Readings

New American Bible (Philippines, USA)

Jerusalem Bible (Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland)

The Transfiguration of Christ, Paolo Veronese (1555-56)

Gospel (NAB)

Lk 9:28b-36
Jesus took Peter, John, and James
and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus
that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,
but becoming fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
They fell silent and did not at that time
tell anyone what they had seen.

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Basilica of the Transfiguration

I visited the Holy Land for the only time in 1994. A friend from Mindanao who was working in Israel at the time and who organized pilgrimages for other Filipinos working there had insisted that I come. She is now in the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity.

One of my striking memories is going up to the Basilica of the Transfiguration in a minibus with a group of Filipinos in mid-afternoon. In the valley there were many mosques and I could hear the call to prayer coming from them all. I had heard this same call a number of times on visits to Marawi City and to Karomatan (now Sultan Naga Dimaporo), Lanao del Norte, when Columbans were in both places. I must confess that on those occasions the call to prayer seemed to be simply noise, a nuisance. But going up to Mount Tabor, where the Transfiguration, according to tradition, took place, it struck me forcefully as what it is - a call to prayer.

It reminded me too of the richness of the Prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church, spread out over the day and night - the latter in monasteries of contemplatives.

Basilica of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor

The Hidden Glory of Mount Tabor

Biblical Reflection for 2nd Sunday of Lent Year C

By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

TORONTO, FEB. 23, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Today's Gospel presents us with the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the New Testament's most mysterious and awesome visions related to us in the three synoptic Gospels (Mark 9:2-8; Matthew 17:1-8; Luke 9:28-36).

Luke's version of the Transfiguration is found in Chapter 9 in a collection of incidents that focuses on the identity of Jesus. The whole chapter centers on the question that Herod asks in this Gospel: "Who then is this about whom I hear such things?" (9:9).

Full text.

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The Last Word

Aidan Nichols O.P.

Today's Gospel is the story of the Transfiguration, a very untypical example of a Lenten Gospel even if it has occupied this place in the worship of the Roman rite for a long time. The typical Lenten Gospel, surely, is the one we heard last Sunday. In his Wilderness Temptations, Jesus was confronted by the Evil One who presented him with the classic wrong choices made - according to the Old Testament - by Jesus's own people, the House of Israel.

Taking up that cue, in Lent we remind ourselves liturgically how horrible the human race has been and is. We call to mind that we share in a general tendency to criminality.

This Lent, as every Lent, the newspapers will reinforce the work of the Liturgy for us. They will show us how in human beings everywhere the demons of anger, avarice, lust, jealousy, and pride (and not forgetting gluttony and sloth), live, move, and have their being.

Full text.