Look up
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022821.cfm
This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him.
The Deacon and Doctor of the Church, Saint Ephrem, tells us Jesus took the three apostles up to the mountain for three reasons: first, to show them the glory of his divinity, then to declare himself Israel’s redeemer as he had already foretold by the prophets, and thirdly to prevent the apostles’ being scandalized at seeing him soon afterward enduring those human sufferings which he had freely accepted for our sake.
The apostles knew that Jesus was a man; they did not know that he was God. To their knowledge he was the son of Mary, a man who shared their daily life in this world. On the mountain he revealed to them that he was the Son of God, that he was in fact God himself.
Peter, James, and John were familiar with the sight of their master eating and drinking, working and taking rest, growing tired and falling asleep, experiencing fear and breaking out in sweat. All these things were natural to his humanity, not to his divinity.
He therefore took them up onto the mountain so that they could hear his Father’s voice calling him Son, and he could show them that he was truly the Son of God and was himself divine.
He took them up onto the mountain in order to show them his kingship before they witnessed his passion, to let them see his mighty power before they watched his death, to reveal his glory to them before they beheld his humiliation.
Then when the Jews took him captive and condemned him to the cross, the apostles would understand that it was not for any lack of power on his part that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by his enemies, but because he had freely chosen to suffer in that way for the world’s salvation.
He took them up onto the mountain before his resurrection and showed them the glory of his divinity, so that when he rose from the dead in that same divine glory they would realize that this was not something given him as a reward for his labor, as if he were previously without it.
That glory had been his with the Father from all eternity, as is clear from his words on approaching his freely chosen passion: Father, glorify me now with the glory I had with you before the world was made.
(St Ephram, Doctor of the Church – Sermon 16 on the Transfiguration,1, 3, 4)
We are allowed to participate in the Apostles’ experience of the Transfiguration for the same reasons. First, to show us that Jesus is God. Second to show us that he is the messiah foretold by the law and the prophets. Third so that we do not forget that our God willingly suffers for us.
Jesus is not only a prophet. Jesus is not only a new law-giver. Jesus is God. The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord will come in August, but here, in the beginning of Lent, the Church is encouraging us to look up. Lent is not a time for us to be self-absorbed. It is not about celebrating our Lenten sacrifices. It is not about feeling bad when we fail to keep our Lenten sacrifices. Even repentance is not the very most important thing, although that is very important. It is most important that we look upon Jesus, and worship him as our God. The entire purpose of Lent is not so much that we suffer, but that we stop looking at ourselves, and others, and look on the Lord.
The law and the prophets point us to God. They foretell his coming, and help us to recognize him. They explain God’s character, and what pleases God. Even the new law, with its commandments to love God and to love our neighbor exists to point us to God, who is love.
Jesus is not a failed prophet, an unsuccessful revolutionary, or a rejected law-changer. Jesus is God. He willingly suffers for us out of love for us. Remember, it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, and despised the shame.
Of course, when we look at the Lord, we are changed. Of course we repent. Of course we want to unite our small sufferings with his suffering. But those come from our experience of Jesus, and are intended to lead us close to Jesus. They are not for themselves. They are intended to draw us to God.
This Lent – look up. Our hope is not in this world. When we suffer and toil in the darkness, we can raise our eyes to feast on the radiant beauty of our God. When everyone is opposed to us, we can look up to the one who is for us. Because “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This Jesus is our hope and our salvation. Look up from this valley of tears, and meet the gaze of a loving God.
