And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white…(and) a cloud came and overshadowed them Luke 9
Years back when I was a student at Oxford a coach taking pilgrims from my church, St Mary Magdalene’s, to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham crashed and someone died. The Sunday afterwards the parish priest preached his sermon with reference to this Gospel and I will never forget Fr Hooper’s sermon.
He presented to us, as I now present to you, how the mystery of the glorious Transfiguration is set under the dark cloud. After Our Lord’s clothes became dazzling white… St Luke records a cloud came and overshadowed them.
As we gathered in St Mary Mags that Sunday we were reminded how God’s glory can shine brightest of all through the cloud of bereavement. We gather Sunday by Sunday to celebrate the glory of the risen Lord with pain, the pains of the church and its divisions, of the world in its godforsakenness, especially with the invasion of Ukraine and the pains of those of in our circle which are most inscribed on our hearts. Then - the glory of the Lord shines over us as we take, bless, break and share bread!
Christianity is about suffering and the supernatural - these are the two things that keep us close to Christ - the two things Lent reminds us of.
We the baptised are a dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord.
We are a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit.
Paul expresses this beautifully in the second reading: ‘All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Made in his image we are being transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory.
Made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves - a good motto for Lent! Know yourself, love yourself, forget yourself’
Know yourself - for that is the other side of the coin to knowing God.
Love yourself - as you recognise again and again how much you are loved by God who made you. Then - and here is the struggle - forget yourself as Christ forgot himself on Calvary so he could die and rise and give us the Holy Spirit!
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people unprepared to forget themselves, people wanting instead to be important as seems the case with President Putin.
As Raniero Cantalamessa writes: ‘70% of the human body is made up of water, but perhaps even more than 70% of man’s spirit is made up of pride...We all long to be noticed. If we could visualise the whole of humankind as it appears in the eyes of God, we would see the spectacle of an immense crowd of people all standing on tiptoe, all pushing one another in the attempt to make themselves seen and all shouting, ‘I’m here too, I’m here in the world too!’. All this pride is, of course, just smoke that death dissipates day by day. ‘Vanity of vanities’...but its consequences are...dreadful’.
There is so much wastage in life and that does not exclude the Christian life. So much of our energy, even though we be Christians, gets dissipated in the instinctive serving of our desires or attending to our fears. The energy we put into this subtracts from all we are able to offer the Lord for building his kingdom. Our Lord needs more of our energies directed to his ends and not our own, our wills more and more directing our lives to his praise and his service.
Self-forgetfulness is a real gift of God which balances self-worth and self knowledge. I find that juggling around with these three is what the deepening of spirituality is all about. The supernatural and suffering play their part as well from God’s side…
Sometimes we need to know ourselves better, sometimes to pay attention, to be kind and loving to ourselves. There are times to concentrate and affirm the self. There are many other times when we are best off getting to work on forgetting ourselves.
As we approach Lent the Church presents to us in today’s scripture the radiant and transfigured humanity of Christ illuminated and filled right through with the life of God coupled to the invitation to be transformed likewise into a heavenly new creation.
The Transfiguration of Christ preceding his death and resurrection provides disciples then and now insight into the beauty, glory and wondrous life of the world to come and courage to keep heading there. We are not there yet but rather in the vale of tears yet sufferings in that vale are destined to be lost in the ultimate praise and glory of heaven.
We are the dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord, a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit, made in his image to be transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory, made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves…so Christ may shine in us now and always!
A happy and holy Lent!
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