And so we pray in
order to be transformed into the Lord’s likeness and thus counteract the
opposite force, which is the prevalence of temptation that seeks a negative
transformation for the worse that is in fact a de-formation of our good,
God-given nature. In this light, we should think of prayer not so much as a
virtuous action but rather as a measure of human and spiritual survival, as
what prevents evil from deforming us, from making us bad or indifferent or
cynical or unmotivated. In fact, giving up praying, giving up the struggle
against our own innate laziness, leads us to fall into temptation not once but
again and again. Above all, it leads us to no longer have hope, to atrophy our
will to love, to no longer believe in ourselves, to distrust others, to no
longer believe in prayer itself, indeed, to no longer believe, period. To give
up prayer and the interior struggle leads us to live without the Lord and to close
ourselves in on ourselves, thus shutting out the whole vital dimension of
friendship with God in joyful and expectant love.
Luke thus tells us that while Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face
became “other”, not another face but a changed face, a face that opened itself to
being indwelt by the otherness of the One whom Jesus was praying to. Prayer is
a locus of transfiguration because it is a locus of alteration, a dimension
where change occurs. It’s not by chance that Jesus teaches the disciples how to
pray well, because it is by praying that they can enter into the covenant, that
is, into God's way of life. But it is important that, before giving them indications
and teachings on prayer, he himself prays and is plainly seen at prayer by his
disciples. For Jesus, prayer is a space for accepting the otherness of God
within himself. Because the human face is the essential place where a person’s
identity becomes crystallized, as it were, we see in this episode how prayer
affects Jesus’ personal identity. The fact that Jesus' face becomes Other on
Mount Tabor means that his visible human face narrates the invisible Face of
God. Prayer has a decisive effect on the one who prays. Its efficacy is not
outward but interior, as we see here in Jesus’ case. The radiance from his face
is not a reflection of the light of the sun falling on him from the outside, but
rather the visible beaming forth of the inward light of his divinity.
Reflection by Father Simeon.
