August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration.

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. (Mark 9:2-10 )

So often we think we know what Jesus is like; we’ve got him down. Yet deep down in our hearts we often have an obscured or extremely false image of him due to our parents’ divorce. They were meant to image God’s faithful love to us, but when their earthly love failed, we may wonder whether God’s love, too, will fail. Take a moment and think about what fears you have when it comes to Our Lord, perhaps fears about growing close to him. Do you fear he will grow angry with you? Be disappointed in you? Not be there for you when you need him most? Abandon you?

Our Lord wants us to know that he loves us. That he is always present to us. That he will never abandon us. And he wants us to have as clear an image of him as we can in this life. With that in mind, we can be confident that he will send people into our life who will show us his unfailing love for us in ways that our parents couldn’t.

In the Gospel for the Feast of the Transfiguration, we hear St. Peter come up with a plan, to make tents and stay on the mountain. But perhaps it is easier for us to relate to James and John, who are silent in the face of Our Lord’s transfiguration. Sometimes in our own lives there are moments when friends, family members, or even strangers give us a truer image of God’s love than what we knew in our families growing up. Often we can only react with silence as we try to take in what we are seeing, since it's so different from what we had known.

For example, maybe we made a mistake and we thought for sure the other person would fly off the handle or refuse to forgive us. Or we got into an argument and assumed that a friendship would be over. But then the opposite happens. We see people express love towards us in ways we had not seen expressed between our parents, or to us by one or both of our parents. These are like little transfiguration moments! In these moments, we can see clearly that Our Lord is more than our limited experiences. We see – in concrete ways – that love, kindness, and forgiveness are possibly to live out.

If some Christlike people in our lives can react in loving ways, ways we would never expect, how much more so will God - who is perfect love - react to us? Like James and John on the mountain with Jesus, we are left in silence, in awe that this love, this beauty can be possible. In awe that God's love for us is enduring and lasting.

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Heather Strickland is a graduate of Christendom College. While there she spent a good deal of time in the Legion of Mary, where she learned a lot about looking at those suffering in the world through Mary's Motherly gaze. While at College she also met her husband, now happily married for five years. They have settled down in Northern VA with their son.