The Mystery of the Transfiguration

“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

In last week’s Gospel, we followed Jesus into the desert where He fasted and prayed. This week, He leads us up a mountain to witness His Transfiguration. Why do we hear both of these experiences in Lent?

The Transfiguration was the most astounding, amazing and mind-blowing experience for Peter, James and John, revealing Jesus as truly the Son of God. What glorious Light shone from the face of Christ as He foretaste of Heaven and a vision of His hidden glory.

A Jubilee Season of Hope

In this 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, we ask: Lord, in these difficult times, we enter into the desert of Lent this year on our annual Journey to Jerusalem with much grief in our hearts for those lost to us…

the bullets and missiles in Gaza & Ukraine; the rhetoric and spin of governments; those still living in fear of the pandemic; Yet we turn to these words of Hope:

Calling Out Hypocrisy

Remember from last week, the key to loving your enemy is in action, not emotion: showing kindness: in thought, in word and in action. So, if someone curses us, we are to bless them.

“A blessing is not just to do good towards somebody, but to speak good to somebody. So you bless with your mouth, you act (obviously) with your actions through all kinds of different ways. If someone curses me, they speak evil against me. You’re verbalizing that they would wish harm upon you (that’s what a curse is).

“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

We all have enemies and that is a sad thing, Who is your greatest enemy? Who hates you? We all have enemies. Yes, it’s a sad thing, but unfortunately it’s true for most of us, if not for all of us. How do we react to this situation?

We Are Blessed Sacrament: It’s a different world in today’s Gospel. Jesus turns all our notions of what is good and desired and makes it upside down in St. Luke’s version of The Sermon on the Mount. Now that his twelve apostles have been selected, Jesus teaches and prepares them for their mission. “Get used to ‘different’ from now on.”

“They beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them” (Lk 5:7).

First we see that Jesus is preaching to a crowd who is pressing in on Him to listen. What an amazing, inspiring image! Do we “press in” as we listen to the readings proclaimed in Mass with this same sense of wonder and urgency?