A Light so Astounding that we are Transposed within it

A Light So Astounding that we are Transposed within it

Second Sunday of Lent

Transfiguration, an event that invokes more than a surprise to Peter, James, and John.   They, unlike the rest of humanity, are drawn into the Glory of the Risen Christ, the True Light that reaches the world with God’s Mercy.  Without the Mercy of God humanity would still be in their sin and would forever be in a wasteless void of extreme darkness that our intellect cannot imagine.

I AM the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  (Jn 8: 12).

Light of God is found in Christ as John’s Prologue describes it;  “What came to be through him was life and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (Jn 1: 4 - 5). 

A descriptive narrative that does more than give us another theme of surprise.  Light that goes beyond our limited understanding of how powerful a life-changing brilliance can change the very sign of death to everlasting life.  We are told that the imprint on the Shroud of Torin with the face of the risen Christ must have been a light so intense that a man’s face would become embedded on a burial cloth.  There is no amount of extreme voltage that could ever do this with our understanding of this force.  Yet, here is a light that will raise the crucified Christ from his 3 days of earthly death to the eternal brilliance of eternity that awaits us as well.  

As an electrician and my exposure to different voltages used to light the world’s needs, it must be voltage so extreme that our science has not reached a point of resurrecting a dead man.  In electrical theory, voltage does not travel along electrical conductors, it is a force that pushes electrical current to a necessary load creating wattage.  What they saw in the Glory of Christ was the result of his Resurrection and this is what we are anticipating as we travel this journey of Lent to a light yet unseen.

Electrical power is so intense that we use it in melting scrap metal to get purified steel. The short-circuiting of a minimum of 25,000 volts using probes of three-phase power is like child's play when trying to compare the force of electricity on the face of Christ.  This is light power that is the resurrection synopsis that we can only imagine with our finite understanding.  

Lent prepares us to meet the crucified Christ now risen into the Glory of God.  His light is what removes the sin of man and completes our journey to be with him in eternity.  

Ralph B. Hathaway