The 17th century English poet, John Donne, tells of a
man searching for God. He is convinced that God lives on the top of a mountain
at the end of the earth. After a journey of many days, the man arrives at the
foot of the mountain and begins to climb it. At the same time God says to the
angels: “What can I do to show my people how much I love them?” He decides to
descend the mountain and live among the people as one of them. As the man is
going up one side of the mountain, God is descending the other side. They don’t
see each other because they are on opposite sides of the mountain. On reaching
the summit, the man discovers an empty mountaintop. Heartbroken, the man concludes
that God does not exist. Despite speculation to the contrary, God does not live
on mountaintops, deserts, or at the end of the earth, or even in some Heaven, -
God dwells among human beings and in the person of Jesus. – Staying on in the
safety of the mountain is what Peter would prefer. During the Transfiguration,
Peter and his companions got a glimpse of the future glory of Jesus’
Resurrection. They want nothing more. However, after they come down the
mountain, they are told by Jesus that the glory they witnessed would be real
only after he had gone through suffering and death. We too will share in his
glory, only by sharing in his suffering and death.
Today’s Gospel describing Christ’s Transfiguration
challenges us to revitalize our Faith as true disciples of Christ, just as the
passages from Daniel and II Peter were written to strengthen the Faith of their
audiences in times of persecution.
In the second reading, St. Peter argues that the
Transfiguration of Jesus Christ and the testimony of the Old Testament prophets
(in the Messianic prophecies) are the guarantee of the doctrine of Christ's
Second Coming. The primary purpose of Jesus’ Transfiguration was to allow Jesus
to consult his Heavenly Father in order to ascertain His plan for His
Son’s suffering, death and Resurrection. The secondary aim was to make
his chosen disciples aware of Jesus’ Divine glory, so that they might discard
their worldly ambitions and dreams of a conquering political Messiah and might
be strengthened in their time of trial. On the mountain, Jesus is identified by
the Heavenly Voice as the Son of God. Thus, the Transfiguration event is a
Christophany, that is, a manifestation or revelation of Who Jesus really is.
While praying, Jesus was transfigured into
a shining figure, full of Heavenly glory. This reminds us
of Moses and Elijah who also experienced the Lord in all His glory.
Moses had met the Lord in the burning bush at Mount Horeb (Ex
3:1-4). After his later encounter with
God, Moses' face shone so brightly that it frightened the people, and Moses had
to wear a veil over his face (Ex 34:29-35). The luminosity of the face of Moses
is also meant to signal the invasion of God. The Jews believed that Moses was
taken up in a cloud at end of his earthly life (Josephus, Antiquities of the
Jews, 4. 326). Elijah had traveled
for forty days to Mt. Horeb on the strength of the food brought by an
angel (1 Kings 19:8). At Mt. Horeb, Elijah sought refuge in a cave
as the glory of the Lord passed over him (1 Kings 19:9-18).
Finally, Elijah was taken directly to Heaven in a chariot of fire without
experiencing death (2 Kings 2:11-15). In addition, “Moses led his people out of
slavery in Egypt, received the Torah on Mount Sinai and brought God’s people to
the edge of the Promised Land. Elijah, the great prophet in northern Israel
during the ninth century BC, performed healings and other miracles and stood up
to Israel’s external enemies and the wicked within Israel. Their presence in
Matthew’s Transfiguration account emphasizes Jesus’ continuity with the Law
(Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) in salvation history.”(Fr. Harrington S. J.)
Each Sacrament that we receive transforms us.
Baptism, for example, transforms us into sons and daughters of God and heirs of
heaven. Confirmation makes us the temples of the Holy Spirit. By
approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we recognize, repenting, that
we have sinned, God brings us back to the path of holiness. By receiving in
Faith the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we are spiritually, and if
God wills physically, healed and our sins are forgiven. So, God offers us the
opportunity to transform us everyday into his likeness and glory.
In our everyday lives, we
often fail to recognize Jesus when he appears to us “transfigured,” hidden in
someone who is in some kind of need.
Jesus will be happy when we attend to the needs of that person. With the eyes of Faith, we must see Jesus in
every one of our brothers and sisters, the children of God we come across each
day and, by His grace, respond to Him in them with love and service.
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