19th Sunday of the Year
8 August 2004
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
Last Friday, August 6th, the Church celebrated the great Feast of the Transfiguration. This date is arranged to occur 40 days before the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the connection:
"From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Master ’began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…and be killed and on the third day be raised.’ Peter scorns this prediction, nor do the others understand it any better than he. In this context the mysterious episode of Jesus’ Transfiguration takes place on a high mountain, before three witnesses chosen by himself: Peter, James and John. Jesus’ face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses and Elijah appear, speaking ’of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.’ A cloud covers him and a voice from heaven says, ’This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’
"For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory, confirming Peter’s confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the way of the cross at Jerusalem in order ’to enter into his glory.’ Moses and Elijah had seen God’s glory on the Mountain; the Law and the Prophets had announced the Messiah’s sufferings. Christ’s Passion is the will of the Father: the Son acts as God’s servant, the cloud indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit….The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming, when he "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body. But it also recalls that ’it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God’" (CCC554-556).
Standing in the transfigured glory of the Lord Jesus, Peter was filled with both fear and awe. He could scarcely look at the brightness of Christ’s glory, and yet he could not imagine leaving that sacred place. We disciples of Christ are sometimes given brief glimpses of the glory to which we are heirs with Christ, and those moments of consolation can sustain us for many years of toil. But while such experiences are fleeting, the call to follow Jesus in the Way of the Cross is constant.
Father Newman
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.