Jesus Be My Everything

Admittedly, at times - we can get so bogged down by struggles in this world and therefore we need to be reminded that this troubled world is not our final destiny.  The Gospel story of the Transfiguration of Christ gives us a glimpse that there is another world that is just as real as this world we live in….

As we heard in the Gospel: “Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Jesus.”  Moses and Elijah lived and departed from earthly life centuries before and there they were living and conversing with Jesus…sharing in His glory… giving us a glimpse of the eternal dimension… that there is life after death… with transfigured or resurrected body.

The transfiguration experience boosted the faith of Jesus’ apostles. An occasional glimpse of the other world can bring meaning and strength and hope to this present world.

 How about us - can we somehow expect a Transfiguration-like experience, to prepare us – to encourage us to carry our crosses daily in our lives to follow Jesus?  to boost our faith?... to strengthen us and give us hope?

 The answer is, yes; that is what Jesus is preparing for us at this very Mass we are celebrating. Our experience might be greatly different from what Peter, James or John experienced.  There will not be any blinding light nor voice speaking from the clouds; but, our experience can certainly be just as powerful…

 Of course, that will not happen by some kind of magic.  Our own transfiguration experience will depend on how much faith we bring to the experience… meaning, depending on if our hearts are open.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the efficacy of the sacrament – meaning - the grace we receive in the sacraments – like the Eucharist - depends on our disposition – depending on our openness, our willingness to cooperate with the grace of God.

 There is a common phrase – “You get out of it what you put into it.”  

Those who get bored during the Mass….Those who say that they get nothing out of the Mass…. They should ask themselves this question… What are they bringing into this celebration?  What kind of attitude do they have coming into Mass?  How much thought and how much preparation did they have or how did they prepare themselves for the Eucharistic celebration? Again, “you get out of Mass what you put into it.”

In just a few minutes, we will offer to God the bread and wine – along with our offerings of ourselves, our struggles, our hopes, our dreams – through Christ, with Christ and in Christ – WHO makes our offerings acceptable to God, our Father.

 At the consecration, the Holy Spirit will change our gifts - into the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Then - at Communion, when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ - Jesus will fill us with his glorious presence.  In that moment we, ourselves, can be transfigured, if you will.  We become what we partake; we become what we eat – We become the Body of Christ… As St. Teresa of Avila said:  Christ has no body now on earth but yours. Yours are His eyes, yours are His hands and yours are His feet.

That is why at the end of the Mass, we are sent – in the peace of Christ – to be other Christs in the world. …to be the living witnesses and sacraments of God’s love, grace and mercy…

Peter wanted to stay or extend the stay up in the mountain because “it is good to be here.”  The same thing with us, after our Eucharistic celebration - we need to go down into the valley, so to speak, of our day-to-day existence – into the ordinariness of our lives - because the Mass must be lived. 

Meaning - Our faith must be expressed in action, in living out the Gospel values… – proclaiming and sharing the message of salvation in Jesus Christ… by the way we live.

As St. Augustine puts it in one of his sermons on the Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses are there as “servants and ministers. Meaning - they are vessels: Christ is the fountain.” So, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, it is time for us to examine the focus of our mission as Church. Do we, as God’s church, also point to Christ without any ambiguity in all that we do and say?

Meaning - Think of all that we do: our worship, fellowship, Bible studies, feeding the homeless, advocacy for social justice, and all of our good works towards our neighbors and outreach, etc. The question, in light of the Transfiguration, is this: Do all the works - everything that we do - point clearly and plainly to Jesus Christ, the Son of God in whom the hopes of the world and the longings of every human heart are brought to peace beyond understanding? If not, then something must change.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church – the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian life… meaning - all the other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, of the Church - are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it.

 The Eucharist is all about Christ – His presence in us, among us, with us.

 For us Christians, “Life is about Jesus Christ. Anything and everything that matters flows from Him and returns to Him.”

This is the fundamental message of Christianity. It is exemplified in today’s feast: The Transfiguration of the Lord.

To put more perspective, Moses was the great Law Giver. Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Meaning – Jesus is the fulfillment of everything foretold in the Old Testament.

Jesus is the center of history. Jesus is the center of the universe. Everything that matters flows from Jesus and points to Him. Jesus is the one who fulfills God’s plan for mankind.

So, we have to listen to Jesus because we also have a role in God’s plan for mankind. That meeting with Moses and Elijah had transcended time. Moses  lived about six hundred years before Elijah, and Elijah lived about eight hundred years before the birth of the Lord.

 But on that mountain of the Transfiguration, they were united in time. It was as though all that Moses gave, all that Elijah prophesied, was happening in the eternal now of the Word Become Flesh, Jesus. We are part of that Eternal Now.

From the clouds, they heard: “This is my Beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Those words are directed to us as well as to Peter, James and John.

Each of us has a role to play in God’s Plan for mankind. The late great pope, Pope Benedict XVI said: “The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness.” We were created for greatness, to share in the Triumph of the Kingdom of God.

 How? How do we share in the Triumph of the Kingdom of God? We do this by living our lives in such a way that we reflect the presence of God in that unique way that we were created to do… that people whose lives we touch - experience the love, grace and mercy of God through us. Each of us can uniquely provide the world with an image of God the world never saw before and the world will never see again. We can and must do this. That is why we need to be united to God in every aspect of our lives and at every moment of our lives.

Again, as I have said at the beginning, at times - we get so bogged down by struggles and temptations in this world and we lose perspective of what life is all about and what really matters, therefore, we do not and cannot hear the voice of God anymore with all the worldly noises – and so - we need to get away from the world, so to speak – spend more time in prayer every day – to listen to the voice of God… even for a few minutes each day…

Yes - so many people are now living in seemingly hopeless desperate situations… and we are called to trust in God even without knowing how God is going to care for us, even though we have no idea how God could possibly help us.  But - as the Pope said:  Only in Christ can humanity find redemption and hope.

So, let us love Jesus with all our hearts, with all our mind and with all our might and let Jesus love us.

And so we pray – in the words of a popular song – please repeat after me: “Jesus, Be My Everything!”  AMEN.