Second Sunday of Lent: The Transfiguration

In his message for Lent this year, Pope Benedict calls on the faithful to reflect carefully on the Gospel readings for the 5 Sundays of Lent. To inspire our listeners in their spiritual preparation for Easter, each week we are offering a reflection on each of those Sunday readings.

On Sunday March 20, the Church remembers the Transfiguration – here recounted in the Gospel of St. Matthew:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Rise, and do not be afraid.”
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
“Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

In his Lenten Message for 2011, Pope Benedict recalled the Gospel of the Transfiguration as a moment when the Lord “puts before our eyes the glory of Christ which anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of man.”

Pope Benedict called this Gospel reading an “invitation to take a distance from the noisiness of everyday life in order to immerse oneself in God’s presence. He desires to hand down to us, each day,” he wrote, “a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit, where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12), reinforcing our will to follow the Lord.” Tracey McClure asked Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, an official at the Pontifical Council Cor Unum that issues the Lenten Message each year, how are we to reflect on the Transfiguration….