Transfiguration

So what is it? This event that seems a bit intimidating. This small glimpse of Christ as the Son of Man. As God incarnate. A brief flash of glory that is such a favorite subject of artists.

For a moment, the apostles see (as much as they can understand) the Glory of their friend and master. It is a glimpse of the glory of Easter. The glory of salvation. A glimpse of the Risen Christ.

This scene from the life of our Lord is, as I mentioned above, one of the favorite subjects of artists throughout history. It is a moment that seethes with power. But what we sometimes fail to realize is that it is also one of the works of the Divine Artist.

God, the divine artist, has painted this work into our hearts. Into our forms. For someday we too will have a risen form. For Christ, our savior, has defeated death and gives us life.

Do we pay enough attention to the spark of the divine un us? The grace from God that helps us share in divine life?

The feeling in prayer of closeness to God.
The warm heart when you help your fellow human being.
The divine life imparted through the Eucharist.
The beauty of Scripture.
The love of God and each other.
The smile of a child.

These daily transfigurations that God gives us in our own life. If for but a fleeting second we feel the love of God reach out to us, do we nurture it and share it so it may be a transfiguration to others?

Christ showed His transfigured form to Peter, James and John so they would understand that He would conquer death. To understand that there is a tomb between Good Friday and Easter, but that tomb is eventually empty because it can not stand against what they see before them in the glorious Christ.

Christ shows us this too. In His Word. In His love. And in Each other.

In this world today, torn apart by hate, may the love of Christ transfigure our hearts and may the love we share, by the Grace of God, transfigure others.