18th Week of Ordinary Time C – Wednesday – Feast of the Transfiguration

Why did Jesus reveal his glory in this way—and why to these three?

Pope Benedict XVI offers profound insight. He teaches that the Transfiguration was, above all, a preparation for the scandal of the Cross. Jesus was about to enter his Passion, and his disciples would soon witness a humiliation so profound that their faith might not survive it. Benedict writes, “The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with the Father: the profound unity of his being with God, which becomes light.” In other words, this moment reveals that even in the coming darkness, Jesus remains God with us.

Saint Leo the Great echoes this: “The great reason for this Transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the Cross from the hearts of his disciples.” God knew how fragile they were. By giving them this foretaste of glory, Jesus was equipping them with hope—not to cling to a passing moment (as Peter tried to do by suggesting tents), but to endure the suffering to come.

Notice also how Moses and Elijah appear, speaking of Jesus’ “exodus”—his departure. The glory of the Transfiguration is not an escape from the Cross, but a revelation that the Cross itself is the path to glory. In Daniel’s vision, the “Son of Man” is given dominion and glory after he comes “on the clouds of heaven”—but he does so after his suffering. The Gospel today is not a distraction from the Passion; it is its key.

Saint John of the Cross, the great mystic, reminds us that God sometimes grants consolations like these to draw us forward in the spiritual life—but we must not become attached to them. The mountain is not our destination. The voice from the cloud says, “Listen to him.” The command is not to remain in ecstasy, but to follow the Word—through Jerusalem, through Gethsemane, through Calvary—wherever and however it, He, leads us.

The Second Letter of Peter confirms this. “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter testifies—but then he tells us that even more reliable than that vision is the prophetic word we already have. The Scriptures. The teachings of Christ. These are our lamp in the darkness until the “morning star rises in our hearts.”

Dear friends, like the apostles, we too are called up the mountain—in prayer, in the Eucharist, in moments of grace. But these are never ends in themselves. They are to strengthen us to carry the Cross, to follow Christ wherever he leads. Because beyond every cross is Resurrection. And behind every cloud of mystery and trial, there is the voice of the Father: “This is my Son. Listen to him.”

Let us listen. Let us follow. Let us not be afraid, trusting that beyond the storms of life, comes the radiant sunshine of the Son of God.

Amen.