It’s August and summer is in full bloom. It seems only fitting that it is in this month of the Feast of the Transfiguration, nature herself shows us it’s meaning, in the form of the beautiful butterflies emerging from their chrysalises. Transfiguration by definition is a complete change in form or appearance, into a more beautiful or spiritual state. We ourselves are also called to transfiguration, and though there are many ways to go about it, a personal favorite of mine is adoration.
Today, August 6, marks the Feast of the Transfiguration, where we celebrate the day that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up Mount Tabor, and His body was transfigured- changed into dazzling white. On the mountain He conversed with Moses and Elijah, and the apostles were frozen in terror when they heard a Voice from above say, “this is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.”
The Transfiguration is a favorite feast of mine. There’s one line from the Gospel story that has always stuck with me and runs through my head when I meditate on this event in Jesus’s life. It comes after the Voice from Heaven speaks, as Jesus is raising up His scared apostles. Matthew 17:8 says, “And lifting up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus, Himself, alone”.
The wording of this verse has always struck me as very precise. It doesn’t say that there was no one there but Jesus, it says the apostles saw no one but Jesus, which to me is striking and important. It seems to me that Elijah and Moses might have been still there, but after hearing the Voice of God and having Jesus raise them up from their terror, they saw only their Savior.
I suppose the reason that I see it this way, is because it’s something I’ve experienced in my own life. There are very few moments in my life as a wife and mother that I have the opportunity to be alone with Jesus. Usually there are lots of other people around, not to mention the ever-growing to-do list that comes with caring for little people (and big ones) and running a household. I try to keep Jesus at the forefront of my day. He’s there, He’s present, but usually in the midst of other things.
I need time alone with Jesus, just as Jesus knew His apostles did, and to get it I have to allow Him to take me up the mountain too. For me, the best way to do it is to spend time in adoration. Something special happens sitting face to face with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. As I come before Him in humble adoration and allow myself to be overwhelmed by the immensity of the gift of the Eucharist, everything else falls away, and I, like Peter, James and John, see “no one but Jesus, Himself, alone.” All the other things that fill my life me are still there- the dishes, laundry, needs of the kids, Gram, and Mark- but for a little while, they fade out of view, it is as if we two are alone.
And in that moment, I find myself transfigured, changed by His Presence, and able to see and experience things in a new light. In adoration, I have found healing, forgiveness, the grace to forgive others, peace, understanding for difficult situations, answers to prayer. God stretches me and grows me, molds me more and more into His image and likeness. Saint Paul says it best in his second letter to the Corinthians: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”
And these moments strengthen me for what happens after I walk out the Church door, when real life hits me like a ton of bricks. Because I do have to go back to real life. As much as I sometimes might fantasize about being a cloistered nun with a vocation for perpetual adoration (nothing like life with toddlers to make you fantasize about that), I am a wife and a mother and called to live in the world. So just like the apostles had to come down from Mount Tabor, I too have to return to my duties and obligations. But I return renewed and refreshed because of that time staring at Jesus.