A Wonderful Change
When I was little, the Transfiguration was one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It was exciting, Peter made me laugh, and the illustration was gloriously lovely. Today I spent some time thinking about how much deeper its meaning has become to me over the years.
I have "transfigured" moments in my life- we all do. Those too-few moments at Eucharistic Adoration, or saying the rosary on a windy, starry night, or simply being in the presence of a glorious God with friends you love, as the three apostles were. I don’t need to describe these moments, and I don’t think I could if I tried.
If only they lasted forever.
The hard part is that we have to come down off the mountain. We descend back to the distressingly familiar mundanity of earthly life and "get back to normal." Sometimes, after a while, we get back to normal so well that we forget one of the vital points of transfiguration: we must not only return, but return changed.
The Transfiguration is truly the story of an astounding change. "His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light." Surely the apostles witnessing this were changed- the way they knew their Friend and Teacher could never be quite the same again.
This season of Lent is about changing the way we live. It is an opportunity to grasp those moments of transfiguration, those moments in which God reveals himself to us, and keep a spark of that glory always burning within us. To maintain that inspired change.
Carry the Transfiguration with you, and feel in your life that it is good to be here.
~Mari
I have "transfigured" moments in my life- we all do. Those too-few moments at Eucharistic Adoration, or saying the rosary on a windy, starry night, or simply being in the presence of a glorious God with friends you love, as the three apostles were. I don’t need to describe these moments, and I don’t think I could if I tried.
If only they lasted forever.
The hard part is that we have to come down off the mountain. We descend back to the distressingly familiar mundanity of earthly life and "get back to normal." Sometimes, after a while, we get back to normal so well that we forget one of the vital points of transfiguration: we must not only return, but return changed.
The Transfiguration is truly the story of an astounding change. "His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light." Surely the apostles witnessing this were changed- the way they knew their Friend and Teacher could never be quite the same again.
This season of Lent is about changing the way we live. It is an opportunity to grasp those moments of transfiguration, those moments in which God reveals himself to us, and keep a spark of that glory always burning within us. To maintain that inspired change.
Carry the Transfiguration with you, and feel in your life that it is good to be here.
~Mari
Labels: Musings, Today's Gospel
posted by The Quiet Woman at 2/17/2008 08:33:00 PM
2 Comments:
Once, at the morning when we were to leave Germany after World Youth Day had ended, I spent the morning just looking around at all my friends because I was suddenly having the first thing I thought upon seeing them be the fact that they're people in the image and likeness of God... and it was just what can only be described as a "WOW" moment, or else as a "transfigured" moment loosely speaking. I know what you mean about needing to come back off the mountain changed... it's tough. I tend to find I've fallen back off the mountain and have to pick myself back up and start hiking again, little apparent change left.
Thanks for that meditation, it's great. 8^)
Thanks. ^_^
I'm glad it was somewhat intelligible. I got interrupted literally every four minutes, and my train of thought de-railed, so I'd just start a new idea, and then I had to find the handful that had the most to do with each other. XD
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