This is an extract from Thomas Cardinal Collin’s homily at Lift Jesus Higher 2023.
Jesus’ Transfiguration reveals the two realms in which we are called to live. The top of the mountain is immersed in glory and light, and we adore the Lord in majesty. At the valley, people suffer and struggle in the world of darkness, and we are called, day by day in unspectacular ways, to manifest the Lord’s glory through lives of service. Both realms are merged together, we can serve with gladness at the valley since we have seen God’s glory at the top.
We must avoid sin but also live virtuously by setting our hearts on top of the Mount of Transfiguration. Then, we must go into the valley every day, serving the suffering without validating the ways they turn aside. This back and forth is an essential dimension of our life in Christ. The spirit of the age is full of wind and does great damage, but there’s no life in it. It just goes around in circles. We’re not called to shape ourselves according to the world; we’re called to fertilize this world. To do that, we must be in touch with the Lord, our hearts filled with his glory. We must be consumed with the glory of the Lord, and ardent but gentle in our faith.
Before going into the struggle, we must be close to the fire that doesn’t destroy but purifies our hearts, which are repentant regarding our own sins. We must spend time in adoration before our Lord. We must try to do what He asks and then surrender our lives into his hands with the faith of Abraham.
Let us pray that, through lives of prayer and reading Scriptures, we may be intimately united to Him, and that his fire will burn away our sinfulness. And then, may we go to the bottom of the mountain, where we are most of the time, and let that light shine in this world so very much in need.
