The Transfiguration and Us

03-16-2025Pastor's LetterVery Rev. Richard C. Wilson, VF, Pastor

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today, the second Sunday in Lent, the liturgy of the word invariably brings us the dramatic event of the Lord's transfiguration. This year it is with the nuances typical of St. Luke's Gospel.

It is St. Luke who more strongly emphasizes the praying Jesus, the Son who is permanently linked to the Father through personal prayer, at times intimate and hidden, at times in the presence of his disciples, but always full of joy through the Holy Spirit.

We should therefore pay attention to the fact Luke is the only one of the synoptic Gospels that begins the narration in this way: “Jesus...went up the mountain to pray” (Lk 9:28), and, consequently, it is Luke who specifies that the Master's transfiguration happened “while He was praying” (Lk 9:29). And this is not something irrelevant.

The prayer is presented here like the ideal and natural context for the vision of Christ's Glory: when Peter, John, and James “fully awake ... and saw his glory” (Lk 9:32). But, not only his glory, but also the glory God had already manifested in the Law and the Prophets; they—evangelist Luke says—“appeared in glory” (Lk 9:31). For they indeed find their own splendor in the love of the Spirit when the Son speaks to the Father. Thus, in the heart of Holy Trinity, Jesus' Passover, “his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk 9:31), is the sign manifesting God's plan, which is carried out in the bosom of Israel's history, until its definite completion, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Jesus Incarnated.

It is good to remember, in this Lent and always, that unless we let the spirit of piety emerge in our life, establishing a familiar and inseparable relationship with the Lord, we shall not be able to enjoy the contemplation of His Glory. It's urgent to be impressed by the vision of the Transfigured face of Jesus. Maybe our Christian experience has an excess of words while it lacks astonishment, that astonishment that made Peter and his friends actual witnesses of the living Christ, that made them terrified and then kept them silent about the glories to come.

“Worship the Lord in holy array; tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:9)

All the best…in Christ,

Father Wilson