SOMEDAY HUMAN NATURE WILL SHINE LIKE THE SUN AND BE WHITE AS LIGHT.

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT. YEAR A.
February 17, 2008.
(Genesis: 12:1-4) (Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22)
(Second reading: 2 Timothy 1:8-10) (Gospel reading: Matthew 17:1-9)


SOMEDAY HUMAN NATURE
WILL SHINE LIKE THE SUN
AND BE WHITE AS LIGHT.

The gospel tells us that Jesus, the Son of Man, transfigured himself so that we could see his nature: "his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light" (Matthew 17:2).

In the transfiguration of Jesus it is his truth, his trustworthiness, his love for justice and right and his goodness(1) what makes his face shine "like the sun and his clothes... white as light".

Jesus can also transfigure our human nature once he rescues us from the darkness and horrors of oppression and injustice and sin; he will restore the goodness of our human nature making it again shine "like the sun and... white as light".

However, the forces of oppression, injustice and sin in our world have degraded human nature so much that it seems almost impossible to restore the goodness God instilled in it from the beginning.

The restoration of the goodness of our human nature.
In order to restore the goodness of our human nature, we must be able to do the following:
- We must be able to see it as it is: bright as "the sun and... white as light", just as Jesus showed it to us at the time of his transfiguration.

- We must believe that God is united to human nature, through Jesus. The gospel tells us of this unity when God says: "This is my beloved Son" (Matthew 17:5). Jesus' human nature is united with that of the Father, and through Jesus our own human nature is united to the Father. It is because of this unity that human nature shares in the brightness and light of God.

- We must accept that human nature reaches its fullness only when it is united to God. For that reason the Father, when referring to Jesus, says "... in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 17:5). There is nothing that could better define the greatness of human nature than its unity with God. Unity pleases God.

- We must listen to what Jesus says in his "Good News", for by listening to him we become like him. That is the intent of God when he says: "Listen to him" (Matthew 17:5), be like him.

Human beings must restore the goodness of human nature.
Saint Paul in his Second Letter to Timothy says that those who want to become like Jesus must be willing to "bear [their] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God" ( 2 Timothy 1:8); for it is inevitable that those who side with Jesus in his struggle against injustice, oppression and death, will shine "like the sun and... become white as light" just as Jesus does.

Furthermore, Saint Paul (2 Timothy 1:9) points out that those who become like Jesus (that is, those who share in his transfiguration) can no longer be perpetrators nor supporters of any form of oppression or injustice, for they have been called by God to share in Jesus' life "not according to [their] works [the works of a world of injustice and death] but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began".

May the light that irradiates from Jesus' transfiguration make our human nature "shine like the sun... white as light".
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Footnote.
(1) Through Jesus, human nature becomes the depository of God's attributes, that is, the depository of a God whose "word is true", whose "works are trustworthy", who "loves justice and right and fills the earth with goodness". (Psalm 33:4-5).