Nobody can ascend before being transfigured.

"At his Transfiguration Christ showed his disciples the splendor of his beauty, to which he will shape and color those who are his: 'He will reform our lowness configured to the body of his glory.'" - St Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)

Gospel text: (MK 9:2-10)

Jesus took Peter, James, and John

and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them,

and his clothes became dazzling white,

such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,

and they were conversing with Jesus.

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,

“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!

Let us make three tents:

one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;

from the cloud came a voice,

“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone

but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,

he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,

except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves,

questioning what rising from the dead meant.

The gospel story of the Transfiguration is, among many other things, an invitation to us for transformation.  So how do we answer that invitation? First, we must acknowledge that we cannot transform ourselves.  Jesus is the only one who can transform us.  We can only be open to being transformed.

What do I withhold from God that could get in the way of transformation?  Said differently, what do I hold on to, what am I attached to, what is binding me? Is this not the call of the Lenten season?  To become aware of and let go of all that gets in the way of our relationship with God?  To let go of what prevents us of being transformed?

We are all works in progress. We all have our flaws. So accept Jesus’ invitation. Follow him, and you’ll be changed. What is keeping us from being open to the love of Christ which will transform us if we let it?