Mount Calvary.

On Mount Tabor Peter, James and John were given a glimpse into Jesus’ divinity. Jesus stood before them, bathed in Trinitarian Light, with Moses representing the Father as Giver of the Law on one side, and Elijah representing the Spirit who has spoken through Prophets on the other.

How beautiful Jesus must have been! The three apostles basked in the glow. So enthralled were they that Peter suggested they build three tents and remain there. Peter, like us, wanted to stay on the mountain to continue to savor the experience, but Jesus refused to allow him to create a permanent retreat center. He said Peter must go back down the mountain and begin living out this experience in day-to-day life and ministry to God’s people, and ultimately in his own experience of suffering.

Having seen Jesus in glory, we marvel at how quickly the glow faded after coming down the mountain! We wonder how the apostles could have doubted Jesus after all they had witnessed. How could they have betrayed him after seeing his glory? After all, Jesus’ gift of the Transfiguration was to strengthen them for the coming crisis. Mt. Tabor was preparation for the next mountain Jesus would climb where he would be disfigured, hanging not between Moses and Elijah, but between two others, common criminals.

Like the apostles, we too have been chosen and gifted with an experience of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We have the benefit of a long tradition of rich teaching, the Holy Scriptures which are so accessible to us, and the life and grace of the Sacraments, especially the opportunity to receive Eucharist. These are our Tabor experiences which are given us not to revel in, but to prepare us to go down into the valley of life, living out our discipleship in our day-to-day encounters, which at times will challenge us to climb mount Calvary where Jesus seems disfigured.

The Transfiguration teaches us that Jesus is fully present in all these experiences, whether in glory, in the mundane duties of our life, or in suffering. Ultimately, God gives us moments of glory, clarity and insight so that we can also see Him in the ordinary, in the darkness and especially in suffering.

Read Full Post »

Imagine Yourself Transfigured

Written by Sr. Marie Paul Grech, SND

Are you ready for the pain and the delight of transformation?

In the Gospel account of Jesus’ transfiguration, we see that he was transfigured in order to reveal himself to the disciples. This event reminds us that we need to be transformed into the image of Jesus, whose disciples we are.

A story is told of a working man who was strongly drawn toward a beautiful vase that he saw in the town market. He bought the vase and brought it home. The vase was so beautiful that it made his living room look drab, dull and indeed, plain ugly. So he got bright paints, colorful curtains, and new carpet and transformed the whole room. Because of the beauty of the vase, the whole room was totally transformed.

C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, uses the same analogy when speaking of transformation:

IMAGINE YOURSELF as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

Each of us is like a drab room or house…longing for transformation! Each of us can also be like the vase…so beautiful in God’s grace that we help the transform the world!

Read Full Post »