TRANSFIGURATION from Luke 9:28b-36 [caption id="attachment_84870" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Transfiguration"][/caption] What is transfiguration? Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines it as (1) a change in form or appearance as well as (2) an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change. Both definitions explicitly use the word change. Thus, to have a transfiguration is to become what was not. When I was in Singkawang for watching Cap Go Meh celebration, I saw tatungs everywhere. A tatung is a person who is possessed by some spirit so that his body can endure any physical pain. Even though his cheek is pierced by metal rods, for instance, he does not get hurt or shed blood. His bodily appearance seems to change into spiritual entity. [caption id="attachment_84555" align="alignright" width="158" caption="Tatung"][/caption] At some degree it is similar to Jesus's experience regarding transfiguration. At the mountaintop Jesus's face brightly shone and his clothing became dazzlingly white. The human Jesus changed into thedivine Jesus. There are many divine things we cannot explain by material paradigms. Besides the transfiguration, we might also find healing miracles, stigmata, and visions to be ridiculous. However, those are some of the very ways God uses to proclaim His presence in this world. We are not supposed to have all the divine charisma. Still, I myself am attracted by what the tatungs prepare prior to their performance: they fast. Before receiving such spiritual powers, they purify their own souls by not eating for several days. And that's exactly what many saints practised in convents or in the wilderness. By suppressing our bodily needs for a while, we can focus on divine things that lead us into holiness.[] related posts: Cap Go Meh Semarakkan Singkawang Refleksi Injil Prapaskah I
