By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB

Our local mall has a MAKE OVER contest. Who would not like to  be transformed, made over? The persons chosen receive a facial, hairdo and new wardrobe. They are transformed (so we are told).

Or are they? Under their skin, they are the same as they were before. They have the same tendency to be irritated easily, to get angry at a careless driver, to argue about a tip, to sulk when criticized. Indeed, their make over didn’t change much.

Not true in last Sunday’s Gospel, “The Transfiguration.” To be transfigured means to turn everything over to God. It changes everything.

When we choose to be transformed – transfigured – by God we experience joy, peace, strength,  gratitude beyond our understanding. (Watch the face of new parents; the face of grandparents introducing their 3-year-old grandchild to you; their faces are transfigured…without a “makeover.”)

When we turn everything over to God, our excessive need for esteem & affection, power & control, security & survival fade. We become our true selves on the way to being transfigured. We are far beyond being “made over” at the mall. We are  becoming our true selves; that is, changed … that is, transfigured into another Christ.