Please read the passage before the commentary.
It is the second week of Lent. There is always a full moon today or close to today. The gospel for this Sunday is always the account of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which is like a full moon of Jesus’ glory.
In the first reading we had an account of the transfiguration of Abram. God told Abram to go forth from his father’s house and God would make of him a great nation and bless all the communities of earth through Abram. If I had received that message myself, it certainly would have brightened my day into a transfiguration on Mount Tabor. The passage from Genesis can help shed light on the gospel and the gospel passages can explain the prophetic meaning of the story from Genesis.
In the gospel, Moses and Elijah, who stand for all the Law and all the Prophets, are conversing with Jesus and revealing to us that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of all the ancient scriptures. Throughout the world, all those chosen for baptism at the Easter Vigil in April are experiencing today the mystery of the transfiguration of Christ and the fulfilment of the promises made to Abram and his descendants.
The Church sees in Christ the meaning, the explanation, the mystery of all the writings before Christ. The childless Abram in his old age is promised to be a blessing on all the nations of the world. The childless Jesus in the fulness of his adulthood, would die to bring that promise to its completion.
We are sharers in the promise made to Abram. We are called to the mountain of God’s glory along with Moes and Elijah. We are called to a holy life, not according to our own works, but according to God’s grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began.
God told Abram to move from his father’s house. God called Jesus up to the mountain. God has brought us here because God has wanted us here to see the glory, not of the full moon but of the face of God in Christ Jesus. Take heart, Toward the glory of God!
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