The Transfiguration

Fruit Of The Mystery: Desire For Holiness

The following meditations are provided to assist you while praying the Holy Rosary. It is offered in a format where a question is posed to lead the meditation and then is followed by an answer below it.  It may be more helpful to grow in your meditation skills if you try to contemplate the question while praying this decade of the Rosary, and view the possible answer upon completing the prayers for the Mystery.

The meditations below offer possible answers to questions regarding these Mysteries.  Because the Wisdom of God is infinite, there are limitless insights that one may gain from meditating repeatedly upon the questions surrounding these Mysteries.  There are no wrong or right answers when praying the Holy Rosary in this way.  We are simply seeking to be inspired in our understanding of who Jesus is and how much He loves us, as the Holy Spirit gently guides us through reflective prayer.

For many reasons it may be difficult to engage our minds to enter into meditating on the Mysteries at hand.  An alternative option is to simply meditate upon the meaning of the core prayers of the Holy Rosary as you are praying them.  You may find these reflections on the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be prayers to be helpful during these times.

Jesus Teaches Us To Pray With The Saints

The Communion of Saints plays a significant role in our Catholic belief system, and finds its root in the Sacred Scriptures.  It is in this passage that we see Our Lord first leading us to this communion through prayer.  It is while He is praying and communicating with these Saints that He is transfigured and His glory is revealed for the first time to His disciples.  In like manner, when we pray with the Saints and work through the mysteries in our lives, our glory begins to be revealed as we shine with the light of Christ.  Jesus once again leads by example in teaching us the importance of uniting the Body of Christ on earth and in Heaven, as we desire to grow in holiness and follow His path to Heaven.

The Glory of God

An unquenchable desire for holiness- to know Our Father and see His glory- always results in a reflection of this glory.  For Moses, his face did shine with it when he encountered God and received the Ten Commandments; Christians reflect this glory by shining from the inside out when we are obedient to His commands to love Him and love one another.  The more we desire to know our God, the more our countenance glows when we encounter His Love; and as we grow in holiness, truly a recognizable change occurs as we begin to shine with the glory of God. 

2.  What role does prayer play in transforming us into other Christs?

If we look closely at this passage we find that Jesus was praying when He becomes transfigured.  As we strive to imitate Him in all things, we must recognize that we too must have a strong prayer life if we also desire to become transformed and radiate the glory of God.  It is through a healthy prayer life that we form a meaningful relationship with Jesus.  This in turn allows us to experience His love on a deeper level, which enables us to become more loving and more like Him in all of our ways.  The Sacraments, Scripture, fellowship and worship are a few other important instruments that can draw down the grace of God upon us to help us to shine with His love.  In all of these examples, when we come before God just as we are to enjoy His presence, we slowly become transformed by His love as we draw closer to Him.  

Glory vs. Suffering

When we contemplate the Transfiguration and Jesus beheld in all His glory and splendor, still Peter, James and John are reduced to the fleshly desires of their own glory and being the greatest as they come down from the mountain top.  Now consider beholding Jesus in His Passion and death, and the life-changing impact it had on the same apostles, all the other people who witnessed it then, and all who continue to endure it as members of the mystical Body of Christ today.  Clearly the suffering of Christ transforms us into His likeness more than any other possible means.

2.  How is it possible that we become united with the sufferings of Christ?

Consider where we behold the sacrifice of Jesus re-presented and united with our sacrifices: in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.  This is why members of the parish bring up the gifts to the altar during Mass; these members of the Body of Christ represent the offering of all of the sacrifices and sufferings of our lives, which we place upon the altar to be joined with the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  Now consider the force and power of this Sacrament to generate change within us and around us as we mystically enter into the Passion of our Lord and commune with other members of the Body of Christ.  Truly we are one Body in Christ, brought together through the only bond we are all guaranteed to share in this lifetime- sacrifice and suffering.

3.  Why would Jesus want His disciples to wait until after He was risen before they shared what they had witnessed on Mt. Tabor?

Until we die to our selfish ways, we cannot effectively witness the true love of God.  This is why Jesus did not want Peter, James and John to share this experience with others until they entered into His Passion.  As they experienced the most brutal sufferings and death of Jesus, their eyes were opened to understand all Jesus had been teaching them about the meaning of sacrifice, humility, obedience to the Will of God, and selfless love for the salvation of souls.  It was through the Passion that they were able to die to all of their selfish ways and pride that had prevented them in the past from understanding and loving others the way that Jesus had loved them.  Now that they were emptied of themselves through the suffering of Christ, there was room to be filled by the Holy Spirit that would be sent by Jesus on Pentecost.  It was through the power of the Resurrection that these disciples would now be able to rise with Christ and be filled with His life.  They could now give abundant witness in word and action to the true selfless love of God, even to their martyrdoms.

The Father’s Loving Plan

1.  Why does the Father voice His love for the Son on this occasion?

What an incredible Father. We hear Our Heavenly Father tell Jesus on two occasions how pleased and proud He is of Him- how much He loves Him.  The first time is before He faces a most severe temptation in the desert, and goes head to head with satan after forty days of fasting among wild beasts.  This is also right before He starts His tireless efforts of three years of public ministry- where He would be homeless, rejected, in poverty, leaving His widowed Mother, etc.  This second time is shortly before He will endure the most horrifying suffering and death of His Passion and Cross.  Our Father most lovingly encourages Him with these words that would sustain His most difficult trials.  Our Father encourages us with these same words as we choose to embrace His Will for us.  

2.  Why were the disciples asleep? 

From a human perspective it seems difficult to understand how they could be sleeping at such a monumental moment.  After all, this was the greatest revelation of the Glory of Jesus as the Son of God.  However, from a heavenly perspective we can see how this was an important sign of the Father’s loving plan.  For in the near future, it would help see His Son through the most difficult trial of His life.  In His Humanity, Jesus would learn to recognize the three disciples’ inability to watch and pray as they ought, even at the summit of His glory.  In the depths and lowest point of His agony and sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane, He would again find His three disciples asleep instead of watching and praying; this would help Jesus to discern the Father’s Will that He would have to enter into His Passion in order to give us the strength to stay sober and vigilant against a most wicked enemy in the trials of life.

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