Discipleship is a culture that transforms us from being self-centered to other centered. Selflessness is the harmony so many seek; but seek it in such a way that they become selfish, rather than selfless.
Happiness, as St. Augustine teaches, is the purpose of our lives. So we ask what makes me happy? Obviously, human happiness comes from certain pleasures, possessions, and powers that we enjoy. But these do not and cannot satisfy our deepest desires for communion. Communion is when we give of ourselves out of love for another.
* Spouses sacrifice everything because of their marital love for each other.
* Healthy parents pour out their love for their children to give them opportunities to grow.
* Missionaries give up home, family, culture, and custom so that others may encounter Christ.
Transformation leads to transfiguration which is rooted in communion. When we are rooted in relationship with another person, or group, or religion, we transform into the values and mission of that relationship.
Today more than ever we need Christians to be transformed by their relationship with Christ.
Love transfigures. That is why Jesus tells us where your heart is there is your treasure. During Lent, we ask our selves:
Where is my heart?
What are my treasures?
Why do I treasure those persons, places and things?
Knowing what you treasure and why you treasure it leads to an intimate knowledge of how God sees you. How God sees you, is the quest of the Christian. For God sees us much differently than we see ourselves.
Our self-portrait reveals more times than not, the ugly faults and failures that we so easily remember. We paint a distorted picture of our self-worth and in so doing, we devalue ourselves thinking we are not good enough.
Is that how God sees you?
God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. He sees us completely different and the transfiguration of Jesus on the Mountain reveals how God sees us. Radiant with divine glory.
Just before his crucifixion, Jesus is transfigured and becomes dazzling, revealing his divinity to his apostles. They were amazed, shocked beyond fear. They experienced a picture of heaven which no eye or ear has seen before.
Yet, the transfiguration of Jesus before his crucifixion is the Christian paradox. We see the ugliness of our own sin and we see our sins reflected in the horror of crucifixion of Christ; and yet, it is through the shock of the crucifixion, we are transfigured. He takes away our sins!
Seeing the terror of crucifixion, we are prompted to look deep within ourselves and see the glory and divinity in which we are made: wonderfully and beautifully. To restore our wonder and beauty, Peter tells us:
“Jesus himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (I Pet 2:24).
His crucifixion reveals our transfiguration. Sin no longer defines us, rather the love poured out upon the cross does. His love embraces our sinfulness, not to condemn but to reveal our heart’s treasure: God’s love poured out upon us.