During Lent, we journey with Christ towards Jerusalem, towards his passion and his cross. In the midst of this annual recollection of these serious but most important of events, we pause along the road to Calvary, to consider this incredible, brilliant, and vivid mystery of the Transfiguration. Christ brings his three principal apostles up the Mountain with him, and gives them an experience of his full glory, of his true identity as the Son of the eternal Father. Christ knows what’s coming; he knows how much the upcoming events will challenge the Faith of his friends. And so, in this incredible experience, the Lord shows them for just a brief moment, exactly who he is. He reveals his full glory. In hindsight, in light of the Resurrection, we see how true and meaningful this expression of Christ’s transfigured glory really is. The Resurrection proves that he is everything that he claims to be, everything he shows himself to be on the Mountain that day. And this glimpse of the Lord’s glory would carry them through, would help them to cling to their belief in Christ even when things were darkest.
We do not yet experience the Resurrection fully in our own lives. We know the reality of God’s love certainly, but we still experience suffering; we still experience sickness and loss; we still experience the pain of our own sins. We experience disaster, even in nature, even in our own city, our own neighborhood. And so, this mystery is for us as well, for our strength in the trials that we experience. For most of us, God will never make himself known in such a dramatic way as he did that day on the Mountain. But the truth is: he is with us; he is strengthening us with an experience of his glory so that we can be strong in the face of our trials, in the face of whatever storms may come: we do have a Transfiguration experience, and it’s going on right here, right now. It actually happens every time we are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. At Mass, God brings us to the moment of Christ’s passion and death on the Cross. “This is my body which is given up for you.” In that instant, we’re not just sitting here in Nashville in 2020 anymore. We see the glorified Christ. We’re with him in splendor on the Mountain. In the sacred host lifted up by the priest, the entire mystery of Christ’s life is here, the entire meaning of his death and the glory of his resurrection is there. In the Eucharist, God reveals his full glory to us, shows us the depth of his love, and gives us an experience of his Resurrected presence, a weekly mountaintop experience which will carry us through our lives until we see him face to face. [If you ever wondered why coming to Mass is important, that’s why.]
And that’s simply being present at Mass, just being here. But then, when we receive Holy Communion, worthily, with care and piety and good preparation, we are filled with the grace of this full and true presence of the glorified Christ. And he continues the process of our transformation, our own transfiguration, from within. He doesn’t leave us when Mass is done. The Holy Eucharist does not turn back into bread and wine when Mass ends. This is what the Church means by that important term “transubstantiation.” It means that he remains with us; he doesn’t leave or abandon us. And so, from the earliest days of the Church, the faithful have longed to continue this transfigurative experience of Holy Mass, this experience of being with Christ, really being with him, by being with his sacramental presence in the Eucharist. We keep this experience of Mass going, we can come back to it again and again when we visit Christ, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. It’s why in the center of our church is the tabernacle, a golden home for the Lord’s body and blood, waiting there every moment of every day for us to worship and to visit and to receive strength. When we gaze upon the Blessed Sacrament, we look upon the Transfiguration; we look upon the Cross; we look upon the Resurrection; we look upon the whole life of Christ; we look upon the Holy Trinity. And we see the destination of our journey through life. The consecrated host, that little circle, is a window to heaven. Because it’s really him. It’s not bread: it’s him. He’s really in heaven, and he’s really here. The rules of time and space place no limits on Christ. And so we look at it, we look at him, and we see heaven shining forth for us.
As we continue through this Holy Season, let us draw closer and closer to the source of our salvation and the summit of our life, the Most Holy Eucharist. Let us ask God to fill us with Faith and Love in this most deep and sublime mystery of our salvation.