The Gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord puts before our eyes the glory of Christ, which anticipates the resurrection and announces the divinization of man. The Christian community becomes aware that Jesus leads it, like the Apostles Peter, James and John “up a high mountain by themselves” (Mt 17: 1), to receive once again in Christ, as sons and daughters in the Son, the gift of the Grace of God: “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him” (Mt 17: 5). It is the invitation to take a distance from the noisiness of everyday life in order to immerse oneself in God’s presence. He desires to hand down to us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit, where we discern good from evil (cf. Heb 4:12), reinforcing our will to follow the Lord (Benedict XVI).
Tradition gives a name to the Mount of Transfiguration: “Tabor”. Matthew only says "a mountain"; He thus wants to show us a new Mount Sinai, where the glory of God manifested itself to Moses and Elijah. The two men, Moses and Elijah, who had the privilege of "seeing and listening" to God on Mount Sinai and on Mount Horeb are with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and testify to His identity. The glorious manifestation on Mount Sinai is repeated for Jesus: the bright cloud, a sign of the presence of God; the luminous face of Jesus that makes everything shine; the fluorescent sparkle of His clothes; the voice that designates Jesus as God’s Son and God's Word; the great fear; the three disciples who fall with their faces to the ground. From the bright cloud there came a voice which said,: "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" They must hear Jesus as until then they heard God.
Jesus is the One who reveals the Father; Jesus is the very Word of God. Jesus is the one we must absolutely listen to. Everything is centered on Him: He is the point of arrival in the history of the Old Testament; He is the starting point for a new and definitive Convenant. Before the Transfiguration, Jesus had praised Peter for having recognized in Him "the Christ, the Son of the living God"; But immediately He talked about His imminent death and invited His disciples to fully join His destiny: the mystery of death and transfiguration-resurrection. To enter this mystery, we must let ourselves be "approached and touched" by Jesus.
The liturgy of this Sunday takes us to the Mountain of Transfiguration to revive our faith in Christ; A break before returning on the plain, to the hard paths leading to Calvary. We need the risen and transfigured Lord to approach and touch us by saying, "Get up and don't be afraid". The touch of Jesus is a healing touch, a touch that moves away our fears, which reminds us of everyday reality, which bring us again into the crowd of men. We must learn to "read" the dramas of life in the light of Easter joy toward which God leads us; Jesus is the bright witness of this. Man can bear persecution, hate, sorrow, and all difficulties without falling into despair, if he believes in salvation, in Christ Jesus, because the gospel assures him that death was won by life.
Luisa wrote in her Diary on September 17, 1927 that our sufferings are like iron beaten by the hammer, which makes it sparkle with light and become red-hot, to the point of being transformed into fire; and under the blows it receives, it loses its hardness, it softens, in such way that one can give it the shape one wants. Such is the soul under the blows of pain: she loses hardness, she sparkles with light, she is transformed into God’s love and becomes fire; and He, Divine Artificer, finding her soft, give her the shape He wants. How God delights in making her beautiful; He is a jealous Artificer, and He wants the boast that no one can and knows how to make His statues, His vases - both in their form and in their beauty, and even more in their fineness and in the light that, sparkling, converts them all into truth. So, for each blow He gives her, He prepares a truth to be manifested, because each blow is a spark that the soul emits from herself; and God does not lose them as does the smith in beating the iron, but He uses them to invest those sparks of light with surprising truth, such as to serve the soul as the most beautiful clothing, and to administer to her the nourishment of divine life.