Lichtstrahl 77 - The Transfiguration

GOSPEL:  Matthew 17 (1-13)                             
 
Dear friends!
 
There is a lot of sadness and mourning in the world since quite some time now.  Many people have lost somebody dear to their heart, the youth is sad and at loss in experiencing the speechlessness of elderly people, when it comes to questions about the future. Many feel that their personal constitution is getting very fragile, there seems to be much illness and slow recovery from illness.  The war in the Ukraine is flaring up, another escalating East-West-Conflict, which the world was sure had come to an end and which is now bringing back memories of horror and fear.
 
In such a time more and more people start to remember the strength of prayers, start folding their hands,  pleading the heavenly world to send support and salvation.  It is often proclaimed now, that only prayers will help and will bring relief. The faith in the power of a prayer seems  to grow by the day.  Is that all, that we can do?  Pray?
 
Next Sunday we will be entering Passion time.  It will be a path towards a cross, the cross on Golgatha as well as one’s own personal cross.  We can walk that path in the deep trust and convicition, that there will be Easter, that the overcoming of darkness and death was the ultimate goal of the life of the Christ Jesus, and that He will lead us into the life of light and resurrection.  How is he going to do that?  Not just, because we pray and listen to His word.
 
If we look at the gospelreadings of last Sunday ( Mat 4 – THE OVERCCOMING OF THE TEMPTER) and today’s reading (Mat 17 – THE TRANSFIGURATION) we can receive a very clear message, that there is more to happen, than praying alone.  Just as in the life of the Christ Jesus we also have to start to overcome our soul weaknesses, strengthen it and make it resistant to temptation, fear or illusions.  But it is not only our soul, that needs attention.  At the same time we have to strengthen and stabilize our life forces.  They are extremely shaken and attacked, as we have seen in our work during the last weeks on the aetheric (or second) coming of the Christ.  And we have also seen, that there are ways to do that. 
 
The transfiguration of the life forces of Jesus of Nazareth reveales itself in today’s gospelreading.  That is meant by the description of His face shining like the sun and wearing a  garment of light.  That is what the three disciples witnessed on the high mountain on that day.  Strengthening and purifying our soul life as well as our life forces is vitally important, if we want to enter into passion time as true followers of the Christ.  Let us not only want to place our personal burdens on His shoulders.  Let us prepare and strive to become true companions and carriers of a cross towards resurrection as well. 
 
We will only have the strength to do that, if we recognize - with deep empathy and humbleness – what es needed together with our prayers.

Christine Voigts