The feast of the Transfiguration is every year on Aug. 6th. Since it falls on a Sunday, we celebrate the Transfiguration this weekend. The transfiguration-when linked to the Eucharist reveals the glory of God and His love for us.
What a grace for Peter, James and John to see Jesus transfigured as His face shown like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.
Moses and Elijah are the key representatives of the Law and the prophets. Their coming to talk with Jesus shows Him to be the fulfillment of God’s revelation to them. He is therefore the Messiah.
It also reveals the Blessed Trinity, as the Father speaks, the Holy Spirit is represented in a cloud and Jesus appears in glory.
Peter also said something that seems strange to us. He is known for his impulsive words and actions. He said, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Why would Peter want to set up tents. Perhaps, he was so thrilled by what he saw, he wanted Moses, Elijah and Jesus to stay there, so others could come to see the glorious event, and to meet God face to face in a tent.
The Jews had what was called the Feast of Tabernacles. It originally began as festive celebration for the crops of that year after the harvest. The word “tabernacle” was used for the word “tent”. During the 40 years in the desert, the Hebrew people lived in tents (tabernacles) and the feast of the tabernacles would commemorate the celebration of reaching the promised land. The feast was later celebrated as a result of the erection of the temple, their permanent place of worship, where many animal sacrifices occurred.
When we think of a tent, we think of canvas and poles that is normally used for camping. But, in the Old Testament, some tents were not only used to sleep and rest at night, they were used as a meeting place especially between God and man. One tent contained the Ark of the Covenant.
The book of Exodus states, “The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents. The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another.”
Today, the tabernacle in every Catholic Church is the meeting place between God and man, because the Eucharistic Jesus is truly present in every tabernacle. The physical church is the new temple. And at Mass the one sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross becomes present when bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus. At Mass, we are in God’s presence. We are in the presence of the sacrifice of Calvary and when the Host is elevated, in our mind’s eye, we can gaze upon the glory of the face of Christ.
During Holy Communion, our body becomes a tent, where we meet God in our hearts. And that meeting with God in our heart, will prepare us for our permanent home heavenly home.
In 2nd Corinthians 5:1-2, St. Paul said, “Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever. While we are here on earth, we sigh because we want to live in that heavenly home.”
On July 21st, 2023, Catholic News Agency reported a new Eucharistic miracle that happened in a tabernacle located in Honduras. On the afternoon of June 9, 2022, José Elmer Benítez Machado arrived to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word and distribute to the faithful the hosts previously consecrated by the priests of the diocese. Benítez was appointed an extraordinary minister of holy Communion to give Communion to the people, when no priest could come.
When it was time to distribute the Eucharist, Benítez opened the tabernacle and noticed that the corporal (sacred linen cloth), under and folded over the wooden ciborium and on a white satin cushion, showed large stains that seemed to be of human blood.
The bishop had the blood stained cloth taken to a laboratory to be tested. The tests determined it was human blood. The blood type was AB with a positive Rh factor, identical to the blood found in both the Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano, Italy, and on the Shroud of Turin. The tests also ruled out the possibility that the pattern of the blood stains was made artificially. Because of the test results, the bishop declared it, a Eucharistic miracle due to blood stained cloth in the tabernacle. This miracle is a reminder, that Jesus is truly present in every tabernacle.
Two years ago, I gave everyone a copy of the book, Jesus Our Eucharistic Love, before we started Eucharistic Adoration. I would like to take some quotes from that book. The book states, “When one loves truly and loves greatly, one begins to adore. Jesus in the tabernacle is adored only by those who truly love Him, and He is loved in an eminent manner by whoever adores Him. All the Saints have been ardent adorers of the Holy Eucharist, from the great Doctors of the Church like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure, to Popes like St. Pius V and St. Pius X, priests like the holy St. John Vianney (the Curé of Ars) and St. Peter Julian Eymard, down to humble souls like St. Rita, St. Paschal Baylon, St. Bernadette Soubirous, St. Gerard, St. Dominic Savio and St. Gemma Galgani. These chosen ones, whose love was true, kept no count of the hours of fond adoration that they spent day and night before Jesus in the tabernacle.
The Saints, being far advanced in the practice of love, were faithful and ardent adorers of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. What good reason we have to envy the Angels, as the Saints have done, because Angels ceaselessly remain stationed around the tabernacles!
Importantly, Eucharistic adoration has always been considered as the closest likeness we have to the eternal adoration which will make up our whole paradise. The difference lies only in the veil which hides the sight of that divine Reality of which faith gives us unwavering certainty. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been the fervent devotion of the Saints. Their adoration lasted hours and hours, sometimes whole days or nights.
Hear what Blessed Charles de Foucauld wrote before the tabernacle: “What a tremendous delight, my God! To spend over fifteen hours without anything else to do but look at You and tell You, 'Lord, I love You!' Oh, what sweet delight!”
St. Francis of Assisi spent so much time, often entire nights, before the altar, and remained there so devoutly and humbly that he deeply moved anyone who stopped to watch him.
Even after their death, the bodies saints miraculously adored Jesus in the tabernacle. For example, when St. Catherine of Bologna was placed before the altar of the Blessed Sacrament a few days after her death, her body rose up to a position of prayerful adoration. At Ravello, Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza's body, while being carried past the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, made a devout head-bow to Jesus in the tabernacle.” (End quote of from the book Jesus Our Eucharistic Love)
My dear parishioners, we are so blessed to be able to come and adore Jesus in the Eucharist every week during adoration of the Sacred Host in a monstrance. Eucharistic adoration is an ecstasy of love, and it is the most powerful salvific practice in the apostolate of saving souls.
The three apostles got a preview of the glory of Jesus risen from the dead and His glory in heaven. It was also a preview of the glory we all hope to share in heaven.
When we come before Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration, we are gazing upon the glory of the Lord, just as the three apostles were gazing upon the glory of the Lord at the Transfiguration. There in the Eucharist is the risen and glorified Jesus. And when we come to spend one hour a week with Him in Adoration, He will touch our hearts and give us the graces to accept sufferings in our life, to embrace them and to even rejoice in them. And only in Paradise will we see how many souls have been delivered from the gates of hell by the Eucharistic adoration done in reparation by holy persons known and unknown. Outside of Eucharistic Adoration, like the saints, we too can spend time additional time with Jesus truly present in the tabernacle.
I would like to close with the prayer the angel taught the three children of Fatima. “O most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.”
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