“From One Degree of Glory to the Next”Main point: The transfiguration is a display of the goal of the Christian life.INTRODUCTION:Peter, John, and James go up the mountain with Jesus to pray. The face of Jesus changes and his clothes began to shine. Suddenly two men were with Jesus - Moses who represents the Law and Elijah who represents the prophets. These two figures are also bathed in glory and talk with Jesus. On this day we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and we ask, what is it?? What splendid thing is happening in front of us?? What could this possibly mean??C.S. Lewis, the famous Christian apologist and author of the children's fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, called the Transfiguration the second most important event in the life of Jesus - second only to the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  What splendor did he see that we might taste this morning?I think we must at least say, this isn't just some weird blip on the map of this strange guy with these strange people with an out of this world experience on top of a mountain. It may have been all that, but it's so much more. So what is it?Answering the QuestionIt's…Glory revealed - Encounter with GodAmazement and wonderLuminescent EssencePure goodnessLight which casts out darkness.Primarily, what we see in this encounter is a glimpse of our future. It's the state of being to which all of us are headed. Pure divine glory. This glory, seen in Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, is the ultimate destiny for all believers. In a word: it's sainthood.Secondly, we see in this encounter an invitation to us today. It's an invitation to be welcomed in and transformed into the same glory that we see on display to Peter, John, and James. We are Peter, John, and James in this story.The ultimate destiny and the invitation are summarized beautifully by St. Paul in our second reading. I pray you underline, reread, and take to heart these words. He says…Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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.Wow, rest in those words a moment: all of us are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 

Ver todos los episodios