Second Sunday of Lent A-1
Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 27 (26):8-9 Of you my heart has spoken, Seek his face. It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me.
Or: Cf. Ps 25 (24):6, 2, 22 Remember your compassion, O Lord, and your merciful love, for they are from of old. Let not our enemies exult over us. Redeem us, O God of Israel, from all our distress.
Collect O God, who have commanded us to listen to your beloved Son, be pleased, we pray, to nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Scripture today: Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; 2 Timothy 1:8b-10; Matthew 17:1-9
Six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain alone where he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow. Behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elias. As he was still speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke from the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” The disciples hearing this, fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them and said to them, “Arise, and do not fear.” Lifting their eyes they saw no one but only Jesus. As they came down from the mountain Jesus charged them saying, “Tell the vision to no one till the Son of man has risen from the dead.” (Matthew 17:1-9)
The Transfiguration There is no doubt that in the minds of the three Apostles who witnessed it, this event of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain had great significance. They saw his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Matthew — from whose Gospel our passage today is taken — tells us (ch.3:17) that during Christ’s baptism by John in the Jordan, the voice of the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the beloved. My favour rests on him.” St John in his Gospel tells us (ch.1:34) that John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus, the promised One, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, he who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, was “the Son of God.” That is to say that at the beginning, both the Father himself and the prophet John had borne witness to his person. Then during his public ministry the burden of Christ’s teaching centred precisely around his own person and his relationship with his heavenly Father. God is his very own Father. He is the Son. The “Jews” (in St John’s Gospel) picked up stones with which to stone him for this, because in referring to God as his own Father he was making himself equal to God. He was the long awaited Messiah, but what a Messiah! He was far more than was predicted. God himself had come to dwell with his people and, as the divine Messiah, he would save his people and all of God’s children from their sins. Now, here on the mountain shortly before he would bear witness unto death to the truth of his person, the Father himself again bears witness, just as he did at the baptism. Christ’s glory was revealed. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became a dazzling white. His glory completely outshone that of Moses and Elijah who while they appear with him, are not, in this account, described as having this same glory. This glory is Christ’s own, and it is the glory of God. The brightness increased, for a “bright cloud” overshadowed them and from it came the voice of the Father, revealing that this Jesus is his own Son. All are to listen to him. (Matthew 17:1‑9)
The great and remarkable theologian St Thomas Aquinas understood this Gospel scene as above all revealing the Blessed Trinity. The bright cloud was the splendour of the Holy Spirit by whose power all this was happening. The Father was speaking as he had at the Baptism. The Son was being revealed as the glorious Image and Word of the Father. In his brightness the Holy Spirit was lighting up and making known to the three Apostles both the Father and the Son. All three are shown in the glory of the godhead. The Trinity is the distinctive revelation of the New Testament, brought to man by Christ, just as Christ himself is made known by the Father and the Spirit. “No one knows the Father except the Son, just as no one knows the Son except the Father and those to whom the Father chooses to reveal him.” On the Mountain the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the Son to be his own, and to be his Word to whom all are to heed. There is, of course, nothing like it in all of history. This Man is the centre of all human history and is its glory and boast. The almighty Father has pointed to him and the Holy Spirit has manifested his glory. The Transfiguration of Christ reveals the mystery of the most holy Trinity, the one only God being three divine persons, each of whom is equally the one God. It also reveals the glory that is heaven and to which we are all called. We are meant by God for glory and this for ever. But most importantly, in the event of the Transfiguration we are shown not only our vocation to glory but the path to it. Glory will be ours if we take our stand with Jesus and follow along his way. His way is that of obedience to the will of God in the midst of suffering — in other words, the Cross. If every day we take our stand with Jesus, following along his path which is the will of God whatever be the cost, then we shall share in the glory here manifested on the mountain. That glory will be ours according to our measure. It will be glory upon glory and forever. But the only way to it is in and through Jesus. He who is equal to the Father is the only way to the Father.
Let us repeatedly contemplate Christ in glory on the Mountain. He is the object of our love and our hopes. He is our Way. He is the Truth and the Life. The Father almighty has said so. He has said that he, Jesus of Nazareth, is his beloved Son, and that all are to listen to him. This is what each of us must resolve to do daily and this is the message we must bear witness to in the world around us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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