Picture the transfigured Jesus. "His face changed in appearance and His clothes became dazzlingly white" (Lk 9:29). Jesus looks like God because He is God.

Picture yourself a few days or years from now. Those who have died believing in Jesus (1 Thes 4:14) and those living in His grace when He returns will rise to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes 4:17). "He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of His glorified body" (Phil 3:21). Our bodies will be remade to look like the transfigured body of Jesus.

Our bodies begin to be transformed when we are baptized. We thus have a share in God's nature (2 Pt 1:4). When we live our Baptisms by offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Rm 12:1), we further our transformation. When we, as Jesus' disciples, live lives of listening to Jesus (see Lk 9:35), we continue to be transformed and made holy in every aspect of our conduct (1 Pt 1:15). Our faith grows as we listen to the Lord (Rm 10:17). By faith, we accept the grace (Eph 2:8) to be restored into the image of God the Father by imitating Jesus, "the Image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15).

Are you walking up the paths of Transfiguration Mountain? Are you walking the paths of salvation, discipleship, and holiness? Are you going to look a lot like the transfigured Jesus?

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, February 13, 2001

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 20, 2001