Transformation

Homily for Thursday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Most of us have witnessed the transformation that takes place when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Perhaps one of our teachers in primary school had kept a chrysalis in a jar so that we could watch the transformed caterpillar as it entered the world as a butterfly. Transformation happens in the natural world quite regularly.

The Christian life involves transformation as well. St. Paul writes to Philemon about the conversion of his slave, Onesimus. As a slave, Onesimus is still legally bound to Philemon for labor and servitude. Paul’s letter is not just about sharing the good news as it is urging Philemon – himself a Christian convert – to take his slave back as a brother, beloved to them both as a man in the Lord. In other words, he is asking Philemon to welcome Onesimus as he would welcome Paul.

At this time in history, the Christian community was in no position to advocate for the abolition of slavery. Instead, we hear St. Paul calling upon Philemon to have the mind of Christ, to be transformed in the love of Christ, and to erase any divisions among those baptized in Christ, in the manner in which he receives Onesimus. In short, Paul urges transformation within the Christian world with exhortations of how to live and how to treat and live with one another.

Just as the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly necessarily affects the world around us, our transformation also affects our world. Each step of the way, small or large, is not just for us and for our eternal happiness, but for the sake and transformation of others. “The Kingdom is already among us,” Jesus once again says. In other words, we are not awaiting sometime in some distant future for all to be perfect; rather, we are striving to live in perfection here.

As Christians, we grow in faith and die to self in order to flourish, and to be transformed and finally transfigured, into the glory of God. Today, the Eucharist becomes the source of grace to effect that transformation and transfiguration.