Transfiguration & Redemption

  
  In the Gospel account of the Transfiguration which is read today, the 2nd Sunday in Lent, Jesus takes three of his closet companions with Him up the mountain. The outcome is miraculous. Their Savior is speaking with the representatives of the entire faith of Israel -  Moses and Elijah. Moses was believed to have single handedly written the Law; Elijah represented all the Prophets. His disciples must have remembered Jesus saying that he came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill. Peter experienced this moment with great awe.

   The Transfiguration helped to prepare the way for the coming of the Cross. Jesus foretold many times that He would have to suffer and die, but His Disciples never wanted to hear about it. Peter so belligerently denied that He undergo such suffering that Jesus had to rebuke him on the spot, identifying his mentality with Satan. Peter stands in the first part of this miraculous moment between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and offers to build tents. In shock he hears the words of the Father. He should be prepared for the coming trial, but we know what Peter will do in the Passion account.

   It is the Passion Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that allows us to fully experience the redemption of our bodies in the Resurrection. This happens because we are baptized into Christ’s Paschal Mystery (CCC 1265). What Jesus is by Nature we become by Grace. When the Father speaks over Jesus. “This is my chosen Son…” we can become partakers of the divine nature because of Jesus’ salvific work (CCC 460). Pope St. John Paul II noted that the new state of the redemption of the body comes about because of this “adoption”.

   We experience this redemption during our very earthly lives - as Saint Paul states, “we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

   Redemption of the body is something much more than the Transfiguration; it is the rehabilitation of the gift and of the spousal meaning of our bodies, (as the Church is the Bride of Christ). All this comes about because of Jesus’ atonement on the Cross, which, of course, is not God’s final answer on the subject.

   The redemption of the body is marked in this life as “life in the spirit” (Romans 8). It really does take the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit to experience this redemption of the body, which are all gifts of God. Our Lenten observances of fasting help us to attain this important virtue. Pope St. John Paul calls this temperance self-mastery.
  
   The task of self-mastery must be done with a conscious awareness of the reason why it is undertaken: For love. It is the “life of virtue” that we hope to attain more in this season of Lent, so that in Easter we will experience the “life in the spirit” all the more and attain the redemption of our bodies.

Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,

Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook, KHS