Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor

Volume III Book II Chapter VI

CHRIST IS TRANSFIGURED ON MOUNT TABOR IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS MOST HOLY MOTHER

Our Redeemer and Master Jesus had already consumed more than two years and a half in preaching and performing wonders, and He was approaching the time predestined by the eternal wisdom for satisfying divine justice, for redeeming the human race through His Passion and Death and thus to return to His eternal Father. 

Since all His works were ordered with the highest wisdom for our instruction and salvation, the Lord resolved to prepare and strengthen some of His Apostles for the scandal of His Passion by manifesting to them beforehand in its glory that same body, which He was so soon to exhibit in the disfigurement of the Cross. Thus would they be reassured by the thought, that they had seen it transfigured in glory before they looked upon it disfigured by His sufferings. This he had promised a short time before in the presence of all, although not to all, but only to some of His disciples, as is recorded by Saint Matthew (Matth. 16, 28). For His Transfiguration He selected a high mountain in the center of Galilee, two leagues east of Nazareth and called Mount Tabor. Ascending to its highest summit with the three Apostles, Peter, and the two brothers James and John, He was transfigured before them (Matth. 17, 1; Mark 9, 1; Luke 9, 28). 

The three Evangelists tell us that besides these Apostles, were present also the two prophets, Moses and Elias, discoursing with Jesus about His Passion, and that, while He was thus transfigured, a voice resounded from heaven in the name of the eternal Father, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him." 

The Evangelists do not say that most holy Mary was present at this Transfiguration, nor do they say that She was not there; this did not fall within their purpose, and they did not think it proper to speak of the hidden miracle by which She was enabled to be there. For the purpose of recording this event here, I was given to understand that at the same time in which some of the holy angels were commissioned to bring the soul of Moses and Elias from their abode, others of Her own guard carried the heavenly Lady to Mount Tabor, in order to witness the Transfiguration of Her Divine Son, for without a doubt She really witnessed it. 

There was no necessity of confirming the most holy Mother in her faith, as was necessary with the Apostles; for She was invincibly confirmed in faith. But the Lord had many different objects in view at His Transfiguration; and there were special reasons for His not wishing to celebrate this great event without the presence of His most holy Mother. What for the Apostles was a gratuitous favor, was a duty in regard to the Queen and Mother, since She was His Companion and Copartner in the works of the Redemption even to the foot of the Cross. It was proper to fortify Her by this favor against the torments in store for Her most holy soul. 

Moreover, She was to remain on earth as the Teacher of the holy Church, therefore it was proper that She should be one of the eyewitnesses of this great mystery. To grant such a favor was easily within the power of Her Divine Son, since He was wont to lay open to Her all the workings of His Divine soul. Nor would the love of such a Son permit Him to withhold that favor from His Mother; for He otherwise omitted nothing whereby He could in any way demonstrate His tender love for Her, and this certainly would be a token of highest esteem for her excellence and dignity. I have, therefore, been informed that for these reasons and for many others not necessary to mention here, most holy Mary assisted at the Transfiguration of her divine Son, our Redeemer. 

During this Transfiguration the Blessed Mary saw not only the humanity of Christ our Lord transformed in glory, but She was favored by an intuitive and clear vision of the Divinity itself; for the Lord wished Her to partake of the privilege implied in being present at this event in a more abundant and distinguished manner than the Apostles. Moreover, there was a great difference between her insight and that of the Apostles into the glory of the transfigured body; for the Apostles, as saint Luke tells us (Luke 9, 32), were not only asleep when Jesus at the beginning of this mysterious glorification retired to pray, but they were also seized with such fear at the voice resounding from heaven, that they fell with their faces to the earth and rose not until the Lord Himself spoke to them and raised them up (Matth. 17, 6). 

The Blessed Mother, on the other hand, witnessed and heard all these events without undue excitement; for, besides being accustomed to such great manifestations of glory, She was divinely fortified and enlightened for looking upon the Divinity. Hence She was enabled to look fixedly upon the glorified body, without experiencing the terror and weakness of the senses which overtook the Apostles. 

The most Blessed Mother had already on other occasions seen the body of her divine Son glorified, as was related in other parts of this history (Nos. 695, 851); but on this occasion She looked upon Him with much greater enlightenment and with a mind much more alert to all the wonders therein hidden. 

Hence, also, the effects caused in Her by this vision were such that She was totally renewed and inflamed by this communication with the Divinity. As long as She lived She never lost the impression caused by the sight of such glory manifested in the humanity of Christ. The memory of it greatly consoled Her in the absence of her divine Son, whenever His glorious presence was not otherwise felt by Her, as we shall see in the third part of this history. Yet on the other hand the memory of this glorious Transfiguration of Christ also made Her feel so much the more deeply the maltreatment experienced by Christ in His Passion and Death. 

But no human ingenuity can suffice fully to describe the effects of this glorious vision of her Son on her most holy soul. With inmost gratitude and deepest penetration She began to ponder upon what She had seen and heard; exalted praise of the omnipotent God welled forth from her lips, when She considered how her eyes had seen refulgent in glory that same bodily substance, which had been formed of her blood, carried in her womb and nursed at her breast; how She had with her own ears heard the voice of the eternal Father acknowledge her Son as His own and appoint Him as the Teacher of all the human race. With her holy angels She composed new canticles to celebrate an event so full of festive joy for Her soul and for the most sacred humanity of her Son. 

I will not expatiate upon this mystery, nor discuss in what the Transfiguration of the body of Jesus really consisted. It is enough to know that His countenance began to shine like the sun and His garments became whiter than the snow (Matth. 17, 2). 

This outward splendor was merely the effect of the glory of His Divinity always united to His beatified soul. At His Incarnation, the glory which would naturally have been communicated permanently to His sacred body, was miraculously suspended for the time of His natural life: now, this suspension of His divine glory ceased and the body, for a short time, was allowed to share the glory of His soul. 

This is the splendor which became visible to those who were present. Immediately after the miraculous suspense, the divine glory was again confined only to His soul. As His soul was always in the beatified state, so also His body, according to the common order, should have continually shared in this glory, and therefore this transient glorification of His body was likewise a miracle. 

After the Transfiguration the most blessed Mother was brought back to her house in Nazareth; her divine Son descended the mountain and immediately came to visit her in order to take final leave of His parental province and set out for Jerusalem. There, on the following Pasch, which was to be for Him the last upon earth, He was to enter upon His Passion. Having spent only a few days at Nazareth, He departed with His Mother, His disciples and Apostles and some of the holy women, traveling about through Galilee and Samaria before entering Judea and Jerusalem. The Evangelist saint Luke writes of this journey where he says, that He set His face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9,51); for He journeyed to Jerusalem with a joyous countenance and full of desire to enter upon His sufferings, in order thereby, according to His own most ardent and generous desire, to sacrifice Himself for the human race. He was not to return to Galilee, where He had wrought so many miracles. Knowing this at His departure from Nazareth, 

He glorified His eternal Father and, in the name of His sacred humanity, gave thanks for having, in that house and neighborhood, received the human form and existence which He was now to deliver over to suffering and death. 

Of the prayers of Christ our Lord on this occasion I will record as far as I can the following one: 

"My eternal Father, in compliance with Thy will I gladly haste to satisfy Thy justice by suffering even unto death. Thus shall I reconcile to Thee all the children of Adam, paying their debts and opening to them the gates of heaven which have been closed against them. I shall seek those who have turned away and lost themselves, so that they may be restored by the force of My love. I shall find and gather together the lost of the house of Jacob (Is. 56,8), raise up the fallen, enrich the poor, refresh the thirsty, cast down the haughty and exalt the humble. I wish to vanquish hell and enhance the glories of the triumph over Lucifer (I John 3, 8), and over the vices which he has sown into the world. I wish to raise up the standard of the Cross, beneath which virtue, and all those that put themselves under its protection, are to fight their battles. 

I wish to satiate My heart with insults and affronts, which are so estimable in Thy eyes.

I wish to humiliate Myself even to death at the hands of My enemies, in order that our chosen friends may be consoled in their tribulations and that they may be honored by high rewards, whenever they choose to humiliate themselves in suffering the same persecutions. 

0 beloved Cross! When shalt thou receive Me in Thy arms? 0 sweet ignominies and affronts! When shalt thou bear Me on to overcome death through the sufferings of My entirely guiltless flesh? Ye pains, affronts, ignominies, scourges, thorns, torments, death, come to Me, who wish to embrace you, yield yourselves to My welcome, since I well understand your value. If the world abhors you, I long for you. If the world, in its ignorance, despises you, I, who am truth and wisdom, love and embrace you. Come then to Me, for in welcoming you as man, I exalt you as the true God and am ready to efface the touch of sin from you and from all that will embrace you. Come to Me, ye pains, and disappoint Me not; heed not My Omnipotence, for I shall permit you to exert your full force upon My humanity. You shall not be rejected and abhorred by Me as you are by mortals.  The deceitful fascination of the children of Adam in vainly judging the poor and the afflicted of this world as unhappy, shall now disappear; for if they see their true God, their Creator, Master and Father, suffering horrible insults, scourging’s, the ignominious torment and destitution of the Cross, they will understand their error and esteem it as an honor to follow their crucified God." 

INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME. 

“My daughter, thou daily understands and declares more fully in this history, that my Son, and I with Him, in our ardent love, embraced the way of the Cross and suffering for the whole course of our natural life. Thou receive this knowledge more fully and hear this doctrine repeated so often, that thou must strive to follow it closely in thy daily life. This duty grows upon thee from the day in which my Son has chosen thee as bride, and will oblige thee more and more, so that thou can not evade the duty of embracing and loving hardships to such an extent, that thy greatest pain shall be to be without them.

Renew every day this desire in thy heart, for I wish thee to be very proficient in this science, which the world abhors so much. 

But remember, at the same time, that God does not afflict creatures merely for the sake of afflicting them, but in order to make them more capable and worthy of receiving the blessings and treasures prepared for them beyond all human conception (1 Cor. 2, 9).  For the confirmation of this truth and as a pledge of His promises He permitted the Transfiguration of Himself on Mount Tabor in my presence and that of some of the disciples. In the prayer which He then made to the eternal Father and which I alone knew of and understood, He humbled Himself before His Father confessing Him (as He always did in His prayers) as the true God, infinite in His perfections and attributes, and besought Him to concede a share of the glory of His own body to all those, who in their mortal bodies should afflict themselves and bear hardships for His love and in imitation of His own, and to grant this glory in the measure proper to each after the resurrection of their bodies in the final judgment. 

Since the eternal Father granted this request, there is a certain contract between God and man. The glory which was given to the body of Christ the Savior was a pledge of that which Christ was to secure for all His followers. Great, therefore, is the value of the momentary hardships endured in the privation of earthly delights and in mortifications and sufferings for the sake of Christ (II Cor. 4, 17).

On account of the merits of this prayer of Christ, this glory which belongs to Him is due to the creatures in justice, since men are the members of Christ's mystical body (II Tim. 4, 8) . Yet this union with Christ, by which man merits such reward, must be brought about by grace and by imitation of the same suffering which merited it for the Redeemer.

If all bodily suffering merits its crown, a much greater crown is merited by the patient endurance and pardoning of injuries, and by returning good for them, as We acted in regard to Judas; for the Lord did not only not take away from Judas his apostolate, or show Himself in any way irritated against him, but He patiently bore with him to the very end, when Judas had already made himself altogether unfit for any graces by giving himself up to the devil.

During our mortal life the Lord is very slow in visiting His vengeance upon us; but He will make up for his slowness in the severity of His punishments after death. If then God suffers and bears with us so much, how much must one poor worm of the earth bear with another, since both are of the same nature and condition? By the light of this truth and by the charity of the Lord and Spouse, thou must regulate the amount of thy patience and long suffering with others and the zeal for their salvation. I do not say that thou must therefore permit what is against the honor of God, for that would not be a true zeal for the good of thy neighbor; but thou must love them as creatures of the Lord and abhor sin; thou must suffer and ignore whatever is done against thee, always seeking, as far as in thee lies, the salvation of others. 

Do not lose heart, when thou sees no immediate fruit, but continue to present to the eternal Father the merits of my most holy Son, my intercession and that of the saints and angels; for as God is charity and as they are the ministers of the Most High, they will gladly make use of this same charity for the benefit of those who are still on their pilgrimage.” 

Read: Volume III Book II Chapter VI