Gen 15:5-12, 17-18; Phil 3:17-4:1; Lk 9:28-36
During his baptism by John at the Jordan River, Jesus heard a voice from heaven, saying “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased” (Lk 2:22). The declaration of his Divine Sonship was crucial for Jesus to begin, persevere and complete his earthly ministry. When Jesus was praying and fasting for forty days in preparation for his ministerial work, the devil tried to challenge his adored status as God’s Son: “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf (Lk 4:3) . . . . If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here . . .” (Lk 4:9). Obviously, the devil had the intention of casting a doubt in the mind and heart of Jesus concerning his Divine Sonship. “How could you be the Son of God when you are starving, weak, powerless and insignificant?” By refusing the enticements of the devil, Jesus showed that his Sonship was not relative to material abundance, power, honor, or fame. In today’s gospel, while Jesus was praying on a high mountain, he was transfigured before his three closest friends, and a familiar voice from the cloud declared, “This is my Son, my Chosen One, listen to him” (Lk 9:35). That reassurance was the thing that Jesus needed to finalize his decision to go up to Jerusalem, even with the high risk of being ridiculed, persecuted and killed.
When we were baptized, we also were granted the privileged status of being adopted children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Our dignity as God’s children is an unmerited gift – something that we do not deserve; something that we do not acquire. God loves us unconditionally and we do not need to prove our worth. The devil, however, would not like us to believe the benevolence of God. Every now and then, the devil would do something to make us doubt or question our special relationship with God. “If you really are God’s favored children, why are you deprived of many things?” “Why are you hungry or malnourished?” “Why are you working hard with little success?” “Why are you failing from many relationships and endeavors?” “Why are you sick and dying?” If we are not careful or strong, the devil might succeed in convincing us that God doesn’t care and that we really are not His beloved children. We might forget all that God has already accomplished for us and the eternal joy in the future that He promises.
Bible commentators are one in saying that the mystery of the Transfiguration was not only for Jesus but also for his disciples. The disciples were about to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem and they were to witness the passion and death of their Lord, something that would be too much for them to see. The disciples needed something to hold on, to hope for, or to look forward to. Such was the value of the Transfiguration. The mysterious mountaintop experience would give the disciples courage and strength to face future trials and persecutions. It was a prefiguration of the Resurrection, of the Lord’s ultimate victory over the power of evil, sin and death.
In this Lenten season, the Church would like us to reflect and appreciate the relevance of the mystery of the Transfiguration in our life today. We have our crosses and trials, some of which are difficult for us to carry and handle. Nevertheless, we are believers of the Resurrection, and like the first disciples of Jesus, we have hope that someday we all will shine in glory as the Lord did. When the moment of our dying and death comes, the same kind of hope will sustain us in the darkest hours. The Transfiguration scene shall be for us a constant reminder that our journey will not end in death, but in life; not in humiliation, but in glory. If we suffer with Christ, we also can expect to live with him in everlasting glory. In the second reading, Saint Paul wrote, “For our homeland is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the wretched body of ours into the mould of his glorious body. . .” (Phil 3:20-21).
Before she succumbed to cancer, my older sister Florenda shared with me her near-death experience which happened while she was being surgically operated of ectopic pregnancy in the hospital. She told me that during the operation, she experienced some kind of a release from her body and, all of a sudden, she found herself floating on the air. From above, she saw the doctors and nurses working on her on the operating table. What she can hardly describe was the beautiful feeling that she experienced during the release. She told me that the last thing she wanted during that moment was to go back to her body. Then, she also experienced passing thru a very long tunnel with a bright light at the end. Coming to the end of the tunnel was more than rewarding because there she saw the most loveable person she had ever seen in her life, Jesus our Lord. People might easily dismiss it as hallucination, a side effect of the heavy anesthesia. But for my sister, it was a meaningful experience, something that gave her a foretaste of the indescribable feeling of meeting Christ at the end of our earthly life. I believe it was a God-given experience that had prepared my sister to face with courage, if not, joyful expectation, her ultimate dying and death.
No comments:
Post a Comment