Transfiguration--“God From God, Light From Light.”

Transfiguration

Jesus was transfigured; his physical appearance changed such that his face shone like the sun. “God from God, light from light.”

In the book of Exodus, Moses’s “face shone because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29). So we too can be filled with the presence of God, transfigured and shining before others. No makeup products needed.

I saw a tweet that said: When your mascara costs $23 there's no time for crying

What ways are you being transformed into His likeness?

God has a face — meaning he is a “you” who can enter into a relationship with you.

The Hebrew word pa¯nîm, sometimes translated presence, literally means face. At Mass, we pray that God will “bring us into the light of Your face.”

Through Baptism, men and women are transformed, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into a new creation in Christ. This new life in the Holy Spirit heals men and women from sin and elevates them to share in God’s very own divine life.

1).You Become What You Behold. 2 Cor. 3:18, says: We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

The key, Paul says, is that we “behold [see] the glory of the Lord.” In other words we are transformed into his image by looking at his glory. You become like what you constantly behold. Looking at the tabernacle or Monstrance is about beholding Him.

It’s knowing Him and being known by Him in the most quiet corners of our souls, where our deepest being lie hiding. It’s slowing down and inviting Him in; it’s standing before Him in a place of surrender, It’s there, in that place, that we are changed.

This hopefully is the core of our stories. His presence is what has changed us. His presence is where is we find ourselves. He makes us whole.

But, as one writer said, “And yet, I find myself, even today, having to fight to keep that face to face time with Him my priority. I hunger for it, but so much distracts from it.

Apart from His presence, it’s all just a bunch of busy religious activity. What we really want in this life is His presence -Him- at the center of it all.

2. Losing The Glow Of God

Sacrament of Confession--But I have no access to you if you wear a mask (persona) when we’re together. You’re not present. The glow of God is not a permanent thing. It is subject to the way we live our lives.

When Moses went up the mountain to encounter God, had been gone for forty days. The people got "bored." They thought, why don't we put on a show. They decided to make a golden calf so that they could have a party. Very soon Aaron put on a good religious show for the people. How exciting!

Aaron had a show, but Moses had a glow.

Aaron put on the show because this is what the people wanted, and he enabled their idolatry. But Moses had glowed because he was having communion with God. He was hearing and receiving God's Word.

In the Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council states that the intimate truth of the whole Revelation of God shines forth for us “in Christ”

Its hearing and reading the Bible daily that keeps us in the light of Christ.

Illustration of three verses: Isaiah 3:9, says, “Their very look bears witness against them, they boast of their sin.” Whatever is in your heart is going to reveal itself in your countenance!" Luke 11:34 – Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness, and Genesis 4:6 says, And the Lord said unto Cain, what have you done? And why is thy countenance fallen?

e.g. A Chinese born again Christian shared, “It was during the Prayer Walk that I received the inspiration for this message. You see, Pas Toh Nee and I were walking down the stairs after the breakfast of the Prayer Walk when we met this sister-in-Christ, whom we have not seen for a long time. She greeted us and we were shocked to see her countenance. Pas Toh Nee commented to me in Chinese, “Hey, this girl has lost the glow of God. Her face wasn’t like this when she was working with so-and-so and ever since she changed to this present job, the countenance of her face has changed.”

The words “Shine” and “whine” are easily mistyped because the “s” and the “w” is just above the “s” on the keyboard.