By Msgr. Joseph Prior • Posted February 27, 2026

(See the readings for the Second Sunday of Lent)

Our journey to the cross continues this week as we hear St. Matthew’s Gospel account of the Transfiguration. The imagery is vivid. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a high mountain by themselves. Jesus and the disciples are alone in this secluded place. When they reach the top, Jesus is transfigured before them. His divinity shines forth in brilliant, overwhelming light. Moses and Elijah appear and converse with Jesus. These two represent the primary means by which God’s word had been delivered to Israel – the Law and the Prophets.

Peter, overcome, suggests he build three tents: one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. In doing so he is placing Jesus on the same plane as Moses and Elijah, as a prophet or messenger of God. We soon find out that Jesus is much more as is the depth of God’s relationship with His people. The voice from the cloud says: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Peter, James and John fall prostrate when they hear the divine voice. Jesus touches them and says: “Rise, and do not be afraid.” As they are coming down the mountain Jesus commands that they keep this secret until “the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The mountain is a grand image. Traveling up a mountain is not an easy thing to do. It takes time and is strenuous work. Matthew tells us this is a “high mountain.” In biblical imagery, mountains are sometimes used to express a place of encounter with God. One example is Mount Sinai where Moses encountered God and received the Law. Many times, we think of God’s abode in the heavens above. The emphasis in this image is distance. Going up the mountain to encounter God bridges the distance.

A related image is when the three apostles fall prostrate. They are in the position of the penitent before God. They realize they are in God’s presence when they hear the voice come from the cloud. They fall, not only on their knees, but fully prostrate. They are humble before the Lord. They admit their unworthiness to be in His presence. Jesus has already been acknowledged as God’s Son. It is He who is the ultimate bridge to the Father. In Him, there is no distance between God and humanity.

The next image follows when Jesus, before He even speaks, reaches out to His three friends lying on the ground face down, full of fear, and touches them. God is not distant. He is here and they can feel His touch. Jesus then tells them to rise and not to be afraid. Fear has been replaced by intimacy. God knows them and speaks with them.

The images speak to us of the intimacy that exists between God and ourselves. He is not distant from us but is present to us in a communion of love. The Father’s words at the Transfiguration give us direction on how to build this relationship – “listen to him.”

One way in which we do this is by reading and praying with the Sacred Scriptures, especially the Gospels. We encounter Him through the words. We hear Him invite, teach, console, strengthen, encourage and forgive. Through Him, we come to know the Father and to experience His love. The more we “listen to him” the further we enter into the mystery of His divine love and communion.

The relationship God established with humanity goes back to creation itself. Though man breaks that relationship through sin, God reaches out to repair the damage. We see that in His promises to Abraham recalled in the first reading from Genesis. The promises of nationhood, blessing and a “great name” were fulfilled in the covenant with Israel represented in the Transfiguration account by Moses (the law) and Elijah (the prophets).

The final promise, “All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you,” reaches fulfillment in the paschal mystery of Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection and ascension. It is in this mystery where the depth of God’s love becomes fully manifest. His death is an outpouring of mercy, healing the wound of sin. Consequently, the intimacy God shares with us draws us to a life of holiness and sanctity as St. Paul notes in the second reading from his Second Letter to Timothy.

One obstacle, not so uncommon, that causes us to sense a distance in our relationship with God is indifference, which can manifest itself in many different ways. In the Book of Revelation, John’s critique of the people of Sardis is that they are “lukewarm” in their faith (cf. Revelation 3:1-6). They are neither hot nor cold. They are “blah.” In other words, their faith is not really that important to them; it’s superficial.

In Jesus’ parable of the scattered seed, indifference might be represented by the seed that fell on rocky ground, a faith that never took root. The distance one might sense through indifference can be overcome by taking the words of the Father at the Transfiguration to heart – “listen to him.” Active listening awakens hope in us and drives us forward in love. Faith is dynamic, receiving love as one empties oneself in love.

God’s intimacy with his people reaches a climax in Jesus’ passion. Jesus alludes to the passion when He tells the disciples not to tell anyone about the Transfiguration until “the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” Here God Himself enters into the most isolating of human experiences, death. Jesus enters the experience through gruesome but glorious suffering so that we might know, as St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:9).

The Transfiguration invites us to ponder the depths of God’s relationship with us. In Christ Jesus, we see the relationship first established with Israel brought to fulfillment for all humanity. In Him, God is present to us. Through Him, we are invited to share His life of love. With Him, we journey to our heavenly Father.

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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Penndel and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Read more reflections by Msgr. Prior here.