On today’s Feast of the Transfiguration we are reminded of the Divinity of Jesus and work of the Trinity in Salvation History. The experience of the Transfiguration is one that is used to talk about the consecrated life. St. Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata writes:
“This is my beloved Son”: listen to him! The three disciples caught up in ecstasy hear the Father’s call to listen to Christ, to place all their trust in him, to make him the centre of their lives. The words from on high give new depth to the invitation by which Jesus himself, at the beginning of his public life, called them to follow him, to leave their ordinary lives behind and to enter into a close relationship to him. It is precisely this special grace of intimacy which, in the consecrated life, makes possible and even demands the total gift of self in the profession of the evangelical counsels. The counsels, more than a simple renunciation, are a specific acceptance of the mystery of Christ, lived within the Church.” (16). You may find the full text here.
The consecrated life is centered on the person of Jesus. It can be described in so many ways and can take many forms. Yet the core and center is precisely this intimacy with Christ. Union with Christ is the end! May the blessed Trinity give us all the graces to give ourselves completely to God.
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