As with Moses, Jesus Christ Walks the Way With
Us Now
Old Testament:
Moses and the Glory of the Lord
12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these
people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have
said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If
you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue
to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord replied,
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your
Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How
will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you
go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the
other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said
to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased
with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the Lord said,
“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim
my name, the Lord, in
your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,”
he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then
the Lord said, “There is
a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the
rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face
must not be seen.”
New Testament:
"I
am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life" (Jn. 8, 12).
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot
be hidden. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the measure, but upon
the lamp-stand, so as to give light to all in the house. Even so let your light
shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to
your Father in heaven” (Mt. 5, 14)
12 Moses
said to the Lord, “You have
been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom
you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have
found favor with me.’ 13 If
you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue
to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord replied,
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your
Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know
that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with
us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other
people on the face of the earth?”
17 And
the Lord said to Moses,
“I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you
and I know you by name.”
18 Then
Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And
the Lord said, “I will
cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my
name, the Lord, in your
presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,”
he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then
the Lord said, “There is
a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When
my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you
with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I
will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Key
to the Transfiguration: Lk 9, 28: Prayer Becomes Radiant Light
Luke
9, 28: “Now it came to pass about eight
days after these words, that he took Peter, James and John and went up the
mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the appearance of his countenance was changed,
and his raiment became a radiant white.”
Ratzinger:
“It was to this ‘mountain’ that Jesus had taken the Three who formed the core
of the community of the Twelve: Peter, James and John. ‘As he was praying, the
appearance of his countenance was altered,’ Luke tells us (9, 29). Thus he
makes it plain that the Transfiguration only renders visible what is actually
taking place in Jesus’ prayer: he is sharing in God’s radiance and hence in the
manner in which the true meaning of the Old Testament – and of all history – is
being made visible, i.e., revelation. Jesus’ proclamation proceeds from this
participation in God’s radiance, God’s glory, which also involves a seeing with
the eyes of God – and therefore the unfolding of what was hidden. So Luke also shows
the unity of revelation and prayer in the person of Jesus: both are rooted in
the mystery of Sonship. Furthermore, according to the Evangelists, the
Transfiguration is a kind of anticipation of Resurrection and parousia (cf. Mk.
9, 1). For his communication with the Father, which becomes visible in his
prayer in the Transfiguration, is the true reason why Jesus could not remain in
death and why all history is in his hands. He whom the Father addresses is the
Son (cf. Jn. 10, 33-36) But the Son cannot die. Thus Luke suggests that the
whole of Christology – our speaking of Christ – is nothing other than the
interpretation of his prayer: the entire person of Jesus is contained in his
prayer.”[2]
Smaller
Church: Focus of Radiant Light.
Benedict
XVI: “What Will The Church Look Like in 2000,” in Faith and the Future: Franciscan
Press (1971), pp. 99-104.
“To
put this more positively: the future of the church, one again as always, will
be re-shaped by the saints, by men, that is, whose minds probe deeper than the
slogans of the day, who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a
sider reality. Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the
patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which
alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone a man’s
eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and
suffered. If today we are scarcely able any longer to become aware of God, that
is because we find it so easy to evade ourselves, to flee from the depths of
our being by means of the narcotic of some pleasure of other. Thus our own
interior depths remain closed to us. If it is
True
that a man can see only with his heart, then how blind we all are?
…
We have no need of a Church that celebrates the cult of action in political
prayers. It is utterly superfluous. Therefore, it will destroy itself. What
will remain is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church that believes in the God
who has become man and promises us life beyond death…
“Let us go a step further. From the
crisis of today (1971) the Church of tomorrow will emerge – a Church that has
lost much. It will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from
the beginning. It will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices it
bui8lt in its palmy days. As the number of its adherents diminishes so will it
lose many of its social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be
seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a
small society it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of its
individual members… The full-time ministry of the priesthood will be
indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess
the Church will find its essence afresh and with full conviction in that which
was always at its center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of
God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world. In
faith and prayer it will again recognize its true center, and experience the
sacraments again as the worship of God and not as a subject for liturgical
scholarship....
But
when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more
spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find
themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they
will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little
flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope
that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in
secret.
St. Josemaria Escriva: August 7, 1931 [Feast of the Transfiguration in Madrid (Monday)]
“At
the moment of elevating the Sacred Host, without losing proper recollection,
without being distracted… there came to my mind, with extraordinary force and
clarity, the phrase of Scripture ‘et si exaltatus fuero a terra, Omnia traham
ad me ipsum’ [And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to
myself] (Jn. 12, 32). Ordinarily, in the fact of the supernatural, I am afraid.
Afterward comes the ne timeas [do not be afraid], it is I. And I understood
that it would be the men and women of God who would lift the Cross with the
doctrines of Christ over the pinnacle of all human activity…. And I saw our
Lord triumph, drawing to himself all things.
“Despite feeling empty of virtue and
knowledge (humility is truth…, without beating around the bush), I wanted to
write books of fire that would run through the world like a living flame,
filling men with their light and warmth, converting poor hearts into red-hot
colas, to offer them to Jesus as rubies of is royal crown.”
Reflecting
years later on this experience, Escriva said that he understood our Lord to be
saying those words to him ‘not in the sense in which the Scripture
says them. I say it to you in the sense that you are to raise me up in all
human activities in the sense that all over the world there should be
Christians with a personal and most free dedication, who will be other
Christs.’
This
experience brought with it a deepened sense of the meaning and importance of
secularity and of the work of Catholics in all professions and trades. It was
precisely in the midst of their normal human activities that the men and women
of Opus Dei were to strive to become other Christs.[3]
[1]
Exodus: 33 Then the Lord said
to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt,
and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I
will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites,
Hittites, Perizzites, Hevites and Jebusites. 3 Go
up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you,
because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the
way.”
4 When the people heard these distressing words, they began to
mourn and no one put on any ornaments. 5 For
the Lord had said to
Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to
go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your
ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’” 6 So
the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
The Tent of Meeting
7 Now
Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away,
calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of
meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went
out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents,
watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As
Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at
the entrance, while the Lord spoke with
Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of
cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each
at the entrance to their tent. 11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to
face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but
his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.” Notice
that Joshua, son of Nun, the believer paired with Caleb, remained inside the
Tent.
[2] J.
Ratzinger, “Behold the Pierced One, “ Ignatius 1986) 19-20.
[3] J.
Coverdale, “Uncommon Faith” Scepter (2002) 90.
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