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FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS MASS OF THE AUGUST 6
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD Beloved brothers, today we are celebrating the commemoration of the TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD, the right moment for each one of us, participants of this general chapter of the Order, to reflect on how the Lord has transfigured us and how we have allowed Him to transfigure us through His life. This commemoration reminds me of el Salvador, a very small country in Central America, that is celebrating today the commemoration of its Patron Saint THE DIVINE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. Several years ago, Monsignor Romero, in this same day reminded us that Jesus on top of a mountain does not get away from men, but He shows us that what is important is to have the congratulations from heaven "This is my beloved Son"; being a son of God where God puts His indulgences, casts an eye over. Monsignor Romero and many men and women from El Salvador and from this continent let themselves to transfigure and this led them to understand that following Jesus in the mount and to see His glory, also implied to descend where men and women were and to share with them death and the cross. Today, we find in this commemoration a fundamental sense in our vocation as preachers: being Jesus’s disciples, or as the Apostle Saint Peter says "eyewitnesses of His greatness". Disciples, because we have found in the luminous face of Jesus a new sense for our lives. We have seen that Jesus’s life does not end with the announcement of His death, on the contrary, after the announcement of darkness, light becomes stronger to change the darkness of our lives. According to the text, Peter was so frightened that he falls into temptation to ask Jesus to make three huts, a request full of conformism and of little risk for that man who had been witness of all the things done by Jesus. It seemed that for Peter it was difficult to see future in a defiant way and only in light of the vulnerable Easter he will interpret the experience years later. But, what is that defiant future? After the cloud covered the disciples and they heard the voice that said "This is my beloved son, listen to Him", the disciples and Jesus descended from the mountain, joined the others, and returned to their daily tasks. The challenging future that the disciples find is that they have witnessed again that not all ends in fear or in darkness. There is a greater challenge, to be witnesses that they have seen and heard about Jesus and about His Father. The disciples, after being in ecstasies with the light that covered them were on the road again. This reality experimented by the disciples has also been our experience in this general chapter. We have sought the light and we have been covered with the light emanated from our brothers. These days have been filled with immense fraternity. We have taken to the height of Bogota, our condition of brothers which has made us feel very well, and we can say as Peter: "How nice it is being here, let us build many huts". Nevertheless, we have heard the voice that says: WE MUST LISTEN TO GOD’S SON, WE MUST RETURN, DESCEND FROM THE MOUNTAIN AND RETURN WITH JESUS TO OUR DAILY TASKS. As Order of Preachers, we are in a similar situation to that of the disciples: God’s strength has dazzled us and, therefore, we want to follow Him despite our fear of living without any certainty. Surely that when we hit the road, we will find a world whose sparkles of light do not reflect Jesus, but they are the brightness of a society marked in many moments by selfishness, arrogance, social differences, racism, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest, migration of our peoples seeking better living conditions, economic systems promising to change the image of the world but not its transfiguration; sparkles of faces that almost dead are asking us today that like our father Saint Dominique, sell our books to feed those who are starving. Jesus is that promise of transfiguration; our mission is to find God’s face in the disfigured face of many men and women that have lost joy and peace. They want to find the light and they are presented us to us as the beloved faces of the Father. The transfiguration of Jesus invites us to think about those things that we should transfigure, give light, struggling for finding the truth knowing that that also makes us lose the comforts offered to us by society. We should give a new face to everything that is dead, put ourselves in God’s hands, so that He can show us the way. Taking part in the transfiguration is going from death to the liberty of God’s children told in the gospels. In order to preach, first, we have to hear God’s voice and the voice of those to whom the Word and the presence have been denied. Like the disciples that witnessed God’s glory in the Beloved Son, today, all of us are called to witness the transfigured face of Jesus; this contemplation gives us the strength for preaching, living and sharing the limitations of mankind. It is a matter of seeing the human nature, the human face and the human fragility with God’s deep look. My brothers, that the strength that we received from God’s Spirit in this general chapter, transfigures in us any darkness allowed by the Easter, so that the truth and love that characterized Saint Dominique sprout up. "Oh Lord! Show us your face so that your ideals be our ideals, your wishes be our wishes and our actions be an extension of your actions. |
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Capítulo General 2007 - ORDEN DE PREDICADORES |
