Navarre Bible Commentary on Mark 9:2-10:
2-10. We contemplate in awe this manifestation of the glory of the Son
of God to three of His disciples. Ever since the Incarnation, the
divinity of our Lord has usually been hidden behind His humanity. But
Christ wishes to show, to these favorite disciples, who will later be
pillars of the Church, the splendor of His divine glory, in order to
encourage them to follow the difficult way that lies ahead, fixing
their gaze on the happy goal which is awaiting them at the end. This
is why, as St. Thomas comments (cf. “Summa Theologia”, III, q. 45, a.
1), it was appropriate for Him to give them an insight into His glory.
The fact that the Transfiguration comes immediately after the first
announcement of His passion, and His prophetic words about how His
followers would also have to carry His cross, shows us that “through
many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
What happened at the Transfiguration? To understand this miraculous
event in Christ’s life, we must remember that in order to redeem us by
His passion and death our Lord freely renounced divine glory and became
man, assuming flesh which was capable of suffering and which was not
glorious, becoming like us in every way except sin (cf. Hebrew 4:15).
In the Transfiguration, Jesus Christ willed that the glory which was
His as God and which His soul had from the moment of the Incarnation,
should miraculously become present in His body. “We should learn from
Jesus’ attitude in these trials. During His life on earth He did not
even want the glory that belong to Him. Though He had the right to be
treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians
2:6)” ([St] J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 62). Bearing in
mind WHO became man (the divinity of the person and the glory of His
soul), it was appropriate for His body to be glorious; given the
PURPOSE of His Incarnation, it was not appropriate, usually, for His
glory to be evident. Christ shows His glory in the Transfiguration in
order to move us to desire the divine glory which will be given us so
that, having this hope, we too can understand “that the sufferings of
this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be
revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
- According to Deuteronomy (19:15), to bear witness to anything the
evidence of two or three much concur. Perhaps this is why Jesus wanted
three Apostles to be present. It should be pointed out that these
three Apostles were specially loved by Him; they were with Him also at
the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37) and will also be
closest to Him during His agony at Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). Cf. note
on Matthew 17:1-13.
- This is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of the
Transfiguration: “Just as in Baptism, where the mystery of the first
regeneration was proclaimed, the operation of the whole Trinity was
made manifest, because the Son Incarnate was there, the Holy Spirit
appeared under the form of a dove, and the Father made Himself known in
the voice; so also in the Transfiguration, which is the sign of the
second regeneration [the Resurrection], the whole Trinity appears–the
Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the bright
cloud; for just as in Baptism He confers innocence, as signified by the
simplicity of the dove, so in the Resurrection will He give His elect
the clarity of glory and the refreshment from every form of evil, as
signified by the bright cloud” (“Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 45, 1.4 ad
2). For, really, the Transfiguration was in some way an anticipation
not only of Christ’s glorification but also of ours. As St. Paul says,
“it is the same Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we
are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we
may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:16-17).
- That the dead would rise was already revealed in the Old Testament
(cf. Daniel 12:2-3; 2 Maccabees 7:9; 12:43) and was believed by pious
Jews (cf. John 11:23-25). However, they were unable to understand the
profound truth of the death and Resurrection of the Lord: they expected
a glorious and triumphant Messiah, despite the prophecy that He would
suffer and die (cf. Isaiah 53). Hence the Apostles’ oblique approach;
they too do not dare to directly question our Lord about His
Resurrection.