Gospel Reflection For The 25th day of February in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Mark 9:2-10
2 And his garments became shining and exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller upon earth can make white. 3 And there appeared to them Elias with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. 4 And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 5 For he knew not what he said: for they were struck with fear.
6 And there was a cloud overshadowing them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is my most beloved son; hear ye him. 7 And immediately looking about, they saw no man any more, but Jesus only with them. 8 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen, till the Son of man shall be risen again from the dead. 9 And they kept the word to themselves; questioning together what that should mean, when he shall be risen from the dead. 10 And they asked him, saying: Why then do the Pharisees and scribes say that Elias must come first?
This is not the only time we will discuss the Transfiguration this year. It is such an important event in the life of our Lord that we will celebrate it later in the year as a feast day. Symbolically, this event is exceedingly rich. The appearance of Moses, the Law-giver, and Elijah, the great prophet, show the culmination of the old covenant in the appearance of the Messiah. The radiance with which Jesus shown is that same that was reflected in the face of Moses when he spoke with God. That divine radiance was so powerful that the people could not look at Moses and he had to veil his face after speaking with God. Here the Apostles, too, fall to the ground in fear and awe. The voice from Heaven makes clear that Jesus is the Divine Son of the Father. It is also remarkable that His Apostles still did not understand that our Lord would suffer death and rise from the dead as He seems to have told them many times by this point. They still did not fully comprehend His power because they were limited by that same human understanding that caused Saint Peter to offer to set up tents… physical shelters for spiritual beings. This was all his mind could process and all he knew to do to honor God and His Saints.
But, I want to focus on another aspect of this event. You see, I was recently in yet another unfruitful “debate” with a Protestant online who claimed that the Catholic doctrine of praying to saints is wrong because the Bible condemns necromancy, or seeking to communicate with the dead for reasons of divining the future. On its face, this argument is flawed because Catholics do not pray to saints for the purposes of learning the future or in any way that could be considered occult – we are not practicing witchcraft or voodoo. We do not ask for spells or gaze into crystal balls. When we pray to saints, we are merely communicating with the Saints in Heaven and asking them to pray for us. Beyond that, the fact is… they are not dead! The Bible says that God is God of the living, not the dead. The saints in heaven are more alive than we are on earth. They are in Heaven because they are righteous and the Bible says that God hears the prayers of the righteous. The Bible also says that those in Heaven become like God, unlimited by time or space and given full understanding. They can certainly hear us in any language we speak and are powerful advocates for us before God, as explained in Revelations. They are also our family as we are brothers and sisters in Christ, so we ask them to pray for us just as we would our family on earth. We do not worship saints. We do not seek the supernatural. Saint Paul said we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and we believe what the Bible and Sacred Tradition teaches us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking with two Heavenly saints here, on earth. He is doing the very thing that Protestants condemn. The Apostles witness this event. In the Transfiguration, we see the intersection of Heaven and earth, of our temporal life with eternal life. It is a tremendous blessing that the Catholic Church teaches us that we have recourse to saints and angels. Protestant belief is truly lacking and it is very sad that so many remain in error and treat Catholics with contempt and bigotry.
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.