Commenting on the Transfiguration, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar indicates the reality of what it will mean for Peter and the other disciples to follow Jesus: “To truly hear and really be overshadowed will be their lot only after Easter” (Light of the Word, p.55).  The ‘not understanding’, the ‘not hearing’ of Peter and the disciples is vivid in this gospel of the Transfiguration.  It takes time does it not to understand deep spiritual truths.  That we have resistance is part of the struggle to understand and to truly hear…And our struggle is not unlike what the disciples went through.  What creates the light of understanding?  What helps us to ‘truly hear’? What is this overshadowing?  Overshadowed by what?  Remember where we first hear this image of ‘overshadowing’?  Mary, at the Annunciation, was overshadowed by the Spirit.  Today’s gospel of the Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-9) reveals the overshadowing of Jesus by the Spirit…and then he is transfigured, bathed in Divine light.  And we hear, like at his baptism, the Divine voice saying to the disciples and to us: “Listen to him”.

In today’s gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent what is moving to note is that this is the second and last time we hear God speaking directly and verbally to Jesus in the gospels.  The first time is at Jesus’ baptism: “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you’” (Mk 1:11).  And then the last time at Jesus’ Transfiguration: “There came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved.  Listen to him’” (Mk 9:8).  What is striking from both events is the love bestowed, and then a love that becomes the bond, that seals the relationship: Father to Son, Son to Father.  From this it becomes clear that God’s gift to us is his beloved Son. These two encounters with God in Jesus’ life are events where the voice of God is saying and confirming to Jesus, ‘You are my beloved Son’.  In today’s gospel God adds: ‘Listen to him’, listen to my beloved Son.  We are thus being invited into relationship with Jesus and through him to God…and we are asked to ‘listen’, to listen to Jesus.

All three synoptic gospels have accounts of the temptations and of Jesus’ transfiguration. What is important to note about todays’ gospel is that all three evangelists precede the account of the Transfiguration with Jesus saying ‘if any want to be a follower of mine they must deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow me’ (Lk 9:23). 

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 54 The Reception of Letters and Gifts in the Monastery
Mass: Da 7:9-10, 13-14; Resp Ps 97; 2 P 1:16-19; Mk 9:2-10


MOUNT TABORMOUNT OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apa

Readings of the day: RB 19 Our Approach to PrayerMass: Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Resp Ps 116; Rm 8:31b-34; Mk 9:2-10


This is my beloved Son.Listen to him.
Today’s Gospel prompted me to pull out picture postcards from a 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of my favorite excursio