Word of the Week

2nd Sunday in Lent

Transfigure: Metamorphoo (Gk.): meaning “change, transfigure, transform”

A foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven, “the Transfiguration was the mysterious episode that took place on a high mountain in which Jesus’ face and clothes were made dazzling white before the disciples Peter, James, and John. Moses, representative of the law, and Elijah, representative of the prophets, appeared to speak of the departure Christ  would accomplish in Jerusalem” (CCC 554-55). Similar to the Baptism of Jesus, in each synoptic account of the Transfiguration (Mk.9:2-8; Mt.17:1-8; Lk.9:28-36), we read of the manifestation of the Trinity in the voice of the Father and his exhortation to listen to his beloved Son; and the cloud which is representative of the Holy Spirit (CCC 555). Just as the Baptism of Jesus was the genesis of his public ministry and prepared us to walk with him in his public works, so the Transfiguration puts us on the threshold of Calvary and prepare us to walk the way of the cross (CCC 556).

The aforementioned Greek for transfigure is used four times in the New Testament. Luke is the only synoptic gospel (Lk.9:28-36) to not select the word in his Transfiguration account (Mt.17:2; Mk.9:2). The other 2 texts belong to Pauline literature. In each episode of the Transfiguration, the apostles Peter, James, and John were present to witness Christ’s divinity in a most intimate way, just as they were present (1) at the girl being restored to Life and (2) the garden of Gethsemane (Mk.5:37, 14:33; Mt.26:37). This was for a reason. Their close encounters to the majesty of Christ prepared them for their own redemptive mission of suffering and leadership in the early church. Consider Peter, the first Vicar of Christ, James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, and John, the beloved disciple, the only apostle to witness the events of the crucifixion on the mountaintop. Each member of this ‘inner three” contributed to the canon (epistles) of the New Testament and were pillars of the early Christian faith. These men were changed into the likeness of Christ by submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaiming the gospel message to the world.

Paul highlights this gift of divine likeness in his letter to Corinth as he speaks of “being changed” into a reflection of Christ from one degree of glory  to another (2 Cor.3:18) in the grace of the Holy Spirit.  Furthermore, Paul writes that this transformation in grace comes from a “renewal of the mind” (Rom.12:2). We are made up of the intellect and the will, the mind and the heart. If we cease to exercise the mind or the heart, we will assuredly trip up in our spiritual walk. We must be informed on the teachings of Christ that we might be transformed in the heart of Christ.
 
Our spiritual journey is an adventure into the drama of paradox! Where there is poverty, wealth; surrender, freedom; simplicity, grandeur; suffering, joy. This Second Sunday of Lent furthers our peek into our paradoxical faith by highlighting what takes place on a mountaintop is ordered to the valley. In other words, poverty is ordered to wealth; surrender to freedom; simplicity to grandeur; suffering to joy, and glory to death…ultimately, to return to glory. Let us ascend the mountaintop of prayer to see God face to face; that our time in the valley and the desert may be rooted in faith, a faith that is paradoxical.

“The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with his father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light.”

--Pope Benedict XVI

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.

 

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