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Reflection on Transfiguration
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This Gospel of the transfiguration is so rich; there is
so much for a homilist to talk about. For the first time the apostles
saw beyond and behind and within the man they had known for three years.
Beyond the symbols and patterns of everyday life, there was something
else, more to Him than they ever could have imagined.
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The question is that, after three years of witnessing
Him raising the dead, curing the sick, and turning water into wine, what
took them so long?
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We often miss God's actions in our lives, we are so
busy. Society can put so much pressure on us to focus our vision, our
energy, our drive solely on the pursuit of a career, or money, pursuit
of a person, place or thing. And so we wind up giving these things such
total devotion and priority that we become insensitive to deeper
realities, blind to human needs, indifferent to the lives, joys, and
needs of those around us.
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Let me tell you a story. Journalist Kevin Carter was
given permission to take photos of famine victims in draught-stricken
Sudan in the 90's. The camp was full, with thousands of starving people
coming to be fed at the feeding center. Carter wandered outside of the
camp into the open bush. There he heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering.
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He found a tiny little girl crouched, head bowed,
touching the ground, struggling to make her way into the camp, to the
feeding center. Carter instantly got his camera ready, for here was a
powerful picture. He started to photograph the child when dramatically a
well-fed vulture, taller than the child, landed just a few feet behind
her. The bird was waiting to claim the child when she died. Kevin waited
for about 30 minutes, hoping the vulture would do something like spread
its wings for an even more dramatic image. It didn't. After he took the
pictures, he chased away the vulture and watched while the child
struggled toward the camp.
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The picture first appeared in the New York Times in
March of 1993, and Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for best picture of the
year. He explained how he took the picture, waiting for the right light
and for the bird to spread its wings. Then a storm broke ‑ Carter was
criticized for being so absorbed in his craft that he did not drop
everything and rush that little child into the feeding center. Why did
he wait so long, when a child's life was on the line?
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Two months after winning the Pulitzer, Carter
committed suicide. He had not seen the child as a life that needed to be
saved; he only saw a picture to be taken. He was obsessed with this
work, determined, persistent, nothing would come before his photos. He
once said, "Photography is my life."
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I do not know anyone who would act like Kevin Carter, no
one sitting in this church. But we could all ask ourselves a question,
what controls my life? Is it lust for power, for recognition, for honor
and glory? What makes you go? What makes you tick? Who or what rules
your heart? Something does, or someone does, or here is a dreadful
thought, perhaps, nothing does.
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Kevin Carter was an addict to his photography. It ended
up controlling his life. A sad and tragic event, but the whole incident
becomes a parable about today's gospel of the transfiguration.
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So many of us get sucked up into the tunnel vision of a
totally demanding and absorbing job. The big career move, the
spectacular deal, the salable moment, the right advantage. They are so
absorbed in what advances them, they become blind to the needs of
others. They simply do not see that there are times they should drop
everything and hug their spouses or children, help their friends, or
carry the starving child to the feeding center. Such insights, such
transfigurations are not possible, because they are so focused on the
immediate, the here and now.
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They are like Peter, James and John, not
comprehending, not fully awake, wanting to build small huts, to stay
there. And yet, weeks later they would all desert Him. Lent was designed
precisely as a time for us to wake up and examine our priorities.
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This gospel tells us we, too, might be missing something... some transfiguring moments.
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Yours in Christ,
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Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
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