A Mystery Hushed

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He told them, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”

Mark 9:2-13

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Glory in the Cross

Between his passion prediction and crucifixion, Christ’s Transfiguration on a high mountain peaked like a crest between troughs. Six days earlier, his shocking words about the death of the Son of Man had scandalized his disciples. Their understanding of Moses and the prophets had not prepared them for a suffering Messiah. On the mountain, Jesus showed his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, the hidden glory of his passion.

Dazzling in unearthly light, Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah, who bore witness to him. An awestruck Peter offered to build them three booths, according to the custom of the Feast of Tabernacles. Then a cloud overshadowed them, like that of the divine presence in the Exodus and on Mount Sinai. The voice that spoke at Christ’s baptism in the Jordan affirmed again, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” In this Trinitarian theophany, the voice and the cloud manifested the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Entrusting the secret of his glory to a trinity of disciples, Jesus enjoined silence until his resurrection. For any testimony of his Transfiguration before his death would be discredited and mocked. Once risen from the dead, the Transfiguration of the Son of Man and all of humanity will become credible.

“If Christ has not been raised… empty is our preaching.”

1 Corinthians 15:14