Raphael's 'The Transfiguration'

Brothers,
In these past weeks, we have stood at gravesides. We have held trembling hands. We have watched some of our own cross the threshold into eternity, and we are walking closely with others who are nearing their reward. Their names are not abstractions to us. They are brothers. Husbands. Fathers. Friends.

Every week, our Deacon Prayer Wall fills with those names, deacons, wives, children, widows. That wall is not a list. It is a living altar of intercession. It is the diaconate kneeling together. And in that sacred exchange of prayer, we see the mystery of this Sunday’s Gospel: the Transfiguration.

On Mount Tabor, Jesus’ face is changed. His garments become dazzling white. For a brief moment, Peter, James, and John see what was always true; glory hidden beneath humility. Yet this revelation comes immediately after Jesus foretells His Passion. Tabor does not cancel Calvary. It strengthens the apostles to endure it.

St. Padre Pio, in his letters to his Spiritual Director, grasped this profoundly. He wrote: “If Jesus, who was so perfect, suffered so much, then who am I to run away from suffering, from him, from the cross? I want to keep him company on Calvary…”

Brothers, that is not merely mysticism. That is diaconal identity.

We see it on our Prayer Wall; brothers who are not running from chemotherapy, from cardiac weakness, from slow diminishment. We see wives carrying burdens quietly. We see families standing firm. And in them, we glimpse both Tabor and Calvary.

Padre Pio also wrote: “When Jesus wants to make me understand that He loves me, He permits me to relish the wounds, the thorns, the anguish of His Passion… He invites me… to offer my body that His sufferings may be alleviated.”

This is staggering. To believe that Christ sometimes consoles us with glory, and at other times entrusts us with His wounds.

At the altar each Sunday, we touch the same glory revealed on Tabor. Yet we return immediately to hospital rooms, funerals, strained marriages, and our own aging bodies. The Father still says, “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.”

And the Son says: Stay with Me.

Brothers, our Prayer Wall proves this, we are not alone on the mountain, and we are not alone at the Cross. The glory we glimpse now is the promise awaiting our faithful departed, and, by grace, each of us who remains faithful to the end.

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice