The Transfiguration

It’s interesting to imagine what Peter, James, and John really thought when they saw Jesus’s transfiguration. They also saw Elijah and Moses appear and start talking with Jesus as well. The Gospel just says that they were terrified and didn’t know what to say.

We too have experienced many awe inspiring moments in life. A beautiful sunset, a picturesque landscape, and a jaw dropping musical performance are all just a few of the awesome things I have experienced. While these moments can bring us joy, hope, and, inspiration, they can also point us to the most awe inspiring being – God.

Jesus came to us as a very plain and ordinary looking man. When He was transfigured, He showed some of His divinity to those around Him. Just imagine if He walked around like that everyday. Many people wonder why Jesus didn’t just make it obvious that He was God. There always needs to be an aspect of faith present. If Jesus were to overwhelm us with His power and divinity, there would be less room to freely choose Him. We would be forced to believe in Him because it would be almost impossible not to. However, even if everyone believed He was God, some people would still reject Him. The fallen angels all saw God for who He is and still chose to reject Him and the plan He had for humanity.

Jesus once said to the apostle Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, have you now believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Faith is an important thing to have and all of us who believe without seeing are truly blessed. We also need to have faith that one day we will all be transfigured to our perfect form. Our current bodies are corruptible and imperfect, but one day we will all live forever with incorruptible bodies. Even those who go to Hell will still live forever, but will feel the regret and pain from being separated from God.

In order to ensure we make it to Heaven, we need to transfigure our spiritual life as well. We should not just have a strong faith in Jesus, but we should also work on our prayer life, our love for our neighbor, and our love for God. Believing isn’t everything. Like I said earlier, even the demons believe in God and they aren’t in a great place. The prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent helps us with that goal.

The Oxford dictionary defines transfiguration as a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state. While we don’t have our glorified bodies yet, we can still make spiritual changes in our life that bring us closer to God and closer to perfection. Lent is the perfect time for change. Just think about how the caterpillar emerges from the darkness to become a beautiful butterfly.