Feast of the Transfiguration

This is the date the Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration. I love this feast day. I love to reflect on the Transfiguration of our Lord. In my Evangelical days I was unaware (until I was well along on my Catholic journey) that there was even such a thing. Oh, I knew the gospel story.... but a "feast day"? The stereotypical view would have been: "more dead formalism..." But, ah, now I find myself drawn into the event, and that is the very reason it happened.

The following was the introduction for today in the Magnificat prayer guide:

Christ's Tabor radiance is a kind of mirror in which we glimpse the glory that God wills to give his friends. The resplendence of the Transfiguration reveals the fullness of life destined to be ours. The Transfiguration invites us to configuration. As we peer into the glory that pours out from every pore of the transfigured Christ, we cast off everything unworthy of our personal relationship with the Infinite, and we take on the luster of the Son of God. Jesus gazes back at us with a luminous look of love that makes us desire to live his transparent beauty – to be luminaries. Silently from Tabor's splendor, the Savior begs: "Become what you behold!"

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

The Social-Moral Battle

Note this article and get involved to bear witness to orthodox Christian truth.

Living in Two Worlds

Much of my recent focus has been on what it means to follow Jesus faithfully in this distracting and disconcerting world. From necessary temporal things to those which are mostly worthless (or even evil), there is an ongoing interference that would cloud our vision of God and cause us to treat Him as peripheral (even when in our mind we are thinking we are totally committed). This is the spiritual battle we all face, and the Scriptures identify and address it different ways.

Often we can best see this if we are discerning as we follow events and issues going on around us and in the news. As the world seems to unravel more and more, the contrasting choice –– and hope –– that God gives us in His Son becomes more and more astounding. As I age (I’ll hit another decade next year) and become more aware than ever that this life comes and goes all too quickly, I take heart in the good news that this world is not all there is. I remember a wall hanging that was prominent in my younger years: “Only one life –– T’will soon be past / Only what’s done for Christ will last.”