The Transfiguration of Jesus: A Reflection

The Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord will be on Thursday, August 6th of this year. This is one of the great miracles of Jesus, especially great in my opinion because it is at this time when James, John, and Peter saw the complete Trinatarian form of our Lord. The spirit came down on the mountain, Jesus (all white and bright in splendor) stood before them with Elijah and Moses, and they heard the voice of God the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5).

We are called to transfigure ourselves for our Lord. Daily, we work on the conversions of our own hearts so as to be holy as God wishes us to be, and this is such a hard thing to do. As members of a race that has been corrupted by sin since the days of Adam and Eve, we constantly fall short on our paths to righteousness. By the mercy of God, though, we are always able to pick ourselves up, dust off, and get back onto the “grand divine wagon.”

It kind of makes me think of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now I’ve never been an alcoholic, but I can’t help but think about how AA is there to help those who struggle with alcoholism and are trying to change themselves for the better. Like alcohol, sin can be addictive. Like those alcoholics that are trying to free themselves from their addiction, we are all trying to free ourselves of sin. Like AA, we have a path we can follow, and that path is Jesus Christ. Just like with AA, if we slip, we can go back. If we sin, we have the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist to pick us up and to rebuild ourselves. I guess we can consider Confession as SA (Sinners Anonymous). I will continue to work on transfiguring myself to be better for our Lord and I pray that we all will be successful in our own transfigurations.