"Made Glorious in God's Sight" (Is 49:3, 5-6)

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6, God says to us through  the prophet : [You are] made glorious in the sight of the Lord,…God is now [your] strength.” That gift is confirmed in the second reading of today’s liturgy, 1 Cor 1: 1-3, where St. Paul reminds us that we “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…”In today’s Gospel, John 1: 29-34, John the Baptist points out Jesus to us, saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world….[H]e is the Son of God.”

May you and I ponder the fact that we “are made glorious in the sight of the Lord.  If I truly believe that,  then nothing else really matters!  And if I remember that God is my strength, then, too, nothing else matters.  When I do not remember these realities, I can easily become flustered, even in the face of minor realities affecting my life.

I have  a greater possibility of remaining calm in today’s troubled world when I take time to ponder God’s Word and sit in God’s Presence every day!  When I do not take time to seek the Lord in personal prayer on a daily basis, it is easy to get swept away in frantic activity. Calling upon the Lord’s name is an essential element of growing in holiness—that is my responsibility. God has done His part: He has sanctified me in Christ Jesus. I have to seek God in quiet, personal prayer and devote time to serving the needs of others  for that holiness to grow in me!

The Transfiguration

Today’s Gospel, Luke 9: 28b-36, gives us the story of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. Jesus is revealed to Peter, James and John in his glory while He was at prayer: “…his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white…Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory,…spoke [to Jesus] of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem [his passion, crucifixion and death on the cross].” On Tabor, these three apostles, though at one point overcome with sleep, were fully awake and frightened when “they entered…[a] cloud.” From the cloud they heard a voice saying “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” The Transfiguration occurs every time we celebrate the Liturgy and the bread and the wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Transfiguration also occurs whenever we receive any of the sacraments. Miracles of conversion take place in our personal lives and the lives of others on a regular basis—the birth of a child, a couple falling in love, a reconciliation of differences, the asking of forgiveness and the healing of hurts that follows, a person reaching out to be neighbor to a stranger, a child filled with awe over the beauty of God’s Created Universe, to name a few. Like Peter, James and John, our ears are also opened in the “clouds” of our lives--in our confusion and emptiness, our disappointments and in our disillusionment--times when we may be more receptive to our need for God and more open to hearing God say to us: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” My prayer today is that I will let God transform my life into the life of Christ and that I may I hear God speaking in the clouds of my life. I also pray that, at Jesus's invitation, I will go up to the mountain top to pray, to allow God to converse with me about what is happening in my life or about what is about to happen, so,I too, will be ready when God calls me to exodus from this earthly life and enter eternity. ,