Wednesday, 3 December 2014

20140806 TRANSFIGURATION AS A PROPHECY

20140806 TRANSFIGURATION AS A PROPHECY  

Reading 1, Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

9 While I was watching, thrones were set in place and one most venerable took his seat. His robe was white as snow, the hair of his head as pure as wool. His throne was a blaze of flames, its wheels were a burning fire.
10 A stream of fire poured out, issuing from his presence. A thousand thousand waited on him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was in session and the books lay open.
13 I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence.
14 On him was conferred rule, honour and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away, and his kingship will never come to an end.


Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 97:1-2, 5-6, 9

1 Yahweh is king! Let earth rejoice, the many isles be glad!
2 Cloud, black cloud enfolds him, saving justice and judgement the foundations of his throne.
5 The mountains melt like wax, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice, all nations see his glory.
9 For you are Yahweh, Most High over all the earth, far transcending all gods.


Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9

1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
2 There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as dazzling as light.
3 And suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him.
4 Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 'Lord,' he said, 'it is wonderful for us to be here; if you want me to, I will make three shelters here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'
5 He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.'
6 When they heard this, the disciples fell on their faces, overcome with fear.
7 But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.'
8 And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but Jesus.
9 As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order, 'Tell no one about this vision until the Son of man has risen from the dead.'

TRANSFIGURATION AS A PROPHECY     
SCRIPTURE READINGS: DN 7:9-10, 13-14; 2 PT 1:16-19; MT 17:1-9
http://www.universalis.com/20140806/mass.htm
The gift of prophecy was especially prevalent during the time of the Old Testament and in the early Church.  It is significant that St Peter spoke of the Transfiguration event as a prophecy from God.  He wrote, “…so we have confirmation of what was said in prophecies; and you will be right to depend on prophecy.”
What is the purpose of such prophecies?  Prophecy is a gift to help us see the future in the light of the present reality.  The awareness of what is imminent would propel us to move in the right direction.  It can either confirm the will of God or the consequences for failing to abide by the will of God.  Hence, St Peter said “and you will be right to depend on prophecy and take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds.”
It is within this context that I would like to meditate on the Transfiguration from the perspective of prophecy. Jesus understood the transfiguration experience as a prophecy from His Father who wanted to confirm Jesus in His identity and mission in the light of the passion ahead of Him.  It was important that Jesus’ identity with the Father as His only Son be affirmed.  As the Son of the Father, it was therefore necessary that He be identified with the love of the Father for humanity.   Indeed, it was after this Transfiguration experience that Jesus “resolutely took the road for Jerusalem” as He knew that the time had drawn “near him to be taken up to heaven” where He truly belongs, in the bosom of the Father.  (cf Lk 9:51)  Thus, this preview of the future, with testimonies from Moses and Elijah summing up the Law and the Prophets, strengthened Jesus’ vocation to go to His passion knowing that that was what the Father was asking of Him.
This is true for every one of us.  That is why the Transfiguration event was not simply for Jesus alone but for the disciples too.  It was important that the disciples caught a glimpse of the past and the future, represented by Moses, Elijah and the radiant Jesus.  As in today’s second reading, the apostles who witnessed this awesome phenomenon would again and again return to this event especially in times of trials and doubts.  It must have been a life-transforming experience.  “We heard this ourselves, spoken from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.”  It was of course from hindsight after the resurrection that they fully understood who Jesus was.
In the Transfiguration, Jesus was reaffirmed in His identity when “He was honoured and glorified by God the Father, when the Sublime Glory itself spoke to him and said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour’. “  But true sonship is not a matter of being one with our father in nature but in our very being.  Many of us have also received the adopted sonship given to us in Christ through baptism.  But unlike Jesus, we do not claim the fullness of our sonship because our very life contradicts who we are and what we are called to be.  Jesus, in contrast, fully understood what sonship truly meant.   Sonship is spelt out in terms of obedience.  This means to be so identified with the Father in love and in self-emptying.  In concrete terms, true sonship is to share in the kenosis (self-emptying) of Jesus.
Unfortunately, the disciples were slow to understand the meaning of the prophecy.  For them, it was reduced simply to a wonderful religious experience, for Peter suggested, “‘Lord,’ he said ‘it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’”   They were not conscious of the full implications of the Transfiguration experience.  They did not appear to fully understand why the Father was telling them, “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.”   They had yet to come to fully understand Jesus’ divinity and identity as from the Father.  Nor did they recognize Him to be truly the Word of the Father.  For this reason, they were still unable to accept Jesus’ resolution to go to Jerusalem to suffer the passion, death and resurrection.
What about us? Do we take prophecies from God seriously?  Indeed, prophecies abound even in our day.   Such prophecies come from the reading of scripture, from homilies, study and the events around us.  But the question is whether we take them seriously or not.  We have been forewarned about the snares of the Evil One, just as Jesus warned the disciples of the cross before Him.  Are we taking steps to protect ourselves from falling into the same mistakes, such as strengthening our prayer life, deepening our understanding and conviction of the value of the evangelical counsels, praying for the grace of humility and deepening our faith through study and prayer?.
Unfortunately, instead of relying on these prophecies to be “a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds”, we prefer to rely on hindsight instead.  Hindsight is just the opposite of prophecies.  We learn from mistakes. That was what happened to the Israelites in exile.  Instead of listening to the prophets, they paid a high price for being disobedient to Yahweh.  This, too, was the case of the disciples who did not enter deeply into the meaning of the transfiguration encounter. They came to understand the meaning of the Transfiguration only after the passion and resurrection.
Like the disciples, we too must recall the Transfiguration experience in our lives.  We must go back to those resurrection experiences we encountered, especially when we were bearing our crosses.  Unless we return to those moments when we encountered the presence of God and His assurance of love in our lives, we can easily lose hope and fervor.  If many of us are feeling lost and have no direction in life, it is because we have yet to encounter God in such a way that we know that God is real and He is the Place that we belong.  Without a real transforming experience of God in our lives, it would be difficult to stay focused based on one’s intellectual knowledge of Jesus.   Having a God-experience and remembering our God-experience is what will always give us strength in every situation in life.
Today, let us find strength from the prophecies of Daniel and the testimonies of the apostles.  Prophet Daniel had a vision of the establishment of the kingdom of God by the Son of Man. Jesus Christ, who is the Son of Man, will establish the sovereignty of His Father over all the earth. St Peter too assures us that “it was not any cleverly invented myths that we were repeating when we brought you the knowledge of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; we had seen his majesty for ourselves”   We know their testimonies are true because they confirmed their testimonies by their transformed lives, giving themselves to the service of God and man, even to the extent of dying for their faith. Through them, let us find courage to believe in their testimonies so that we too can be transformed by our faith in Jesus.
Let us not repeat the same mistake today.  Like Jesus, we are called to be transformed into sons and daughters of God.  We are called to be obedient to Jesus, the Word of the Father, by meditating on His Word daily.  We are called to encounter Jesus especially in deep prayer and by following Him in His mission.  Only by listening to Jesus and coming down from the Mountain to face the crosses of our lives, can we spell out our sonship in obedience to the gospel.  And through Mount Calvary, we will reach Mount Tabor.  Our spiritual life on earth will always be focused on these two mountains, for we cannot reach one without the other.

WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No comments:

Post a Comment