Ave Maria Meditations
The mountain is the place of ascent – not only outward, but also inward ascent; it is a liberation from the burden of everyday life, a breathing in of the pure air of creation; it offers a view of the broad expanse of creation and its beauty; it gives one an inner peak to stand on an intuitive sense of the Creator.
The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with· his Father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light. In his oneness with the Father, Jesus is himself “light from light.” The reality that he is in the deepest core of his being, which Peter tries to express in his confession that reality becomes perceptible to the senses at this moment: Jesus’ being in the light of God, his own being-light as Son.
At this point Jesus’ relation to the figure of Moses as well as the differences between the two become apparent: “As he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Ex 34: 29-35). Because Moses has been talking with God, God’s light streams upon him and makes him radiant. But the light that causes him to shine comes upon him from the outside, so to speak. Jesus, however, shines from within; he does not simply receive light, but he himself is light from light.
On the mountain [the disciples] learn that Jesus himself is the living Torah, the complete Word of God. On the mountain they see the “power” of the Kingdom that is coming in Christ … This “power” … of the coming Kingdom appears to them in the transfigured Jesus, who speaks with the witnesses of the Old Covenant about the necessity of his passion as the way to glory (see Lk 24: 26f). They personally experience the anticipation of the Parousia, and that is how they are slowly initiated into the full depths of the mystery of Jesus.
Pope Benedict XVI
