Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

While the Transfiguration has its own proper feast on the liturgical calendar (Aug. 6, if you were wondering), the Church asks us to meditate on this powerful event as we begin the second full week of Lent for very good reason. The Transfiguration happens so that the disciples will not lose hope. In the Gospel of Luke, just before this event, Jesus tells the disciples that He will suffer and die, rejected by the leaders and elders of the people, and that He will rise again. With that prediction of the Passion, our Lord also reminded His followers that if they wished to be true disciples, they must take up their cross daily and follow Him. This is a tall order for anyone, but especially for the disciples who, as faithful Jews, were awaiting a Messiah who would claim victory over all Israel’s oppressors. Suffering and death were not on their list of expectations! And so, on the heels of that news, Jesus gives them a glimpse of what is to come. The suffering of the Messiah will be transfigured in the glorious light and presence of God. The Transfiguration happens so that the disciples can maintain hope when they see the stone rolled in front of the tomb and all seems lost.

It may be relatively early in Lent, but it is not unusual for the penances of this season to feel heavy already. Perhaps you’ve already had some trouble and eaten the food you swore off for Lent. Perhaps you’ve found making time for daily prayer more difficult than you expected. Perhaps other things in life have started to get in the way and you’re feeling discouraged, and the weight of suffering is heavier than you think you can bear. The Transfiguration happened to give hope to you, too. Like St. Peter, we might want to stay in the glorious moment on the mountain top. But real life has a mix of crosses and transfigured mountain top experiences. The Transfiguration shows us what the eternity of Heaven will be like. The door to that Heaven is made accessible to us by the Resurrection of Christ from the tomb. Whatever sufferings we endure in this season, however challenged we might feel, the Transfiguration that we meditate on today is a reminder that the trial of the Cross ends in victory, glory, and the joy of being in the presence of Christ.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Transfiguration invites us to the hope that leads to true happiness. In his declaration of the Jubilee year, Pope Francis wrote, “What will characterize this fullness of communion? Being happy. Happiness is our human vocation, a goal to which all aspire…But what is happiness? What is the happiness that we await and desire? Not some fleeting pleasure, a momentary satisfaction that, once experienced, keeps us longing for more, in a desperate quest that leaves our hearts unsated and increasingly empty. We aspire to a happiness that is definitively found in the one thing that can bring us fulfillment, which is love. Thus, we will be able to say even now: I am loved, therefore I exist; and I will live forever in the love that does not disappoint, the love from which nothing can ever separate me. Let us listen once more to the words of the Apostle: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).” Our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in the Lenten season will be our support in overcoming the fleeting pleasures of life. These disciplines will give us an experience of the Cross, so that whatever sufferings we may endure in this life, we will know how to take up our crosses daily with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the source of our hope.

Let me close with one practical point. While the disciplines of Lent are wonderful and needed, there is one method of increasing hope and reminding us of the hope held out to us that we can experience even without going to the mountain. The sacrament of confession is the clinic where the pain we inflict on ourselves by the cross of sin is relieved. There are no words we will ever hear that are more redolent with hope than “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace.” Get to confession this Lent, as soon as you can, and experience the hope and the transfiguration that Jesus, in His great mercy and love, wants you to receive!

Peace,

Fr. Sam