A Feastday Table: Candle in the Darkness
Today is the feastday of the Transfiguration. Blessed Feastday : )
From here:
A foretaste of the Kingdom: the Transfiguration
From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Master "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. . . and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor do the others understand it any better than he. In this context the mysterious episode of Jesus' Transfiguration takes place on a high mountain, before three witnesses chosen by himself: Peter, James and John. Jesus' face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses and Elijah appear, speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem". A cloud covers him and a voice from heaven says: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"
For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory, confirming Peter's confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the way of the cross at Jerusalem in order to "enter into his glory". Moses and Elijah had seen God's glory on the Mountain; the Law and the Prophets had announced the Messiah's sufferings. Christ's Passion is the will of the Father: the Son acts as God's servant; the cloud indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. "The whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the Son in the man; the Spirit in the shining cloud."
You were transfigured on the mountain, and your disciples, as much as they were capable of it, beheld your glory, O Christ our God, so that when they should see you crucified they would understand that your Passion was voluntary, and proclaim to the world that you truly are the splendor of the Father.
On the threshold of the public life: the baptism; on the threshold of the Passover: the Transfiguration. Jesus' baptism proclaimed "the mystery of the first regeneration", namely, our Baptism; the Transfiguration "is the sacrament of the second regeneration": our own Resurrection. From now on we share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments of the Body of Christ. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ's glorious coming, when he "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body." But it also recalls that "it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God"
Elena of Tea at Trianon shared this lovely qoute today:
Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: Lord, it is good for us to be here.--Anastasius of Sinai, from The Liturgy of the Hours according to The Roman Rite, 1975
And what jumped out so much personally today was how the Transfiguration is talked about in 2 Peter 1, with this conclusion:
.......attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts
Wow. A foretaste of heaven. Attending....
Reminds me too of this traditional Jewish qoute from the Talmud:
Three things give insight into the (pleasures of the) world to come: Shabbat, the sun, and bodily functions. --Talmud, Shabbat 10b
Well all three of those things meet in that proverbial flickering flame. In fact this was part of today's Mass:
Your lightnings enlightened the whole world---from the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 76. 19
To me this is the core stuff really, this simply attending to His light. At-tending. Tending. Like keeping the flame, like keeping the home. It's keeping, at-tending. Advent-al Living.
And just love this qoute shared by Kay of He Gently Calls Us today, whose beautiful image is above as well:
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.---Saint Francis of Assisi
WOW.
A Very Blessed Feastday Everyone : )
(Image from Kay of He Gently Calls Us)