Dear Parents,

Please take note of the following:

In the Transfiguration last Sunday, three apostles saw the Lord in his divine glory. This is like the Mass, which is our opportunity to see the Lord’s glory, and share in the communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the disciples had to leave the world in order to ascend the mountain where they could be with the Lord in prayer, we have to leave the world and its distractions behind as we come to Church for prayer. And just as they heard Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah, at Mass we too listen to the Scriptural readings which are a conversation between the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Transfiguration marks a transition in the public ministry of Jesus, as he finishes the proclamation of the Kingdom, and begins his final journey to Jerusalem where the Kingdom will be inaugurated by his death and resurrection. Tradition has it that the Transfiguration took place 40 days before the Crucifixion.

The first reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy, which records a long speech Moses gave to the people following 40 years of wandering in the desert. They are at the River Jordan and about to cross over and take possession of the Promised Land. Moses reviews everything that happened to them, especially how God with His mighty hand brought them up out of Egypt, gave them His law on Mt. Sinai, and prepared them to be a holy nation.

St. Mark gives many details when describing the miracles of Jesus, and every detail is significant. The first thing we notice with the healing of the paralytic is that Jesus seemed to be inaccessible. Jesus was boxed in by a crowd. Many wanted miracles, but didn’t necessarily have true faith; most people were crowding around Jesus not because they were ready to take up their cross and follow him, but because they wanted him to take their crosses away. Others were there just to criticize and find something wrong, such as the scribes who denounced him for claiming to forgive sins. So the crowd actually made Jesus more “inaccessible” to those who really did have faith.