Monday of the Third Week of Lent

Today's Readings

This reflection is based on the Transfiguration of the Jesus found in Matthew 17:1-13.

In the recounting of the transfiguration of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord showed himself transfigured to his closest disciples. Being transfigured is becoming transcended is showing how we will be in Heaven. Is becoming ourselves to our plentifulness. When transfigured we will show to the fullest the reality of being children of God. We will resemble our Heavenly Father. We will take the “figure of Christ”. We shall be completely happy with Christ forever in Heaven. A person who is transfigured is launched to transcendence, eternity. Only God can do that for us, but we must let ourselves be transfigured by opening up our lives and hearts to God.

The opposite word of transfiguration is disfiguration. Anybody could be disfigured by an accident (as myself), by a medical condition or genetic one. Medicine can help us out to overcome to a certain degree that disfiguration. I suffered a car accident in which I got burned 43% of my body and my face was severely disfigured. It took me more than forty-five surgeries to overcome that tragedy. Resolving the physical disfigurement might seem relatively easy.

There is another kind of disfigurement that might be more complex to overcome: the one of the souls. We can get disfigured by sin, by the extreme attachment to material things, by hate and resentment. Many people are disfigured by indifference towards the pain and suffering of others, by the lack of compassion and mercy. When disfigured by all these things, we do not resemble our Heavenly Father anymore. We grow apart from our everlasting happiness with Christ in Heaven.

Once I was riding a bus in my hometown Caracas, and I saw these two beautiful women that were carrying out a bitter conversation, filled with hate and resentment. Their faces were disfigured by those terrible feelings. I prayed to the Lord in that moment and thanked Him because I was disfigured by fire and not by hate and resentment. I prayed for those ladies that someday Christ our Lord could transfigure them into a happier life based on loved and forgiveness.

Jesus Christ wants to transfigure us into the fullness of our being children of God. We must accept his invitation to transcend this world by showing our love based on compassion, truth, joy and fraternity. And this must be done every single day in our daily chores: at work, with our family and friends, at school. Every situation in our life is an opportunity to be transfigured by God.

In this Lent, a time of Grace and conversion, I invite you to seize those opportunities to love, to grow in real happiness, being more compassionate one day at a time, one action at a time.  Then you will start climbing the mountain that leads us to eternal happiness with Christ in Heaven. God bless you.

Most Reverend Carlos Eduardo Marquez De Lima
Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Caracas, Venezuela