Scott Hahn with David Scott
Today’s Gospel portrays Jesus as a new and greater Moses.
Moses also took three companions up a mountain and on the seventh day was overshadowed by the shining cloud of God’s presence. He too spoke with God and his face and clothing were made radiant in the encounter (see Exodus 24,34).
But in today’s Lenten Liturgy, the Church wants us to look back past Moses. Indeed, we are asked to contemplate what today’s Epistle calls God’s “design…from before time began.”
With his promises to Abram in today’s First Reading, God formed the people through whom He would reveal himself and bestow His blessings on all humanity.
He later elevated these promises to eternal covenants and changed Abram’s name to Abraham, promising that he would be father of a host nations (see Genesis 17:5). In remembrance of His covenant with Abraham he raised up Moses (see Exodus 2:24; 3:8), and later swore an everlasting kingdom to David ‘s sons (see Jeremiah 33:26).
In Jesus’ transfiguration today, He is revealed as the One through whom God fulfills his divine plan from of old.
Not only a new Moses, Jesus is also the “beloved son” promised to Abraham and again to David (see Genesis 22:15-18; Psalm 2:7; Matthew 1:1).
Moses foretold a prophet like him to whom Israel would listen (see Deuteronomy 18:15,18) and Isaiah foretold an anointed servant in whom God would be well-pleased (see Isaiah 42:1). Jesus is this prophet and this servant, as the Voice on the mountain tells us today.
By faith we have been made children of the covenant with Abraham (see Galatians 3:7-9; Acts 3:25). He calls us, too, to a holy life, to follow His Son to the heavenly homeland He has promised. We know, as we sing in today’s Psalm, that we who hope in Him will be delivered from death.
So like our father in faith, we go forth as the Lord directs us: “Listen to Him!”
St. Leo the Great
Sermon 51
The apostles, who need to be strengthened in their faith, received a teaching in the miracle of the Transfiguration that would offer them appropriate guidance for all knowledge.
Moses and Elijah, that is to say the Law and the prophets, appeared talking to the Lord… As Saint John says: “The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” (Jn 1,17).
The apostle Peter was rapt in ecstasy, so to speak, with desire for eternal happiness; full of joy at such a vision, he desired to live with Jesus somewhere where his glory manifested like this would fill him with joy.
So he said: “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
But the Lord made no answer to this proposal since he wanted to show, not that this desire was a bad one, certainly, but that it was misplaced. For the world cannot be saved except through the death of Christ.
And the Lord’s example invites the faith of the believer to grasp how, without our being allowed to doubt the promised happiness, we ought nevertheless, amidst the temptations of this life, to ask for patience rather than glory, since the happiness of the Kingdom cannot come before the time of suffering.
That is why, even as he spoke, a bright cloud covered them and a voice proclaimed from out of the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”…
“This is my Son, through whom all things came to be and without whom nothing came to be,” (Jn 1,3). All that I do, he does likewise; all that I work, he works with me, indistinguishably and without any difference (Jn 5,17-19)…
This is my Son, who did not grasp jealously at the equality he shares with me, who did not lay claim to his rights, but while remaining within my divine glory, humbled himself to take the form of a slave (Phil 2,6f.) so as to accomplish our common design for the restoration of humankind.
Therefore listen unhesitatingly to him in whom I am well pleased, whose teaching makes me known, whose humility gives me glory, for he is the Truth and the Life (Jn 14,6). He is my power and wisdom (1Cor 1,24). Listen to him who redeems the world by his blood…, who opens the way to heaven through the agony of the cross.
Saint Ephrem
Opera Omnia
Simon Peter said: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” What on earth are you saying, Peter? If we stay here who will bring to pass the prophecies of the prophets? Who will confirm the words of the heralds? Who will bring to completion the mysteries of the righteous? If we stay here, in whom will these words be fulfilled: “They pierced my hands and my feet”?
To whom will the following be applied: “They shared my garments among them, cast lots for my robe”? (Ps 22[21], 17,19; Jn 19,24). Who will bring to pass the declaration of the Psalm: “For food they gave me poison and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”? (69[68],22; Mt 27,34; Jn 19,29). Who will live out the statement: “Freed among the dead”? (Ps 87,6 Heb.) How will my promises be carried into effect, how will my Church be built?
And again Peter said: “Let us make here three tents : one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah”. Sent to build the Church in the world, Peter wants to set up three tents on the mountain. As yet he only sees Christ as a man, he sets him on a level with Moses and Elijah. But Jesus will very soon show him he has no need of a tent. He was the one who, for forty years, set up a covering of cloud for the Fathers while they were dwelling in the wilderness (Ex 40,34).
“But while they were still speaking a bright cloud covered them with its shadow”. Now, Simon, do you see this tent set up so effortlessly? This bright and shining tent dispels the heat without consisting of darkness! While the disciples still stood amazed, the Father’s voice was heard from the cloud: “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom is all my delight; listen to him!”…
The Father was teaching the disciples that Moses’ mission had been fulfilled: from now on they must listen to the Son . On the mountain the Father revealed to the apostles what was still hidden from them: “He who is” reveals “He who is” (Ex 3,14), the Father makes known his Son.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, February 17, 2008
Today, the Second Sunday of Lent, as we continue on the penitential journey, the liturgy invites us, after presenting the Gospel of Jesus’ temptations in the desert last week, to reflect on the extraordinary event of the Transfiguration on the mountain.
Considered together, these episodes anticipate the Paschal Mystery: Jesus’ struggle with the tempter preludes the great final duel of the Passion, while the light of his transfigured Body anticipates the glory of the Resurrection. On the one hand, we see Jesus, fully man, sharing with us even temptation; on the other, we contemplate him as the Son of God who divinizes our humanity.
Thus, we could say that these two Sundays serve as pillars on which to build the entire structure of Lent until Easter, and indeed, the entire structure of Christian life, which consists essentially in paschal dynamism: from death to life.
The mountain – Mount Tabor, like Sinai – is the place of nearness to God. Compared with daily life it is the lofty space in which to breathe the pure air of creation. It is the place of prayer in which to stand in the Lord’s presence like Moses and Elijah, who appeared beside the transfigured Jesus and spoke to him of the “exodus” that awaited him in Jerusalem, that is, his Pasch.
The Transfiguration is a prayer event: in praying, Jesus is immersed in God, closely united to him, adhering with his own human will to the loving will of the Father, and thus light invades him and appears visibly as the truth of his being: he is God, Light of Light. Even Jesus’ raiment becomes dazzling white. This is reminiscent of the white garment worn by neophytes. Those who are reborn in Baptism are clothed in light, anticipating heavenly existence (cf. Rev 7: 9, 13).
This is the crucial point: the Transfiguration is an anticipation of the Resurrection, but this presupposes death. Jesus expresses his glory to the Apostles so that they may have the strength to face the scandal of the Cross and understand that it is necessary to pass through many tribulations in order to reach the Kingdom of God.
The Father’s voice, which resounds from on high, proclaims Jesus his beloved Son as he did at the Baptism in the Jordan, adding: “Listen to him” (Mt 17: 5).
To enter eternal life requires listening to Jesus, following him on the way of the Cross, carrying in our heart like him the hope of the Resurrection. “Spe salvi”, saved in hope. Today we can say: “Transfigured in hope”.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, March 20, 2011
This Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, is called “of the Transfiguration” because the Gospel recounts this mystery of Jesus’ life. After Jesus had foretold his Passion to the disciples, “he took with him Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light” (Mt 17:1-2).
According to the senses the light of the sun is the brightest light known in nature but, according to the spirit, the disciples briefly glimpsed an even more intense splendour, that of the divine glory of Jesus which illumines the whole history of salvation. St Maximus Confessor says that “[the Lord’s] garments appear white, that is to say, the words of the Gospel will then be clear and distinct, with nothing concealed” (Ambiguum 10: PG 91, 1128 B).
The Gospel tells that beside the transfigured Jesus “there appeared… Moses and Elijah, talking with him” (Mt 17:3); Moses and Elijah, figure of the Law and of the Prophets. It was then that Peter, ecstatic, exclaimed “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Mt 17:4).
However St Augustine commented, saying that we have only one dwelling place, Christ: “he is the Word of God, the Word of God in the Law, the Word of God in the Prophets” (Sermo De Verbis Ev. 78:3: PL 38, 491).
In fact, the Father himself proclaims: “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Mt 17:5). The Transfiguration is not a change in Jesus but the revelation of his divinity: “the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light. In his oneness with the Father, Jesus is himself ‘light from light'” (Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, Doubleday, New York, 2007, p. 310).
Peter, James and John, contemplating the divinity of the Lord, are ready to face the scandal of the Cross, as it is sung in an ancient hymn: “You were transfigured on the mountain and your disciples, insofar as they were able, contemplated your glory, in order that, on seeing you crucified, they would understand that your Passion was voluntary and proclaim to the world that you are truly the splendour of the Father” (Rome 1901, 341).
Dear friends, let us too share in this vision and in this supernatural gift, making room for prayer, and for listening to the Word of God. Further, especially in this Season of Lent, I urge you, as the Servant of God Paul VI wrote, “to respond to the divine precept of penitence by some voluntary act, apart from the renunciation imposed by the burdens of everyday life” (Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini, 17 February 1966, III, c: AAS 58 [1966], 182).
