The transfiguration of the Lord is a theophany in the gospel.
In the Old Testament God spoke to Moses face to face (Ex 33.11). When Moses came
down from mountain after encountering God his face shone bright (Ex 34:29-30). It
was because of the radiance that fell on him from the rays, shining and
dazzling light of God. When God appeared to people they could not face God, they
covered their face, because the brightness of light was such that their eyes
could not be fixed on it.
In this second week of lent we have the account of transfiguration
from the gospel of Mark 9:2-10 Jesus, who
was moving with the people in human flesh, reveals His true identity as God in
this transfiguration scene to his closed disciples, rather the inner circle of His
disciples; peter, James and John. The Pharisees, Sadducees and elders did not
have the privilege of seeing Jesus’ divine form. If Jesus were to do that as a
response to their question about His authority, they would have exalted Him as
the king of Jews. But that would not have served the purpose of incarnation; capture the heart of the people. Jesus did not come as a militant messiah to
liberate Jews from Roman Empire. The coming of Jesus was to bring all people to
God in spirit – to the kingdom of God. He wants to the rule the heart of all
people rather than rule the people with material force. Since the understating of
the kingdom of God was not matured enough among Jews, Jesus revealed His divine
form only to chosen disciples to whom he also warned not to tell anyone about
the event until the resurrection. This transfiguration
is also a pre-figuration of risen Jesus. Therefore, it is only after witnessing
the risen Jesus, the disciples will be in a better clarity to interpret this theophany
event.
In the first reading (Gen 22:1-2, 9-13, 15-18),
Abraham offers His only son to God. Abraham did not withhold his son for
himself. He was conscious that it is the Lord who gave this son Isaac, he has
no right of ownership over Isaac, and thus, he offers or gives his gifted son back
to the Lord. For God appreciates his faithfulness, devotion and loyalty and
tells him not to lay hand on Isaac. Similarly, in the New Testament God did not
withhold His Son Jesus. He gives Him as an offering, because He is conscious
that humanity which He had created is in need of divine being in a physical
form to conceptualize the plan of God and comprehend the reality of life. God
asked Abraham to offer his son but did not allow him to do that. On the
contrary, Jews who asked for a redeemer allowed themselves to kill Him.
The offering of a beloved Son (Isaac for Abraham &
Jesus for God) and transfiguration of Jesus, invite us to be conscious of our
identity as belonging to God. We and
all that we possess come from God. The consciousness of our nothingness and
non-ownership over others and things would set us in a right way. Let us not be
happy with calling our own children as beloveds, let us ask ourselves; are we
beloveds of God? Do we aware that our children are not only our beloveds they
are also beloveds of God as they are gift from Him for us to care for them? The
belovedness that we show toward our children should reveal the belovedness of
God both to us and to them through us. Our affection toward them should
transfigure our human parenthood to reveal them the eternal parenthood of God. Let
this season of Lent be a time to be aware of our identity as Sons and daughters
of God and reveal to our children about our belongingness to God – we are all
Gods’ children.
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