R. CANTALAMESSA - THE MYSTERY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION Six days after have received at Caesarea Philippi, the profession of faith of Peter and have announced his Passion, Jesus took with himself Peter, James, and John and He went upon on "a high mountain, in a elevated place, by themselves" With these three emphasizing the event is disconnected from the natural sphere and from the ordinary rhythm of life, it is placed in a different dimension: of solitude, of silence, and of distance from everything . What is for us the "house" from which we must get out, the things and the concerns from which we must free ourselves, everyone will find out, without difficulty, by his own. But it imposes a break. Jesus, it is said, was transfigured "before them." He does not transfigure Himself in front of everyone, without distinction, in the midst of the noise and of the crowd, but only in front of someone , those who have left down below relatives, friends, job, everything, and those who have accepted his invitation to drow aside with Him. Those who feel they can say with the Psalmist: "Your face, Lord, do I seek, not hide Your Face" (Psalm 27) or even "My heart is ready for You, for You, my God" (Ps 57). Going forward, we read: "His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light." What can be deduced clearly from the text is that the light does not invest Jesus from the outside, but this comes from inside. His face is not merely "enlightened", but "shines." The same as his clothes: they become bright. It ' s disposed conspicous the essential difference compared to similar theophanies of the Old Testament. Jesus shines of His light, not reflected ,on his face shines not only the glory of God as on the face of Moses, but also His own glory. Rather, it shines, as His own, the Glory of God, because "He is the brightness of His glory, the very imprint of His nature". (Hebrews 1,3). He does not see God, but rather He is seen as God. On Tabor it inaugurates a new kind of Theophany, the Christophany. "It transfigures - Saint John Damascene says - not taking something that He was not, but showing his disciples what He really was." The Transfiguration is a gift that the Father gives to Jesus, a way to show Him His complacency Jesus on Tabor is not really a master who teaches knowledge or provides evidence of his divinity to his disciples rather the Son who admits his friends in a moment of intimacy between him and Heavenly Father, because they are witnesses and participants of his glory. He was happy. The Transfiguration is a mystery of divine happiness. All the stream of joy that flows between Father and Son, which is the same Holy Ghost, on that occasion "overflowed from the pot" of Christ's humanity. "As he prayed His face was altered," this is the key to understand the whole event. And it is also what suddenly brings the Transfiguration very close to us as a mystery not only to contemplate, but also to imitate. If the purpose of the contemplation of Christ, as St. Paul says, is to turn us into the One whom we contemplate, even if we are called to transfigure ourselves then prayer is the privileged way to do it. It’s especially in describing the appearance of God, the Theophany, that the biblical authors have developed the aesthetic sense. These descriptions contain the most descriptions of intense beauty of all Old Testament. Beauty is all that is touched by the presence of God.
R. CANTALAMESSA - THE MYSTERY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
RispondiEliminaSix days after have received at Caesarea Philippi, the profession of faith of Peter and have announced his Passion, Jesus took with himself Peter, James, and John and He went upon on "a high mountain, in a elevated place, by themselves" With these three emphasizing the event is disconnected from the natural sphere and from the ordinary rhythm of life, it is placed in a different dimension: of solitude, of silence, and of distance from everything .
What is for us the "house" from which we must get out, the things and the concerns from which we must free ourselves, everyone will find out, without difficulty, by his own. But it imposes a break.
Jesus, it is said, was transfigured "before them." He does not transfigure Himself in front of everyone, without distinction, in the midst of the noise and of the crowd, but only in front of someone , those who have left down below relatives, friends, job, everything, and those who have accepted his invitation to drow aside with Him.
Those who feel they can say with the Psalmist: "Your face, Lord, do I seek, not hide Your Face" (Psalm 27) or even "My heart is ready for You, for You, my God" (Ps 57).
Going forward, we read: "His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light."
What can be deduced clearly from the text is that the light does not invest Jesus from the outside, but this comes from inside.
His face is not merely "enlightened", but "shines."
The same as his clothes: they become bright.
It ' s disposed conspicous the essential difference compared to similar theophanies of the Old Testament.
Jesus shines of His light, not reflected ,on his face shines not only the glory of God as on the face of Moses, but also His own glory. Rather, it shines, as His own, the Glory of God,
because "He is the brightness of His glory, the very imprint of His nature". (Hebrews 1,3).
He does not see God, but rather He is seen as God.
On Tabor it inaugurates a new kind of Theophany, the Christophany. "It transfigures - Saint John Damascene says - not taking something that He was not, but showing his disciples what He really was." The Transfiguration is a gift that the Father gives to Jesus, a way to show Him His complacency
Jesus on Tabor is not really a master who teaches knowledge or provides evidence of his divinity to his disciples rather the Son who admits his friends in a moment of intimacy between him and Heavenly Father, because they are witnesses and participants of his glory. He was happy.
The Transfiguration is a mystery of divine happiness. All the stream of joy that flows between Father and Son, which is the same Holy Ghost, on that occasion "overflowed from the pot" of Christ's humanity.
"As he prayed His face was altered," this is the key to understand the whole event.
And it is also what suddenly brings the Transfiguration very close to us as a mystery not only to contemplate, but also to imitate. If the purpose of the contemplation of Christ, as St. Paul says, is to turn us into the One whom we contemplate, even if we are called to transfigure ourselves then prayer is the privileged way to do it. It’s especially in describing the appearance of God, the Theophany, that the biblical authors have developed the aesthetic sense. These descriptions contain the most descriptions of intense beauty of all Old Testament. Beauty is all that is touched by the presence of God.