Readings:
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 or 2Peter 1:16-19
Psalm 96: 1-2, 5-6, 9
Luke 9: 28-36
Reflection:
Have you ever considered that ‘transfiguration’ experiences are still all around us?
People can have transient though no less significant experiences of transforming insights of Divine Presence in a breath taking scene from nature, a human response in self or others that goes beyond our known or expected capacities, religious, social or political situations that witness to life giving possibilities rather than destruction.
Unlike our Indigenous family, many have probably forgotten the importance of a burning fire and its significance for sustaining life; of stirring and blowing on the seemingly black and lifeless embers, to bring them back, first to a soft glow and then to a flicker and burst of new flames. The trick is not to let the embers go cold. Our fire within needs our stirrings to come back to brightness, with promise of light and life from its kindled flame.
So now pause … Look longer, more deeply …. Begin to see the gleaming become brighter … transforming a gloomy situation into a truer and brighter image of reality…
We carry such transforming promise with us all. However, most days, we may only see things as usual as the disciples afterwards ‘saw only Jesus’. As their transfiguration experience faded, things slowly changed for them as they followed Jesus. And so it is for us … We all carry within us the inner light and presence of the Divine in the surety of the promise ‘I will always be with you’. How do we continue to kindle this transforming insight so that it changes how we see and act in our lives and our world?
Pam Storey is a member of the Passionist Faith Community at Holy Cross, Templestowe, and one of the founding members of Passionist Companions. After a very active and varied family, church and working life, Pam is now focusing on developing a slow spirituality.