Gaze Upon Christ in Majesty: Lenten Meditation on the Transfiguration
Sermon from Monsignor Sebastian for the Second Sunday of Lent.
This morning we hear from S. Matthew’s Gospel his account of Our Blessed Lord’s Transfiguration in the presence of His Apostles. Our Lord and King takes Blessed Peter and the Sons of Zebedee, Ss. James and John, to Mount Tabor; and there He is transfigured before them, that is, to them, His countenance and appearance is changed.
His face, the Evangelist tells us, is made as bright as the sun, and has become the source of the True and Uncreated Light; it is glorious to any who can see it. His garments seem to dazzle: no longer the garment of a wondering preacher, mystic or prophet, but the royal raiment of the Great High King! And as the Apostles gaze upon Christ in majesty, behold, at His right and left side appear Moses and Elias: He is flocked by the Law (Holy Moses) and by Prophecy (Holy Elias), demonstrating that He is the summation and completion of both.
He is the fulfilment of Law and Prophecy – and Moses and Elias are there to witness the veracity of this. And Blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, Prince of the Princes of the Church and Keeper of the Keys of Heaven and Earth, will venture to propose building three tents, one for the Divine King, as befitting His great dignity, and two more for the heavenly guests. And then they are overshadowed by a great and bright cloud, a Vox de Nube, the Voice of the Eternal Father sounds from the cloud proclaiming: This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased, hear you Him!
This lesson is set before us so that we might fully understand our own need to transform from sinner to saint! Remember beloved: the Lord JESUS does not actually change before the Apostles, but rather, their sight of Him transforms. Their sin, just as our sin, prevents them from seeing the Lord JESUS as He truly appears: True God and True Man. Because of their sin they beheld Him as through a veil, obfuscated, so that they can only see a mere man. Whereas the truly just could see Him, in a greater degree, as He truly appeared. The Blessed Virgin and the Baptist saw Him fully; and most likely, after them, S. Joseph saw Him closer to His glory than any other man. The greater our sin, the greater our difficulty in seeing the true glory of our Saviour. We must be converted so that we may see Him; this is my lesson for you this Lent: be converted, today, now.
I will not stray far from this exhortation during this holy season: I am determined to assist you all to become saints. As we are now in our second week of holy Lent; what have you tangibly done to overcome sin and gain the virtues in grace? How successful is your fasting and abstinence? What sin have you targeted to avoid and how is your progress? Will this be a profitable Lententide or will you remain content in your spiritual sloth?
Year after year for over two decades I have done my best to remind the faithful in my care that they have the ability to change themselves and therefore change the world. Look what the Apostles, a dozen mere men, did to change the world, and we are many more…if we are faithful and maintain our zeal we could transform the whole world and build up Christ’s Kingdom.
Why is sin so hard to overcome? Sometimes I believe it is because we do not really want to leave certain sins behind. I am oft reminded of S. Augustine’s prayer: O Lord, help me to be pure…but not yet (Confessions 8:7.17).
How is it, beloved, that we ourselves are not transformed into the saints we are called to be? How is it that we do not appear before men by our words and works to proclaim to any and all who will listen: This is my Beloved Lord and King, JESUS the CHRIST, Saviour of the world, hear you Him! Alas, our cowardice is worse than the Apostles on Good Friday, for they all repented of their disgusting pusillanimity and never again failed God or His One True Church. You and I deny Him day after day, again and again, by our sin and by our failure to confess the One True Church, outside of which there is no hope of salvation! We must never be afraid to be called Christian! We must never be afraid to be called “saint”!
Why do we run and hide from the grace of God? Why is being good so difficult? Why does holiness elude us? Because we flee from it: we wither and cower from God’s call. The Sacred Scriptures call to us over and over: if today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts (Psalm 94:8, Hebrews 3:8, ibid 3:15)!
Why do men refuse to hear and heed the call to holiness? Why do we not feel God’s love and grace to the same degree that we might flee from sin and find safety in His gentle and protective embrace?
No man shall pluck them out of My hand the Saviour says (S. John 10:28), and yet many souls are lost. Not because they have been taken from God, but rather, because they themselves depart from Him or never enter into the safety of His House. Why does it seem to us that our Lord not make His voice known by all? Let us look back at the Gospel: why did Our Lord chose only these three? Why were not all the Apostles and followers there to witness such a miracle? The answer is again in the Sacred Scriptures: Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi (S. Matthew 20:16, 22:14).
It certainly does not mean they were “better” than the others, it means that Our Lord had a unique mission for them in addition to that of the others. Blessed Peter is to head His Church; Our Lord’s kinsman, S. James,becomes the first Bishop of Jerusalem and convokes the first Church Council in that Holy City; and S. John, holy and innocent is loved by the Lord on account of his innocence and sanctity, which he never loses.
Then, with gentleness the Saviour touches their heads and as they look up all is again as it was. The glimpse of heaven on earth has gone and all appears “normal” – and as they travel back down the mount the King of Heaven and Earth commands them: tell no man until the Son of Man is risen from the dead (S. Matthew 17:9).
Let us understand what and why they witnessed this transfiguration – as I have taught you many times, they did not see Our Lord JESUS differently, rather, for the briefest moment they saw Him as He truly appeared. By a single act of His grace and His will they were allowed to gaze upon Him through eyes of grace, not as they (and you and I) see normally, that is, through the eyes of sin and corruption. They were given the chance to see what Heaven would be like, in the tiniest and littlest bit: a morsel or crumb of what Heaven will taste like! O taste and see that the Lord is sweet! Taste and see the goodness of the Lord! Blessed is the man that hopeth in Him (Psalm 33:9)!
One day beloved, if we be faithful, if we do all we can to overcome the sin and corruption of this world, all the temptations and allurements of the evil one, we will gaze upon Him in like manner: but this time we will behold God in His full Power and Might, Most High and Holy Trinity, the Beatific Vision of His Grace, and there beside and around Him the whole heavenly court: all the Angels and Saints, and closest to His great Throne, even closer than Ss. Peter and Paul, even closer than Moses and Elias and all our Fathers in Faith, even closer than S. John, the most beloved of His Disciples, will be the fairest creature in all of Heaven: Santa Maria gratia plena!
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We love you. Save souls. Amen.
