This Sunday we hear St. Luke’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus…right before the eyes of three of the disciples, Jesus’ true identity bursts forth and in one spectacularly luminous moment, Peter, James and John are themselves forever changed --“transfigured” -- with a growing awareness of the true identity of Jesus!
I believe that each one of us have our own “moments of transfiguration.” Moments in which we see or feel the very presence of God. They are moments when, “deep inside,” we come to know with a deeper certainty that God is present around us and indeed within us. That God is real. These moments of awareness hold the potential to transfigure our entire lives into something new, something wonderful, something beyond our imagining.
The real challenge for us is to learn “to live out of these transfiguration moments,” keeping these moments alive in our hearts and minds allowing them to continually transfigure us more and more into the image and likeness of God.
Each one of us carries within us experiences of the tenderness, mercy and love of God. So often it is the chaos of our lives that “dim” the luminous moments of encounters with our God. We can forget we ever had them in the midst of the rush and business of our daily lives.
Not all of these “transfiguration” moments are happy or joyful moments. Some of them come in the midst of great sadness, even in the midst of tragedy and death. I have had such “transfiguration moments” with people as they were dying -- luminous in-breakings of Grace that transfigured the dying person’s last moments. And, transfigured me as well!
Surely these “transfiguration moments” are happening right now in the lives of our sisters and brothers of Ukraine and South Sudan as they fight for their lives and their freedom. These transfiguration moments are happening in refugee camps around the world. The potential for these transfiguration moments abound as grace is all around us, and in us!
In the midst of all the political chaos which is purposefully being thrust upon us in an attempt to throw us off balance, fill us with fear and send us into anxiety driven inaction and silence. Let us raise our voices all the louder. Let us seek to reach out to each other, band together, continue to resist the dismantling of our Federal Government and all the aid programs that feed, provide healthcare and social services that save the lives of millions of children and adults here at home and abroad. Let us find concrete ways to reach out to and support government workers and contractors who have lost their jobs and all those whose jobs are at risk due to the forced government firings.
In the midst of a world filled with suffering, anguish and lost-ness, these transfiguration moments continue to exist all around us -- in encounters with the poor and the marginalized, with the immigrant and refugee, with all those workers who have been fired or whose jobs are suddenly at risk and their partners and their children, there is God, waiting, wanting us to reach out and take “the other’s” hand and for us both to be transfigured in the encounter.
Lent is a wonderful opportunity to look for transfiguration moments as well as to step back and recall those past moments of grace when the fullness of God burst into our lives…when we realized that we were not alone…that there was something more to life, more than what we can see or touch…more than we can imagine -- “God moments” -- that hold the possibility to bring about deep and lasting inner transformation!
When was my last “God moment”? How was I transfigured by that moment? What does that “God moment” call me to do? Who does it call me to be…in response to today’s chaos and suffering? Our every phone call, our every letter, our every protest and act of resistance, our every prayer, our every act of kindness matters! You, and I are filled with the Holy Spirit, let it lead us in our struggle for equality, for justice and for peace in our nation and in the world!
Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim
I believe that each one of us have our own “moments of transfiguration.” Moments in which we see or feel the very presence of God. They are moments when, “deep inside,” we come to know with a deeper certainty that God is present around us and indeed within us. That God is real. These moments of awareness hold the potential to transfigure our entire lives into something new, something wonderful, something beyond our imagining.
The real challenge for us is to learn “to live out of these transfiguration moments,” keeping these moments alive in our hearts and minds allowing them to continually transfigure us more and more into the image and likeness of God.
Each one of us carries within us experiences of the tenderness, mercy and love of God. So often it is the chaos of our lives that “dim” the luminous moments of encounters with our God. We can forget we ever had them in the midst of the rush and business of our daily lives.
Not all of these “transfiguration” moments are happy or joyful moments. Some of them come in the midst of great sadness, even in the midst of tragedy and death. I have had such “transfiguration moments” with people as they were dying -- luminous in-breakings of Grace that transfigured the dying person’s last moments. And, transfigured me as well!
Surely these “transfiguration moments” are happening right now in the lives of our sisters and brothers of Ukraine and South Sudan as they fight for their lives and their freedom. These transfiguration moments are happening in refugee camps around the world. The potential for these transfiguration moments abound as grace is all around us, and in us!
In the midst of all the political chaos which is purposefully being thrust upon us in an attempt to throw us off balance, fill us with fear and send us into anxiety driven inaction and silence. Let us raise our voices all the louder. Let us seek to reach out to each other, band together, continue to resist the dismantling of our Federal Government and all the aid programs that feed, provide healthcare and social services that save the lives of millions of children and adults here at home and abroad. Let us find concrete ways to reach out to and support government workers and contractors who have lost their jobs and all those whose jobs are at risk due to the forced government firings.
In the midst of a world filled with suffering, anguish and lost-ness, these transfiguration moments continue to exist all around us -- in encounters with the poor and the marginalized, with the immigrant and refugee, with all those workers who have been fired or whose jobs are suddenly at risk and their partners and their children, there is God, waiting, wanting us to reach out and take “the other’s” hand and for us both to be transfigured in the encounter.
Lent is a wonderful opportunity to look for transfiguration moments as well as to step back and recall those past moments of grace when the fullness of God burst into our lives…when we realized that we were not alone…that there was something more to life, more than what we can see or touch…more than we can imagine -- “God moments” -- that hold the possibility to bring about deep and lasting inner transformation!
When was my last “God moment”? How was I transfigured by that moment? What does that “God moment” call me to do? Who does it call me to be…in response to today’s chaos and suffering? Our every phone call, our every letter, our every protest and act of resistance, our every prayer, our every act of kindness matters! You, and I are filled with the Holy Spirit, let it lead us in our struggle for equality, for justice and for peace in our nation and in the world!
Lenten blessings,
Fr. Tim
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