Hi everyone. Welcome again to the Daily
gospel exegesis podcast, created by The Logical Bible study
Ministry. Thanks for listening as always,
our goal in this podcast is to help you understand.
The literal sense of scripture from a Catholic perspective and
our reading for today is Mark chapter 9 verse Versus 2213.
So here's the reading you would hear it today's math.
Jesus Took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a
high mountain where they could be alone by themselves, they're
in the present in their presence.
He was transfigured, his clothes became dazzling, Lee White
whiter than any Earthly bleacher could make them Elijah appeared
to them with Moses. And they were walking with
Jesus, then Peter spoke to Jesus Rabbi.
He said, it is wonderful for us to be here.
So, So let us make three tents one for you.
One for Moses and one for Elijah.
He did not know what to say. They were so frightened.
And a cloud came covering them in Shadow and there came a voice
from the cloud. This is my son.
The Beloved listen to him. Then suddenly when they looked
around they saw no one with him anymore, but only Jesus.
As they came down from the mountain, he warned them to tell
no one what they had seen until after the son of man had risen
from the dead. They observe the warning
Faithfully though among themselves.
They discussed what rising from the dead could mean?
And they put this question to him.
Why did the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?
True. He said Elijah is to come first
and to see that everything is as it should be yet.
How is it that the scripture say about the son of man, that he is
to suffer grievously and be treated with contempt?
However, I tell you that Elijah has come and they have treated
him as they pleased just as the scriptures say about him.
So that's our text for today and we're going to see here the
Transfiguration the famous event.
A lot of people treat this as a bit of an awkward event because
we're not entirely sure what to do with it, and that's makes
sense. Because in a lot of ways, what
happens here at the Transfiguration is a mystery?
There's some aspects of it, that we don't fully understand.
But what's interesting about this reading is the so much
packed in here. So many references to the Old
Testament and so many different things going on theologically
and really, it's One of those texts that you could keep Mining
and keep learning new things all the time.
So we're just going to try and touch on each of the main areas.
So what's it context here? Jesus has been doing Ministry
all around Galilee and just prior to, this has announced to
his Apostles that he's going to suffer.
And also they should expect to suffer if they want to inherit
eternal life. So, keep that context in mind.
So we're now going to begin what a lot of Scholars will consider
to be the Second half of Mark's gospel and there's some
interesting parallels here between the baptism, which
Begins the first half of Mark's gospel and then the
Transfiguration which Begins the second half and we'll see those
parallels as we go. So verse 2 now in verse 20, now
lectionary it's actually taken out a phrase here because if
they read this phrase it may not make sense to start with this
phrase. But if you look at your Bible,
verse 2 starts with after six days.
So this is six days after Jesus has Been speaking to the
apostles about suffering, which is what's the previous thing
that happened in the gospel of Mark?
So six days later. Now the idea of six days some
Scholars think there might be an illusion here to the theophany
of Mount Sinai. So you remember the story in the
book of Exodus, Moses goes up the mountain and The Cloud of
God's presence covers Mount Sinai for six days before God
spoke to Moses. And you can see that in Exodus
chapter 24 and that's interesting because Mark doesn't
usually tell us How many days there are between events and
what the exact chronology is of things.
But here he says, after six days.
So he probably is trying to draw his readers to a parallel
between Moses and what happens here at the Transfiguration.
So Jesus Took with him Peter and James and John.
So he takes his three innermost disciples, this is like his
inner circle of disciples so there's some things and some
events that he only allows the inner circle of disciples to see
And there's some things he only trusts them with.
So from this, we learn, there's a hierarchy even within the
apostles. So these three men, Peter James,
and John go on to become very prominent leaders in the church.
So, it seems that Jesus is deliberately bringing these
three, because he wants them to witness this because they are
going to strengthen the other Apostles.
And then, it's going to inform the way they leave the church in
the future, so he leads them up a high mountain in scripture.
People go to mountains, to be closer to heaven.
And to be closer to God and this event, the fact that they go up
a mountain, it seems to deliberately mirror the way that
Moses ascended Mount Sinai. So you can see, this is like the
Mount Sinai event of the New Covenant.
The mail tonight go up, we're not sure it's not.
The name is a given to us most Scholars.
Have thought it might be Mount table which you certainly in the
area although it could also be Mount Hermon which is in the
same area of Galilee as well. So the text says, they wanted to
be alone by themselves. So, Jesus, specifically wants to
be away from the crowds. He only wants his three
innermost Apostles to see this. You doesn't want the crowds to
see what happens at the top of the mountain.
So we're actually quite privileged in what we learn
here, because even most of the disciples did not see what is
recounted in today's Gospel. And then Mark says, they're in
their presence, he was transfigured.
Now, the word transfigured, it literally means his appearance
changed now Matthews version actually adds a comment here
Matthews version of the Transfiguration adds the his
face Shone like the Sun, so he became dazzlingly White.
And then in verse 3, it says his clothes became dazzling, Lee
white, or another translation is his garments became Glistening.
Now in scripture clothing is often a visible expression of
the person. So, a person's clothes, tell you
about the identity of the person.
So the fact that Jesus clothes here, turned white, probably
supposed to indicate his divinity or his Purity, or maybe
it's supposed to indicate his Holiness.
A Holiness that can only come from God, possibly all of those.
There's some other places where white garments a prominent.
So in Matthew chapter, 28 that angel at the Tomb has dazzlingly
white garments and there's other places in the Old Testament to
and then Mark adds this editorial comment that none of
the other gospel authors ad, which is that his clothes became
whiter than any Earthly bleacher could make them.
So you can really hear Peters eyewitness.
Recollections, coming through here.
Remember, Mark's gospel, Mark, got most of his information, it
seems from Peter. So here it seems that we have a
comment that Peter has directly added in.
It was a whiter than Any Earthly bleacher could make them because
Peter was there. He was one of the three
Apostles, that's at the top of the mountain with Jesus.
So what's going on here? Jesus Transfiguration, why does
he suddenly become dazzlingly white?
What's going on? The gospel was don't give us a
full explanation but we can possibly summarize it as
something like this. The true glorified form of Jesus
is shining through Jesus. True form is being revealed and
it's the form. That will be fully revealed at
the second coming when all people will see it.
So Jesus here is shining with his own Divine.
Glory typically you would associate this kind of blinding
whiteness with, with God, or, with the angels, but here Jesus
shines with it his shining with his own Divine Glory.
So, presumably Jesus, is showing his innermost Apostles.
His true. Identity has deliberately
allowing them a glimpse at what he is.
Really like, he feels that they're ready to see this.
In a sense, he could also say, the Transfiguration is a
foreshadowing of resurrected Humanity in the new heavens and
the new Earth, the righteous will have similar bodies to
Jesus. And he said that in Daniel
chapter 12, it talks about how the righteous will shine and
then wisdom 3:7 and also in Matthew 13 verse 43.
All of these have these descriptions of the righteous at
the judgment to going to shine. And then in verse 4, Mark says
Elijah appeared to them with Moses so out.
Of nowhere, Elijah and Moses show up, Elijah and Moses were
considered to be the two most important figures in the Old
Testament. And then in the development of
the judaic religion, because Moses represented the law and
Elijah represented the prophets. And together, the two of them
represent the entire Old Testament.
Sir, presumably be appearance. Here is supposed to indicate to
the apostles that are watching that Jesus truly has Divine
approval. So not only is Jesus shining
with his glory. It's like God has also allowed
Moses and Elijah to show up as another indicator that Jesus
really does have Divine approval.
If Moses and Elijah are there, it must mean that God, approves
of it and that's certainly the way the apostles would have
perceived it now. Try and put yourself in the
Apostle shoes here. These are faithful Jews, they
don't fully understand. Jesus identity yet, all of a
sudden he shines with this Divine glory and then Moses and
Elijah show up who are the greatest most revered people in
Judaism Now interestingly, both Moses the lawgiver and Elijah,
the prophet, they're both well, known miracle workers.
And notice the similarities Here with Jesus there, miracle
workers who fasted for 40 days. Both of them did both Moses and
Elijah were rejected by some of God's people.
Both of them encountered, God's glory, on Sinai.
And then both Figures were associated with the Jewish
eschatological hope for both Moses and Elijah.
There's verses in the Old Testament, which talked about
how they're going to return in a sense before the coming of the
new age, the Messianic age. So they'll both expected to show
up in some form. And here, they both are another
similarity here. And this is really interesting
is that Moses? And Elijah apparently both had
their bodies taken up to heaven. It's explicitly says that about
Elijah in one Kings and then there's there was a Jewish
Tradition at the time and the Book of Jude appears to mention
this as well, that Moses is body.
Also, apparently went up to heaven after his death, so that
would explain how both Moses and Elijah can appear in bodily form
here, because presumably in the Old Testament, when righteous
people died, their bodies. Generally didn't go to heaven,
but Moses and Elijah are exceptions.
So that explains how they can appear here in their bodies and
they were talking with Jesus, Now here we don't know exactly
what they were talking about. But later, if you read the New
Testament later on, we learn a little more about what they were
saying to Jesus. And the language the New
Testament uses is, they were talking about the Exodus that
Jesus was to accomplish. So it's basically they're
talking about his coming death and Resurrection.
He'll be fascinating to know what they actually said to Jesus
here. Can you imagine this
conversation between Jesus? Moses and Elijah verse 5.
Then Peter spoke to Jesus Rabbi, or you can translate that Master
which is it's a title of respect, which means my great
one. So he's overwhelmed here.
Peter is overwhelmed and he says it is wonderful for us to be
here. Now, Peter is probably been
quite genuine. He's genuinely excited by what
he's saying, this will be a truly amazing event for him and
for the other apostles, He probably thinks the kingdom of
God Has Come Moses and Elijah have shown up which they
expected to happen at the beginning of the kingdom of God.
And Jesus has his shining with God's glory.
He probably thinks this is it. So he says, this is his
suggestion, he says to Jesus. Let us make three tents.
Or you can translate that booths one for you, one for Moses, and
one for Elijah. So Peter probably thinks they're
going to stay for a while or possibly, he wants them to stay
for a while, he's trying to get them.
Stay. He wants to prolong the Heavenly
experience that he's witnessing. So what's going on with these
booths here? I want to read out this quote
from the Catholic commentary on sacred scripture and this is for
the Book of Matthew, but it certainly applies to Mark's
version as well. So here's what it says when
Peter suggests to build three booths, he likely has in mind,
the tents used for the Feast of Tabernacles, the Autumn Harvest
Festival in which the Israelites dwelt in makeshift tents, for
seven days commemorating, how God Has presence dwelt in the
tent of meeting and how the Israelites themselves dwelt in
tents as they Journey Through the Wilderness on the way, to
the promised land. The Greek word here.
Translated tense is used in the Septuagint for the tents made
for this Feast significantly. The feast also pointed to a
future fulfillment. Anticipating the time when the
nations would come to Jerusalem to Worship the Lord, as King in
an eschatological Feast of Tabernacles in Zechariah, 14,
and Hosea. When Peter Witnesses, Jesus
transfigured in glory, he may consider the eschatological era
to be daunting, and thus seeks to enter into this experience in
a way reminiscent of the Feast of Tabernacles.
So, that's a really nice quote. I think so, Peter has all these
things going on in his head. He's looking at Jesus being
transfigured. He's seeing Moses, and Elijah,
and he's associating. Those things with the coming of
the Messianic age, and another thing that's associated with the
coming of the Age is sort of a renewed Feast of Tabernacle so
he's putting all those things together and maybe that's why he
wants to build them booths. What Peter doesn't grasp is that
Jesus glory is not going to remain with them permanently.
He is hoping that it will. But what Jesus has been trying
to tell the apostles is that Jesus has to go to the cross in
order for the fullness of his glory to be revealed.
Peter doesn't get that yet, and he won't really understand that
until Jesus is resurrected verse 6.
He did not know what to say. They were so frightened or more.
Literally, they're exceedingly afraid.
So, Peter and the apostles are Afraid about what's going on and
this makes sense. Because if you think about what
happens whenever someone encounters an angel in the
Bible, the first thing, the angel has to say to them is do
not be afraid. So, whenever God's glory shows
up in this form, people are afraid it's frightening.
Now, Peter suggests that he build tents for them, but he
doesn't get an answer to his proposal because the, very next
thing that happens is a cloud. Comes over them straight away.
As Peter is speaking, so verse 7, Cloud came, and Matthews
version specifies, that this is a bright cloud and it covered
them in Shadow or more literally at overshadowed them.
So this language of the cloud overshadowing them, it calls to
mind how in the Old Testament, the cloud covered and protected
the Israelites in the wilderness remember how the cloud followed
them and led the way for them in the wilderness?
In the book of Exodus, the cloud represented, the very presence
of God, God was considered to dwell in the cloud later.
In the Old Testament, the cloud represented God's presence in
the temple. And there's some scenes where
they physically see God's God's presence in the temple in the
form of a cloud. It was believed that God's
presence left during the time of Ezekiel.
There's a scene where the cloud leaves the temple, but the Jews
did believe that one day. God's glory would return When
the kingdom of God arrived in its fullness.
So the fact that the cloud shows up here hovering over Jesus now
indicates that Jesus is the new Dwelling Place of God.
This is the moment they've been waiting for God's.
Glory has returned in the person of Jesus.
Now some Scholars think that here maybe the cloud also
represents the holy spirit. So that would mean, the Trinity
is present here, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that
would certainly be a good parallel with the baptism event
where the three persons of the Trinity will also present and
then a voice came from the cloud.
Out. This is my son the Beloved or
you can translate that this is my beloved Son.
Again, this is exactly what the father said that Jesus baptism,
but in the baptism. It seems that only Jesus heard
the voice but here it's directed at the apostles, the father
speaks to the apostles and says, this is my beloved Son.
He wants the father wants the apostles to be very clear on
Jesus identity. This is my son and then God
says, listen to him. So, I think the best way to
interpret this whole event. What's the point of the
Transfiguration? It's a solution to the disciples
doubting Jesus and his authority.
Remember, what's happened? Just prior to this event.
Jesus has been telling them. He's going to suffer and they
seem to be struggling with this teaching.
God wants the leaders of the disciples, Peter James, and John
to have confidence in Jesus. And he wants those Apostles to
teach the other Apostles to have confidence.
So God allows the Transfiguration to happen in
order to convince the apostles, the Jesus really is the Son of
God and therefore they should be serious about him and pay
attention to him. That's going to include taking
seriously. What Jesus has just said about
suffering. So maybe God's trying to teach
the apostles that, if they listen to him and they follow
him to the Cross, their Destiny will be joined to his and they
too will experience a Divine Glory.
So God, he says, listen to him and this might recall the
prophecy in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15 where God says that one day.
He'll raise up a prophet like Moses who the people will listen
to and certainly that is fulfilled in Jesus.
Now at this point Matthews version of the Transfiguration
tells us that the apostles fell on their face in fear and Jesus
Comforts them. But marks version just go
straight into verse 8. Then suddenly when they looked
around they saw no one with them anymore.
But only Oh Jesus. So Moses and Elijah have
vanished. Jesus is not shining anymore.
The vision is over. It's accomplished.
Its purpose. Verse 9 as they came down from
the mountain, he warned them not to tell anyone what they had
seen. So it would be too much for the
other Apostles and the other disciples to handle.
If the, if these three Apostles came down from the mountain and
said, guess what? We just saw they wouldn't be
able to put it into words and probably the people that were
talking to, you wouldn't be able to believe and receive it or
possibly maybe the issue would be that if they did tell people
what they'd seen, the apostles and the disciples would believe
it too much, and they will try to take him as king because
there was beliefs at the time that the Messiah was going to be
a great revolutionary. Peking and all might get out of
hand. So here as Jesus does in other
places he says don't tell anyone what you have seen.
This is a privileged encounter but he adds in this qualifier
don't tell anyone what you have seen until after the son of man
has risen from the dead. Now, Jesus is already predicted
once that he's going to die and Rise Again in chapter 8 but the
apostles still don't understand what Jesus means by this.
So he says it again until after the son of man has risen from
the dead. Now the Jews Jesus time did
believe in a general Resurrection.
They believe that people would rise again, but they believe
that is all going to happen at once at the final judgment.
They did not believe that there would be any individual
resurrections before then even if the Messiah, that was not on
their radar at all. So, every time before Jesus
death, every time Jesus says, I'm going to die and rise again,
they just cannot fathom. It, it doesn't make sense to
them. Why does Jesus say don't talk
about it until after the son of man has risen from the dead?
Presumably because people are more likely to believe the story
of the Transfiguration after the resurrection and maybe they'll
understand the Transfiguration better in light of the
Resurrection, verse 10, Mark tells us the apostles, observe
the warning Faithfully or more. Literally they kept the matter
to them ourselves. So unlike some other people in
the gospels, when Jesus says, don't tell anyone and they run
around and tell everyone here the apostles they do they listen
to Jesus and they keep it to themselves.
But Mark tells us there are among themselves.
They discussed what rising from the dead could mean.
So again they struggling with this concept that Jesus is going
to rise again. Sorry, I want to finish with
this, quote here again, from the Catholic commentary on sacred
scripture. I think it does a really
excellent job summarizing all of the theological threads that
come together in the Transfiguration, what these
three disciples saw and heard on the mountain would have reminded
them of what happened to Moses at Mount Sinai.
In Exodus 24, Moses LED three of his Close Associates up Mount
Sinai. That Was Then covered by God's
glory in the form of a cloud for Six Days.
On the With day, the Divine voice called out from the cloud
and spoke to Moses. Moreover, during Israel.
Stay at Sinai. Moses would enter the cloud.
Atop The Mountain to talk to God and when he left his face would
shine reflecting God's glory and leaving the people in awe.
Similarly, Jesus singles out, three of his Apostles and leads
them up a high mountain. That is overshadowed by The
Cloud of God's glory. As its Sinai, a Heavenly voice
calls out from the cloud on the seventh day.
Day as Moses face Shawn. So Jesus face shines brightly as
the people at Sinai were left in awe.
So the apostles at the end of the scene, a lying prostrate
greatly afraid, the disciples soon will see their master
betrayed arrested condemned and crucified here.
Jesus gives three of them an opportunity to see his glory in
order to prepare them for this supreme trial of their fate.
The scene reveals to them and to the readers that the Son of God
on the mountain of transfiguration is the same son
of man who will suffer and be killed on a hill in Jerusalem.
So the really awesome amazing parallels here between the
Transfiguration and the events of the book of Exodus.
And it's probably not a coincidence.
Now, to understand this next thing that the disciples talked
about as they come down the mountain, we need to talk a bit
about Elijah and the prophecies about Elijah in the Old
Testament. So a larger shows up fairly
early in the Old Testament, but even after he's gone, there's
prophecies later in the Old Testament, which predict that
Elijah is going to return. So there are some specific
prophecies for example, Malachi chapter 3, and in some Bibles
that's chapter 4 and also see Rock 48:19.
L've. So particularly according to the
prophet Malachi, the arrival of the day of the Lord, is going to
be signaled by the reappearance of Elijah and Malachi says
Elijah. When he returns will turn the
hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the
children to their fathers. So, there's this idea that when
Elijah returns is going to restore relationships in a way
by dealing, with sin and bringing Peace.
So, the disciple was a now on their way back down the
mountain. Currently quite a big mountain
because it takes him a while to get back down.
And they've just seen Elijah appear to them on the mountain
and then disappear. Now, they know the Old Testament
prophecies, this say Elijah is going to return, and they've
just seen a larger return apparently, but then he went
away again. So the disciples are confused
basically about the role of Elijah Verse 11 and they put
this question to Jesus. Why did the scribes say that
Elijah has to come first? Now, most likely the disciples
at least most of them couldn't read.
So they will get their information about the Old
Testament from the scribes. The scribes job in that culture
was to communicate the Old Testament to the Jewish people.
So when they say what are the scribes say that Elijah has to
come first while because the scribes were in charge of
communicating the Old Testament to the people and the disciples
here is struggling to understand this Teaching.
Because the coming to realize that Jesus is the Messiah.
Who's going to bring in the Kingdom.
So they realize the kingdom of God is coming soon.
And I'm just seeing a larger come, but then he's disappeared
again. So they're really quite confused
about how to understand these Old Testament.
References about Elijah's return.
So Jesus is now going to clear it up for them.
And this is interesting because Jesus doesn't always tell us how
to interpret specific Old Testament texts.
But here he does verse 12 true. He said, Elijah is to come first
and to see that everything is as it should be.
Another translation. There would be a larger does
come first to restore all things.
So Jesus, confirms that the Old Testament prophecies are right
and the scribes have correctly, communicated them Elijah will
return and he says in these prophecies, he says Elijah will
restore family relationships and he's going to restore the 12
tribes of Israel as well. That's mentioned in the sirach
passage about Elijah And we know how he does that.
He turns people away from sin. That's how a large is going to
bring Peace by turning people away from sin.
So Jesus confirms. Yes, that's true.
Elijah will return and then he inserts.
This interesting phrase about himself.
He says yet, how is it that the scriptures say about the son of
man that he is to suffer grievously and be treated with
contempt? So Jesus at this point is saying
something like this to the disciples.
He is, as he often does, he's directing them to a deeper.
The principal there forgotten. He says, yes, there are
questions about the Old Testament, prophecies about
Elijah but of more importance. Are the difficult passages in
the Old Testament about how the Messiah will suffer.
And it seems that he's particularly thinking about the
suffering servant, passages in Isaiah.
And he's telling the disciples, those ones about the Messiah in
the Old Testament. Those are the ones you should be
thinking about. So, once again, Jesus Takes the
opportunity to tell his disciples that he's going to
suffer. He's been telling them several
times in this whole section Matthews version of this line.
Jesus says the son of man will suffer similarly at their hands.
So at this point Jesus is comparing himself to as well.
See John the Baptist. He's trying to get the disciples
to realize just as John the Baptist suffered.
I the Messiah, the one that John the Baptist Was preparing for
Will similarly suffer. And in fact be killed, if you
think about it, because they know that by this point, John
the Baptist is killed. So Jesus is once again, hinting
that he's going to be have a similar fate, he's going to die
verse 13. Jesus says, however, now that's
always a significant word in Jesus teaching because he's
about to say something, which corrects a misunderstanding that
his disciples have I tell you that Elijah has come So here
Jesus says, these prophecies about Elijah's return have come
there have been fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist Jesus
here teachers think about it. What's Jesus teaching?
His teaching that John the Baptist is the Fulfillment of
the Elijah passages. We know when we look at the
earlier passages about John the Baptist in his ministry, John
the Baptist had the spirit and mantle of Elijah, he's clearly
playing the role of Elijah, and he has Elijah spirit and
Ministry his bringing to completion.
The prophetic. Mandate that Elijah had, and
Jesus Takes it a step further and says, actually, he was the
Elijah person that we've been looking for.
Jesus goes on and they have treated him as they pleased.
So this is a reference to the fact that the Jewish leaders had
John, the Baptist executed, the scribes were correct in their
reading, the Old Testament. They, when they said Elijah will
return their correct about that. But because of their
preconceptions and pride the Jewish leaders, Including King
Herod and also the Pharisees and the scribes.
They did not recognize that the Elijah prophecies were being
fulfilled. In John the Baptist Jean.
If they had a thought about it carefully, what's John?
The Baptist doing. He's coming to bring people to
repentance. He wants to bring peace.
He wants to turn the fathers to their children and children to
their fathers. Just as the prophecy said that
Elijah would do, but they didn't recognize it.
In fact they killed him. Jesus says, and they have
treated him as they pleased just as the scriptures say about him.
So Jesus says there's some passages in the Old Testament
which talked about John. The Baptist's are in
persecution, so he's probably thinking of scripture passages
which speak about Elijah being persecuted in 1 Kings, chapter
19, Elijah's suffered at the hands of King Ahab and his wife
Jezebel, he was quite mistreated by them.
Well like Elijah John, the Baptist was a great prophet.
Cold the people to repentance and he was persecuted by a
wicked woman and a cowardly King so that's really interesting,
isn't it? And we see John the Baptist fate
in Mark chapter 6. So when we think about what
Jesus is teaching here, it's actually quite important in
terms of Bible interpretation. One of the problems the Jews had
at the time of Jesus is that they expected all of the Old
Testament, prophecies to be fulfilled in the most literal
physical way possible. That was generally the way they
thought Often. These prophecies were actually
fulfilled in a more profound and spiritual way, but the Jewish
leaders weren't always open to that.
So, the Jews thought, similarly, about the Messiah.
They expected the Messiah to literally be a political ruler
who would set up an actual Kingdom from Jerusalem.
And they also thought similarly about the kingdom of God, they
thought it would come in instantaneously, it would wipe
out all the enemies and there are some passages in the Old
Testament, which interpreted literally would lead to that.
So they weren't open to these more profound.
Found theological fulfillments. This is an important lesson for
us today. I think prophecies are not
always fulfilled in the way that we visually.
Imagine they will be. So when we read the Old
Testament, we often get pictures in our mind of what we think
that's going to look like when it's fulfilled.
We need to be careful because in Jesus time, they actually
thought a larger himself would return.
They weren't really open to this idea that someone else would
play the role of Elijah. But Jesus says, that's exactly
what happened in accordance with God's plan.
So, in the next section of Mark chapter 9 Jesus and the
disciples are going to keep coming down the mountain and
they're going to be met by a demon-possessed boy.
So we'll look at that in the next few passages.
So let's now turn to the catechism to see what a
teacher's about this passage. How can this passage from Mark
inform us on Catholic teaching so paragraph. 552 of the
catechism is about the keys of the kingdom, and there's a
specific reference to Peter here.
Remember, Peter is one of the only Apostles.
It's allowed to come up the mountain.
So Simon Peter holds the first place in the College of the 12.
Jesus entrusted, a unique mission to him.
And then the paragraph goes on from there paragraph 151.
This is a really interesting one.
This is in the section about what it means to believe.
In Jesus, for a Christian believing in God cannot be
separated from believing in the one he sent his beloved Son in
whom the father is, well pleased, God tells us to listen
to him. The Lord himself said to his
disciples believe in God believe.
Also in me, we can believe in Jesus Christ because he is him.
Himself God, the word made flesh.
No one has ever seen God. The only son who is in the bosom
of the father. He has made him known because he
has seen the father. Jesus Christ, is the only one
who knows him and can reveal him.
Paragraph, 4, 59. This is in the section about why
did the word become flesh? The word became flesh to be our
model of Holiness. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me. I am the way the truth and the
life. No one comes to the father, but
by me on the mountain of the Transfiguration, the father
commands, listen to him. So, here we have an interesting
explanation or various explanations of why the word
became flesh and there's more than one reason.
And then in this section, the catechism, says, one of the
reasons is so that he could be a model of Holiness.
And it links it here to the passage in the Transfiguration
where the father says, listen to him.
And paragraph. 649 this is about the resurrection and here at
links to the entire chapter of Mark chapter 9.
It says, As for the sun, he affects his own Resurrection by
virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the son of
man will have much to suffer die.
And then rise elsewhere. He affirms explicitly.
I lay down my life. That I may take it again.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up
again. And the paragraph goes on from
there. I hope you learned something new
in today's episode, the Transfiguration is really quite
fascinating. And in a lot of ways, you can't
really exhausted. It's well worth studying.
If you've learnt something new, you think others would benefit
from hearing this, please share this podcast with them and will
continue tomorrow.