25 February 2018
Second Sunday of Lent
The Transfiguration reveals Jesus in all His glory. At this moment, Peter, James, and John can see His kinship with the Father, they can see His continuity with Moses and Elijah, and they know clearly that they are to follow Him. But why does Jesus show this to them? To prepare them for His suffering. He tells them not to reveal any of what they saw until He “had risen from the dead” (Mk. 9:9). He shows them His full glory—and connects it to His suffering—to help give them strength.
J.R.R. Tolkien famously called history a “long defeat,” but in that same quote he also spoke of how it contains “some samples or glimpses of final victory.” We cannot just be bracing ourselves against defeat after defeat—we must know that in the end, our struggles are not pointless. There are moments in history and in our own lives where we know that good has triumphed over evil, and God is at work. The more we survey the graces we have received and give thanks for them, the easier they are to see—and the more readily we can see God.
Whether we look for signs of victory or not, defeat will be there. Whether we look for God or not, pain and suffering will be there. God has not promised us a magic wand to take the suffering away. But He has transformed it. Now, we know that defeat is not the last word. God has subverted suffering by showing that it will end. Jesus has prepared us for the pain now by showing us the glory to come.