SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

POINTS FOR REFLECTION:

• Jesus begins to see the first signs of this failure: the crowds, at first enthusiastic about him, now leave him, some take him as mad and an extremist, his enemies start planning his death. Therefore, he seems to argue with himself: ‘the Father wants to lead me along a way of humiliation and failure’. As he was praying, (Lk 9,29) “his face was shining like the sun, and his clothes were dazzling white”.

• The light on the face of Jesus is telling us that during his prayer he understood the Plan of the Father and accepted it as his own. He saw how his sacrifice was not going to be a defeat, but was only a step towards glory and resurrection.
•  During this spiritual experience of Jesus we have the appearance of two important people: Moses and Elijah. They represent the Law and the Prophets, i.e. the whole Old Testament. Then a  “cloud appeared and covered them with its shadow”. In Jewish mentality the presence of God is regularly connected with a cloud.
•  The Transfiguration had a special significance for Jesus. Jesus had taken the decision to go to Jerusalem and that was the decision to face and accept the Cross. Obviously he had to be absolutely sure that he was right before he could go on. On the Mountain top he received a double approval of his decision.
•  When Moses (the supreme Law-giver of Israel) and Elijah (the first and the greatest of the Prophets) met Jesus, it meant that they said to him: ‘Go on!’ They saw in Jesus the fulfilment of all that they had dreamed in the past. It is as if at that moment Jesus was assured that he was on the right way because all history had been leading up to the Cross.
• The Father spoke with Jesus. As usual Jesus did not consult his own wishes. He went to the Father and said: “What do you want me to do?’… He put all his plans and intentions before the Father. And the Father said to him: ‘You are acting as my own Beloved Son. Go on!’. The Father spoke to Jesus at the beginning of his Ministry (at the Baptism : Mt.3,17) and now He speaks again at the beginning of his Passion. On the Mountain of the Transfiguration, Jesus was assured that he had not chosen the wrong way.
• The Disciples too got a great lesson. They have been shattered by Jesus’ statement that he was going to Jerusalem to die. That seemed to them the complete negation of all that they understood of the Messiah. What they saw on the Mountain of the Transfiguration would give them something to hold on to, even when they could not understand. Cross or no Cross, they had heard God’s voice acknowledging Jesus as his Son. It made them in a special sense witnesses of the glory of Jesus. A witness has been defined as a person who first ‘sees’ and then ‘shows’.