Homily

Today’s feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord gives us a sense of what our lives, our very bodies will be like in heaven. In essence: they will be transfigured. Now, we may be more like Peter, James, and John. We may be more confused and bewildered as to what this all means. I don’t pretend to be able to fully explain it. Yet, we heard that “his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” This is a clue.

What ever it means to be transformed as Jesus was, the event describes that it will be something well beyond anything we can comprehend. Yet, that doesn’t mean there is nothing to know. The word, transfigured, is metamorphoo in Greek. It means to be changed in form. We will be changed like Jesus. We will be changed in form. We will still have bodies and they will be recognizable, but they will also have a distinctive quality about them that will be beyond what we experience now.

While we may wait for that day, we shouldn’t be lazy about starting that process now... and here is out challenge. We are all in need of transfiguration. We should all strive to be like the fuller in the story who could not bleach clothes as white as Jesus’ clothes were. We should take up the quest to live pure lives in imitation of Christ. We should strive for lives of honesty, integrity, service, concern for the poor, and a desire to share the Good News we have been given. We should listen to the words of Jesus as the Father has commanded us.

The struggle is that we may be pretty comfortable in our lives. We may be seeking out the things of the world and not the things of God. It is for this reason that many of us are here today. God bless you for having the desire to reform, to change your lives. In order for such a transfiguration to begin in us, we need to allow Jesus to heal us. we need to ask for forgiveness. We need to seek out opportunities to serve. Today at Mass, we have that opportunity through the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, Jesus can transfigure our lives. I guess the only question I have left is: Are we open to being changed? Are you open now? Come then and receive Christ and become like Jesus.