During the homily, he spoke about how the "glory" of Jesus beheld by the apostles is something that doesn't translate well for us as human beings. We know that God is goodness, mercy, and love, but we also know that God is BEAUTY. The priest giving the Homily said that "glory" is better understood as "beauty" - that Peter, John, and James were agape at the BEAUTY of Christ, the splendor of that beauty, that they were able to fully see at the Transfiguration! What a thought! This refers back to Pope Benedict XVI's recent address at the Vatican on the importance of artists in modern society, to Theology of the Body, to EVERYTHING! (Isn't God great?!!?!)
When you think back to Genesis, about how God created man and woman, and man was alone without a woman, it makes us think about what makes us different. Sitcoms and modern feminist perspectives would often have us believe that women are smarter, or more snarky, or abusive to their husbands. But this isn't how it was meant to be!
Woman was made to be BEAUTIFUL, to reflect God's presence so fully that He SHINES on her face, when she smiles and when she speaks! That all the words out of her mouth would be soft and gentle and kind, like the shape of her soft face would indicate! Is it any wonder that men think that women are beautiful?
You can look at the things which most plague men and women in today's society in order to understand how God really intended for us to work together. Men tend to struggle a lot with pornography - the coveting of women rather than appreciation of their beauty; and women struggle a lot with self-image - the obsession with personal perfection. Both issues tend to highlight that which we were created for - and that which takes that instinct too far.
Women were made to be beautiful reflections of God's Beauty. We were created to be physically attractive, bright-eyed beings - what a blessing! And yet, our biggest obstacle is to understand that we were created to be beautiful without being OBSESSED with our self-image! Satan loves to twist our beauty into something to be OBSESSED about - either we don't look good enough, so we become despairing, or we look SO good that we become prideful! What a twisting of God's gift to us! Women struggle so often with eating disorders to make themselves "more beautiful," yet what we do not realize is that men find this beauty in us WITHOUT having to obsess over how we look - God created us endowed with a natural beauty that shines from the inside out! If only we could learn to appreciate that beauty!
This is where men come in. Men have this uncanny ability to find beauty in women, where women often can't find beauty in themselves! What perceptive men! God made men able to see that beauty, to be astounded and transformed by it, just like Peter, John, and James! What a gift! And yet, the twisting of this gift is to want to POSSESS that beauty, like Peter, to say, "Lord, we can make a tent for you and your two companions so that you can stay!" The power of beauty is in its transformative capacity, in its ability to make us yearn for something more. When we covet that beauty, it becomes obsessive, and this is where pornography comes in. Satan comes along and twists the beauty of women into an addiction for men, addicted to the perversion of that beauty into covetousness. And all of a sudden the gift has become something different! It has gone from the beautiful and shining transformation of our Lord, the perceptiveness of His Beauty, into the need to covet that beauty and hoard it to ourselves.
Beauty, like the lamp on the stand, is meant to shine and be shared. It comes from our hearts and souls, and is reflected in us physically, but is truly interior. It is meant to multiply, to be fruitful for God. Thus, the woman who starves herself and the man who gorges himself are only concerned for themselves. But, the man who admires and gives all of himself truly in admiring, and the woman who accepts and gives of herself truly in being unselfish in her beauty, now THAT is true beauty shared well! It is a self-giving beauty that thinks not to possess nor to covet, but to GIVE GIVE GIVE! And what is beauty if it is not given? It is nothing. Beauty given is LOVE, and LOVE is God, just as BEAUTY is God.
So, then, Christ giving of Himself in the Transfiguration is nothing short of pure LOVE. And the apostle who receives and gives back that beauty, who reflects that same shining beauty in his heart, is a beautiful apostle indeed!
May today our hearts shine with the glory of the beauty of Christ in the Transfiguration! May we not seek to possess, nor to covet, but rather to GIVE beauty this day, to admire it and love it, to seek it in others and offer it for others to see. May today our hearts be open to receive the gift of beauty, and may they seek to display that same beauty in our everyday actions. May our faces become the monstrances of Christ's shining glory, and may our lives reflect the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain!
In the Love and Beauty of Christ through Mary,
Christina :)
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