Dear Friends,
The Feast of the Transfiguration is usually buried on a
weekday in the dog days of August, so it goes by generally unnoticed. But not this
year. This year, the feast is on a Sunday, and this will allow the worshipping
community to savor it, wonder at what it bids us to see when we look upon the
face of another. Matthew tells us that the face of Jesus shone like the sun. (Mt.17.2)
Not only was Jesus radiant, but his disciples were caught up in that radiance.
Transfiguration happened in Jesus and it happened in the eyes of the beholders.
It was an unrepeatable moment when God’s presence was made known.
Perhaps you can remember times and situations when people’s
faces were radiant – the joy on people’s faces who have been reunited after a
long separation, the radiance on a woman’s face when she has given birth. I
once watched a man carry the cross in a Good Friday prayer service. His face
already carried upon in the anticipation of Easter. Neither you nor I might
directly associate God with what we see in another face. Be that as it may,
God’s glory is written on that face.
In some ways, we contribute to the process of transfiguration
in others, just as, at times, we contribute to their disfiguration. We can inspire
a transfiguration by making loving use of the power we wield with those around
us. We can bring a moment’s freedom to those whose faces have been closed, hard
or masked with indifference. We can bring a glow of dignity to those who have
been humiliated, a realization of worth to those whose faces reflect a belief
in their own worthlessness.
Ironically, we remember on this day of Christ’s
transfiguration the annihilation of Hiroshima, Japan, and a few days later,
Nagasaki. More than half of each city was destroyed by American atomic bombs.
Civilian casualties were enormous. Survivors were disfigured in body and mind.
The story of massive violence against people has been
repeated since then in terrorist attacks and disfiguring chemical warfare. We may
think that we can do nothing about the pain human beings inflict on one other,
but we can. We can reach out across the mystical miles and draw those who are
suffering into the arms of Christ. We do this by joining our will to the will
of Christ. Once we see – really see by the power of the Light of Christ, we can
no longer participate in the disfigurement of others. Let it be so for the
nations! Let it be so!
Reading on in each of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus came down
from Mount Tabor and was immediately confronted with a distraught father and
his child in great need. Jesus attended to both the father and son.
I hope that, as we look at the faces of the people who come
our way all year long, we really see the transfiguration that makes them
radiant and the disfiguration that holds them in irons…that we see and act in
healing/supportive ways even as Jesus did when He came down from the mountain.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
