This Sunday's (today's) gospel tells us the familiar story of the Transfiguration. This story is one that engages us, it is one that we often remember very well. It is a story we remember well in the life of Christ, but is it one we truly look at and see how it reflects into our lives?
The Transfiguration is a familiar story, Jesus ascends Mount Tabor, and before a few of his Apostles, he transfigures, glows becoming as bright as the sun, his clothes as white as new fallen snow, and he speaks with two great Prophets, Elijah and Moses.
Mountains are a familiar part of the narrative of scripture. They are, a place of encounter with God. Think of Moses, who upon a similiar mount recieved the Law from God. Or many other stories within Scripture, where a person ascends a mountain to be closer to or recieve something from God.
Bishop Barron in his work, "An Introduction to Prayer", speaks of this as a metaphor for us. That just as Christ ascends this mountain, as many other figures in the Bible, to become closer to God, so we in our lives of prayer, must be willing to "escape the ordinary", that is to find a time and place beyong what is normal, to find our true place of prayer.
Lent, kind of is like this time then. A time we take out of the ordinary to become new people, as it is try and improve or lives in hope of the truest form of revelation, that is Jesus. We take this time to improve our lives before his passion and following Ressurection, to improve our lives. This time of Lent then is a time of renewal. It can be a great time for us spiritually, a time that, coming out of the ordinary, we may find ourselves feeling something different in prayer.
Above all, God calls us in this Lent to experience something new, to transform ourselves in the way that Christ transfigured upon Mount Tabor. This Transfiguration should stand as our important example within this Lenten Season. A time for us to grow as Catholics, a time to, go out of our day-to-day and encounter God, by our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
God calls us in this Lenten season to grow in our relationship with him. In this time of penance, he calls us to cut off that which is keeping us from him, so that we can more fully rejoice in the Easter Ressurection. That is why one of the great things we have is Confession, and many churches offer service during this Lenten season. In Confession we can find ourselves having our own moment like at Mount Tabor, being made perfect
So, as we contine this Lenten Season of Fsating and of Prayer, let us look at Jesus in his Transfiguration, and remember that he offers this too to us, the ability to transform ourselves, clothed in gleeming white garments, and truly made pure.
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