Readings: Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18; Psalm 27, Response: The Lord is my light and my salvation.; Philippians 3: 17-4:1; Luke 9: 28B-36
“This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” With these words, we witness a turning point in the life and mission of Christ. We hear this revelation in the Baptism of Christ, but this episode assumes a deeper and more powerful meaning.
This event is preceded by a series of intense activities: the missioning of the 12, the feeding of the 5,000, Peter’s confession of faith, and the prediction of Christ’s passion and death. The Transfiguration is what seals the deal, puts everything in perspective and integrates Christ’s life and mission into this singular grace of being the Father’s Beloved Son.
On the one hand, Christ gets his affirmation from God, and on the other hand, his disciples get the assurance. This is the “final preview” of the glory of God in the Paschal Mystery, the Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection.
If the activities prior to the Transfiguration showed the cost of being a follower of Christ, of being a Christian, the Transfiguration is declared the reward. It is both a reminder and assurance that “our citizenship is in heaven.”
Such moments of grace are when in an instant everything in our life, all that we had toiled for, what gave us joy and pain, our triumphs and setbacks, our virtues and vices, our faith and doubts, our hopes and fears, our love and sufferings—all of these have meaning.
Fr. Benny Calpotura, S.J. used to say that such moments are few and far in between. Perhaps they are not even few, but singular. There is that one moment when everything seems to fall into place, becomes inexplicably meaningful and integrated.
Defining moment
For Ignatius of Loyola, this was his experience by the River Cardoner. He does not go into great detail, but it was the defining moment when he understood with the totality of his person everything in his life, a knowledge that surpassed all that he ever knew and learned.
This experience, especially as interpreted in the movie “Ignacio de Loyola,” became the singular, recurring grace in the life of Ignatius. It was the underpinning grace and theme of his life and mission.
For Pope Francis, it was his experience of God’s love and mercy through the sacrament of confession as a young man of 17. Going to confession on the Feast of St. Matthew in 1953, he was moved by the homily of the Venerable Bede: “Jesus saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: Follow me.”
From this comes his motto, “by showing mercy and by choosing” (miserando atque eligendo), God’s mercy calls us to be his followers. We are called not despite our being sinners, but precisely because we are sinners, and it is God’s mercy and love that call us to mission, to follow Him.
This then is at the heart of the Transfiguration experience, the rediscovering of our identity and mission in a way that defines how we live for the rest of our lives.
Fr. Herbert Alfonso, S.J. posits that our mission—and I say also our identity—is to witness to others and to the world the quality of our relationship with God.
Christ showed this by living his mission to be the Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. This was lived and fulfilled in the Cross and Resurrection.
Ignatius lived out this mystery through the Society of Jesus to which his charism was and still is powerfully communicated to men and women being formed to be contemplatives-in-action, loving and serving God and others in all things.
Pope Francis can be clearly known as the Pope of Divine Mercy. He initially and consistently brings us back to the mercy of God.
In this Second Sunday of Lent, we are invited to reflect on the Transfiguration of our life; that moment of singular grace when, with great clarity, we understand who we are and why we are in this world.
This singular moment of grace is our hearing the “voice that calls within, and our dancing to the silent song it sings.” From here on, our lives attain a wholeness and integrity so focused on and dedicated to the Cross and Resurrection, our ticket to “our citizenship in heaven.” –CONTRIBUTED
