In the First Reading, Abram trusts God will give him descendants as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:7). But God asks Abram to count the stars while it is light outside (v.12). Abram cannot see the stars in the middle of the day; he cannot see how God will fulfill the covenant. Abram, later renamed “Abraham,” teaches us hope is not a feeling. Hope is anchoring ourselves in the person of Jesus.
But it’s easy to hope when we experience the Transfiguration: Jesus’ face changes; His clothes become “dazzling white”; Moses and Elijah appear and start a conversation (Luke 9:29-31). We become like Peter wanting to pitch three tents so we can always come back to the hopeful event (v.33). Specific times and spaces help us connect with the divine. Lent is an intense time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Churches are spaces for prayer and worship.
But the Father does not command us to place our hope in a building or a mountain or a month. The Father points to His Son: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him” (v.35). When we are like Abram who is enveloped by the darkness (cf. Genesis 15:12), when we cannot see how God will fulfill His covenant, we can pray with the Psalmist: “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1).
And the Transfiguration shows Jesus is literally the “light of the world” (John 8:12). No sin is too great for Him to forgive. No sinner too sinful to love. The great “exodus” which Moses, Elijah, and Jesus speak of is an exodus from slavery sin to life everlasting: a “plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which – the before and after – no longer exists” (Spe Salvi, no. 12).
So how do we receive this gift of hope? Prayer. We receive hope by listening to the Lord in prayer. Pope Benedict XVI says Luke sees the Transfiguration as a prayer-event (Jesus of Nazareth, p. 310). The brilliant face of Christ reveals the mysterious life of the Trinity as a blinding light which puts our blindness to flight and shattering our deafness, as St Augustine prays in his Confessions.
The Risen Lord speaks to us today in prayer, most especially in Holy Mass when we hear the Word and substantially receive the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. The Real Presence gives us confidence that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Although we will doubt, we will not despair. Although we will sin, we can run to the confessional. For nothing can snuff out the Light who is our salvation.
Joseph Yuson – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
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