This Sunday we are enraptured by the Transfiguration of Jesus, whose light brings hope and joy to our hearts.  Jesus is the sun of our life, and our existence moves under the luminous gaze of God. On the mountain, Jesus is transfigured. His clothes became radiantly white. (Mark 9:3)

The mountain is the dwelling place of God, a place that offers the possibility of a new look at the world, seen from a new angle, observed from above, from a new point of view, the point of view of God.

Our understanding and our intelligence are not always enough; things around us are not always clear.  Like Peter, we too are seekers of light, of meaning and significance. And the faith we seek is "a new vision of things,” "seeing the world in another light.”

Peter opens the way for us with his extraordinary exclamation: Master how beautiful it is here! We too would like the beauty of believing. We too would like to have a faith that is so concrete that it makes life beautiful!

A living faith is nourished by wonder, by falling in love, by enchantment. The strength of Peter's heart comes from the discovery of the beauty of Jesus.  From there comes the urge to act passionately, an attraction of the heart, for a beautiful Face that has seduced us. A cloud came from heaven, and from the cloud a voice: “Listen to him.”  Jesus is the Voice to be heard, to be followed, to be reached and which leads to transformation.  Listen to him, give time and heart to the Word, until it becomes flesh and life.

For Pope Francis, "to be a Christian is not to adhere to a doctrine, but it is an encounter, and one becomes such because one recognizes that one has been loved and encountered, because one discovers oneself forgiven and invited to act in the same way that God has acted with us." (April 1, 2019). We want to encourage ourselves to seek in the culture of dialogue the way of encounter because from everyone "something can be learned, no one is useless, no one is superfluous" (FT 215). Through dialogue and, above all, listening, we learn to integrate differences, to enlighten one another's experiences, to foster that mutual evangelization that brings ample breath to life. "To draw near, to express oneself, to listen to each other, to look at each other, to know each other, to try to understand each other, to seek points of contact, all this is summed up in the verb 'to dialogue.'" (FT 198) Through dialogue we inspire confidence in life, which, despite its wounds, holds out its promise of success, salvation and goodness that is already contained in every birth.

Let us feel called to transform every dialogue into a possible moment of grace, "by running the risk of encountering the face of the other, with his physical presence that challenges, with his pain and his requests." (EG 88)  Gratuitousness motivates our hearts to an inner readiness to relate without carelessness, without haste, without defensiveness, or selectivity, to bring life, light and hope.

• What steps can I take to dialogue with trust and encourage an encounter with another person?

May the Holy Spirit lead us and show us new paths of light and encounter.