PERFECT FIGURE

Feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration

MT 17:1-9

Many people are conscious of their figures. Women are commonly regarded to be more conscious of their figures than men, but men can also be just as concerned with their figures as women are. Regardless of gender, people give their figures some thought at some point in their lives. That moment has come for us today. Let us reflect on our figures.

Some people are concerned with their figures because they want to appear sexy and attractive. Others are more properly motivated; they want to stay healthy. All need to take care of their figures to live, if not longer, at least better. We cannot underestimate the value of keeping fit and staying healthy.

Everybody wants to have a perfect figure. But what is a perfect figure? Is it 36-24-34 for women? Is it having well toned muscles and small tummy for men? Does perfect figure mean having a perfect body shape with a perfect height and a perfect face? What is a perfect figure? Who has it? Do we?

If figure is simply what meets the eye, does having a perfect figure mean having a flawless physique? But we have come across people who are in good shape but are not necessarily in good health. Figure must then be more than what meets the eye.

Jesus reminds us today that figure is indeed more than what the eye can see. Figure is the totality of a person. Perfect figure is having a healthy soul and body. Perfect figure means perfect health; and perfect health means perfect life.

Now it seems not one among us has a perfect figure because we all have imperfect lives. Let us trust the Lord; He will perfect our figure.

The transfiguration of the Lord is a revelation of His inner Self in all Its intrinsic glory and beauty. It is a cry that comes from His deepest within that refuses to regard the physical as the ultimate basis of perfection. It is a celebration of His beauty even in the shadow of His seeming lack of it.

The passion and death of Jesus would certainly render His body ugly and revolting. On top of a mountain, Jesus manifested to His closest disciples that the suffering and death He would soon endure could not destroy the beauty and glory He always had. While betrayal, denial, hunger, thirst, loneliness, fear, torture and crucifixion would bring upon Jesus the agony and horror of death, they would not distort His perfect figure: He is the Father’s Beloved Son. Obedience to the Father would disfigure Jesus so that He may configure us to His perfect figure.

“This is my Beloved Son. Listen to Him,” declares the Father. We fix our eyes on Jesus and we see the real meaning of our otherwise seemingly meaningless sufferings. Through Jesus’ words we learn the value of our sufferings even when our sufferings seem to have little, if any, value at all. With Jesus, through Jesus, and in Jesus we are able to transform our crosses into sources of grace, our death into life, our brokenness into perfection.

Thus, while transfiguration is for Jesus, configuration to Jesus is for us. The challenge for us is to follow not only what Jesus said but how Jesus lived. May we become more and more like Jesus.

This then is the perfect figure: a life configured to Christ.