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Á¦¸ñ The Instruction of the Transfiguration(2020-08-07)
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2022-08-07


The Instruction of the Transfiguration

My dear brethren,
Yesterday we had the feast of the Transfiguration, which is very reach of instruction for our spiritual benefit. The transfiguration happened just a few days after St Peter made his famous confession of Faith in the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ: ¡°Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God¡± (Mt. 16:16). Our Lord has rewarded him, conferring on him the primacy, making him ¡°the Rock¡± upon which He would build His Church, the Catholic Church, which therefore is Roman Catholic because St Peter set his see in Rome to counteract the pagan influence of the pagan emperors. Our Lord then said to him: ¡°I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven¡± (Mt. 16:19). These are the special powers our Lord has conferred on Peter and his successors. That was certainly a great consolation for St Peter, but also a great responsibility – there are many holy Popes, but not all were faithful to their duties.
              
But ¡°from that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again¡± (Mt. 16:21). The crows were considering our Lord as a prophet; the Apostles were rightly considering Him as the Son of God; but our Lord was reminding them that He was ¡°the Lamb of God¡± (Jn. 1:29). After St Peter confessed the Divinity of Christ, our Lord remind them that He took a real human nature, and He took it in order to offer it as the Victim of the Cross.

But St Peter reacted quite badly at hearing about such suffering. He tried to oppose our Lord. St Matthew who was an eyewitness of the scene, wrote: ¡°Peter taking him, began to rebuke him, saying: Lord, be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee¡± (Mt. 16:22). He dared to rebuke our Lord Himself! Now listen to the consequence of such rebellion: our Lord then ¡°turning, said to Peter: Vade retro Satanas! Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men¡± (Mt. 16:23). What a strong statement! What a condemnation: ¡°Go back, Satan!¡± Satan is enemy of the Cross, and wants to draw us with him to become also adversaries of the Cross.

Yet our Lord Jesus Christ is merciful, and after such strong rebuke, He teaches again His disciples encouraging them: ¡°Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works¡± (Mt. 16:24-27).

Thus our Lord encourages His apostles by the consideration of the fleetingness of the things of earth, and ultimately of the Last Judgement when He will return to judge everyone at the end of the world. After the fall of Adam, no one can avoid all sufferings, and ultimately all shall die, making manifest that pursuing earthly goods is vain and fleeting and is bound to failure one day. But after death, the soul continues to exist and will reap the fruits of what it will have sown in this life, when the Just Judge will render to every man according to his works. These are very strong motives for us to follow Jesus on the path of the Cross, but they are still in the future. So our Lord deign to show these rewards to a few Apostles, including Peter. Indeed He continues and says: ¡°Amen I say to you, there are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom¡± (Mt. 16:28). And todays¡¯s gospel continues: ¡°And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart:¡± (Mt. 17:1).

So, St Leo the Great says that our Lord showed them His glory in order to strengthen the Apostles and particularly Peter to be able later to face the Passion without losing the Faith. Indeed, the Transfiguration is a ¡°theophany¡±, i.e. a manifestation of God. It makes manifest the Holy Trinity: the Father speaks, giving testimony to His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Holy Ghost manifested by the Cloud. Remember our Lord saying to the Jews: ¡°the Father himself who hath sent me, hath given testimony of me: neither have you heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape¡± (Jn. 5:37). And St Paul saying to the Corinthians that ¡°all [the Hebrews] in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea:¡± (1 Cor. 10:2), symbol of the Baptism by which ¡°a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost¡± (Jn. 3:5), so it is clear that the cloud signifies the Holy Ghost. St Leo insists on the Divinity of Christ, saying that the Father calls our Lord His Son, not by adoption but by nature, not made but begotten, perfectly equal with the Father.
 
The Apostles never forget that marvellous vision. St Peter mentions it in his epistle: ¡°For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount¡± (2 Pet. 1:16-18). And St John gives this testimony: ¡°And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth¡± (Jn. 1:14).

A second lesson of the Transfiguration is how the Old and New Testament agree, giving testimony to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, according to St Luke, Moses and Elias ¡°spoke of his decease that he should accomplish in Jerusalem¡± (Lk. 9:31). The word ¡°decease¡± in the English translation corresponds to the word ¡°exodos¡± in the original Greek, meaning the departure, and not unrelated to the Exodus from Egypt. So, they were speaking of how our Lord would depart from this world at Jerusalem; in other words, they were speaking of His Sacrifice on the Cross, his ¡°passage out of this world to the Father¡± (Jn. 13:1).

The apostles were afraid, because this is the natural feeling of the creature when it is faced with the Majesty of God; we are so small, so weak, in front of the Almighty!

St Peter wanted to settle there for ever, because God suffices, and to see Him will be our everlasting life. Not that they saw the Divinity of Christ itself, but a manifestation of it. The actual sight of the Divinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost will be eternal life and is not of this world.

Thus, the Transfiguration should be for us first of all an increase of our Faith, faith in the Divinity of Christ and therefore in all what He has said and done for our salvation. That increase of faith should be specially strong to overcome the difficulties and crosses of this world, which was the purpose for which our Lord showed His glory to these Apostles.

It should also increase our desire to see God, to see our Lord Jesus Christ in the bosom of His Father with the Holy Ghost. This is the ultimate joy, everlasting blessedness! That desire and longing for God is an aspect of Hope, together with the trust in the help of God to get to Heaven.

The Transfiguration should also increase our charity, our love for our Lord Jesus Christ who took such good care of his Apostles and promised to us that vision of His glory for ever.

But the Transfiguration has also a special value as a model of prayer: prayer starts by lifting our soul above the earthly things, as our Lord ¡°took His Apostles apart and went up the mountain¡±. One always prays better in silence and away from the world. Then prayer is essentially a contemplation of our Lord, and especially of our Lord crucified as Moses and Elias were talking about. Also prayer includes the adoration, which the apostles did prostrating themselves on the ground. Prayer also strengthens us to prepare us for carrying our crosses.

Mount Tabor prepares for Mount Calvary. Our Lady was not there on Mount Tabor, as her faith was perfect and she needed not that additional help which the Apostles needed. But she was there on Mount Calvary, in silence, in prayer, fully united with the sublime prayer of the Redeemer, begging for mercy for all of us. May our Blessed Lord help us in prayer to contemplate His Divinity and His holy humanity, to strengthen our Faith, our Hope and Charity and lead us with our Lady and all the Saints in Heaven. Amen.

Father François Laisney