Transfiguration moments: The pandemic, sports, and our spiritual lives

“When the Eternal Breaks Through” is the title given to Bishop Robert Barron’s homily for the Second Sunday of Lent. You can watch or listen to the homily here. On this past weekend, the Second Sunday of Lent, we heard and reflected upon the Gospel of the Transfiguration (Lk. 9:28b-36). Bishop Barron says that The Transfiguration “… opens up something … moments when life, when reality becomes incandescent or transparent to something more …” He speaks of moments when “suddenly the light breaks through, as if from another world – something from beyond this world, that can be glimpsed through this world…” I encourage you to take the time (15 minutes) to listen to the whole homily.

As Bishop Barron and many preachers and spiritual writers suggest, the account of the Transfiguration invites us to consider the “Transfiguration Moments” (“when the eternal breaks through”) that we have experienced in our own lives. Having reflected on this Gospel passage, whether it be from Matthew (17:1-8), Mark (9:2-13), or Luke, at least once or twice each year since my years in the seminary as a priest and bishop, I have looked back on a number of significant “Transfiguration Moments” in my own life. As I think about the Transfiguration this year, two (somewhat related) memories or examples come to mind.