Vigils Readings – Transfiguration of the Lord

THE GLORY OF GOD

From the last “Angelus” message of Pope St Paul VI

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The Transfiguration of Our Lord, recalled by the liturgy of today’s

solemnity throws a dazzling light on our daily life, and makes us turn our mind

to the immortal destiny which that fact foreshadows. On Mount Tabor, Christ

reveals for a few moments the splendor of his dignity, and he manifests himself

to chosen witnesses as he really is, the Son of God, “the glory of God and the

very stamp of his nature”. But it also shows the transcendent destiny of our

human nature, which he assumed in order to save us, and which is destined –

because redeemed by his sacrifice of irrevocable love – to participate in the

fullness of life, “in the inheritance of the saints in light”.

That body, which is transfigured before the astonished eyes of the

apostles, is the body of Christ our brother, but it is also our body called to glory.

That light, which bathes it, is and also will be our share of inheritance and of

splendor. We are called to share such great glory because we are “partakers of

the divine nature”. And incomparable destiny awaits us if we honor our

Christian vocation, if we live a life that is logically consistent in word and deed

with the commitments that our baptism imposes on us…