The Transfiguration of the Lord
Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-10, Luke 9:28b-36
At the very center of what we witness in the Transfiguration, Peter tells Christ: Lord, it is good that we are here.
For any of us, it would be the privilege of a lifetime to stand before Christ, to see him with our own eyes, his body and his clothes shining like the sun.
But he made a promise to be in our midst whenever even just two or three of us should gather in his name.
So, he is with us at Mass in church on this feast.
As we witness his Gospel today, we have him with us.
We are, then, real witnesses of his Transfiguration.
He is with us, revealing himself in his own Gospel.
We are real witnesses of his Transfiguration.
Lord, it is good that we are here.
Today, with Peter, James and John, we see Christ in the glory of the kingdom.
His entire appearance changes— his body and his clothes shine like the sun.
In his Gospel, we hear him link his Transfiguration and his Resurrection by telling Peter, James and John that they are not to speak of what they have seen today until he has risen from the dead.
Each year at Easter we witness and celebrate his resurrection.
Each Easter, we, his baptized faithful, renew the vows of Baptism.
We are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Today in the Transfiguration, we are witnesses of all three of them, Father, Son and Spirit.
First, Christ the Son is here, his body and clothing revealing the light of heaven.
As we stand before him, the embracing cloud of the Spirit adds its own confirmation to the splendor of Christ.
Now the Father speaks to us of Christ.
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.
We have been baptized into the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
In Baptism, God in Christ has brought us to the mountaintop of heaven and enveloped us in the light of the Spirit.
In Baptism, God in Christ has clothed us with the Spirit of adoption, so that God already counts us as risen out of death into glory as his sons and daughters.
Through Baptism, what we celebrate in the Transfiguration and the Resurrection is no longer about Christ only.
It is about the Father and the Spirit, and it is about our very selves.
That the body of Christ and even his handmade clothing with its woven cloth, stitches and seams should shine with heaven’s glory is a sign of the high dignity that God has given to our human body, human life and human culture.
This is my beloved Son.
In Christ, God has passed judgment on our world, and his is a judgment of fatherhood and love.
It is with great confidence, then, that we should face our lives in the world.
At Mass in church we approach the Eucharist.
In this Blessed Sacrament, the same Body and Blood that shone in the Transfiguration are really present.
In this sacrament, Christ crucified bodily and bloodily, Christ dead and risen in Body and Blood is really present.
In this sacrament, he really and truly breathes out the Spirit of the Father upon us, within us, in body, in spirit and in truth.
In this sacrament, he gives us a share in his bodily resurrection and its meaning: that the very life and glory of God himself dwells in and finally transfigures the flesh and blood of his sons and daughters.
How good it is to be here!
Lord, it is good that we are here.
Sick Pilgrim 