From: Mark 9:2-10
The Transfiguration (Continuation)
[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.”
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Commentary:
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 favorite disciples, who will later be pillars of the
Church, the splendor 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 Theologia”, III, q. 45, a. 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. Hebrew 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.
Philippians 2:6)” (St J. Escriva, “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” (Romans 8:18).
2. According to Deuteronomy (19:15), to bear witness to anything the evidence
of two or three much 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
(Mark 5:37) and will also be closest to Him during His agony at Gethsemane
(Mark 14:33). Cf. note on Matthew 17:1-13.
7. This is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of the Transfiguration:
“Just as in 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 the refreshment from every form of evil, as signified by the bright
cloud” (”Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 45, 1.4 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” (Romans 8:16-17).
10. That the dead would rise was already revealed in the Old Testament (cf.
Daniel 12:2-3; 2 Maccabees 7:9; 12:43) and was believed by pious Jews (cf.
John 11:23-25). However, they were unable to understand the profound truth
of the death and Resurrection of the Lord: they expected a glorious and
triumphant Messiah, despite the prophecy that He would suffer and die (cf.
Isaiah 53). Hence the Apostles’ oblique approach; they too do not dare to
directly question our Lord about His Resurrection.
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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.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 14:22-36
Jesus Walks on the Water
[22] Then He (Jesus) made the disciples get into the boat and go before
Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. [23] And after
He had dismissed the crowds He went up into the hills by Himself to
pray. When evening came, He was there alone, [24] but the boat by this
time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for
the wind was against them. [25] And in the fourth watch of the night
He came to them, walking on the sea. [26] But when the disciples saw
Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!”
And they cried out for fear. [27] But immediately He spoke to them,
saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”
[28] And Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to You
on the water.” [29] He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and
walked on the water and came to Jesus; [30] but when he saw the wind,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” [31]
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to
him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” [32] And when they
got into boat, the wind ceased. [33] And those in the boat worshipped
Him, saying, “Truly You are the son of God.”
[34] And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
[35] And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent round to
all the region and brought to Him all that were sick, [36] and besought
Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment; and as many
as touched it were made well.
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Commentary:
22-23. It has been a very full day, like so many others. First, Jesus
works many cures (14:14) and then performs the remarkable miracle
of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, a symbol of the future
Eucharist. The crowd who have been following Him were avid for food,
teaching and consolation. Jesus “had compassion on them” (14:14),
curing their sick and giving them the comfort of His teaching and the
nourishment of food. He continues to do the same, down the centuries,
tending to our needs and comforting us with His word and with the
nourishment of His own body. Jesus must have been very moved,
realizing the vivifying effect the Blessed Sacrament would have on the
lives of Christians—a sacrament which is a mystery of life and faith
and love. It is understandable that He should feel the need to spend
some hours in private to speak to His Father. Jesus’ private prayer,
in an interlude between one demanding activity and another, teaches
us that every Christian needs to take time out for recollection, to
speak to His Father, God. On Jesus’ frequent personal prayer see,
for example, Mark 1:35; 6:47; Luke 5:16; 16:12. See the notes on
Matthew 6:5-6 and Matthew 7:7-11.
24-33: This remarkable episode of Jesus walking on the sea must have
made a deep impression on the Apostles. It was one of their
outstanding memories of the life they shared with the Master. It is
reported not only by St. Matthew, but also by St. Mark (6:45-52), who
would have heard about it from St. Peter, and by St. John (6:14-21).
Storms are very frequent on Lake Gennesaret; they cause huge waves
and are very dangerous to fishing boats. During His prayer on the hill,
Jesus is still mindful of His disciples; He sees them trying to cope
with the wind and the waves and comes to their rescue once He has
finished praying.
This episode has applications to Christian life. The Church, like the
Apostles’ boat, also gets into difficulties, and Jesus who watches over
His Church comes to its rescue also, after allowing it to wrestle with
obstacles and be strengthened in the process. He gives us encourage-
ment: “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (14:27); and we show our faith
and fidelity by striving to keep an even keel, and by calling on His aid
when we feel ourselves weakening: “Lord, save me” (14:30), words of
St. Peter which every soul uses when he has recourse to Jesus, his
Savior. Then our Lord does save us, and we urgently confess our faith:
“Truly you are the Son of God” (14:33).
29-31. St. John Chrysostom (”Hom. on St. Matthew”, 50) comments that
in this episode Jesus taught Peter to realize, from his own experience,
that all his strength comes from our Lord and that he could not rely on
his own resources, on his own weaknesses and wretchedness. Chry-
sostom goes as far as to say that “if we fail to play our part, God ceases
to help us.” Hence the reproach, ‘O man of little faith” (14:31). When
Peter began to be afraid and to doubt, he started to sink, until again,
full of faith, he called out, “Lord, save me.”
If at any time we, like Peter, should begin to weaken, we too should
try to bring our faith into play and call on Jesus to save us.
34-36. Learning from the faith of these people on the shore of Lake
Gennesaret, every Christian should approach the adorable humanity of
the Savior. Christ—God and Man—is accessible to us in the sacrament
of the Eucharist.
“When you approach the Tabernacle remember that He has been awaiting
you for twenty centuries” ([Blessed] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 537).
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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.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
