Becoming Fully Awake, They Saw His Glory
What can the Transfiguration teach us about the spiritual life? Br. Humbert McCrorey, O.P., reflects on the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent.
The transfiguration is an excellent metaphor for the spiritual life. We have to go up a mountain, expending effort to find a place of solitude to pray. The mountain is away from the city and has few people or things there to distract us from God.
There, we have to pray. Jesus prayed to give us a positive example. If we don’t speak to God in the silence of our hearts, we won’t grow our relationship with Him.
We must stay awake, though it will be with much effort. We must stay awake through attention in prayer or by returning to our efforts to grow in virtue when we’ve lost focus or started to nod off.
If we persist, we may be rewarded with a tiny glimpse of God’s glory. Perhaps—like Peter, James, and John—we will get to see some mystery of God. This sort of consolation is to encourage us, strengthening us in following the way and also helping us find fortitude not to be scandalized by the Cross.
How often are we surprised that God doesn’t do what we expect? Just like the Apostles, we’re shocked by the reality of Jesus’s Crucifixion. These Transfiguration moments should be saved up and remembered when our faith is tested.
Next, we should offer to make God a dwelling, since God loves those—like King David and Simon Peter—who offer to make Him a place to stay. But, God really prefers the perfect tabernacle He has built Himself: the human heart, since the Kingdom of God is within you.
So clean out your heart, removing all the hobbies, relationships, and thoughts that are not bringing you closer to God. Make your heart a pure, holy tabernacle, a place for our God dwell.
We should also remember that, like Peter, who offered to make God a tent, we don’t get to do those task that we volunteer to do. Rather, we must remember that Jesus is the Son of God and He will give us tasks that are both more difficult and more fruitful than those we could come up with ourselves. However, do not worry, God will give you the graces that you need to fulfil the tasks He gives you. He will do the work through you and in you.
Also, we cannot stay on the mountain. We have to go down—down to minister, to heal others, and ultimately to suffer and die for love.
Image: Peter Paul Rubens, The Transfiguration, 1604–1605, Public Domain
