The Transfiguration is one of those stories about Jesus that you just don't forget. Jesus decides to take three friends with him up on a mountain to pray. This is significant because normally Jesus goes up on a mountain by himself to pray. He obviously wanted these three friends to be with him as friends, but he also wanted them to experience something special. And they did. Jesus' face was transformed, his clothes became a "dazzling white". Two men appear at his side and talk to him about his leaving from this world. Peter and the other two men had fallen asleep and woke up to see Jesus in his glory and the two men with him. When you stop and think about it, this is similar to the garden scene where Jesus asks his friends to stay with him while he prays and his companions fall asleep. In this account, Jesus' face doesn't become a dazzling white, instead he sweats blood. In both cases, something very significant must happen in his inner world to cause such a transformation in his "outer world" or out appearance. And when Peter and the others finally "wake up", they are completely moved. So moved that they say, "Master, It's wonderful for us to be here!" A cloud appears, and after hearing a voice say to them that Jesus brought God great joy, and they were to listen to him, they fell to the ground, terrified. Jesus touches them, and tells them to "Get up! Don't be afraid!"
Valentine's Day, although a VERY commercial day, ripe for consumers and capitalism, is a day which commemorates the fact that love transfigures us. When we fall in love, we feel "dazzling white" on the inside. We feel as if our entire world has changed. People describe the sky as being "bluer", the flowers "more beautiful" and the whole world a happier place to be. The power of loving someone so deeply and completely changes you on the inside and causes you to see your world on the outside in a completely different light, a "dazzling white light". And many of us really sleep our lives away until that kind of love is felt deeply enough to startle us out of our slumbering. We wake up and realize that this kind of love takes us to another world where our step is lighter, our outlook on life brighter, and we feel limitless, free, and "on top of the world". Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and felt so deeply loved by God, that as his inner light grew and expanded, his outer appearance began to reveal the brightness of his inner Heaven. As his inner sun grew brighter, this physical world began to lessen and diminish, a taste of what was to come in his future death and resurrection. Valentine's Day is a day set aside as a memorial to the transfiguration that real, authentic love can manifest.
The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
St. Valentine believed that love is always stronger and more powerful than war. Love produces strength, hope, and the will to live for something greater than yourself. It is love that is worth fighting for! St. Valentine stopped being terrified, trusted God's touch in all of this and rose up!He believed that love multiplied would be the victor, and that family life mattered to the world, added a love that a desperate soldier and a desperate world longed for. Love doesn't weaken humanity, it binds up wounds, casts out fear, and wins wars! St. Valentine would choose a very natural inclination to love someone over the man-made belief of death and fear. Jesus, having been transfigured on a mountain through prayer, would also choose the very natural inclination to love over the belief of death and fear. On Ash Wednesday, the world of love will begin to collide with the world of fear. The journey that begins with ashes that will take us on a quest to believe in love again, and to make ashes of our fears. Ash Wednesday and the weeks of Lent that follow is a time to stand up for love, to be young lovers of inner transformation, wedding ourselves to the romance that Jesus experienced, the romance of Mind and Heart, the place inside us where Earth and Heaven kiss as we pray. The place inside us where Heaven grows and Hell falls into its grave. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of everyone's love story, it is the "Once Upon a Time there was a young boy who grew up to save the world" story. Wear your ashes and wake up! Rise up off the ground of fear, let God touch you, and see the dazzling white light that you are, go to your mountain and pray with intensity, with fire, and with every ounce of strength you have. Let your crosses be dismantled and your innocence rise up and be rebuilt. Look at the person next you in the pew, on the street, and at your table, and tell them, with your ashes on your forehead, how wonderful it is to be here! Make a memorial of life, not death!
It was love that gave Jesus strength to do what he did. It is love that will give us strength to do what we think we cannot do! It is always love that resurrects us, wakes us up, causes us to shine, and lifts us out of a world of despair, violence, war, poverty, and death. Write your Valentine's to the ones you love. It is good to say "I love you!" It is good to feel loved and to make someone else feel loved. And this Ash Wednesday and the entire season of Lent is God's Valentine message to you! He has written you love notes every time Jesus spoke of love, resurrection, faith, hope, trust, and transformation. He has written one of the greatest love stories of all time in the life of the risen Christ. God didn't bother with candy hearts, flowers, and chocolate. He gave us Jesus, a heart so filled with love that he was willing to give up his life in the name of Love. Every time he healed someone, forgave someone, taught someone, life and love blossomed, handed to us in a fresh bouquet of new peace, wrapped in ribbons of strength. What Jesus experienced on mountains was sweeter than any box of chocolate we might enjoy. He tasted knowledge, truth, and wisdom, and savored every last drop of Heaven that God fed him. What he gained on top of a mountain sustained him underneath the weight of a cross.
Declare yourself a young lover of God. When you pray this Lent, close your door, and let God wed you to himself in secret. Feel how wonderful it is to be there with Love...with God. Feel His glory fill you! Feel yourself sparkle with change and light up with new thoughts that could change the world. Make a memorial of your life beyond Ash Wednesday and the weeks that follow. Do what St. Valentine and Jesus did. They were brave. So you must be brave. They saw the poverty of love and fed people. So you must feel your poverty and feed people. St. Valentine and Jesus were soldiers for love. So you must be a warriors for love!
A Prayer for Lent
Take me to my inner room God,
and I will sit on top of my mountain
and make my prayers to you.
May love change me and cause me to shine, whitened and
ready to receive new thoughts about how to change the world.
Make my life a living memorial to life and love!
Make ashes of my fears and
wed myself to your strength, your truth, and your wisdom.
Dismantle my crosses, God, and let my
newly discovered innocence rise up and be rebuilt.
Let the whole world's innocent heart rise up and be rebuilt.
It is so wonderful to be here, God! Amen.
Reflect On Your Life
Then Jesus came over and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid."
Matthew 17: 7
1. Where do you need God's touch in your life? What are of your life do you feel fear about?
2. How has God caused you to shine? What makes you feel loved?
3. When are you able to "close your door" and be transformed by God's presence?
4. If God could actually write you a love letter, what would He say to you about your life now?
