In today’s Gospel the three Apostles witness Jesus
transfigured in all His dazzling splendour, as a glimpse of His divinity.
“Lord, it is good for us to be here!” I hope that this is your sense of your
Lenten journey this far – that it is good that we have this time to be here. During this Season of Lent - we are looking at Merciful Moments. We all
have them in our life - times when God in His Mercy offers to us a second
chance or when we are called to do the same. It is good that we pause and
reflect on them and realize that a Merciful Moment is not just the expression
or actualization of a Corporal Work of Mercy (i.e. I fed the hungry therefore
it must have been a merciful moment), no, it’s also what happens because you
fed the hungry – what did that action do to your heart and how did that action
affect the heart an life of the one fed, and even the ones who witnessed the
feeding? This is where the power of transfiguration takes place. We
are called to be a people who are touched by the lives we touch. It is where
the power of relationship comes in.
Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain. Here
they saw Jesus “changed” before their eyes. It wasn’t that He physically
changed (yes His clothes before dazzling white but Jesus was the same physical
man). It was that because of what they saw and the realization of who Jesus was
and is about, that their lives changed from that moment forth – their
relationship with Him was different. This is so with us and our relationship
with Jesus and others (or so it should be).
So often we give people’s negative comments “free
rent” in our head instead of giving Christ “free reign” in our hearts. We
remember the moments we failed, or the moments others hurt us, or the occasions
when we “could have or should have.” Instead, we are invited to root our lives,
our “citizenship”, in Christ and the merciful moments He gives us where we can
be transfigured and His will, way, purpose and plan for our lives becomes –
dazzling white.
Last week Jesus began in the desert. There He was faced with temptations
but even more so He was faced with something else: solitude and isolation. It
was a reminder to us that it wouldn’t be the brokenness of busyness, but rather
the solitude and isolation of a time in the presence of God, that would instill
in Jesus – Mercy. So too for us in our relationships. What echoes in your head?
The comment of failure or the casting of grace? Do you allow the Lord to show
you the merciful moments in your life where He and He alone is seeking to show
His transfigured self to you and seeking at the same time to transfigure you
into His beloved child – or does something (or someone) have free rent in your
head?
Our definition, purpose and significance must come from God - a
girlfriend will not complete us, a boyfriend will not define us, an engagement
will not be the answer to all things. Jesus the beloved and chosen Son of
God will be and is the only one who can be! If we decide that our definition
as a person - our purpose as people – will be determined not by popularity,
power or persuasion but by the Son of God and His purpose, plan and provision
in our life, then not only will Christ and Christ alone be the one behind our corporal works of
mercy this Lent, but He will be behind the merciful moments in our life. What a
transfiguration that would be! No more “free rent”, only a “free reign”!