Who would like to
be ugly? Or do you even have a choice?
Most of us, if
not all, would like to look pleasing and presentable, to look handsome and
beautiful. Such insatiable desire is evident with the tons and tons of beauty
products being sold and advertised in the market. Just visit a grocery store and
you will see two or three sections dedicated to beauty products. We are not
satisfied with our chestnut complexion, with the shape of our eyes, and even
with our heights. We want to look pleasing and so we seek to be transformed by
these products that promise a change to us as we apply them on our faces or take
a dose of them daily. Though we know they only bring about a temporary change to
us, we use them nevertheless. I remember the story of a husband who filed a lawsuit
against his wife, after giving birth a baby boy with a dark complexion. All those
times, the husband thought his wife was a mestiza, but not so. She was just
using a bleaching soap and regularly took glutathione pills. Her looks deceived
him. Beauty products cannot transform us into becoming genuinely beautiful
creatures.
In the Gospel (Lk
9:28-36), Jesus was transformed. His face was changed, and his clothing became
dazzling white. That beautiful transfiguration took place not because he used
any beauty product or washed his clothed with a strong detergent. He was
transfigured while he was praying; while he was in communion with the Father. He
dazzled and glowed because of His closeness to the Father; to the true source
of light. And so, His true identity was revealed as the one who will fulfill
the promised salvation indicated in the law (of Moses) and the prophecies (of
the prophets foremost of whom was Elijah).
Now, would you
like to be truly beautiful; would you like your true identity as children of
God be revealed before everyone? Stay close to God; stay close to Jesus. The
voice of the Father urges us: Listen to Him (Jesus). We are most beautiful when
we are most faithful to God and to the identity He wants us to live out as His
children obedient to his will. Children of God, who are close to the light, who
possess the light in them, shines and glows even in darkness. We can only be
truly beautiful creatures depending on our relationship with the source of
beauty. This is the promise of transfiguration: as Jesus was transfigured into
dazzling white and so will we, if we remain in Him and listen to Him.
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