{"id":4153,"date":"2017-03-12T14:21:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T14:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2017-03-12T14:25:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T14:25:52","slug":"commentary-on-2nd-sunday-of-lent-a-12-03-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/commentary-on-2nd-sunday-of-lent-a-12-03-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on 2nd Sunday of Lent (A) 12.03.2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie <\/a><\/h3>\n

Mt 17:1-9<\/b><\/p>\n

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.\u00a0 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.\u00a0 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.\u00a0 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”\u00a0 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”\u00a0 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.\u00a0 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”\u00a0 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.\u00a0 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Transfiguration of Christ is recorded in the first three Gospels (Matthew 17, Mark 9,\u00a0 Luke 9). The fourth does not recount the story, but John 1:14 could possibly be a reference to it: “We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”\u00a0 And Peter wrote, “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.\u00a0 For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’\u00a0 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).\u00a0<\/p>\n

This voice from heaven was heard before, at his baptism in the Jordan.\u00a0 The words were the same (Matthew 3:17.\u00a0 In Mark 1:11 and in Luke 3:22 the words are, “You<\/em> are my Son, the Beloved\u2026”).\u00a0 In each case a cloud overshadows him (the cloud was frequently an image of God\u2019s glorious presence in the Old Testament: for example, in Exodus 19:9; Leviticus 16:2; etc.).\u00a0 So the scene is like a backward glance to the beginning of his work.\u00a0 It is also a glance to the future: it is like a moment’s preview of the Resurrection.\u00a0 The beginning and the end of the story are brought together in one luminous moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In all three gospels this Transfiguration scene comes just after Jesus predicted his suffering and death for the first time.\u00a0 Death, and even the thought of death, freezes the action and brings the whole of one\u2019s life into a point.\u00a0 But that point is not a fading into extinction; it is a moment of Transfiguration.\u00a0 In this lies the meaning of our own suffering too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie Mt 17:1-9 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.\u00a0 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.\u00a0 Suddenly there appeared to them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4161,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions\/4161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}