6 August 1984
Cochabamba, Bolivia

My dear Sisters and my dear Confreres,

Six years ago today Pope Paul VI died in Rome. His predecessor, John XXIII, remarked a few days before his death that any day in the year was a good day to die. When Paul VI died on the feast of the Transfiguration, people felt that there was something appropriate that he should have died on that day, just as they did in 1963 when Pope John XXIII died during the Octave of Pentecost. Pope John XXIII spoke much about the Holy Spirit and thought of the Council as a new Pentecost. Pope Paul VI worked to implement all that the Council had decided, so that the Church would be transfigured and would shine more brightly as the Lumen Gentium in the darkness of this world. He was, then, a Pope of transfiguration.

The experience of the three disciples on the Mount of the Transfiguration was an experience of seeing the inner glory of Jesus Christ. After His Resurrection, those disciples would discover that the experience which they had on the Mount of Transfiguration would be continued in a new, but no less real, way through the reality of Baptism. Over and over again, St. Paul kept reminding the Christians of his day that even now they were participating in the glory of the Resurrection. St. John who was on the mountain of Transfiguration would write years later: "As many as received Him, He gave them power to become sons of God...and we saw His glory...and of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." (Jn 1:12,14,16). Grace, it has been said, is glory away, and glory is grace at home.

In the monotony of daily life, it is difficult to realize that through Baptism we are already sharing in the inner glory of Jesus Christ. Listen to St. Paul's way of expressing it. "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us." (Rom 5:5). That is the foundation of our love for the poor. The smallest service we do for the poor is a releasing of the love of God which is already in our hearts. It is a manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ. By the smallest act of love shown to the poor, we are reenacting the Transfiguration in our own little lives. Just as the Transfiguration of Christ rejoiced the hearts of Peter, James and John, so, too, when we manifest authentic and selfless love to the poor, their hearts are warmed and they rejoice.

All that calls for faith. St. Vincent expressed it marvelously when he said: "I must not consider a poor peasant or a poor woman according to their exterior, nor according to what appears from their behavior. Very often they have not really the appearance nor intelligence of rational beings, so gross and earthly are they. But turn the medal and you will see in the light of faith that the Son of God, Who wished to be poor, is represented to us by these poor people....It is beautiful to see the poor if we consider them in God and with the esteem which Jesus Christ had for them." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 32).

When the disciples came down from the mountain of the Transfiguration, they saw Jesus alone. When St. Vincent invites us to love and serve the poor, he invites us to see in them Jesus Christ: "Turn the medal and by the light of faith you will see the Son of God." (Ibid.).

St. Luke makes the point that while Jesus prayed there the disciples had a new vision of Him. Your vocation is to bring spiritual and bodily necessities to the poor in whom you recognize the presence of Christ. It is from the experience of a vision of Christ that you go to the poor. For that reason we must always keep climbing the mountain of prayer.

St. Vincent's phrase about leaving God for God to serve the poor is a celebrated one. With equal insistence, however, he emphasized the importance of daily meditation. In our own day, Pope John Paul II has on more than one occasion told priests and religious that we can be so busy about the work of the Lord as to forget the Lord of the work.

All that you do for the poor must spring from your vision of Christ. In every gesture of love for the poor, you bring heaven down to earth. You are preparing, getting things ready so that Christ can come again and take possession of His kingdom and hand it over to His Father Who will be all in all.