The Transfiguration is an amazing event that is recorded in all three of the synoptic Gospels: Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, His closest Apostles and future leaders of the Church, atop a mountain to strengthen their faith. There they receive supernatural testimony of Jesus’ divinity. God cannot be accused of under-communicating in this situation. Jesus’ body physically manifests His glory. Israel’s two greatest figures, Moses and Elijah, pay Jesus homage. God the Father testifies in the voice that speaks, and God the Holy Spirit is present in the “bright cloud” (Mt 17:5).
Every year, the Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Lent is that of the Transfiguration. However, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord is August 6. So why read it again during Lent? It seems out of place to read about Jesus’ majesty when we are journeying towards the cross. Scripture makes the same connection as the liturgical calendar. In all three of the Gospels, the passage immediately before the Transfiguration is Jesus’ first prediction of His passion and death. Jesus wanted us to understand that His suffering and humiliation are intimately linked to His glory.
Even during the splendor of His Transfiguration, Luke tells
us that, “Moses and Elijah… spoke of his [Jesus’] exodus that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk 9:30-31). They were conversing about His crucifixion and “exodus,” or departure from life. All the world would interpret this as defeat and disgrace. However, the word “accomplish” points us to a hidden triumph. In the supreme act of self-giving love, God freely chooses to lay down His life for the salvation of His prodigal children: an act that manifests the unfathomable heart and glory of God.
The image of Moses conversing with Jesus about an exodus is also significant because like Moses, Jesus will lead God’s people to new life. In the first Exodus, Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and to the Promised Land. In this new Exodus, through Jesus’s death and resurrection, we are freed from slavery to sin, and we gain entry to the heavenly Promised Land.
Moses and the Israelites endured many hardships in the first Exodus. Similarly, Jesus’ suffering is the cause of our salvation and the model of Christian life. Jesus says that if we wish to follow Him, we must take up our “cross daily” (Lk 9:23). Acts 14:22 goes so far as to say, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
Each of us has our own hardships and suffering — many that the world would interpret as defeat and disgrace. But as Christians, we have the choice to “accomplish” immeasurable good with those sufferings. If we choose to unite our hardships with Christ’s, they become part of our salvation. God’s love turns the effects of sin, suffering and death on their head. What was once a punishment is now a jewel in the crown of our salvation.
This is a counter-cultural message. We live in a world that is consumed with feeling good and avoiding discomfort at all costs, as shown by IL Senate Bill 0009 and IL House Bill 1328 (End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act). This is an empty and dangerous anthropology that reduces the value of our life to material qualities like comfort. One of the great blessings of Lent is that through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we make a free choice to embrace hardships and journey towards the Promised Land.
This Lent and throughout our life, Jesus is inviting us to journey with Him in a new Exodus. We will have mountain-top experiences where we feel His presence and see His glory. We will also have to leave the mountain and walk though low places where we experience hardship, doubt, and suffering. As long as we remain in Christ, our suffering and glory are intimately tied together, and our suffering is never in vain. For as St. Paul says, “I can accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13).
For more on the Transfiguration, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church 554-56.
