35th Day of Lent – Transfiguration

Read the account of Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-13. It is packed with truth the churches have ignored. The transfiguration is the 3rd major event in Jesus’ demonstration to us of the pathway to ascension. nnJesus takes three of his closest disciples to a mountaintop. There are mountains throughout Palestine; however, a “mountain” also symbolizes moving into a high state of consciousness through meditation. Wherever they were located, Jesus and his disciples were most likely meditating because that is the easiest way to see into and experience the inner, spiritual planes. nnThe disciples watch as Jesus becomes transfigured into a being a Light. This happens as we center our focus on the heart area … allowing the heart flame (see the Divine Self Illustration) to expand …… filling our entire body with Light and radiating outward until we feel every cell in our body filled with this divine Light …….. nnnnTaken from the September 1996 Unity MagazinennAs we sit in this Light and open our mind to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we will gradually learn to see and hear into the inner realms of Spirit. The prerequisite to this experience is that we have purified negativity from our auric field. If we meditate while retaining pockets of negativity within our energetic field, we will attune to the emotional or astral plane because Universal Law is: “Like attracts like.” The astral plane is what the Catholic Church calls purgatory—a plane containing both negative and positive energies. Meditating at this level can be confusing, to say the least. Remember the example of Simon in the 29th Day of Lent Devotional---the astral plane was the plane he contacted, thereby misleading himself and others. Use the meditation found in the 21st Day of Lent Devotional in order to purify before meditating. nn“And Jesus was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes turned white like light.” [The purer our nature, the more radiate the Light.] “And there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, as they were talking with him.”nnBy the time of Jesus’ incarnation, Moses and Elijah had been what we call “dead” for hundreds of years. Obviously not the truth! Jesus is preparing to demonstrate—by allowing himself to be crucified—there is no death! Moses and Elijah are continuing on their spiritual evolutionary path, just as Jesus and we are to do. Moses and Elijah have evolved to the next stage on all of our paths—that of becoming Ascended Masters. As Ascended Masters, Moses and Elijah have chosen to help Jesus on his mission to humanity by assisting him from the higher planes. Ascended Masters are also available to assist us in fulfilling our soul’s mission in service to humanity. The realms of Spirit are filled with beings willing to assist humanity. We are never alone!nnWhile in meditation, the disciples can see Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Being the impulsive man he was, Peter immediately wants to construct 3 shelters for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. “And while he was speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with him I am pleased; hear him.” nn“Hear him” … what were the disciples to hear? What are we to hear?nnAs Jesus and his disciples descended the mountain, they asked him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” nn“Hear him” … “Jesus answered, saying to them, Elijah will come first, so that everything might be fulfilled. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, and they did to him whatever they pleased. Thus also the Son of Man is bound to suffer from them. Then the disciples understood that what he had told them was about John the Baptist.” nnJohn the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah. As the people had not understood who John the Baptist was, so they did not understand who Jesus was. John the Baptist was beheaded; Jesus would be crucified. nnJesus affirming that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah is important in our understanding of salvation. Read the story of Nicodemus in John 3. In this passage, Jesus tells Nicodemus “If a man is not “born again,” he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The Greek word translated “born” is “gennethe” in the passive voice, indicating the subject is acted upon by someone else. In the passive voice, “gennethe” means “to be born of woman.” The Greek word translated “again” is “anothen.” “Anothen” means both “again” and “from above.” To be “gennethe anothen” means to reincarnate into the flesh. (Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, pg. 155 and pg. 77) We discussed being “born of water and the spirit” in the 34th Day of Lent Devotional.nnReincarnation plays a vital role in spiritual evolution. It is how we have the time to “reap what we sow” … to “be born of water and the spirit” … to do all the works that nJesus did and greater works than his … to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect … to develop the mind that was in Christ Jesus.nnWho among us will vow: I can do all of that in one physical plane life?nnThe transfiguration into a Light being prepares us for the advanced work ahead. No longer are we dependent upon only our 5 physical senses with which to learn truth. Once transfigured into a Light being (as seen in the Enlightened Individual illustration), we have conscious access to all the resources within the realms of Spirit. Our bodies, emotions, and minds have been transfigured—opened to far greater realities than we have heretofore known.nnnnTransfiguration is the 3rd Initiation.