I am one hundred percent sure that there is no one alive on this planet who does not have some aspect of their lives that is not in need of a transfiguration, of a needing Christ’s light to shine. Now don’t get me wrong, I am at a stage in my life at the age of 61, where despite the bruises, aches, losses, heart-rending moments still in need of healing transformation, of my own experiences of heart-breaking loss, God has graced me truly with a good, good life. And so in faith, in those areas still needing the light of Christ’s transfiguration, I know I can rest in the faith that the light of Christ will shine there more and more. The light always shines.
If anything that this feast of the transfiguration reaffirms for me is that even though we may die to things in life, in the hurts, pain, bruises, and heart-aching losses of life or see our world spinning out of control and into what seems ever despairing darkness the truth is that there is and always has been these resurrections, flowing from that one divine resurrection, of a rising to new life again and again. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveals to us that true love, divine love, never ever dies. The light always shines.
This is not some cleverly devised myth, as our second reading from Peter speaks of, but of a divine love so true and real. A divine love so true and real that it is an ‘everlasting power that shall not be taken away’ as foreshadowed in our first reading from the Book of Daniel. Finally, this divine reality is definitely made clear for us when from Jesus’s own mouth where in Luke’s gospel, we find affirmed yet again that Jesus IS God’s chosen son; and so we ‘need to listen to him’. Why, because ‘the light always shines’.
That, as Christ had to suffer his death, we all suffer the little deaths of life, and these things can be terrifying, so we stand with the disciples at times terrified. Yet, as people of faith, as children of God, as saints, we also hold dear that the greater reality, the greater power, is that Christ’s light does forever shine, love is always resurrected, and this is our sure and unfailing hope. The light always shines.
God calls Jesus his beloved son. God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit shower their love on us and mark us as beloved daughters and sons as well. The light of divine love always shines and we shine with the light of Christ, as we love as well. And so, on this Feast of the Transfiguration, to love someone else, to really love them, is to transform them and ourselves into Christ like divine presence. The light always shines.
May we always see the face of God shining Christ’s divine love in our hearts, as well as alive in our everyday encounters with one another, alive in all things, in all the experiences of life, and alive out there in the World in this Holy Spirit of love that lives on forever. For in truth, the light of that divine love, transfigures everything, and transfigures it for the good, if we just believe!
Rev. Kent Beausoleil, SJ
Rev. Beausoleil, SJ, PhD, has lived in the Creighton Jesuit Community since 2020. Currently he ministers as the Market Vice President for Mission Integration (NE/IA) for CommonSpirit/CHI Health while continuing his ministry as a mission leader at five local area hospitals: Immanuel Medical Center, and Lasting Hope in Omaha, and Mercy Corning, Mercy Council Bluffs, and Missouri Valley in Iowa. Joining the Jesuits in 1997 and ordained in 2007 his Jesuit formation focused on three types of ministries: healthcare, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling, and higher education focusing on young adult spiritual development.
Rev. Kent A. Beausoleil, SJ has a PhD in Student Affairs from Miami University in Oxford, OH. He also possesses master’s degrees in public administration, philosophy, divinity and education. He loves to walk and be out in nature, cross-stitch and bake.
The ability to reflect on other contributors’ reflections as well as being able to provide a personal monthly spiritual reflection has become an important and integral part of my daily prayer.
