The Transfiguration
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I don’t care what is going on in the world, I want to learn how to live a beautiful life.
Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, where God the Father gives us a simple lesson of living beautifully – by listening to Jesus, doing and accepting His will.
Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone. There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 'Lord,' he said 'it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.'
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The first step to living a beautiful life is listening to Jesus.
Prayer is simply a conversation with God. We speak to Him from the honesty of our heart, and we listen to Him when we read the Bible, His Word and by just giving Him our attention in silence, paying attention to His inspirations.
But in prayer Jesus is not here just to fix our problems or give us whatever we want. He loves you. He wants to give Himself to you. Remember, in prayer, Jesus is what we want, not just answers. That is why He often makes us wait for the answers – to purify our intentions. Often Jesus asks me a question in prayer. “Michael, what do you want?” I want you Lord.
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The Second Step to Living a Beautiful Life is to do the will of Jesus.
We need not make things so complicated. God’s will for us is to live a well ordered and balanced life in which we pursue the good things that lead to happiness. Sleep, prayer, work, family and friendships, preparing and eating meals, physical activity, get outside and move your body, grow in knowledge and we need beauty – oh how the world needs beauty.
Past that we should ask Jesus, “Lord, what is your will in this situation? What do you want for me? What do you want me to do? Do you ask the Lord what His will is for you?
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The Third Step to a beautiful life is accepting the will of God in all things.
The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt Tabor falls in the middle of Jesus telling the Apostles five times that He must suffer in Jerusalem, die and after three days rise again. Here Jesus tells his disciples, “If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.”
Nothing can happen accept what God wills or allows and whatever God allows He only does so to bring about our greatest good and the good of our loved ones. Here is where it gets really difficult to trust God. But that is precisely what we are called to do because He can see what we cannot see. I say to God, “This is bad. This looks really bad. God, you need to change this because its bad.” But God says to me. “Michael, I can see what you cannot. Trust me – I am working this for the best.”
What we did not choose, do not like, cannot change and cannot understand – we accept with trust and offer to Jesus with love because this is His will for us. And it shall indeed be the best.
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In learning to live a beautiful life I was captured something Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl wrote (Madeleine Delbrêl († 1964) was a French laywoman and writer devoted to caring for the poor and to evangelizing culture.)
“We don’t always want our suffering; we are tight-fisted about it, haggle over it, often botch the job. There is suffering that has been done well just as there is work that has been done well. From the moment we get up in the morning we have our suffering to do just as we have our work to do. And just as the details of our work are willed by God so are the details of our suffering.
When we do the will of God, when we get up, when we prepare the meal, when we go out, when we run an errand, when we catch our train, we deepen our union with the Lord by accepting and willing his will. When we suffer our daily allowances of suffering, when we get up with our legs still heavy and tired, when it takes us ten times as long and ten times as many steps to prepare the simplest meal and our nerves are ten times as frayed. When we leave our warm room to go out onto the street to skate on the black ice; when, stumbling in driving snow, we go round the town to bring back—or to fail to bring back—the simplest things. When we wait on a cold platform for a train that won’t come. Over and above the harmonizing of our own will with the will of God, we become through our suffering the very bearers and donors of his grace.
We can quickly recognize a saint in all these small occasions of suffering. He does it with an ease, a naturalness and a grace—in both senses of the word—a good grace that makes of this small suffering a massive work of love.”