Novena to the Transforming Light (Introduction)
August 15, 2024
Novena to the Transforming Light
August 6 (Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord) -
August 14 (Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Introduction
The days which begin on the feast of the Lord’s transfiguration and end on the threshold of Our Lady’s glorification provide an opportunity for the Christian faithful to reflect on God’s transforming grace at work in their lives, and to seek from the Lord whatever they need to deepen that grace not only in themselves, but indeed in the Church and world. The prayers and readings that follow are meant to guide such reflection and prayer.
The richness of these liturgical feasts is impossible to fathom. One might begin, however, by noting how all three evangelists who narrate it make a point of locating the Transfiguration at a specific interval in the Lord’s ministry: “six days after” in the case of Mark and Matthew, “eight days” in Luke’s account. The first is reminiscent of the sixth day of creation on which God created human beings, male and female, in the divine image and likeness. The second is reminiscent of the eighth day of creation spoken of by the Fathers of the Church, the final day which lies outside time, both Easter and Parousia, the day of a new creation when all things are made perfect, the day which the Christian Sunday celebrates and anticipates. So the Transfiguration and Assumption speak to us of humanity fully restored in the image and likeness of God, male and female; they foretell the restoration of all creation on the Day of the Lord. As the new Adam and the new Eve, progenitors of a new humanity, Jesus and Mary together represent the fulfillment of our human destiny when, in St. Irenaeus’ memorable phrase, the glory of God will indeed be humanity fully alive.
Or as Archbishop Joseph Raya reminds us, “we are by grace what God is by nature. This mystic reality is visible in the glorified body of Christ on Mount Tabor. As the red hot iron is not only transformed into fire, but radiates fire while itself remaining iron, so the human person is transfigured by divinization, with nothing of her or his humanity destroyed or taken away. In his or her inner reality the human person is all penetrated by the light of divinity, and made a sharer in Christ’s glory while remaining wholly human. By penetrating our human nature, making it divinity, light, and brilliance, divinization gives us also a special power to live God’s way of dealing with creation and with other persons.”
So from the grace of these August mysteries seek from God whatever transforming grace you need to be more fully human, seek whatever word of Christ the Church of our time needs to hear in order to be a more effective sacrament of the human race in the course of its transfiguration, and seek whatever light the world needs to ready itself for that Day when God will be all in all.
