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| The Transfiguration, James Tissot |
Mark 9:2–10
2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, 3 and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. 5 And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. 7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
Catholic Exegesis:
The Second Vatican Council teaches that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts, attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).
St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).
Cited in the Catechism:
Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 151, 459, 516, 552 and 649.
Commentary:
The Transfiguration
9:2–10. We contemplate in awe this manifestation of the glory of the Son of God to three of his disciples. Ever since the Incarnation, the divinity of our Lord has usually been hidden behind his humanity. But Christ wishes to show, to these three favourite disciples, who will later be pillars of the Church, the splendour of his divine glory, in order to encourage them to follow the difficult way that lies ahead, fixing their gaze on the happy goal which is awaiting them at the end. This is why, as St Thomas comments (cf. Summa theologiae, 3, 45, 1), it was appropriate for him to give them an insight into his glory. The fact that the transfiguration comes immediately after the first announcement of his passion, and his prophetic words about how his followers would also have to carry his cross, shows us that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
What happened at the transfiguration? To understand this miraculous event in Christ’s life, we must remember that in order to redeem us by his passion and death our Lord freely renounced divine glory and became man, assuming flesh which was capable of suffering and which was not glorious, becoming like us in every way except sin (cf. Heb 4:15). In the transfiguration, Jesus Christ willed that the glory which was his as God and which his soul had from the moment of the Incarnation, should miraculously become present in his body. “We should learn from Jesus’ attitude in these trials. During his life on earth he did not even want the glory that belonged to him. Though he had the right to be treated as God, he took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Phil 2:6)” (St Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, 62). Bearing in mind who became man (the divinity of the person and the glory of his soul), it was appropriate for his body to be glorious; given the purpose of his incarnation, it was not appropriate, usually, for his glory to be evident. Christ shows his glory in the transfiguration in order to move us to desire the divine glory which will be given us so that, having this hope, we too can understand “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
9:2. According to Deuteronomy (19:15), to bear witness to anything the evidence of two or three must concur. Perhaps this is why Jesus wanted three apostles to be present. It should be pointed out that these three apostles were specially loved by him; they were with him also at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mk 5:37) and will also be closest to him during his agony at Gethsemane (Mk 14:33). Cf. the note on Mt 17:1–13.
9:7. This is how St Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of the the transfiguration: “Just as in the Baptism, where the mystery of the first regeneration was proclaimed, the operation of the whole Trinity was made manifest, because the Son Incarnate was there, the Holy Spirit appeared under the form of a dove, and the Father made himself known in the voice; so also in the transfiguration, which is the sign of the second regeneration [the Resurrection], the whole Trinity appears—the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the bright cloud; for just as in Baptism he confers innocence, as signified by the simplicity of the dove, so in the Resurrection will he give his elect the clarity of glory and refreshment from every form of evil, as signified by the bright cloud” (Summa theologiae, 3, 45, 4 ad 2). For, really, the transfiguration was in some way an anticipation not only of Christ’s glorification but also of ours. As St Paul says, “it is the same Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16–17).
“Beloved”: this reveals that Christ is the only-begotten Son of the Father in whom are fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. Fray Luis de León comments: “Christ is the Beloved, that is to say, he has always been, is now and ever shall be loved above all else […] for no single creature or all created things taken together are as loved by God, and because only he is the object of true adoration” (The Names of Christ, book 3, The Beloved).
9:10. That the dead would rise was already revealed in the Old Testament (cf. Dan 12:2–3; 2 Mac 7:9; 12:43) and was believed by pious Jews (cf. Jn 11:23–25). However, they were unable to understand the profound truth of the death and resurrection of the Lord: they expected a glorious, triumphant Messiah, despite the prophecy that he would suffer and die (cf. Is 53). Hence the apostles’ oblique approach; they too do not dare to directly question our Lord about his resurrection
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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