Second Sunday in Lent, March 13, 2022

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Transfiguration event for the Apostles and for us

Luke 9:28b–36

About eight days after he said this, he took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.

While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.

As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying.

While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.

Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.

Note:

The event takes place in Luke after Jesus’ sermon on the plain, and after a couple of chapters of both healings and criticisms, and some parabolic teaching. Chapter 9 begins with Jesus commissioning the twelve and sending them out to spread the good news. It continues with the return of the apostles and the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and leads up to the transfiguration with the first prophecy of the passion. Jesus’ last words eight days before the transfiguration were: I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.

Music Meditations

  • How Great Thou Art sung by Chris Rice
  • The Ground by O. Gjeilo sung by Phoenix Chorale
  • The Lord is my light, my Help my Salvation (Psalm 27) Christopher Walker
  • Yahweh I Know You Are Near—Christian Song

Opening Prayer

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus, how often have our eyes been closed in sleep as we walk with you through life? How often are our ears closed to the Word you speak to us through our daily conversations? May your word become awake, alive and active in us as we travel the road together with you. All we do our whole lives long is go from one little piece of holy ground to the next. Lord, give us the strength to keep going in between.

Companions for the Journey

This is a short writing from one of the Christian or non-Christian witnesses of our tradition—a person who embodies the theme of the gospel we are studying today.

This commentary, from “America”, the national Jesuit weekly, is by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.

The distinctive way in which Luke tells the story of the transfiguration highlights his perception of Jesus’ identity as the prophet of God par excellence and adds to his picture of the time of Jesus as the center of salvation history.

First, a prophet speaks for God and so must be close to God. At this decisive moment in Jesus’ public ministry, Luke notes that Jesus went up to a mountain to pray. Indeed, at most of the pivotal moments in Jesus’ career, Luke notes that he was at prayer. The source of Jesus’ prophetic ministry is the Holy Spirit, and his relationship with the Father is fostered through prayer.

Second, Jesus stands in the tradition of the prophets of old. That is why Moses (representing the law) and Elijah (representing the prophets) appear in the narrative. Moses was God’s spokesman, and God had promised to raise up another prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15, 18). Elijah had spoken on God’s behalf and did signs and wonders, as Jesus would also do. And in some Jewish circles Elijah was expected to return from heaven as a preliminary to the revelation of God’s Messiah.

Third, Jesus and the two prophets speak about Jesus’ immediate future. According to Luke, they were discussing “his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” That clearly refers to Jesus’ suffering and death. But by using the word exodus, Luke alludes to Israel’s passage from slavery to freedom under Moses and suggests that Jesus’ passion and death will lead to his exaltation (resurrection and ascension) and to the possibility of freedom and right relationship with God for us all.

Fourth, it is the fate of prophets to be misunderstood and rejected. In this case, Jesus the prophet is misunderstood by his own disciple, Peter. As his suggestion to build three tents for the prophets reveals, Peter mistakenly identifies the present experience of Jesus’ glory in the transfiguration with the fullness of God’s kingdom. In doing so Peter wants to prolong the experience of glory and to bypass the suffering associated with the mystery of the cross. Finally, the heavenly voice identifies Jesus as “my chosen Son,” and says, “Listen to him.” The admonition to listen to Jesus as God’s prophet echoes the directive in the promise of the new prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy 18.

The identity of Jesus the prophet of God and the Holy Spirit are inextricably linked. Jesus the prophet is led by the Spirit. Indeed, during Jesus’ public ministry, the power of the Spirit is focused on Jesus. Where Jesus is, there is the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection the Holy Spirit has been made available to us all, and so we form a prophetic, Spirit-led community of faith. As the church of Jesus Christ, we are led by the Holy Spirit and so constitute the people of God.

We who live now, in the time of the Holy Spirit and the church, can hope to participate in the glory previewed in the transfiguration of Jesus. In writing to the Philippians, Paul reminds them and us that at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ “our lowly body” will be conformed with “his glorified body.” In the meantime we are to recognize that although “our citizenship is in heaven,” our task in the present is to “stand firm in the Lord.”

Read another reflection on the Transfiguration of Jesus >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

This is my chosen Son; listen to him.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Where would you go to be alone with God?
  • Have you ever had an experience that changed your outlook on life for the good?
    Did you see God’s hand in that experience?
  • From Sacred Space:
    Have you ever seen one you love in their full dignity?
    Can you think of such a moment?
  • When is a person transfigured?
    When the hidden potential of a person comes to light?
    Or when we are transfigured enough to see the hidden potential in another or in a given life situation?
  • What is the role of prayer in making us aware of God’s presence in our lives?
    Which prayers work best for me?
    Which types of prayers get in the way?
  • Have I ever experienced events that impacted MY relationship with God?
    Was I always aware of the significance of these events at the time?
  • What does the Transfiguration suggest to me about how God might be trying to be present to me?
    Am I ready for the change in my life that might result from such an experience?
  • Have there been any “God moments” in my life? Did they change me in any way?
  • I look back on the last several days. Have I seen the spark of divinity in myself or in others?
    Did I notice it at the time, or only realize its import after the fact?
  • Can I cultivate a special way of seeing, to go beneath the surface of my daily life and see the Holy that resides between the routine and the sameness?
    How much of my life is on autopilot?
    Is there so much noise and rush in my life that I have no time for prayer and reflection?
    Was God ever “here” and I missed it?
    How can I be more attentive to the still, small voice of God in my life?
  • Has there ever been a time when I experienced a personal transformation or transfiguration?
    Have I ever had a “mountain top” experience when I felt God was close and spoke a word to me?
    What effect did that experience have on my life?
  • Have I ever been like Peter, wanting to prolong the glorious moment and trying to ignore the very real outcome of this experience?
  • What did I learn about myself in “low” (as opposed to mountaintop) experiences?
  • Is the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) present in my life?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

This writing from Oscar Romero (found in Lent, A Sourcebook for Forty Days, by Liturgy Training Publications) could very easily apply to the world in which we are living right now, with the tragedy in Ukraine, the displacement and hunger of those peoples and others affected by climate change and by poverty that is the result of unjust economic systems. How is your Lent awakening your sense of social justice and concern for the poor and war-torn?:

This Lent, which we observe amidst blood and sorrow, ought to presage a transfiguration of our people, a resurrection of our nation. The church invites us to a modern form of penance, of fasting and prayer, perennial Christian practices, by adapted to the circumstances of each person.

Lenten fasting is not the same thing in those lands where people eat well as is a Lent among our third World peoples, undernourished as they are, living in a perpetual Lent, always fasting. For those who eat well, Lent is a call to austerity, a call to give away in order to share with those in need. But in poor lands, in homes where there is hunger, Lent should be observed in order to give to the sacrifice that is every day life the meaning of the cross.

But it should not be out of a mistaken sense of resignation. God does not want that. Rather, feeling in one’s own flesh the consequences of sin and injustice, one is stimulated to work for social justice and a genuine love of the poor. Our Lent should awaken a sense of social justice.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Lent is, for many of us, a “time on the mountain” where we pray, disengage a little from the world and purify ourselves to live as better human beings. But these readings suggest that we, like Jesus and the disciples, need to come down from that mountain at some point and tend to the needs of a wounded people and a broken world. Spend some time thinking about the tension between contemplation and action that we all experience. Which do you prefer? Is there a way for you to achieve some balance between the two? Make some specific resolutions to follow during the Lenten season.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Imagine that you are one of the disciples on that mountaintop with Jesus. Try to picture in your mind the amazing scene that must have occurred. How do you feel about what you are experiencing? What does it tell you about Jesus? What would your first words to Jesus have been? Have you ever had an experience in which you suddenly saw someone very familiar to you, say a friend or a relative, in a very different and exalted way? How did you feel—awestruck? Proud? Jealous? Bored? Would the disciples feel any differently about their friend? What are they missing here? What lesson is there in this experience for you?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Spend 15 minutes a day this week alone and in silence to see if you can become more aware of God speaking to you.

Poetic Reflection:

Read the Following poem by Thomas Merton. Do you think that Jesus heard, in silence, the very stones speaking his name? Have you been silent and attentive enough to listen to the love of God burning in your heart, and indeed burning everywhere around you?

“In Silence”

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your

Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

O be still, while
you are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.

“I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?”

Closing Prayer

From Faith: Daily Prayers for Virtue, by Wayne Simsic:

Jesus, you say “I am the way”. Transform me. Come alive in me so that I can become like you and serve as a guide for others. Let me experience the truth of your message and the power and presence of God in that message. In darkness, be my light. In struggles, be my serenity. In my life, be my love.