“Transfiguration: The Divinity and Glory of Jesus” - 2nd Sunday Lent (A) - 3.5.23
“Transfiguration: The Divinity and Glory of Jesus”
By: Fr. David Schmidt
Church of the Assumption (Regina Coeli Parish) - Bellevue, PA
Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030523.cfm
In today’s Gospel, we hear the account of the Transfiguration where Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain and He reveals His divinity to them. They are able to see Him in His full glory.
What the Lord is doing when He takes them up the mountain to reveal His glory, is preparing them for Calvary- for His Death and Resurrection. This is also what the Lord is doing with us. All the readings this Lent are preparing us for His death on Calvary. They are preparing us to go up the mountain or the hill to Calvary where Christ will reveal Himself to us in His death and Resurrection.
Jesus taking us up the mountain as He did with Peter, James, and John is significant because it points to two other events where Jesus reveals His glory on top of a mountain. We think of Moses on Mount Sinai, where Moses went up the mountain, so that God may reveal His glory to him. Also, we think of the story of Elijah, where God revealed Himself to Elijah on the mountain when Elijah heard God whisper to Him. Both of these figures, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration as they further got to see the glory of God revealed.
I think sometimes in our relationship with Jesus we can forget about the divine part of Jesus. We can fall into the trap of thinking He was just another human being that walked this earth. Or that He was a good guy who said some nice things and gave some good advice on how to live our lives. We forget that He was both fully human and fully divine. We fail to see Him in His divinity. We fail to see Him as God.
We do this with our faith as well. We fall into the trap of seeing more the earthly dimension of our faith and we forget the divine elements of the faith.
A perfect example of this is Mass.
At every Mass, Jesus takes us up the mountain and He transfigures Himself before us. The bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. However, many of us stop at the earthly appearance of the Eucharist and all we see is bread and wine, and we wonder if that is really Jesus. This isn’t to say that we have to physically see the bread become His Body or the wine become His Blood, although, there have been over 100 instances in the Church’s history where this Eucharistic miracle has occurred. So it is possible. But, at the very least, we are called to see with the eyes of our heart what is really happening on the altar at every Mass.
We have to learn to go beyond what we see with our eyes and begin to see what lies beyond it. This is the grace that Peter, James, and John were given at the Transfiguration. In a way, Jesus didn’t change His appearance, but Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse behind the veil to see Jesus for who He truly is. Jesus’ glory and divinity has always been there, but Peter, James, and John just didn’t have the eyes to see up until that moment.
The glory and divinity of our Lord is here at this Mass today. When we look around we see a normal church building with people gathered together, and it doesn’t seem like anything supernatural is going on. In fact, many people find Mass pretty boring. However, what we can’t see with our eyes is that there are angels and saints all around us. We can’t see that at every Mass, we are in heaven. It is the meeting place of heaven and earth. There is something truly divine and supernatural occurring right here, right now at this very Mass.
When we come to the altar and partake in the Eucharist, we eat the food from the banquet in heaven. When we hear the Word of God, we hear all the prophets and saints who communicate the truth of Jesus Christ. When we hear the beautiful music, we are too hear the choirs of angels singing this beautiful melody. During the preface when we say “and so with the angels and all the saints we declare your glory and with one voice we acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy” – we believe that all of heaven with all the angels and saints are saying this with us as we come before the throne of God and worship Him.
We are not only taken up into heaven at every Mass, but we are brought to Calvary with our Lord. We believe as Catholics that we don’t re-sacrifice Jesus at every Mass, but that mystically we are brought to Calvary, that we are brought to the foot of the Cross, to share in the one Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Some say that the event on Calvary is the center of time and space. They say that all of time and space converges at the Cross of Jesus Christ. Time is much more of a mystery than we think. We often think of time as simply linear, but there are some theologians that describe time using a spiral image. And at the center of reality is the Cross. And it is a reality that deepens as time goes on, but it always has the Cross of Christ at the center.
Because of this we believe that the entire universe veils the divinity and glory of God. We have fallen into the belief in our world that when we look at the universe, that what we see is all that there is. But there is so much more. We can’t stop at what we physically see. We have to ask God to give us a peek behind the veil, so that we can see the divine and supernatural that permeates every part of the universe. When we are given the eyes to see, then we are able to see God in all things. We are able to see the supernatural and the divine in the ordinary.
Again, this doesn’t mean we have to have supernatural visions where we literally see angels and things like that. It’s asking the Lord to allow us to see with the eyes of our heart. That when we look at creation, we don’t just see the physical elements of the mountains, or the grass of the field, or the sun setting, but we see the presence of God revealing Himself to us in all those things.
The Christian journey is about God peeling back the layers of reality, so we can see reality more and more for what it truly is. Where God continues to remove the veils, so that we can see the glory and divinity of God more vividly in all things.
Jesus is taking us up the mountain this Lenten season. He desires to Transfigure Himself before us, so that we may see His divinity and glory. He takes us up the mountain at every Mass, so that we may be brought to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, so that He may reveal His glory to us.
It is here that He reveals His divinity to us. He reveals Himself as Savior, Lord, Messiah, King of the Universe, Son of God, and ultimately as God Himself. This is who we encounter at every Mass. There is nothing more real in this life than what we encounter in the Holy Eucharist. We encounter the God of the universe, and it should bring us to our knees in awe and wonder and reverence for our God. Just think of the times in the Bible when God or an angel appears to someone, how the first thing the angel has to say is, “Be not afraid!” Because the glory of heaven that they are witnessing is almost to terrifying to behold because of how incredible it is.
God is here with us today. He is here with us right now, along with all of heaven with the angels and saints. It might be hard to see and believe it. But we ask the Lord today for this grace. That He may help us to see with the eyes of our heart, His glory and divinity that He makes present in a powerful way at each Mass. We pray that He may continue to give us a glimpse behind the curtain. That He may continue to remove the veils, so that we may see Him in all things.
Come Lord Jesus. May you make yourself known to us this day and transfigure yourself before us. May you reveal your glory and divinity to us on the top of this mountain at this Holy Mass. May we come to believe that you are truly present in the Eucharist, and that of all heaven and earth reveals your glory. We offer this prayer to you through Christ our Lord. Amen.
