On the Second Sunday in Lent of Year A, we have Matthew’s Transfiguration scene. Three years ago I embedded Dr. Brant Pitre’s explanation of Matthew’s Transfiguration, and it’s well worth going back to watch that. Dr. Pitre explains the parallels between this scene and that of Moses going up Mt. Sinai in Exodus chapters 24 and 34. The point of Matthew’s Transfiguration is that Jesus is the new and greater Moses.
But what I find most fascinating that I don’t
think I heard any of the homilists I surveyed mention is that this scene at the
beginning of chapter 17 comes right after the events of chapter 16. What are the events of Matthew 16 that resonate
here in 17? At the beginning of Matthew 16
Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and Sadducees to show them a sign. Jesus refuses and even says, “An evil and
unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the
sign of Jonah” (Mt 16:4). Later in the
chapter Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is, and Peter gives his
famous, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). Still later in the chapter, after Jesus
explains He must die and be resurrected, He adds, “For the Son of Man will come
with his angels in his Father’s glory” (Mt 16:27). So in Matthew 16, He tells the Jewish critics
that no sign will be given, but He explains exactly to the apostles what will
come. But do they really understand
it? Not if you read carefully. They need that sign, and in His goodness
Jesus gives the three apostles such a sign in the Transfiguration.
Here is today’s Gospel reading.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by
themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as
light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah
appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents
here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over
them,
then from the cloud came a voice
that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I
am well pleased;
listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they
fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them,
saying,
“Rise, and do not be afraid.”
And when the disciples raised their
eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus
alone.
As they were coming down from the
mountain,
Jesus charged them,
“Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised
from the dead.”
~Mt: 17: 1-9
Fr. Terrance Chartier of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate gives a
fine homily where he alludes to the theology taught from Dr. Pitre’s video.
Fr. Terrance:
“The last lesson from
Mount Taber today is probably the first and most important lesson. It's the
fact that Jesus is the new Moses. He's actually our Moses. Just as Moses led
God's people out of slavery to the promised land, so to Jesus, our Moses, leads
us out of sin and out of the difficulties of life to bring us to a heavenly
promised land…And when Moses went up Mount Sinai, it was said that when he came
down, his face shone with the glory of having been in the presence of God.
Exodus 32:34:29. So his face, Moses's
face reflected the glory of God when whom he had encountered. What does it say in the gospel today? Jesus goes up the mountain. Matthew tells us
his face shone like the sun. Matthew 17:2, it shines like the sun with its own light.”
In the Transfiguration, Jesus opened up His humanity to reveal His
glory.
The Catholic
Truth Society, a British evangelist organization, is providing Lenten
retreat talks from St. John Henry Newman’s sermons, and they provide an interesting
one on this week’s Gospel reading.
Up above I brought the Transfiguration scene into context with the prior events of Matthew 16. Fr. George Bowen brings out Newman’s preaching on how the passage following the Transfiguration shows the dichotomy of the transcendence and glory of the Transfiguration up the mountain with the grief, pain, and confusion of the earthly world down the mountain. That scene is the one with the epileptic boy where the boy’s father asks Jesus, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him” (Mt 17:15-16).
The contrast between the two scenes is striking.
Sunday Meditation: “His
face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”
Here is a lovely hymn I have never heard of, “Transfiguration,” written
by Brian Wren (lyrics) and Ricky Manalo (music).
Praise and glory,
praise and glory,
praise and glory to
our Lord!
Let us, if we dare to
speak,
join the saints and
angels praising.
