The Transfiguration was the Father's way of encouraging Jesus to bear up in his passion.

Saturday, 2/18/17

Today’s Gospel gives us the story of the Transfiguration. It is a story we also have in Chapter Nine of Luke’s Gospel and in Chapter Seventeen of Matthew’s Gospel. All three tell the story of how Jesus took Peter, James and John with him when he climbed a mountain.

After Peter, James and John had fallen asleep, they were awakened to see Jesus shining as though he was already in heaven. It was as though the floor of heaven, like a Trampoline sheet, were pushed down to take Jesus temporarily into heaven. Jesus glowed like a heavenly spirit; and the two people Jews thought to have been taken up into heaven: Moses and Elijah strolled over to speak with Jesus.    

In the course of each year the daily and Sunday Gospels give us this story as it is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels. Each time however our lectionary leaves off half of the first sentence in Matthew, Mark, or Luke’s account. Each of them linked this story to the event one week earlier when Jesus predicted his terrible public execution.  

Matthew, Mark and Luke wanted us to see that Jesus, with a heavy heart, climbed the mountain to be as close as he could be to his Father. What we call the Transfiguration was the Father giving his Son a foretaste of the heavenly reward awaiting him.