In Philippians 3:17, we hear St. Paul challenge “Sisters and brothers, join in imitating me.” How can we imitate Paul? We see it in the earlier passage (3 b) “for Him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in Him.” Paul put his faith in God as did Abram in our first reading, Genesis 15:5
How blessed we are today to know that we have Christ and have a place in Him if we keep our eyes fixed on Him, trust Him and as Paul encourages “stand firm in the Lord”.
In St. Luke’s Gospel 9:28-36, the Transfiguration is the final event before Jesus took the road to Jerusalem. Peter, James and John saw the divinity of Jesus – yet in their human weakness during Jesus’ Passion, Peter denied Jesus and the other two ran away.
How often do we fail to see the divine in those we meet daily? The first line of a hymn that we sing on this Sunday is– “We behold the splendor of God, shining on the face of Jesus.” Let us replace the word “Jesus” with the names of those we meet today.
If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, “He will transform our wretched bodies into copies of his glorious body.” Phil. 3:21
- Carole Anne Guay CSJ