Cycle A - Year 1:  

12 March 2017: Second Sunday of Lent

(Liturgical Color: Violet)

Gospel:Please Read Matthew 17:1-9

Transfiguration: a glimpse of the Lord's divinity!

The song:

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

This is a popular Lenten song for Via Crucis. It speaks of the Lord's passion and suffering.

But then, we were not there in the time of Jesus to witness the event. How can we relate?

The movie "The Passion of Christ" presents it to us in a very realistic and brutal way. It was like we were actually there watching Jesus' suffering as He was led to Calvary.I was overwhelmed with emotions watching this great movie.

So we understand; we can relate. It must have been more depressing and frightening for the disciples. They must have experienced gloom and despair as they witnessed Christ's terrible suffering and death. That must have shaken their faith in the man Jesus, whom they thought to be the Messiah. How can a God suffer so much? 

So Jesus prepared the disciples  for His coming passion and death. As they were travelling to Jerusalem where suffering and death awaits Jesus, their journey was briefly interrupted by an experience of Jesus' transfiguration upon a mountain. Jesus appeared in glory with Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel, and with Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, in the presence of three of His beloved apostles, Peter, John and James. St, Matthew's account tells us that Jesus' "face shone like the sun and his clothes become white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him."

The transfiguration was a unique display of Jesus' divine character and a glimpse

of the glory which Jesus had before He came down on earth in human form. In theological language, the transfiguration is an experience of "the already of the not yet" for the beloved disciples, so that the "inner circle" of Jesus' disciples could gain a greater understanding of who Jesus really was. Thus, the disciples who had only known Jesus in His human body, now had a greater realization of the deity of Christ, even when perhaps they could not fully comprehend it at that time. Nevertheless, the experience gave them the reassurance they needed after hearing the shocking news of Jesus' coming death.

And so the lucky disciples never forgot what happened that day on the mountain. They bore witness to it to the other disciples and to countless millions down through the centuries. They even wrote of their witnessing the transfiguration later on:

St. John wrote in his gospel: "We have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." (Jn 1:14).

St. Peter wrote of it as well: "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain." (2 Peter 1:16-18)

Thus, the account of the transfiguration confirmed for Matthew's readers that Jesus indeed was the Son of God and pointed to the fulfillment of the prediction that He will come in His Father's glory at the end of age.

In sum, the message of the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ is that God wants to share His glory with us. 

And so with the eyes of faith, we, too see Jesus' transfiguration in the Holy Eucharist at Mass. When we actually receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, He gives us the grace to sustain us in our difficult and challenging journey through life. Jesus in the Holy Eucharist makes light our way of the cross in this life. So receiving Jesus frequently in the Holy Eucharist is a foretaste of His resurrection, like our own experience of :the already of the not yet" in our time. It is our assurance of God's ultimate victory over sin and evil.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!