Something to Remember - 2nd Sunday of Lent

A young man spent hours watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. It managed to make a small hole, but its body was too large to get through it. It kept struggling for days until the young man decided to help by cutting the cocoon open with a pair of scissors releasing the butterfly. He was hoping that the butterfly would open its wings and fly; but nothing happened. It crawled the rest of its life with a shrunken body and shriveled wings incapable of flight. What the man – out of kindness – had failed to understand was that the tight cocoon and the butterfly’s efforts to squeeze out of that tiny hole was nature’s way of training it for flight by strengthening its wings. There is no short-cut in the butterfly’s complete metamorphosis.

Our gospel reading for the 2^nd Sunday of Lent is about the Transfiguration of Jesus. This episode is one of the most amazing experiences witnessed by only three apostles. The timing of this miracle is even more important. Jesus was in the point of his ministry where he is beginning to make it clear that he will suffer. Though he provides details to his disciples that he would be a suffering Messiah, it did not correlate with their expectations. They absolutely failed to understand. In the midst of this early struggle, Jesus provides them something to remember when he will be totally unrecognizable because of his tremendous sufferings. He gives them something to hold on; something to look back in the dark days ahead.

For the disciples then and now, the Jesus’ transfiguration continues to give significant lessons. Through it, Jesus prepares us to face with trust the big issues of our lives whether its temptations, trials or pain. He invites us to see and focus on the bigger picture of our life. Life is bigger than what our small eyes can see; that pain and glory are intertwined and inseparable. There can be no resurrection without the cross; no pain, no gain. Through Jesus’ transfiguration, he gives us something to remember so that we can be more courageous in our suffering in union with Him. He provides us with something to hold on when times become rough and we are tempted to give up. The transfiguration is a souvenir to keep our optimism in our passage from suffering to glory.

Prayer: Lord, make me realize that your transfiguration is your souvenir to keep my optimism high in times of suffering and pain. Amen.