ALL SAINTS' HOUGHTON REGIS
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Survey
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Schools
  • Our Faith
    • Learning
    • Prayer Resources
    • Rosary
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Easter
    • Mass
    • Walsingham Cell
  • Life Events
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Confession
    • Anointing
    • Home Blessings
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Knitting Group
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Lagacies
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path

Homilies

(Sunday sermons, talks, and teaching)

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (A)

6/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Daniel 7:9-10; 13-14
Matthew 17:1-9 

The Transfiguration of the Lord with all its display of glory and divine beauty forms a watershed in the gospel narratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke because on the top of this mountain, as we look back, we see the fulfilment of many Old Testament scenes, and looking forward towards, we see what the future has in store for Jesus and then for all of us – we see the Cross, the Resurrection, and the final consummation of salvation history. For example, in the appearance of Moses we find an echo of his ascent to Mount Sinai when he received God’s Word chiselled on stone tablets and was allowed to see the back of God; except that here Moses is able to talk directly to the Word-of-God-made-flesh and to see God’s radiant face. In the appearance of Elijah we find an echo of his encounter with God, when the Lord spoke to him about the mission he had to accomplish, not through ‘the earthquake, wind, and fire’ but with a ‘still, small voice of calm’ (Cf. 1Kings 19:12). And in the bright cloud that engulfs the entire scene we see one of Scripture’s favourite images to describe God’s glory. 

Looking to the future, the Transfiguration gives us a sure pledge that Jesus will fulfil Daniel’s prophecy about a man on whom is ‘conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship’ (Dan. 7:13), and that, in his radiant splendour, the Lord will appear at the end of time as a bright lightning that lights up the entire sky (Cf. Matt. 24:27). So in essence, the Transfiguration shows us in no uncertain terms the profound reality of Jesus’ divine nature as ‘God from God’ and ‘Light from Light’. But the reason behind this display is not Jesus’ desire to brag or impress, because he never considered ‘equality with God something to be used to his own advantage’ (Philippians 2:6); but it comes out of the Lord’s desire to instruct and strengthen Peter, James, and John in their faith in preparation for the Easter events and for their mission in the world. 

The Transfiguration then can be interpreted as a brief pause, as Jesus’ intimate revelation of his true nature to his closest disciples, before he has to ascend another hill and accomplish a dramatically different event. And it is here that the disciples, though terrified by the experience, realise that being in the Lord’s company was everything they had always desired. Peter’s proposition about staying on the mountain seems perfectly reasonable… As Saint Augustine comments,
‘On the mountain... [Peter] had Christ as the food of his soul. Why should he have to go down to return to his hard work and sorrows while up there he was filled with holy love for God which inspired in him a holy way of life?’ (Sermon 78, 3)

If we too caught and understood even just a glimpse of Jesus’ beauty and glory, who wouldn’t want to bask in his light? And who would want to leave? 

I hope that each of us has his or her own Transfiguration moments and spaces in which they can be instructed and strengthened by Jesus by the simple fact of being with him, and having him as “food for their souls”… When we come together to celebrate the Mass – each Sunday and for a few of us here even most days of the week – we spiritually climb the mountain of the Transfiguration to be with Jesus as he comes to us in the Sacrament, and to listen to his voice in the Scriptures. Here we get a glimpse of what the life of heaven will be like, here the Lord displays his glory, and here he nurtures the life of faith. But following Jesus we must come down the mountain with him, and after celebrating Mass, we must return to our labours so that the beauty we have experienced might be replicated in the world. 

Over the past weeks we listened to several parables about the Kingdom of God. And even though the Transfiguration of the Lord is a real event in the life of Jesus, it forms for us a further parable about the Christian life; we must continuously ascend the spiritual mountain to meet God and then, coming back down, bear ‘the love and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love’ (BXVI, Lent Message 2013, n.3). 

Through the parables Jesus explained to us how the Kingdom grows and takes hold in subtle, almost unseen ways, until its beauty is fully manifested for all to see. The Kingdom is like yeast in the dough (Cf. Matt. 13:33); like the rarest of pearls (Cf. Matt. 13:45); like a small seed (Cf. Matt. 13:31). These parables mirror most people’s experience of faith as a slow, and sometimes difficult, process of growth accomplished through prayers, learning, and the practice good habits; a life-long commitment to following Christ until his is fully formed in us, until – as St Paul says – we have grown into the full stature of Jesus (Cf. Eph. 4:13), and until God’s Kingdom is clearly manifested in who we are and by what we do. But as today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord we catch a glimpse of what the final manifestation of the Kingdom will be like; we are given a foretaste of the moment when the Lord Jesus will be fully revealed in the glory and majesty of his divine nature.
0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    1John
    1Peter
    1Thessalonians
    1Timothy
    2Corinthians
    Acts
    Advent
    All Souls
    Amos
    Angels
    Baptism
    Beatific Vision
    Benedict XVI
    BVM
    Catechesis
    Charity/Love
    Christian Unity
    Christmas
    Church Fathers
    Civic Service
    Compassion
    Creed
    Daniel
    Death
    Deuteronomy
    Divine Mercy
    Easter
    Ephesians
    Epiphany
    Ethics
    Eucharist
    Eucharistic Adoration
    Ezekiel
    Faith
    Francis
    Friendship
    Galatians
    Genesis
    Gratitude
    Healing
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Week
    Homily
    Hope
    Humility
    Hymns
    Incarnation
    Isaiah
    James
    Jesus Christ
    Job
    John
    Joy
    Judgment
    Justin Welby
    Lent
    Leviticus
    Liturgy
    Luke
    Mark
    Matthew
    Ordinary Time
    Parables
    Peace
    Pentecost
    Prayer
    Prayer For The Dead
    Psalms
    Remembrance
    Revelation/Apocalypse
    Romans
    Sacraments
    Sacred Heart
    Saints
    St Alphonsus
    St Anselm
    St Augustine
    St John The Baptist
    St Paul
    St Peter
    The Christian Life
    The Church
    The Cross
    Thy Kingdom Come
    Vatican II
    Vices
    Virtues
    Vocations
    Worship

    RSS Feed

All Saints' Parish Church
Bedford Road, Houghton Regis
LU5 5DJ

St Thomas' Church
and Parish Office
Lowry Drive, Houghton Regis.
LU5 5SJ
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Survey
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Schools
  • Our Faith
    • Learning
    • Prayer Resources
    • Rosary
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Easter
    • Mass
    • Walsingham Cell
  • Life Events
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Confession
    • Anointing
    • Home Blessings
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Knitting Group
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Lagacies
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path