Memory - Transfiguration In the months before she died Miriam, my sister, created a memory box for her children who were then age 9 and 3. She was dying from cancer.

She put into that box little things that would represent moments in hers and their lives, in the hope that in the years after she had gone, maybe when they were grown up, they would look at these things and memory would bring to life again for them those special moments represented by those things.

Did you ever think; where does the light go when the candle is blown out? In the same way when we are having a good experience and it passes as it must, where does it go? Is that it? It exists no longer. No, it is deposited in our memory bank or box.

Memory is God’s gift to us, a place that not only can we go to but can live from, and in some cases, should live from. But we have to be selective.

There will be negative and hurts in there; things that brought us affliction, hurt or distress or caused it to others. We will remember them but how rich we will become if we seek healing for those memories and learn from them.

But there will be memories too of experiences of insight, rapture and joy which brought us at the time new knowledge, self- discovery gave us happiness and enlightenment for our life.

You see , although the present moment is gone. It is not lost to us. It is a resource which informs our every NOW. It is a gift. We go back to it through memory.

I think what Jesus was doing for his three closest apostles today is what Miriam was doing for her children.....creating a memory box. And depositing into that box an experience that would stay with them for the rest of their lives and give them courage, and enlightenment to see them through the tomorrows when they will have to face suffering, rejection and questions.

So what he has he done? He has taken his three closest friends, Peter, James and John up to the top of Mount Tabor. He wanted to show them who he really was.

They witness an apparition and see him speaking with Moses and Elijah from the Old Testament and they hear the voice of God the Father speak saying: “This is my beloved son” - the same thing he said when John the Baptist baptised was baptising Jesus.

In a few weeks time they would be able to remember this day, what they had seen and heard and the joy they experienced. And remembering this day from the past would give them the strength to live the now.

How sad when people, only live from their negative memories. Thank God with counselling and psychotherapy and the listening ear of good family and friends there are opportunities to heal and move on from the hurtful memories and choose to live from the more positive experiences in our lives. To remember them and gain strength.

These positive memories give you grace for the now you are trying to live. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said once bring out from your store things both old and new.

So spend a little time today seeing what is in your memory box – particularly the moments of transfiguration when you saw very clearly how loved you are, how much you meant to a loved one and to God and use that memory for the todays and tomorrows you must live, especially if those days are dark at the moment - and be grateful.