Lent comes providentially to reawaken us,
to shake us out of our lethargy.
--Pope Francis
On the Second Sunday of Lent, we read a story not of penance, but of conversion. And not the kind of conversion that we’re used to hearing about at Lent—that is, not a story of turning away from sin. Instead, it’s a “transfiguration” (in the Greek, "metamorphōthē") in which Jesus, in front of three of his closest disciples, is transformed.
Obviously, none of us will see Jesus in this way (at least not during this lifetime) and we are surely never going to be “transfigured” like he was. But can we be a source of transfiguration for others? And can we see in others a transfiguration?
Sometimes I’ve seen a friend doing something with great compassion and I’m so moved that it is as if I’ve never seen them before. They are, in a sense, transfigured before me. We’re also called to help to transfigure the world for other people, to point them to signs of God’s presence. To say, “There is death, suffering, violence, bullying and all sorts of horrible things happening in the world, but there are also moments of joy, comfort and beauty.” Maybe it’s a kind gesture that someone has done. Or a beautiful work of art that someone has created. Or simply the love that exists between two people.
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” wrote the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. One of our tasks, as Christians, is to let others see this. And let them witness the transfiguration of the world.
--Fr. James Martin SJ,
Outreach, February 24 & 25, 2024
Image source: Tom Denny, Transfiguration, Durham Cathedral, https://artandchristianity.org/ecclesiart-listings/thomas-denny-transfiguration-window
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2
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