The Transfiguration of the Lord
 
"His face shone like the Sun" -Matthew 17:2
 
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, according to the Gospel. Jesus climbed the mountain with three beloved disciples to pray. It is precisely at the top of the mountain where Jesus is transfigured with transparency in his divinity in the midst of Moses and Elijah. Moses represents the law and Elijah the prophets who gave their lives in God's testimony. Peter speaks on behalf of the disciples amazed by this fact that occurs to them as if to immortalize this event.  However, at that same time a cloud envelopes them and they are frightened. From the cloud is heard Father God which invites the disciples to not be afraid and encourages them to listen to his son Jesus. We are also called today to the intimacy with God and have the certainty that if we listen to Jesus is doing what Father God asks of us.
 
I'm very happy to come back to our parish of Mount Carmel-St. Benedicta-Santa Mary of the Assumption.
 
I do it, seven years after having teaching at the Loyola College in Manhattan. When Fr. Provincial assigned me to this mission, I did not hesitate to hear his words and accepted the challenge of being your pastor. In a brief private conversation with Pope Francis I told him happily of coming to Staten Island and that thanked him for his teachings, I also want to be "a shepherd with the smell of sheep". Somehow listening to Pope Francis and my religious superior, I know that I am also doing what God asks of us.
 
  Fr. Hernan Paredes, S.J