Pope says we need Christ’s light to overcome life’s darkness, trials

(March 05, 2012) The light needed to overcome the darkness and trials of life comes from God, as demonstrated by the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the "light" of the Transfiguration with a large crowd that had gathered in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square on Sunday to recite the weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with him. The Pope recalled Sunday’s Gospel reading on the Transfiguration saying in the mystery, Jesus "reveals his divine glory, which is the splendour of Truth and Love. He said that in the Gospel of the Second Sunday of Lent Jesus wants His light to illuminate the hearts of the apostles "when they cross the pitch darkness of his passion and death, when the scandal of the cross will be for them unbearable. The Pope said, “God is light and Jesus wants to give his closest friends the experience of this light, which lies in him". All of us "need an inner light to overcome the trials of life. This light comes from God, and it is Christ who gives it to us." Pope Benedict pointed out that that the light and glory of the Transfiguration of Jesus cannot be separated from completing his mission, knowing that to achieve resurrection, he will have to go through the passion and the death on the cross. “All of us need an inner light to overcome the trails of life,” the Pope said. “This light comes from God, and it is Christ who gives it to us, He in whom lives the fullness of the divinity,” the Pope added.