TRANSFIGURATION 3 cont.

Up there, Christ’s clothes became white as snow. Saint Mark remarks that no human could wash so clean as to produce such whiteness, as Christ’s clothes appeared.

Saint Matthew tells us that His face shone like the sun. And who can look at the brightness of the sun ? Whilst His clothes became as white as the light. But Saint Luke was the only one to tell us that Jesus went up there ‘to pray’. So that must have been a ‘Praying Session’. We have it recorded in the Gospel that ‘whilst he was praying His face changed.’
Should we not stop and meditate on this last sentence; ‘‘whilst he was praying His face changed.’’

Does my face ever shine when I pray ? I have to be honest and say: “Unfortunately, never.” But what does that mean ? Let each one of us examine his / her conscience. How often during the day we try to find a good, a likely place from where to answer our mobile to get a clear reception, not to miss a word of the message coming in, we silence everyone around us as we can’t hear clearly … and the rest.

Do we behave like that when we are praying, when we are trying to be in contact with God the Creator; at home, at church, anywhere? Do we really strive to concentrate. Even at the beginning of Mass, the Celebrant invites us with the words: “Lift up your hearts to God”, which means shut out the world completely, now you are in contact with God Almighty. Numerous and various are the answers, or should I say excuses given … but HE knows the truth.

During the Transfiguration Christ, in contact with God the Father, He became as white light, so now we underdstand it better when we say: “Light of Light, begotten not made”.

Coming down the mountain Moses’ face shone brightly, as he was face to face with God … the same happened on the Sinai. To indicate this artists draw sort of rays coming out of Moses’ forehead. We find it even in Michelangelo’s Moses, at the Vatican, as if he has two white horns coming out of his head.But forgetting these secondary details, the light on the face of Moses came from an outside source; from Christ, God-man. Whilst, the light that made Christ’s face, seeming to shine like the sun, was Light from Light.

Saint John was there, and later on he wrote in Revelations the reason why the clothes were white, “…because they were washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
Through the Sacrament of Baptism we were partakers of the Passion of Christ, and through the merits of the Passion we were cleansed, purified, we regained the state of purity we had enjoyed before the original sin … for that reason we put on a white dress on the baby to be baptized. We dress the baby in Christ, in Light.

Coming down the mountain Jesus was conversing with Moses and Eliah about His earthly Exodus. The death of Christ in Jerusalem was the exodus of Jesus from this earth. This was the passage of the Red Sea of His Blood. This ‘Pasch’, passage, was to lead Jesus to Glory where he still bears the marks of His wounds.

Adapted from the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI