The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” Abram went as the LORD directed him.
Second reading from the second Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy 2 TM 1:8B-10
Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew MT 17:1-9
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.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER The Transfiguration helps the disciples, and us too, to understand that the Passion of Christ is a mystery of suffering, but it is above all a gift of love, of infinite love on Jesus’ part. The event of Jesus transfiguring himself on the mountain enables us to better understand his Resurrection. In order to understand the Mystery of the Cross, it is necessary to know ahead of time that the One who suffers and who is glorified is not only a man, but is the Son of God who, with his love faithful to the end, saved us. (Angelus, 25 February 2018)
Jesuits - The Father speaks only twice, he has no words to waste, he has only the Son - for the second time he repeats the same words that he said in baptism: This is my Son, listen to him! Thus ends the revelation about Jesus and begins the journey to Jerusalem. Certainly this is the most beautiful event in the life of Jesus, where he had such an interior experience that it is said of his Face becoming as bright as the sun, his very clothes as light. An indescribable experience of fullness of life, of light, of joy: the divine experience, his humanity presents all the light of God on earth, it is an anticipation of what the resurrection will be and, as we shall see, it is also an anticipation of what will be of each of us who have the same destiny as Christ and this passage, after all, tells us where we are going to end and it is important to know where we are going to end, it changes the path, if we know where we are going to arrive. The transfiguration represents the seventh day, the rest, that is, the arrival of the week and of creation itself. On the seventh day God rested. What is told about Jesus becomes the end of all creation is the transfiguration, the glory of the Son, as Paul says: creation groans in the pains of childbirth awaiting the liberation and glory of the children of God. The function of man himself is to transfigure himself and all creation, bringing all creation back to shine with this glory of God. God made the world not for death, not for disfigurement, (August 6 and this day marks the anniversary of the first atomic bomb which is the disfigurement, it is another light, it is a catastrophe) but for the transfiguration. What God is by nature, we become by grace. Our destiny is not that we are born, we grow old, blessed is he who is a little well, then we become a little stupid, we become senile, then we die and everything is over; basically we think so. No! Life is beautiful to live because the more you go on, the more beautiful it gets, the brighter it gets, white hair is the sign! It is always more beautiful, until you come to the light of God, otherwise there is no point in living. In a society that exalts only the twenty years, it means that it is very bad to live, because while I wait for the twenty years before it is bad, then it is bad because they have already passed. Instead, every age is beautiful and beauty has to come later, the best wine is reserved at the end, as in the wedding at Cana, the meaning of our life is to be transfigured from glory to glory in the image of the Son. But not only in the Spirit, our body is also transfigured, it is called to participate in this transfiguration. It depends on what we look at. Clearly if we look at ourselves, our limits, our opaqueness, we become sad. If we look at God and his glory changes history. It happens after six days and it happens on the initiative of Jesus who takes Peter, James and John with him. These three apostles will also see the agony in the garden, which is a very similar scene, here in the transfiguration the humanity of Jesus shows the divinity, in the garden God shows his humanity, his passion for man.
>Here the Father calls Jesus Son, there the Son will call the Father Abba, two very close scenes, like death and the Resurrection. This transfiguration takes place on a high mountain, it recalls Sinai and this passage, among other things, is full of biblical reminiscences, so many that none is decisive to say which is the main one, because the main one is another, all the writing does nothing but talk about the transfiguration, so the reality is Jesus transfigured. and he was transfigured before them and his Face flashed like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. The transfiguration is now described as transfiguration: changing figure, changing form, metamorphosis. We know the ancient metamorphoses where God presents himself in human form, here it is exactly the opposite, it is humanity that shows his divine form. We are called to have the form of God, the form is the principle that makes a thing what it is, so we are called to have the form of God, the same form, the same glory, the same reality of God becomes our reality, his beauty becomes our beauty, his goodness becomes our goodness, to this we are called! Because love is the exchange that we have of what we are, and God making himself man, in his love, has received as an exchange our humanity, our death and gives us in return his life, his glory, is not a way of saying! This transfiguration in you describes the face, the face shines like the sun, the sun of You Highest bearer of meaning (Francis of Assisi), is described the face with the very light of the sun. Clothes as light, the sun and light are a symbol of God and a very appropriate symbol, because light makes things what they are, it is the principle of knowledge, of warmth, of life, of communication, of love, light is everything, with the term light expresses all that is positive, the opposite of darkness. This is the anticipation on Christ's face of the resurrection, of the very definitive glory that the disciples are called to see already in this life, I stress the definitive glory they will see later, but they already have the anticipation beforehand. So we ourselves, in our journey of faith, it is clear that it will be in the end that we will reach the fullness, but already now we have the anticipation, we know where we are going. And it is interesting that Moses did not see the Face of God, but only from behind, and his face was so bright that no one could look at his face, he had to wear a veil. We, on the other hand, are called to reflect face to face, looking face to face at the very glory of God and to be transformed, as Paul says, into that very glory. This glory is indescribable, but something can be intuited and we see that it makes us intuit it. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and conversed with him. This glory that we do not understand appears in the midst of Moses and Elijah, Moses is the one who gave the law, the Word and Elijah is the father of the prophets, those who kept the promise alive, it is only the Word of God, which is God Himself, and His promise that makes us understand this glory, because all the law and the prophets only talk about Jesus, which is the gift that God makes of Himself to man. Peter takes the initiative and says: it's beautiful; he didn't know what else to say, but it makes good. It is beautiful is much more than it is good, many things are good, but they are still bad. It is beautiful means that it is good that pleases, it is beautiful to be there, elsewhere it is ugly, it is beautiful to be there because we are made to be there, we are made to be in front of the face, because that face is our own face and it is to be there that we can finally be there, we are pilgrims, pilgrims of the face, of the search for the face. Here it is beautiful to be, it is that beauty in which God created the world, it is his beauty, and he saw that it was beautiful, in the transfiguration we see that original beauty to which we are destined, despite everything.
God did everything he could to make us understand, He gave his life for us. transfiguration is this advance of intelligence of our destiny and Peter wants to make three tents there, it recalls the feast of tents which is the gift of the law, the word tent, in Greek skenè, recalls the shechinà, the glory and true that the glory The presence of God in the world were three: the first presence is Moses, the law; the second presence is Elijah, the prophecy; the third definitive presence of God in our midst is Jesus, in his flesh God placed his presence in our midst. He was still speaking, when a luminous cloud enveloped them with his shadow, and behold a voice saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am pleased, listen to him. Here appears a luminous cloud that symbolizes God, God is light, a cloud not because He is dark, but because He is too bright, His gaze is blinding. The cloud is a sign of fruitfulness, of life, the cloud had also guided Israel in the desert, the cloud was on Sinai and is the presence of God. Here is interesting : God is cloud, that is, he has no face because he is too luminous, we cannot see him, cloud but he is voice and word. It is not necessary to make an image of God or even of man, because the only face of God, the only image of God is man who listens to the Word and here the Son is the Face of the Father. The Father is voice, the Son is face, He is the Face of the Father; in fact this voice says the same words that were said in baptism.
Then he adds" in which I was pleased" which is taken from the first song of the Servant in Isaiah 42, it is the Son precisely because he is the Servant who knows how to give life. Then he adds a definitive word that wasn't in the baptism, in baptism he couldn't say it yet because Jesus hadn't said anything yet, now that Jesus has just revealed his identity and said to follow him, now the Father says listen to him. What does the Father say? Listen to Jesus, he is my word and the only thing you have to do and listen to him. If you listen to Him, you become like Him too. Then what is the transfiguration? I don't know exactly what it is, the principle is very clear: the principle is to listen to Jesus, the transfiguration begins when I start listening to him instead of myself. When my life is really centred on listening, I believe his word, when it is played on him and it is progressive listening that transforms me.
First reading from the Book of Genesis
RispondiEliminaGN 12:1-4A
The LORD said to Abram:
“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
“I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you.”
Abram went as the LORD directed him.
Second reading from the second Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy
2 TM 1:8B-10
Beloved:
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 17:1-9
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.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
The Transfiguration helps the disciples, and us too, to understand that the Passion of Christ is a mystery of suffering, but it is above all a gift of love, of infinite love on Jesus’ part. The event of Jesus transfiguring himself on the mountain enables us to better understand his Resurrection. In order to understand the Mystery of the Cross, it is necessary to know ahead of time that the One who suffers and who is glorified is not only a man, but is the Son of God who, with his love faithful to the end, saved us. (Angelus, 25 February 2018)
Jesuits - The Father speaks only twice, he has no words to waste, he has only the Son - for the second time he repeats the same words that he said in baptism: This is my Son, listen to him! Thus ends the revelation about Jesus and begins the journey to Jerusalem.
RispondiEliminaCertainly this is the most beautiful event in the life of Jesus, where he had such an interior experience that it is said of his Face becoming as bright as the sun, his very clothes as light. An indescribable experience of fullness of life, of light, of joy: the divine experience, his humanity presents all the light of God on earth, it is an anticipation of what the resurrection will be and, as we shall see, it is also an anticipation of what will be of each of us who have the same destiny as Christ and this passage, after all, tells us where we are going to end and it is important to know where we are going to end, it changes the path, if we know where we are going to arrive.
The transfiguration represents the seventh day, the rest, that is, the arrival of the week and of creation itself. On the seventh day God rested. What is told about Jesus becomes the end of all creation is the transfiguration, the glory of the Son, as Paul says: creation groans in the pains of childbirth awaiting the liberation and glory of the children of God. The function of man himself is to transfigure himself and all creation, bringing all creation back to shine with this glory of God. God made the world not for death, not for disfigurement, (August 6 and this day marks the anniversary of the first atomic bomb which is the disfigurement, it is another light, it is a catastrophe) but for the transfiguration.
What God is by nature, we become by grace. Our destiny is not that we are born, we grow old, blessed is he who is a little well, then we become a little stupid, we become senile, then we die and everything is over; basically we think so. No! Life is beautiful to live because the more you go on, the more beautiful it gets, the brighter it gets, white hair is the sign! It is always more beautiful, until you come to the light of God, otherwise there is no point in living. In a society that exalts only the twenty years, it means that it is very bad to live, because while I wait for the twenty years before it is bad, then it is bad because they have already passed. Instead, every age is beautiful and beauty has to come later, the best wine is reserved at the end, as in the wedding at Cana, the meaning of our life is to be transfigured from glory to glory in the image of the Son.
But not only in the Spirit, our body is also transfigured, it is called to participate in this transfiguration. It depends on what we look at. Clearly if we look at ourselves, our limits, our opaqueness, we become sad. If we look at God and his glory changes history.
It happens after six days and it happens on the initiative of Jesus who takes Peter, James and John with him.
These three apostles will also see the agony in the garden, which is a very similar scene, here in the transfiguration the humanity of Jesus shows the divinity, in the garden God shows his humanity, his passion for man.
>Here the Father calls Jesus Son, there the Son will call the Father Abba, two very close scenes, like death and the Resurrection.
RispondiEliminaThis transfiguration takes place on a high mountain, it recalls Sinai and this passage, among other things, is full of biblical reminiscences, so many that none is decisive to say which is the main one, because the main one is another, all the writing does nothing but talk about the transfiguration, so the reality is Jesus transfigured. and he was transfigured before them and his Face flashed like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.
The transfiguration is now described as transfiguration: changing figure, changing form, metamorphosis.
We know the ancient metamorphoses where God presents himself in human form, here it is exactly the opposite, it is humanity that shows his divine form.
We are called to have the form of God, the form is the principle that makes a thing what it is, so we are called to have the form of God, the same form, the same glory, the same reality of God becomes our reality, his beauty becomes our beauty, his goodness becomes our goodness, to this we are called!
Because love is the exchange that we have of what we are, and God making himself man, in his love, has received as an exchange our humanity, our death and gives us in return his life, his glory, is not a way of saying!
This transfiguration in you describes the face, the face shines like the sun, the sun of You Highest bearer of meaning (Francis of Assisi), is described the face with the very light of the sun. Clothes as light, the sun and light are a symbol of God and a very appropriate symbol, because light makes things what they are, it is the principle of knowledge, of warmth, of life, of communication, of love, light is everything, with the term light expresses all that is positive, the opposite of darkness.
This is the anticipation on Christ's face of the resurrection, of the very definitive glory that the disciples are called to see already in this life, I stress the definitive glory they will see later, but they already have the anticipation beforehand. So we ourselves, in our journey of faith, it is clear that it will be in the end that we will reach the fullness, but already now we have the anticipation, we know where we are going.
And it is interesting that Moses did not see the Face of God, but only from behind, and his face was so bright that no one could look at his face, he had to wear a veil. We, on the other hand, are called to reflect face to face, looking face to face at the very glory of God and to be transformed, as Paul says, into that very glory. This glory is indescribable, but something can be intuited and we see that it makes us intuit it.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them and conversed with him. This glory that we do not understand appears in the midst of Moses and Elijah, Moses is the one who gave the law, the Word and Elijah is the father of the prophets, those who kept the promise alive, it is only the Word of God, which is God Himself, and His promise that makes us understand this glory, because all the law and the prophets only talk about Jesus, which is the gift that God makes of Himself to man.
Peter takes the initiative and says: it's beautiful; he didn't know what else to say, but it makes good.
It is beautiful is much more than it is good, many things are good, but they are still bad.
It is beautiful means that it is good that pleases, it is beautiful to be there, elsewhere it is ugly, it is beautiful to be there because we are made to be there, we are made to be in front of the face, because that face is our own face and it is to be there that we can finally be there, we are pilgrims, pilgrims of the face, of the search for the face.
Here it is beautiful to be, it is that beauty in which God created the world, it is his beauty, and he saw that it was beautiful, in the transfiguration we see that original beauty to which we are destined, despite everything.
God did everything he could to make us understand, He gave his life for us. transfiguration is this advance of intelligence of our destiny and Peter wants to make three tents there, it recalls the feast of tents which is the gift of the law, the word tent, in Greek skenè, recalls the shechinà, the glory and true that the glory
RispondiEliminaThe presence of God in the world were three: the first presence is Moses, the law; the second presence is Elijah, the prophecy; the third definitive presence of God in our midst is Jesus, in his flesh God placed his presence in our midst.
He was still speaking, when a luminous cloud enveloped them with his shadow, and behold a voice saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am pleased, listen to him.
Here appears a luminous cloud that symbolizes God, God is light, a cloud not because He is dark, but because He is too bright, His gaze is blinding. The cloud is a sign of fruitfulness, of life, the cloud had also guided Israel in the desert, the cloud was on Sinai and is the presence of God.
Here is interesting : God is cloud, that is, he has no face because he is too luminous, we cannot see him, cloud but he is voice and word.
It is not necessary to make an image of God or even of man, because the only face of God, the only image of God is man who listens to the Word and here the Son is the Face of the Father.
The Father is voice, the Son is face, He is the Face of the Father; in fact this voice says the same words that were said in baptism.
Then he adds" in which I was pleased" which is taken from the first song of the Servant in Isaiah 42, it is the Son precisely because he is the Servant who knows how to give life. Then he adds a definitive word that wasn't in the baptism, in baptism he couldn't say it yet because Jesus hadn't said anything yet, now that Jesus has just revealed his identity and said to follow him, now the Father says listen to him. What does the Father say? Listen to Jesus, he is my word and the only thing you have to do and listen to him. If you listen to Him, you become like Him too. Then what is the transfiguration?
I don't know exactly what it is, the principle is very clear: the principle is to listen to Jesus, the transfiguration begins when I start listening to him instead of myself.
When my life is really centred on listening, I believe his word, when it is played on him and it is progressive listening that transforms me.