Year B: Second Sunday of Lent
The Transfiguration of Jesus
Mark 9: 2-10
After six days 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; then 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.
Discussion Questions:
- Reflecting on your past, share an experience where God broke through and you experienced deeper clarity, or life “beyond the circumstance.” How did this lead to new action (transfigured/transformed moment) in you? Tell the story.
- God’s voice breaks through and commands us, “Listen to Him”. Listening is a spiritual practice. How are you present, open and receptive to what Jesus is saying? What is he saying to you?
- As he did with Peter, James and John, Jesus is always pointing us “down the mountain” toward the realities of life and true discipleship. How do you balance the comfort of worshipping Jesus for His sacrifices, with the difficult challenge of following in His footsteps?
- Lent is a time for bringing what is hidden in us to light. What are places of contradiction, struggle and conflict within you presently? Could they be invitations to new places of repentance this Lent?
Biblical Context
Sr. Mary M. McGlone CSJ
Mark 9:2-10
Just before Jesus took his three closest disciples up the mountain, he was speaking of the time when the Son of Man would come in glory, what many refer to as the Parousia. Then, six days later, just the amount of time it took God to create the world, Jesus went up the mountain with the three disciples.
In the context of this Sunday’s readings, we can’t help but hear of the climb up the mountain in connection with Abraham’s journey to “a height” God would show him as the place where his test would come to its climax. Like Abraham and Isaac, Jesus and the three were alone on the mountain where Jesus’ identity would be revealed to them in a new way.
The images in the story of the Transfiguration refer to the history of Israel. Elijah went to a mountain, presumably expecting to meet God in overwhelming majesty only to discover that God’s self-revelation came unpretentiously in the gentle breeze. Elijah appears in the Transfiguration representing the whole prophetic tradition of Israel, including God’s surprising appearance.
Moses went to the mountain to meet God and to receive the commandments and the story of the Transfiguration abounds with images from Exodus. Jesus’ dazzling clothing recalls how Moses’ face glowed after meeting with God. The cloud is a reminder of that symbol of God’s presence that led the people through their trek in the desert. Moses’ presence with Jesus and Elijah obviously fills out the summary of Israel’s faith: the law and the prophets. This scene on the mountain is narrated carefully to illustrate how it was the climax of salvation history: All that God had done through Moses and the prophets was coming to its fulfillment in Jesus.
As the disciples watch between terror and amazement, they hear a voice come from the cloud which confirms what a similar voice had proclaimed to Jesus at his baptism. This time the disciples hear the voice say, “This is my beloved Son,” and the added command, “Listen to him.”
The first half of that communication tells the disciples who Jesus is in relation to everything they know from their religious tradition. God had sent prophets, God had given the Law, and now, as Jesus would say in so many parables, God had sent his Son. The second half of the communication is the one command God gives disciples: Listen to him.
Just as the mountain where Abraham took Isaac was the place where his faith was tested and made real, Jesus is revealed on the mountain as God’s last word to humanity. Jesus is the one who brings the new covenant, God’s offer of life to the world. All God asks is that, like Abraham, we put our lives in God’s hands by saying,
“Here I am.”
Spiritual Highs and Normal Life
Reflection
Sr. Mary R. Klarer OSU
On the mountaintop, Peter, James and John were caught up in an astounding experience. Overwhelmed by the splendor, Peter could only stammer, “Lord, it is good for us to be here!”
They could not comprehend the full impact of all they had seen and heard; they knew only that Christ had called them to that moment—had granted them a glimpse of glory, and they wanted it to last. Who could blame them! They could not know that they would be asked to do the impossible and to constantly say Adsum!
It had been only a week since Peter had made his first confession of faith in Christ as the Messiah. When most of his followers had walked away, Christ turned to his disciples, and asked them point blank who they thought he was. It was Peter who boldly proclaimed,” You are the Messiah!” Now that profession of faith is gloriously justified, as he, James and John see the transfigured Christ, with Moses and Elijah—and hear the words spoken from the clouds: “This is my beloved son; hear him!”
They knew that Moses and Elijah represented the Law and the prophets of the Old Testament. Now, as they disappear, and only Christ remains, they are given to know that the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in the Messiah, the one to whom they have pledged their very lives. Is it any wonder they wanted to bask in the glory they had just witnessed, to stay far removed from the nitty-gritty of their ordinary lives?
That hope was quickly dispelled, as Christ warned them to tell no one, “…until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” From glory to reality, as they trudged down the mountainside, pondering all they had experienced. It was easy to say, “Here I am, Lord” on the mountaintop; it was necessary to say it when the glory faded, when they were asked to do the impossible.
In all of this, the challenge to each of us is clear, and the reality is something we know from personal experience. Remember the title of the popular book, “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”. It echoed Jesus’ words when he told us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him. He will ask us to do the impossible, as he did with Abraham. He will give us glimpses of glory, as he did with Peter, James and John; but he will never abandon us. Our faith may not be as great as that of Abraham, but chances are God will never ask such a devastating sacrifice. We may never experience the glory of the transfiguration, but we will know moments in which we are caught up in the glory of God. In both agony and ecstasy, we learn to say, “Adsum! Here I am Lord, I come to do your will!”
The apostles were on a terrific spiritual high, and why wouldn’t they be? They see their Master in splendor and glory, and two important figures from their spiritual heritage talking with him. Everything is as it should be. Peter expresses their feelings: “Rabbi, how good it is for us to be here.” Today, he might say, “Lord, this is great!” And he wants to stay; he wants this to last.
We have experiences like that, when everything feels the way it can be and should be. Perhaps it’s at a retreat, or a special liturgy, when everything feels right with God, friends, and classmates. Maybe it’s Christmas Eve or Christmas Day when everything seems right with the family. Like Peter, we want it to last. But it doesn’t. Not that life goes from the peak into the pits. It simply returns to normal life, as it did for the Apostles. But we have to remember those exhilarating moments and treasure the truth that we experienced in them and from them. In a very real way, they’re a foretaste of heaven.
Sr. Mary Rudina Klarer; was an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph in Kentucky.
She served as Director of Social Services at the Municipal Correctional Institution, and in various capacities at St. John Diocesan Center while also serving in Clinical Pastoral Education at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City. She then served seven years as Chaplain at Children’s Mercy Hospital, mainly being called upon for traumas, emergencies and/or the deaths of infants or children. She was called upon to baptize about 200 infants facing death. She thought this mission was one of the most challenging and rewarding of all she had been called to do.