Gospel according to Saint Luke 9:28-36:

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.

Dark Energy and Luminous Transfiguration

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, March 16, 2025 | II Sunday of Lent

Gen 15: 5-12.17-18; Flp 3: 17—4,1; Lk 9: 28-36

 Home, sweet home? Last year, a good friend of mine, a university colleague, retired. At practically the same time, his wife also retired. They hoped to spend their retirement years in happy company, as their life together had certainly been very joyful and now their only child was in another country for work reasons. I remember seeing how happy and united they were in the photos they sent me The horizon seemed peaceful and they looked set to soon become radiant and proud grandparents. But unexpectedly, she contracted an illness that took her life in a week. How many similar cases do we know of? Sooner or later, life shows us that this world is not our home.

We are citizens of heaven, St. Paul tells us in the Second Reading, and this is certainly more than a poetic exclamation. In this world we are pilgrims, nomads, as Abraham was. But we all long to live in peace, in a place that is truly our own, like the people mentioned in the Old Testament, who hoped to rest under their vine and their fig tree, and that no one would disturb their repose (Micah 4:4). Trusting that this is completely and totally possible in this life leads to disappointments of all kinds

Something similar happens to many religious people who enthusiastically begin their path of consecration and later reach a point where they either abandon it or resign themselves to continuing without enthusiasm and become sad signs of discouragement for young people who feel the divine call to live a generosity more intense and profound than that felt by a good person. They were looking for some form of “spiritual well-being”

We don’t have to search too hard in our memories to recall many cases of happy couples, with or without the sacrament of marriage, who, for a thousand different reasons or unreasons, see their dreams of a life together evaporate, even though there may have been some delightful times.

However, although we all go through difficult times, sometimes we wish life would stop so we can enjoy our children, our friends, a profound spiritual impression or simply a landscape. Peter, James and John had that experience on Mount Tabor. They were literally and spiritually dazzled. That is not a negative thing at all, on the contrary, experiencing the beautiful, the true and the good, even if it is only once in our lives, marks us forever.

The Master told them that mountain was not their place. Just as Yahweh told Abraham that he would give his people a land of their own and also made a covenant with him forever, today Christ prepares the three disciples for something more than that wonderful moment. In the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia, solemn pacts were concluded with a solemn ceremony: an animal (a cow, a goat or a sheep) was taken and quartered. Then, those who committed themselves with the oath of loyalty passed between the pieces of meat uttering this formula: If I betray the pact, may I be torn to pieces like this animal.

But let us look closely at the message: it was not Abraham who passed among the remains of the calf, the goat, the ram, the dove and the pigeon; it was Yahweh himself who passed through that sacrificed meat, like a flame. In exactly the same way, Christ was the first to pass through death, the first to offer himself for us to demonstrate that his pact, his calling, is firm, very different from our volatile good resolutions and intentions.

—ooOoo—

A few weeks ago, we were discussing the problem that astrophysicists face today: it now seems that we know only 5% of what exists. The matter of which the stars are made, our bodies and what has occupied geniuses such as Newton, Einstein or Galileo… is a tiny part of what actually exists. Approximately 25% is what is known as dark matter and 70% is the mysterious and elusive dark energy, which seems to modify the speed of expansion of the universe. This makes even the best scientists more humble and makes us all think that our knowledge is and will be really limited.

As happened to Abraham, we cannot count all the stars in the firmament nor are we capable of fully living all the graces we have received. Our eyes are heavy, like those of Peter, John and James on Mount Tabor, like they were in the Garden of Olives. But Christ always arrives, tirelessly, to wake us up.

God the Father tells the disciples to listen to Jesus, but not just any old way, not only in moments of joy or of apparent acceptance by the crowds. There are too many things they cannot understand, but they can accept with faith and hope. We are in the same situation, despite the fact that Christ has become our model and we have seen many saints, over many centuries, embrace the cross.

The cloud that appears in today’s Gospel text represents the invisible presence of God, before which, like Peter, we are at a loss as to how to act. That is why we must listen carefully to the voice of the Master, who calls us to collaborate intensely, to bear vigorous witness, precisely when we feel like Abraham, who was already old, childless and unable to imagine how he was going to possess the Promised Land. Heaven is not a place, and much less “a future place”. We are granted the opportunity to experience that heaven right now, which is, essentially, the active and loving presence of the Divine Persons. Let us remember that St. Luke begins today by telling us that Jesus went up the mountain to pray, and nothing else. And it is during that prayer that everything changes for Him and for everyone.

Today’s Gospel tells us that the apostles did not tell anyone what they had seen. They could not yet understand it; they had not fully experienced the Cross, the cross of Christ and their own.

But the things of this world, both the beautiful and the abominable, cannot disguise, conceal or enhance the natural beauty that we already possess as temples of the Holy Spirit. We cannot see all this with complete clarity. We can only see a true reflection of ourselves when we contemplate the cross of Christ, the sacrifice of love that is made in each Eucharist. In each Mass, we are reminded of our true value, which can never be bought at any human price. It is a gift from God. We have been bought with the price of Christ’s own body and blood.

In a way, the moment the disciples experienced on Mount Tabor is the opposite of temptation. They are drawn to the things of God, to the kingdom of heaven, to such an extent that they no longer care about food, or shelter, or what we might previously have considered indispensable or tempting. Like Abraham, who was prepared to abandon his way of life, even when it might have seemed that it was already too late, that it would not be worth it. That is transfiguration.

—ooOoo—

We mentioned earlier the importance and the permanent effect of an intense experience of the presence and action of the Divine Persons, such as the Transfiguration was for Peter, James and John. Now it is worth recognizing that, although the details are different, normally less sensitive and almost always something intimate, each of us goes through moments that our Founding Father calls transfiguring, that is to say, a true “metamorphosis” of our soul, which goes beyond an intense emotion or feeling; it is a permanent change.

The characteristics of these moments are:

– It is not something that we set out to feel or experience; we recognize its divine origin.

– Although it is something very intimate, its effects are visible to others in our behavior.

– It is always a change in our soul, which vigorously orients belief, trust and love towards God.

– The ascetic realizes that his faith, his hope and his charity have changed and attributes this, as the only explanation, to the gifts received from the Holy Spirit. Another interpretation would be artificial, since this transfiguration happens at times that are not the most favorable or appropriate according to “natural” psychology. For example, on many occasions the disciple of Christ receives strength precisely when events, lack of understanding or pain would invite sadness, abandonment or despair.

When in 1219 St. Francis of Assisi presented himself to the sultan Malik al-Kamil, the crusaders mocked him and took him for a madman. Evidently, he was not disturbed, nor was Abraham when the First Reading tells us that “a deep sleep came upon him, and a dark and terrible darkness fell upon him”. The Transfiguration sets our faculties in motion and makes us truly different, sometimes in a striking way for others.

But, as well as changes in our faith, hope and charity, we can also contemplate the effects of transfiguration in our fellow men and women, which confirms us on the path to perfection, as we see successive conversions in people, as described in that well-known anecdote, which is the evolution of a certain person’s way of praying:

When I was young I felt like a revolutionary and my prayer to God was: Lord, give me the grace to change the world. As I approached middle age and realized that I had spent half my life without changing a single soul, I also changed my prayer: Lord, give me the grace to change everyone I come into contact with; just my family and my friends, that will be enough for me.

Now that I am old and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been and my one and only prayer now is this: Lord, give me the grace to change myself. And looking back, I feel that if I had prayed like this from the beginning, I would have made better use of my life.

Let us pray today for those who are preparing to abandon their vocation, for which they have abundant reasons and experiences of disappointment, frustration and mediocre behavior of their own and others. May our humble example bear witness that, behind those clouds, God the Father is still calling them and us.

_______________________________

In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President