Three years ago today, I attended Mass with the Sisters of Life, and a dear friend of mine joyfully professed her perpetual vows as a religious sister. The Sisters of Life had chosen today’s Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord very intentionally for this glorious celebration.
As I watched this radiant Bride of Christ process down the aisle towards her Bridegroom, I noticed a subtle sting in my heart. A decade earlier, we had lived together in a discernment house. Jesus lead us along a similar path as we both discerned our vocations. We shared life as we visited convents, perceived a call to religious life, gave away our belongings, and entered different communities within days of each other. We wrote letters to each other from our convents and visited each other as novices. It was an incredible gift to accompany each other.
In God’s mysterious will, I peacefully discerned out of my community, and she “persevered” in her vocation. Jesus had chosen her to follow Him more closely in a life consecrated solely to Him. And that meant I was faced again with the feeling of rejection that Christ had not chosen me for Religious Life.
In today’s Gospel, Saint Mark describes that “Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves” (Mark 9:2). I wonder why Jesus chose these three men. And how did the other disciples feel? Left out? Jealous? Impatient? Angry?
There is a mysterious Gospel truth that Jesus calls some to follow Him more closely. Christ leads certain individuals up a high mountain to a place of deeper intimacy with Him. Regardless of where we find ourselves on the mountain with Jesus today, in every vocation we are called to inspire our friends to deeper holiness.
As I rejoiced with my “transfigured” friend on the day of her perpetual vows, I am grateful that I noticed that subtle feeling of rejection. I offered it to Jesus during the Mass as my friend offered her whole life in religious vows.
My heart was healed as I heard our Father’s words: “This is my Beloved Son, listen to Him” (Mark 9:7). Christ renewed my identity as a beloved daughter of the Father. And the Holy Spirit filled me with deep joy as I celebrated with the Church that day. How can you rejoice with the Spirit as He moves in your friends' lives today?
LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS
A NEW WORKSHOP
COME BACK TO FIRST LOVE
