O God, who by your Holy Spirit moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your Church the way of perfection: Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her excellent teaching, and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness; through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In her early years as a nun, [Teresa] was, by her account, assiduous in prayer while sick but lax and lukewarm in her prayers and devotions when the sickness had passed. However, her prayer life eventually deepened, she began to have visions and a vivid sense of the presence of God, and was converted to a life of extreme devotion. In 1560 she resolved to reform the monastery that had, she thought, departed from the order’s original intention and become insufficiently austere.

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About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

–Luke 9:28-36 (TNIV)

I can relate well with Peter in this story. If I had been there, I probably would have passed out from fear! But what a glorious story we have here. We get a foretaste of the New Creation in which our mortal bodies will be transformed into immortal, resurrected ones, never again subject to decay, deformity, sickness, or infirmity.

The story of the Transfiguration reminds us that Jesus is who he said he is–the Lord, the promised Messiah through whom salvation will be offered to the entire world. His transfigured body is a preview of coming attractions for us because we remember the gracious promise contained in 1 John 3:2:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (TNIV)

This is our hope of glory as Christians. This is our destiny with Christ! It is not ours because of who we are or because we deserve it. No, it is ours because of who God is and because he wants us to have life with him forever. That is why he created us in the first place.

We don’t know what the New Creation or our resurrection bodies will look like, but if the Transfiguration is any indication, it will be glorious. Too often we Christians fail to embrace our hope and instead let the cares and anxieties of this world beat us down. Don’t be one of those folks. Embrace the hope of glory that is yours in Christ and give thanks everyday that you have it awaiting you!

And while you are doing so, remember that the hope of New Creation reminds us that God’s current creation here on earth is also worth redeeming. Get on your knees in prayer, ask the Lord what he wants you to do with the gifts he has given you, and then use those gifts to help him in his redemptive work here on earth. After all, if we have the hope of the New Creation awaiting us, it means that God thinks his old, fallen creation is worth redeeming and we have a glorious invitation to help him in his redemptive work. Cool.

In the case of the poor, the lack of worldly goods is often accompanied by a quiet gentleness, whereas the rich are more prone to arrogance. Nevertheless, many wealthy people are disposed to use their abundance not to swell their own pride but to perform works of benevolence. They consider their greatest gain what they spend to alleviate the distress of others. Blessed, therefore, is that poverty which is not trapped by the love of temporal things and does not seek to be enriched by worldly wealth, but desires rather to grow rich in heavenly goods. Thus Peter, who in his poverty had no money to give to the beggar, bestowed such a bounty of divine grace that in restoring to health the feet of one person, he healed the hearts of many thousands of believers. He had found all of them lame; but he made them leap for joy in Christ.

–Leo the Great, Sermon 95.2-3

Think how fiercely God tests us in this life. As the psalmist says, “You have tested us, O God! You put a heavy burden on our backs. You let men ride over our heads and we went through fire and water” (Psalm 66:10-12). Sometimes leaders are placed over us who are hard to stomach. It is good for us to recognize that in this world created by Adam’s sin we must sometimes tolerate superiors who seem to enjoy “riding over our heads.”

–Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 66.16

More good advice for us during this political season, not to mention those who work for lousy bosses. 🙂 Here Augustine gets at the essence of Christian humility. We put up with bad leaders because we realize we too are broken vessels.

We are to learn that blessedness does not lie in knowing something about God, but rather in possessing God within oneself. If by a diligent life of virtue you wash away the film of dirt that covers your heart, then the divine beauty will shine forth in you. Once you remove from your soul the coating of filth that has formed on it through your sinful neglect, you will regain your likeness to your Archetype, and be good. This is the blessedness of the pure of heart: in seeing their own purity they see the divine Archetype mirrored in themselves. For God is purity; he is free from sin and a stranger to all evil. If this can be said of you, then God will surely be within you. When the mists of sin no longer cloud the eye of your soul, you see that blessed vision clearly in the peace and purity of your own heart. That vision is nothing else than the holiness, the purity, the simplicity and all the other glorious reflections of God’s nature, through which God himself is seen.

–Gregory of Nyssa, Oration 6.44

Some condemn Christians saying: “Christians are misers, usurers, drunkards, gluttons, envious and spiteful to each other.” Indeed there are some like this but the description does not fit all Christians. If you want to describe the present-day Church, do it as Scripture does: “As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among women” (Song of Songs 2:2). Someone hears about the Church and weighs the matter. The lily is attractive, so they enter. They stay close to the lily and tolerate the thorns. Some enter believing that all members are good, especially those with religious or clerical vocations. Others revile these supposedly “holy souls” for being far from perfect. Both those who only praise and those who only criticize are wrong. Those who praise must admit that there are some bad people among church members; those who criticize must not ignore the many who are good.

–Commentary on Psalm 99.12

Notice the great grace Augustine displays here, grace combined with a healthy dose of reality. Things haven’t changed much in the Church since Augustine’s day but its enemies seem to be more vociferous and angry today. Augustine’s advice can help us keep a healthy perspective on both the praises and criticisms of the Church. Christians are “cracked vessels” too and it is a great testimony to the transformative power of the Spirit that some many of them really do reflect the Lord they proclaim to follow.

The Lord then goes on to say: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” This hunger is not for any bodily food, this thirst is not for any earthly drink: it is a longing to be blessed with righteousness, and, by penetrating the secret of all mysteries, to be filled with the Lord himself. For to love God is nothing else than to love righteousness.

Remember, Christian, the surpassing worth of the wisdom that is yours. Bear in mind the kind of school in which you are to learn your skills, the rewards to which you are called. Mercy itself wishes you to be merciful, righteousness itself wishes you to be righteous, so that the Creator may shine forth in his creature, and the image of God be reflected in the mirror of the human heart as it imitates his qualities. The faith of those who live their faith is a serene faith. What you long for will be given you; what you love will be yours for ever.

What mind can conceive, what words can express the great happiness of seeing God? Yet human nature will achieve this when it has been transformed so that it sees the Godhead “no longer in a mirror or obscurely but face to face.”

–Leo the Great, Sermon 95.6-8

“He is our peace, for he has made both one.” Since we think of Christ as our peace, we may call ourselves true Christians only if our lives express Christ by our own peace. Since we possess Christ who is peace, we must put an end to this enmity and live as we believe he lived. Now peace is defined as harmony among those who are divided. When, therefore, we end that civil war within our nature and cultivate peace within ourselves, we become peace. By this peace we demonstrate that the name of Christ, which we bear, is authentic and appropriate. If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.

–Gregory of Nyssa, Treatise on Christian Perfection 46.259-62