Our collect for today asks that we may be changed into the likeness of Christ, transformed into the imago dei we were created to be in the beginning. No matter what word we may use for such change, transformation, sanctification, deification, divinization, it recognizes that it is God’s work within us that brings it to pass.

Our task is to be open to receive God’s grace however it may come, changing us from our self-centeredness to the compassionate self-giving ways of the Divine. As Richard Rohr put it in his daily email meditation of 1/25/16, “God is eternally giving away God.” The season of Lent which begins this week provides the opportunity for us to focus on unveiling our face as the apostle Paul puts it in our epistle for today, to let go of all that we have allowed to separate us from God’s loving embrace.

For most of us, our transformation is a long, slow, day-by-day process. Seldom do we notice a change as it is happening. We may from time to time, however, be able to look back over time and realize we are somehow different from what we were in the past and recognize that it was God’s grace, not our personal efforts, that effected the change in our hearts and minds. Occasionally, someone may be turned inside out as Paul was on the road to Damascus, yet even he continued to grow in love as he lived into his ministry. Whether you are aware of it or not, you can trust that you are being transformed “from one degree of glory to another” as the Holy Spirit abides and works in you, so long as you make yourself open and available to the Holy One.