A well-used word today is transition, especially as it applies to the various changes in life that we encounter and the subsequent adjustments that we must make.
This is the time of the year, with schools reopening their doors, when transitions are in full view. Children and young adults start a new academic year, while parents and grandparents may alter their schedules to support them.
Even if we don’t have children in school, we are affected, too. For example, traffic can become noticeably increased, and public places more filled with people, young and old.
Transitions usually require more patience from those who are directly and indirectly influenced by them. There is a kind of “surrender” called for, particularly if the transition is deemed necessary but found challenging or even painful. The words of St. Paul offer a helpful perspective. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle to the Gentiles included patience (also known as “forbearance”) in the list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). These fruits mark us as friends of Christ who strain against “the works of the flesh” (Gal 5:19).
There are also transitions that are profoundly spiritual, which are often more difficult to notice. Members of the human race are summoned to become disciples of Jesus. As time passes, greater fidelity is demanded in following the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the church. This change is identified by a transition from sin to virtue, enmity to affinity, despair to hope, sadness to joy, death to life.
Of course, the transformation — really, the transfiguration — that Jesus desires of us is built upon our willingness to repent of our sins and to receive his grace. We turn away from sin and turn towards the Gospel of the Lord, which is the crucial process of conversion. This is the transition that is indispensable. Christ reorients us to his word that gives life. If we accept his invitation, then we are brought to a novel reality — union with the Most Blessed Trinity.
Back to St. Paul. His journey to Damascus (Acts 9:1-22) was truly his pilgrimage to know, love and serve Jesus. And it was the main transition of his life. No longer “breathing murderous threats” (Acts 9:1) towards the Christians, St. Paul became an extraordinary witness to Jesus Christ. His zeal for the Risen Lord was not of his own design. Rather, it was given to him from on high.
Our Blessed Lady was deeply touched by the transition from virginity to virgin-motherhood. Without hesitation or complaint, she embraced all that God had in mind for her. And she also completely consented to the transition that her divine son experienced in his death on Calvary.
What awaits each of us is our transition from this life to the next. Christ has already paved the way for us by his Paschal mystery — his Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension. Where he has gone, we hope to follow.
Some of the transitions we encounter here may be irksome and burdensome. But we take heart that what is in the offing is “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rv 21:1). That transition will usher in the beginning of everlasting life in its totality. That transition is worth the effort.
Msgr. Mangan is on the faculty of Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
Corpus Christi