Normally, this weekend, we would celebrate the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, but because today falls on August 6, we get this special opportunity of celebrating the Transfiguration of the Lord this weekend. If you get to the heart of our readings this weekend, they are all about transformation, metamorphosis or transfiguration. The Gospel states that Jesus was “transfigured” in front of some of his disciples on that mountaintop - that is not a word we use in everyday conversation, is it? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “transfiguration” as a change in form and appearance, or an exalting, a glorifying, or a spiritual change. We definitely see a transfiguration or a transformation in Jesus and in his surroundings in the Gospel today on the mountaintop: his face shining like the sun, a dazzling white garment, the appearance of the great Jewish prophets Moses and Elijah, and a thundering voice coming down from the heavens. Indeed, the transfiguration has a three-fold purpose. First, the transfiguration shows Jesus’ interaction with his Heavenly Father in order to confirm and ascertain the Father’s plan for Christ’s passion, death, and Resurrection. Second, the transfiguration shows Jesus’ disciples his Divine glory, so that they would be motivated to turn away from their worldly ambitions and from the misconception they might have about the Messiah. Third, the transfiguration strengthened the disciples’ faith and hope and encouraged them to persevere through the sufferings and challenges that awaited them.
In a way, we witness a transfiguration each time we come to mass, and we are invited to be a part of this transfiguration as well. The transfiguration of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus by transubstantiation in the Eucharist can be for us the source of our strength. Think about how at the wedding of Cana, as the wine ran our, Jesus turned that water into wine, turning one substance into another substance. When we gather around the table of the Lord, the offering of bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Eucharist is not a transfiguration but rather a transubstantiation, in which bread and wine are transformed into the risen and glorified Jesus. But just as Jesus’ transfiguration strengthened the Apostles as they were about to approach the most difficult part of their life of discipleship, the Eucharist offers us a source of heavenly strength in the midst of our challenges, sufferings, and temptations, a way to transform our minds and our hearts. To be transformed, we are called to be humble, to serve others, to make Christ’s love and compassion and forgiveness a reality in our lives and in the lives of others. However, how many times to we fail to recognize Christ as he is present to us in our daily lives? How many times do we take the Eucharist for granted?
When I was at my first assignment as a priest in the Jackson area, a junior high school student gave me this prayer that he thought I could share with the prisoners with whom I did prison ministry with right here at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility just a few miles from our parish here in Pearl. I have remembered this touching prayer of consecration all these years, and would to pray it with you today:
Lord Jesus, I give you my hands to do your work,
I give you my feet, to follow your path,
I give you my eyes to see as you do.
I give you my tongue to speak your words,
I give you my mind so that you can think in me,
I give you my spirit so that you can pray in me.
Above all, I give you my heart, so in me you can love your father and all people.
I give you my whole self so you can grow in me, until it is you, Lord, who lives, works, & prays in me. AMEN.
Yes, only if we consecrate our lives to Jesus, will we indeed be transformed.
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