“Six days later” is an odd way to start a story. But it’s not the start. The story starts six days earlier, when Jesus invites his disciples on the way of radical self-giving love, the way of the cross. At first Peter refuses to believe Jesus. Six days later (on the seventh day, a day of completion), God says, “Listen to him!”

The story of the Transfiguration is not about glory; it’s about the cross. It is God’s affirmation of the way of self-sacrificial love. Taken out of context it can seem like a poster of triumphalism. But it’s really an affirmation of the humility, powerlessness, self-emptying, and suffering of radical love. Jesus, who has advocated such radical self-giving, appears in resurrection light.

The way of dying Jesus describes is a way of rising. The Transfiguration affirms what Jesus has said six days earlier: Lose your life in love, and you will be given life that cannot be taken from you, a life that is eternal. Love is the glory of God. Love fulfills the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah). The cross is the way of life. Love is the reason and heart of our faith.

When we love, we shine with the light of God. When we forgive, we have “died and gone to heaven.” When we stand up for justice, we taste resurrection. The world will resist us and make us pay the cost. The world will ridicule us and call us failures. But the glory of God shines in us, and the light of eternal life radiates from within us. We can take courage, then, and give ourselves to a life of love and self-sacrifice. For love, and love alone, is the light of God.

Trusting this, we are now ready to journey with Jesus through Lent toward the cross.