I have the great honor and joy of serving in this movement called Renew My Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Cupich’s invitation to really renew our spiritual lives and even renew our physical structures as well, our churches. Not only do I have that privilege, I also have the privilege of serving as an administrator for parish. In this particular parish, this past September, 24 young people came to us in seventh grade, eighth grade, freshman, sophomore, junior year, who had been baptized, and that was the only sacrament they’d received. They’re in seventh grade, eighth grade, freshman, sophomore, juniors. There’s these young adults between the ages of 12 and 17 who never had any class regarding who Jesus is in their lives. Never, never. It’s both an inspiration to see them but also a challenge to connect to them because they’re not second-graders. They’re juniors in high school. They look at me with these eyes like, “We wanna believe you, but we’re not sure. “We wanna embrace Jesus, but we’re not quite sure. “We wanna follow, but we’re not exactly sure.” I remember sharing this gospel with them a few months ago. All of a sudden you started to see little light bulbs go on in their young adult brains, these seventh-graders through juniors in high school. The light bulbs started going off. There’s something about hearing in scripture, hearing the voice of God proclaim to the world what I have been telling them now for months. But there’s something about them reading about that in scripture that allowed the light bulbs to go off. “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” Not only did that make sense to them, not only did they hear that in scripture in a new and powerful way, but it started to tie together some loose ends in their lives. They know about Moses the prophet and they connected to that, or Elijah the prophet, and Moses who gave us the law. For some reason when they heard it read, it made sense. They knew about Jesus’ death and resurrection, but they really liked to hear about this great transfiguration of Jesus before He walks the passion that leads to the resurrection. This gospel was helpful for them. The light bulbs went off. What about for us? As we hear this powerful gospel about Jesus going up with His disciples, His transfiguration, the voice of God proclaiming Jesus to be His Son, how does this re-animate our own discipleship? How does this help us to walk more deeply with the person of Jesus in our own lives? How does this gospel invite us to love more deeply, forgive more deeply, walk with Jesus, our Savior and the Son of God, more deeply in our own lives? I don’t know about you, but for me and for these 24 young people, our lives were changed a little bit by this gospel. How does this gospel of transfiguration touch your heart in relationship to Jesus, our Savior?