2nd Sunday of Lent
My dear parishioners,
God is Good!!! All the time!!! And all the time!!! God is Good!!!
Mark’s story of the transfiguration of Jesus comes a little over halfway through the Gospel narrative. The disciples have struggled with understanding Jesus’ true identity. They love his miracle-working but cannot understand why he tells them to keep it quiet. With the transfiguration story, Mark in effect stops all the action in the Gospel narrative and gives everyone a quick glimpse at the real identity of Jesus. The disciples do not grasp this, but hopefully the reader of the Gospel will.
The event. The actual transfiguration of Jesus is described very briefly. “He was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” The event took place on a mountain, which is a favorite location for extraordinary manifestations of God. Peter, James, and John accompany Jesus and they witness the transfiguration. The transformation Jesus undergoes serves to allow his divine and glorious identity to be manifested.
Elijah and Moses. Elijah and Moses appear along with the transfigured Jesus and they are all in conversation. Traditionally, Elijah symbolizes the prophets, Moses symbolizes the law. Together they symbolize the law and the prophets, which was a favorite way of referring to divine revelation. Jesus is in their midst serving as the fullness of this divine revelation. Peter is dumbfounded and terrified by all this and connects it with the Feast of Tabernacles, where people spent time in tents commemorating the wilderness journey and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.
The beloved son. The key to this entire event is the divine voice that comes from the cloud and identifies Jesus. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” This same voice was heard at the Baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:11). This is the identity Jesus has been revealing to his disciples throughout the Gospel, but they have failed to grasp what he has been saying. True to form, the disciples miss the point of this transfiguration event. It ends almost as soon as it began. Jesus, knowing that the disciples had not grasped his meaning, charges them not to repeat what they have just witnessed because they will only promote more misunderstanding. Hopefully when the Son of Man has risen from the dead, all this will make sense to the disciples.
Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org.©2018. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius