“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Transfiguration—a dramatic change in appearance, one that reveals great beauty-spirituality or magnificence: When I was assigned to St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Berkeley, I was introduced to their hot meal program on Sunday evenings as parishioners fed those who were homeless, actually anyone who wanted a hot meal. It was a humbling experience. One of the volunteers, Frank, who was born and raised in an upscale Pasadena, CA neighborhood had retired and moved to Berkeley with his wife to be near to their children and grandchildren in the Bay Area. Frank had time to volunteer and shared what brought him to our hot meal program. Frank’s parish in Pasadena had an outreach to an LA neighborhood with people at the lowest poverty level and many who are homeless. He said that for most of his life he was always comfortable, had a successful career, and his family, friends and people at his office were almost all the same—economically and even culturally. Frank knew many neighbors and it was a very homogeneous life.
Because of his business success he was asked to help oversee food inventory cost accounting for most effective use of their funds, etc. but needed to work in the “pantry” and at the food line to observe. He was all set to succeed and save. When he first arrived Frank was shocked by the poverty, the squalor around the hot meal center, and the amount of homeless… “I wanted to get back into my car and go home!” But he didn’t. He worked in the center beyond the two weeks for evaluation purposes. Getting to know the people from the streets who came in for food and companionship changed his perspective. It was conversion, to “see Christ differently” –a transfiguring moment of life within the businessman; he began to see differently.
One of the many aha moments for Frank came after he had been suspicious and harshly judgmental of an elderly homeless man who week after week would shuffle in with all of his belongings in bags, and every visit managed to stuff his pockets with sandwiches, fruit and cookies, which was allowed only after all had been through the line, it seemed like he abused the option.
One rainy day Frank decided to follow the older man who left the dining hall; he stayed a safe distance behind as the man turned the corner into an alleyway where cardboard boxes were makeshift homes. The man walked near the end of the alley, got down on his knees and called out “Sam-Sam”, a sickly looking even older appearing man crawled out from under his carton house, with tattered clothes soaked by the rain, and the man with the food helped feed him. Frank ran over and gave them his jacket and umbrella. The man from Pasadena stated “I see Christ differently all around me in others—and feel him with me for the first time”.
A part of the beauty of our Gospel today, the Transfiguration of Jesus is filled with the invitation from Christ to see Him calling out to us through others. The Lord’s transfiguring light encourages us to imagine the possibilities He places within us and to be open to Christ working through us to help create a better world. When we do so something remarkable happens, as it did with Frank, we learn who and where we are meant to be.
And it is through such a faith encounter we also gain a special way of seeing others, and a special vision beneath the surface of our daily lives. Our daily routines can become prayer; the family pain can become an opportunity to grow in grace by seeing what Christ is calling us to do in the midst of such pain.
The Lord is always calling us to go deeper in our lives and find him in the daily labors and struggles. With such a focus we can see the plain events of as our daily life as suffused with the light of transfigured hope.
Transfiguration can take place in us when:
- we open ourselves to the Lord’s vision of others
- when a hidden potential to do good comes to light,
- when unexpected words are uttered that bring peace or enlightenment,
- when we bring to resolve issues that have plagued us or others and we raise them in fervent faith in Him and we see the way! Tell me this hasn’t happened to you.
The Transfiguration of Jesus the Christ is not for his need or his good, it is to benefit us to be transformed to be more like him and see him in our everyday life. Maybe the vision is in hind sight of the Hand of God at work in your life. Maybe the vision comes when we see a change in persons we love and have been praying for and they come around and see differently.
Such a sacred encounter empowers us to perceive and act differently. In the Sacred Season of Lent let us open ourselves to revealing Him within. After all, when we say Amen to His Body and Blood we are praying to be changed—to be transfigured into becoming what we receive.