Confirming Faith

Doubt and uncertainty are part of life. Sometimes we wrestle with those things right after putting ourselves forward boldly in some way. It’s not uncommon for a person who makes a big purchase to feel a little buyer’s remorse right afterward. Or a person who accepts a new job might second guess whether they made the right decision. Someone who declares their love for someone else may feel uncertain if that love is not immediately reciprocated.

And if we know what those experiences are like, in those situations or others like them, we also know, after a moment of doubt or uncertainty, how great it feels to be reassured. Maybe we receive a word of approval from someone else, or some sign that confirms that what we said or did, going out on a limb in some way, was the right thing. Today’s Gospel offers us just that kind of reassurance, if we understand it in its context. The Transfiguration of Jesus is a familiar story for us, but what exactly does it mean? Perhaps we feel we can understand more easily the parables of Jesus, or his words of admonition, or the stories of the miraculous healings he did. But this story is understood rightly only if we know what came right before it.

In all of the Gospels, Jesus’s Transfiguration is preceded by two things: first, the profession that Simon Peter makes in Jesus. Remember that episode? Jesus asks the disciples who people say that he is, and then he asks them who do *they* say that he is. And Simon Peter responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus confirms him. He says, “You’re right. And I will call you ‘Peter’, ‘Rock’, and upon you I will build my Church.” But immediately after this, Jesus tells the disciples something surprising – that he, the One whom they had just declared to be the Son of God, was going to Jerusalem to suffer and to die and rise again.

The Transfiguration of Jesus follows on these two things: Peter’s profession of faith and Jesus’s declaration that he’s going to be put to death. If we put ourselves in Peter’s shoes, perhaps that second part would have been enough to make us hesitate about the first. Peter’s conception of who the Messiah was, of who the Son of God was, certainly would not have included the idea of him being crucified. And so perhaps there was for him, and for the other disciples, a little uncertainty. Maybe a little bit of doubt crept in to their minds. Were they wrong about what they had declared – that Jesus was the Son of God?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus answers that question with a definitive YES. The Transfiguration isn’t just a cool, random event – it’s a confirmation that Jesus really is who the disciples have professed him to be. To his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, Jesus gives them a glimpse of his own divinity as the Son of God, and as a sign to reassure them about his upcoming passion and death. St. Thomas Aquinas calls this the greatest miracle Jesus worked because it anticipates his Resurrection: it reveals the glory that Jesus possessed not only within himself but that which he promises to all who believe in him.

Stained Glass Image of the Transfiguration (13th cent.), Chartres Cathedral

In these days of Lent, we are encouraged to adopt certain practices of faith – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving especially. We do these as a sign of our repentance, but they have another purpose as well: that is, to strengthen our will and our spiritual insight. Like Peter, we are called to boldly proclaim our faith in Jesus, but at times, fear and uncertainty can afflict us, especially in times of difficulty or sorrow. The wearying and worrying things of life can get us down and perhaps tempt us to doubt the goodness of God the promises of our faith. In those moments, God wishes to reassure us, to confirm our faith, and to give us hope for the true reality – the heavenly reality – that lies under the surface of our everyday experiences. He does so by reminding us of what he has done in and through his Son; what is true of Jesus can be true of us, too, if we are conformed in the image of Christ.

And that’s where prayer, fasting, and almsgiving come in: they help us to grow a little more into the image of the One laid down his life for our salvation. When we deprive ourselves of material things, when we deny some of our earthly desires, we can focus more fully on spiritual things. And we begin to see, with spiritual sight, how God is confirming our faith, strengthening our hope, putting the challenges we face in the larger context of Jesus’s Passion, death, and Resurrection, and how we share in that. When our attention is focused less on earthly desires, God begins to train our hearts and minds to yearn for a happiness that goes beyond this life – that is satisfied only in the heavenly glory of the life to come.

Friends, let’s strive to let our faith be purified this Lent. Let’s not let doubt or hesitation creep in to our hearts but, like Peter, let’s be bold in proclaiming our faith and looking for the ways that the Lord reassures us in it. It’s important that we understand every day – all of our decisions and actions, and even our words – in the context of something greater: indeed, in the light of what St. Paul tells the Philippians in our second reading: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is He, who was Transfigured on the mountain, who is Risen and lives forever, who comes to us now, in our Sacrament of the Altar: to confirm our faith in him and strengthen our hope to share in his heavenly glory.