One of my favorite gospel readings is the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus, along with three of his disciples, had gone up

the mountain top where they could be alone to think and talk and pray. Apparently, the climb was exhausting because the disciples soon fell fast asleep. In the meantime Jesus was transfigured. “His face changed in appearance and his clothes became dazzlingly white.” Then we are told that the disciples awakened from their sleep and saw Jesus in all of his glory.

What a redeeming thing it would be if that same kind of experience could be ours. Of course, we would not see him with a radiant face and dazzling garments, but that would not matter. His real glory is in the life that he lived and the truth that he taught. He understood things about people that modern psychology has only in recent years begun to figure out. Consider his perception of the destructive effects of hate on the human soul. Some have thought of him as a starry-eyed dreamer because he taught his disciples to hate no one; to love everyone, even their enemies.

If you think that idea is an empty dream, take a closer look at the lives of people today. Find someone who is consumed by hatred and see the results. It may be bad for the person who is hated, but it is infinitely worse for the one who does the hating. Hatred is to the soul what cancer is to the body. Untreated and unchecked it utterly consumes and destroys. Just look at the recent events in the world and in our own country.

Jesus saw and understood that fact centuries ago. So he said to his followers, “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.” His profound insight into human nature is not a dream. It is a solid fact that we can never fully appreciate until we look at it with our eyes wide open. We must learn to live together peacefully.

It would be difficult to describe the present dilemma of the human race in more accurate terms than that. We have inherited this earth as a bequest from God. It is like a large house with many rooms. There was a day when a few of us could live in one room and a few in another and maybe not bother each other very much. At least, the major parts of the house were separate. Those in the east wing did not know or care about what was going on in the west wing. But those days are long since gone. Now every part of the house is interconnected. The things that happen in one room affect the people in all the other rooms. Now, we must learn to live together in this house that God has given us.

If we are going to live together in this house, all of us are going to have to be changed a little, and some of us are going to have to be changed a lot. Most of the problems of our world, if we trace them back far enough, are found to be rooted in the “cussedness” of human nature. Thus, the redemption of the world must begin with the redemption of individual lives. When we face this fact, then the world’s great need comes home to our own doorstep. Redemption must begin right there, in the transformation of our individual lives; in the renewing of our minds; in the restoring of our relationships. We must be transfigured into Christ. 

Fr. Al Backmann