DAILY GOSPEL: THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD. Mk 9:2–13. Saturday of the 6th week of Ordinary Time. Year I.
Mk 9:2–13
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, the disciples 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.”
COMMENTARY:
“You were transfigured on the mountain and your disciples, as much as they were capable of it, beheld your glory, O Christ our God, so that when they should see you crucified they would understand that your passion was voluntary, and proclaim to the world that you truly are the splendor of the Father.” (Byzantine Liturgy)
- Jesus reminds us through his Apostles Peter, James and John, to arrive at the glory of the Resurrection we have to pass by the Cross, as He Himself showed us with His Life. He also wanted to reassure His Apostles who have been foretold of His Passion and Death so as to instill in them the hope they need to carry out their mission of proclaiming the Good News of salvation in Christ. Inevitably will they face difficulties, persecutions, obstacles in spreading the Gospel but all is worth it for it is Christ’s way.
- Hence, we should not be discouraged if we also face difficulties not only in living our Christian life, but also the problems which life itself brings with it: the daily contradictions in family, work and social life, added up by illness, misunderstanding, or even calumny, persecution and so on… for this is the path where Christ treaded upon and if we know how to bear and offer them to God with Christian hope, joy and love, then, , it will no longer be our cross, but Christ’s Cross and to encounter His Cross is to encounter Jesus Christ himself, to live as Christ himself, to be Christ himself…
“Lord, you have made me understand that to have the Cross is to encounter happiness, joy. And the reason – I see it more clearly than ever – is this: to have the Cross is to identify with Christ, it is to be Christ, and, therefore, to be a child of God (St. Josemaria, Meditation April 28, 1963)”
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Fr. Rolly Arjonillo