It is a marvelous thing to stand in a transfigured moment. Those transfigured moments are all around and not as rare as we might think. Every one of us could tell a story about stepping back from the picture of our life, seeing with new eyes, listening with different ears, and discovering a window that opened into another world and another way of being.
Like Peter, we are tempted to build dwelling places for those moments. But booths, dwelling places, picture frames will only keep us in the past. To the extent that we cling to the past, we close ourselves to the future God offers us. So it is that Jesus, Peter, James, and John came back down the mountain. They could not stay there, but neither did they leave the mountaintop experience. They took it with them. It is what would carry them through the passion and crucifixion to the resurrection.
Transfigured moments change us, sustain us, prepare us, encourage us, and guide us into the future regardless of the circumstances we face. They show us who we are. They provide the truest horizon. We are called to be the transfigured people of God. Let us open our eyes and see a transfigured world, open our ears and hear the transfiguring voice, open our hearts and become a transfigured life.
“Is this all there is?” This question may be our experience of God’s longing for us, a reminder that the window never closes. The transfigured Christ wants us to know that every picture we have of life and of him is truly an open window. The Good News is that he himself is the window, the lens, through which we are to see and live our lives. He is the portal that makes transfigured moments possible. According to the Father’s salvific design for us, the power that transforms pictures into windows is the life, death, and resurrection of his Son.
Detail of an ancient Cistercian grisaille window from the Abbey of Obazine. Meditation by Father Dominic.
Detail of an ancient Cistercian grisaille window from the Abbey of Obazine. Meditation by Father Dominic.
