X-Men Transfigurations!

"It spreads through me body and soul,

Like some loathsome disease,

Corrupting everything it touches,

Reshaping me in its own image.

If unchecked,

It will consume me.

I will die.

It will live in my place."

"I face... two paths.... I am so far from home. I feel so lost, so alone.... Help me!!"

"The metamorphosis is nearly complete..."

"... when the shuttle emerges from the nebula..."

"The light

--so brilliant, so blinding--

what can it be?"

"I... I'm myself again!"

"I face not two paths, but three."

"Out of fear, I denied the one I knew in my heart that I would take. I could not face the X-Men, tainted as I was by the monster within me, and so I fled. I wish I could see them now, to tell them how much I love them all... to bid them farewell." -- Ororo

In 1992, Marvel came out with a Transfigurations! story-arc. The X-Men were all in space and some of them became infected by an Aliens-like creature. The "Mother Queen of the Brood" succeeded in planting a seed in the storm-goddess herself.

The evil being grows inside of Storm. It feeds off of her. And, it wants to take complete control of her. It almost does.

She hurtles herself from her star-ship, willing to die rather than live with such a wretched infection eating away at her.

Although she risked death, she turns out fine. Her mutation sustains her. Before she left her ship, she had entered a star cluster. The light from the stars, along with the worlds within her vicinity, boosted Storm's mutant ability.

This is what had happened to the Roman Catholic Church.

Before Martin Luther's time (1517), the Devil had managed to plant enough seeds in the Church to corrupt it completely. Instead of being the mouthpiece of God, the Pope had been turned into an office of Satan. Luther knew that now was the time to repent. "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent,' He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance" (1). No one stood above the Law of God. Those who had been called into the offices of the Church had begun to see themselves as above the Law. Yet, Luther stressed that all vocations were to be the same. Everyone has a service of God to perform in their life, not just those in the church. And, simultaneously, everyone needs repentance, not just those who do not serve the church.

Instead of the Church remaining the innocent and holy, pure Bride of Christ, it had become a monster worthy of membership with the Brood. Or, worse, the Roman Church had become a member of the ranks of Antichrists  leading people to Hell itself. It was a slow change, but one that needed to be stopped.

And, Luther was willing to take the jump. He would rather lose his soul to Hell, he was excommunicated after all, than see the Bride of Christ completely controlled by the Devil. He took his stand.

He knew that the repentance spoken of above has a meaning that is "not restricted to repentance in one's heart; for such repentance is null unless it produces outward signs in various mortifications of the flesh" (3). He had to take action, on the outside, to stop the demons from growing on the inside. He put up the 95 Theses.

But, how did Luther see the demon? How was he able to save the Church from its own sinful demise?

He wasn't.

"Christians should be exhorted to be zealous to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hells" (94).

What Luther had studied was the Gospel. He was able to see and become influenced by the Light-- so brilliant, so blinding... This Light of the Gospel worked through him. It opened up more choices than he could have ever imagined before. The Holy Spirit moved and led him to take the leap. He jumped out of the norm, and a reformation subsided. It wasn't by his own power, although he is often given credit, but by the power of God at work through him. At the end of it all, Luther remained solely a man. Yet, God was able to work through him to change the world.

But, here at the end we're reminded of something. We are not immune to the Devil. We are not immune to death. We are not immune to sin. We are just as bad as the Roman Catholic Church had been. We are infested by seeds of doubt, seeds of corruption, seeds of sin. We too are just people in need of repentance. We see ourselves as bigger than we really are. We miss the need for knowing who God truly is. We hide from the light and let our own darkness grow. We cannot be afraid to turn to others for help.

At the end of the comic book, Storm's only regret was her lack of trust in her friends, the X-Men. Before the comic begins, Storm made the choice to get as far away from her team as she could. She takes off into the abyss of the heavens in order to save them from the monster she assumes she'll become. What she had missed was the support and the care that she really needed from the rest of her team.

If we are to know anything it should be that we cannot do it alone. Without friends of the faith, fellowship, or a support-system, we can fall away all too quickly (we give into Bacon's idols).

Still, even with other sinners' help we may become a beast. Just look at what happened to the Church. Not only do we need a team, we need God. Christ is the only safe and secure foundation. He is a cornerstone that never crumbles.

Instead of being transformed by Satan into a pawn of his horrendous army,

We need to become transformed by Christ.

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

2 Corinthians 5:17.

One way or another, we're going to change.

Wouldn't it be better to change for the good?