The Transfiguration ~ by Ronnie Archer

In today's first reading, we hear how Abram was called by God to move away from his homeland, which he did, by faith, having no idea what was in store for him and his family. He moved on faith in God's promises, and he was blessed.

In St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, he tells us to bear our share of the sufferings for the sake of the Gospel, something not easy at times, but can be done with grace and strength from God.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus took the disciples, Peter, James and John to a mountain and was transfigured before them. Jesus had told the disciples of His sufferings and death to come, but they could not understand, and Peter disputed, saying "this will not happen to You!" Jesus' Transfiguration was just a glimpse of His glory to come. By allowing them to see Him in glory, Jesus was telling us that we have to sometimes suffer to reach our glory.

The persecutors thought they had won, but they did not know that God was on Jesus' side. Defeat is bitter and victory is sweet, but we won't know just how sweet victory is, until we have had defeat.

When Jesus was resurrected, He became more powerful and glorious than before. For every difficulty that we have, we can brace ourselves for action, and emerge stronger.

We should not allow our present conditions to cause us to despair; our future could be much better. When we see a need in our community, we should do what we can do about it. Break new ground in our life, family, community and world at large.

Let us learn from our physical challenges; they will make us wiser, stronger and a better person. Also let us "stand our ground...God is on our side."


~ Second Sunday of Lent: Feast of the Transfiguration ~

~ The Transfiguration by Raphael, 1517 from Free Christ Images