The Second Sunday in Lent, February 28, 2021

Mark 9:2–10

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.  As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what ‘rising from the dead’ meant.

We humans can read about a thing, study it, analyze it, and feel that we can know it well, but often when we come face to face with it for the first time, we are stunned by its reality.  The numbers on paper describing it do not begin to tell of its true size or grandeur, as we experience it in person.  In the same way, the Lord had prepared Peter, James, and John to witness his Transfiguration through healing the blind, the deaf, and the lame, and by raising the dead.  Peter had confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Even so, what these men saw on the mountain “greatly terrified” them, according to the Greek.  Peter, the boldest of the three, was reduced to babbling about building tents.

What did these three men see?   They saw that the Lord’s clothes “became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.”  We note that Mark describes the Lord’s clothes, but not his face.  St. Matthew tells us that the Lord’s face “shone as the sun” (Matthew 17, 2).  No word, no sound, told them what was about to happen.  The Lord stood before them, and then it happened, perhaps very suddenly.  Elijah and Moses stood with him, as though a curtain had been drawn to reveal that they had been with the Lord all along.  The Apostles saw these two great men of Israel “conversing with Jesus”.  St. Luke tells us that “they spoke of his exodus that he should accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9, 31).  The Greek word is, in fact, “exodus”, the same word that describes the departure of the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt for the Promised Land.  The Lord would have been preparing Elijah and Moses for his Passion and Death, teaching them how he would fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  In this way, he showed the Apostles that he himself was the culmination of the Law and the Prophets, and that they were subordinate to him.  The Apostles also saw a great cloud overshadow them, and they heard a voice of great power blare out from it: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”  This commandment from heaven acted to confirm Peter’s confession of the Lord Jesus as the Son of the living God, in an unforgettable way.  

“Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.”  For a single moment after hearing the voice, the Apostles stared about them at the revealed glory of their Lord, and then it was all gone.  This would have been as much a cause of wonderment as its arrival.  Jesus gave them no time to recover, or even to rub their eyes.  He had shown them what he wanted them to see, and now he gave them an order they would have no trouble following: “As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone.”  They themselves did not begin to understand until after the Resurrection what they had seen, and only then could tell the others about it.

“Except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”  They struggled among themselves to know what he meant when he said that he would rise from the dead.  It was a phrase shrouded in mystery for them, but they only asked themselves what it might mean, as though, on their own, they could comprehend it.  They did not ask the Lord.

The Lord’s glory shines around us all the time.  At the offering of the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, angels fill the sanctuary of the Church to adore their Incarnate God.  They fill the places where he is enshrined in tabernacles.  A blaze of grace fires around the holy men and women of our world.  Miracles go unnoticed despite their power.  As we grow in holiness we will do better than to see these with our eyes, which can be distrusted; we will know them with our souls.