Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Today’s Gospel describes Jesus’ transfiguration this way: “his [Jesus’] face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” Jesus’ divinity shines forth to Peter, James, and John. God the Father also identifies who Jesus is: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Today’s Gospel declares clearly Jesus’ divinity, that he is the Son of God, loved by the Father. After the heavenly Father presents Jesus to us as he beloved Son he gives us the direct command: “Listen to him.”
You and I are commanded by the Father to listen to Jesus as he proclaims to us the message of the Gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15). Jesus announces that God has taken the initiative and has broken into history and into our life. Jesus invites us to responds to God’s initiative: “Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Jesus invites us to turn to God and to put our trust and faith in God and in the ways of God. In the Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7:28) Jesus teaches us the way and will of God and our heavenly Father tells us: “Listen to him.”
Jesus’ call to conversion, to repent and believe in the Gospel, to trust in God, is a call to allow God to recreate us or to transfigure us. A popular Lenten hymn expresses conversion with these words:
“Transfigure us, O Lord, transfigure us, O Lord. Break the chains that bind us; speak your healing word, and where you lead we’ll follow.” (Bob Hurd, “Transfigure Us, O Lord)
Through our baptism we are transfigured, recreated, or “born again.” Paul expresses this experience with these words:
“Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4).
Today as we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ we also celebrate our own transfiguration through baptism. The grace and love of God transfigures us and makes us a new creation. Each day we are called upon to act more and more like God as Jesus teaches us: “Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36).
Image: “Transfiguration” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.