An Advance Glimpse of Glory

Transfiguration of the Lord

 August 6, Friday

According to St. Luke, when Jesus is about to depart for Jerusalem to make his “exodus” for his passion and death, the light of his resurrection is already projected on him at his transfiguration. It comes as an encouraging foretaste of his glory to strengthen him on the road to suffering. Shortly before the Passion, when the faith of the apostles will be sorely tested, Jesus shows them his true face transfigured by God’s light. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, also bear witness to him. This is God’s beloved Son: listen to him, look beyond appearances. This vision and message is also given to us in the eucharist of today.

 

First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10,13-14

“As I was watching all this,

“Thrones were set in place
and The Old One sat down.
His robes were white as snow,
his hair was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
its wheels blazing.
A river of fire
poured out of the throne.
Thousands upon thousands served him,
tens of thousands attended him.
The courtroom was called to order,
and the books were opened.”

My dream continued.

“I saw a human form, a son of man,
arriving in a whirl of clouds.
He came to The Old One
and was presented to him.
He was given power to rule—all the glory of royalty.
Everyone—race, color, and creed—had to serve him.
His rule would be forever, never ending.
His kingly rule would never be replaced.”

 

Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19

We weren’t, you know, just wishing on a star when we laid the facts out before you regarding the powerful return of our Master, Jesus Christ. We were there for the preview! We saw it with our own eyes: Jesus resplendent with light from God the Father as the voice of Majestic Glory spoke: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight.” We were there on the holy mountain with him. We heard the voice out of heaven with our very own ears.

We couldn’t be more sure of what we saw and heard—God’s glory, God’s voice.

 

Gospel: Mark 9:2-10

Six days later, three of them did see it. Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. His clothes shimmered, glistening white, whiter than any bleach could make them. Elijah, along with Moses, came into view, in deep conversation with Jesus.

Peter interrupted, “Rabbi, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking, stunned as they all were by what they were seeing.

Just then a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and from deep in the cloud, a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love. Listen to him.”

The next minute the disciples were looking around, rubbing their eyes, seeing nothing but Jesus, only Jesus.

Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t tell a soul what you saw. After the Son of Man rises from the dead, you’re free to talk.” They puzzled over that, wondering what on earth “rising from the dead” meant.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
at the transfiguration of Jesus
you gave eyes of faith to the apostles
to see beyond appearances
and to recognize Jesus as your beloved Son.
Strengthen our faith too
in the person and message of your Son.
Help us to recognize something of his face
in our brothers and sisters
and to encounter him in one another,
that we may journey with him
and share in his glory for ever. Amen.

Reflection:

This is my beloved Son

Today’s Gospel opens with the phrase: “After six days.” What happened before six days? Probably it is a reference to the Gospel we have listened to yesterday – a question on the identity of Jesus that occurred in the region of Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16:13-20). There, Peter professed his faith in Jesus: “You are the Messiah,” although his idea of the Messiah was a wrong one: “You are thinking not as God does, but as people do,” Jesus told Peter. Now it becomes a necessity for Jesus to rectify this false idea about the Messiah: as one who rules over the people with power, a Messiah that dominates. The true Messiah is the one who serves, the one who is humble and disregards his divinity and takes the form of a helpless human being. Therefore he takes a group of his disciples who were probably the most prepared to accept the novelty of the Kingdom, and takes them up the mountain. The gospel speaks of a high mountain. In biblical language, the mountain does not indicate a material place, but the inner experience of a manifestation of God, where the intimacy with the Lord culminates. That is, it reaches heaven, reaches God. The mountain indicates the world of God. If you want to find the Lord, if you want to accept his thinking, his way of evaluating, of judging, it is necessary to disconnect with the plains of this world, where the crowds gather, where reasonings and gossips that have nothing to do with God’s way of thinking circulate. Jesus takes them apart. And this is what we are invited to do. If we want to experience the Lord, it is necessary to make a space where we isolate ourselves from noise, confusion, even the worries of everyday life and to enter moments of silence. The disciples loved idea of remaining in those moments of spiritual intimacy. Peter exclaims: “Lord, it is good that we are here.” He has been delighted with beauty of the face of God. And we are invited to see the beauty of this face by going up the mountain. Six days ago Jesus had asked Peter and his company, “Who do you say that I am?” And today, they are given an answer on the mountain of intimacy with Jesus – they listened to the answer very clearly: “This is my beloved Son, Listen to him.” The contemplation of this beauty is not enough; it is necessary to come down the mountain, return to everyday life, leave the church and start loving. Return to work, to one’s own social responsibilities; develop the profession one has, but in a different way from how it is done in the plain

 

Video available on Youtube : This is my beloved Son