Unfortunately, sometimes we can just get stuck in our own perspective of thing, perhaps without even realizing it. Sometimes, we just see what is going on around us without seeing the big picture without being able to go beyond what we ourselves can see.
I thought about this on the feast of the Transfiguration as we hear about Jesus separating himself from the crowds to go up the mountain to pray with some of his disciples. On this mountaintop, an amazing transformation takes place. Jesus is changed and transfigured as his clothes become white as light. His disciples are overjoyed to be there with him. In the midst of this experience, the disciples hear the voice of God calling out to them.
In our world today, we are bombarded with so much news and information. With all the technology we use, we are overloaded with news, information, and messages 24 hours a day. But the message that God give us thru his beloved son is not an ordinary message, like those the emails and texts and soundbites that bombard us all day long. God’s message can bring us life and renewal in a transformative way, in a way that nothing else can transform us. The voice calls out the disciples on the mountaintop: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
Jesus interacts in our lives to nourish us, sustain us, change us, and guide us. Jesus brings us the message of eternal life. He leads us out of our own perspective, out of our own little corner of the world.
In the transfiguration, we glimpse the glory of Christ that is to come. The transfiguration encouraged Jesus and the disciples in midst of their difficult journey. The transfiguration is meant to encourage us too. We can have so much that fills up our daily lives, so we need to be reminded by events like the transfirguration that there is more than our daily existence here on earth. As disciples of Christ, we have the promise of the fulness of God’s kingdom in eternal life. Christ and his disciples did not stay on the mountain, glorying in that moment; they came down in order to enter back into their everyday lives as their journey was not finished yet, as there was still work to do. The transfiguration was a wondrous moment for Christ and his disciples. Yet, every day, sometimes in seemingly small ways, God makes himself present to us. In moments of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing, we experience the wondrous presence of God, a presence that can transform us and transfigure us. As we open our hearts to the message of the Transfiguration today, may we look for those small but important moments that God is present to us in our ordinary lives.
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