Transfiguration 

The Transfiguration

The word of God today introduces us to a new dimension of our participation in the mystery

of Christ. To relive the mystery of Christ, negatively means to deny ourselves and our egoism, positively it means to be transfigured in Christ and like Christ.

In this second Sunday of the penitential journey, the Gospel reveals to us the mystery of the

transfiguration of Christ and of our transfiguration. Transfiguration is an event which concerns  us all not only because we must witness the glory of the Son of God, risen from the dead, but because we are one with Christ and his glory also invests us, transforming even our body, our soul and especially our spirit. Today the Church, celebrating the mystery of the Transfiguration of the Lord, shows us the goal toward which our penitential journey is oriented.  With the Transfiguration, in fact, it was given foundation to the hope of the Holy Church, so that the entire body of Christ could know what transformation would be donated to it, and its parts could make sure to take part in the beauty that had shone in the head (St. Leo the Great, Sermon 38,3.4).

At this point a question arises spontaneously: “How can we transfigure ourselves as Christ

and make His beauty shine within us?  The answer is given to us by St. Paul in the second reading of this Sunday. The Apostle of the Gentiles teaches us that our transfiguration in Christ is possible “by virtue of the power he has to submit all things to himself”.

Christ exercises in each of us the power that He possesses, to configure us to Himself by sending His Holy Spirit into us. The Holy Spirit is the intimate force that, living in us, transforms us in Christ. Therefore, let us call upon the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and to turn away all that prevents us from being fully transfigured in Christ. Our cooperation and the consent of our freedom are required for the transfiguring action, as St. Augustine taught: “The One who made you without, you will not save you without you.”

2nd Sunday of Lent