On the Heights of Thabor

Summary. — I. The Gospel narrative of the Transfiguration. — II. Signification of this mystery for the Apostles who witness it : Christ wishes, by the manifestation of His Divinity, to forearm them against the « scandal » of His Passion. — Ill. Threefold grace that this mystery contains for us : it strengthens our faith ; it marks our supernatural adoption in a special way; it makes us worthy of one day participating in Christ’s eternal glory. — IV. Means of coming to the glorious state presaged by the Transfiguration, namely to listen to Jesus, the Father’s beloved Son: Ipsum audite.

HE life of Christ Jesus upon earth has, even in its details, such an extensive bearing that we are unable to exhaust all its depths. A single utterance of the

Incarnate Word, of Him Who is ever /m sinu Patris*, is so great a revelation that it might suffice, like a fountain of living and health-giving water, to make all our spiritual life bear fruit. We see this in-the lives of the saints : one word of His has often been enough to convert a soul wholly to God. His words come from heaven : hence their fruitfulness.

It is the same with Christ’s least actions. They are for us examples, rays of light, sources of grace.

In the preceding conference, I strove to point out some of the aspects of His public life sufficiently to afford a glimpse of that which is ineffably divine and also inexpressibly human in this period of three years. I have had, to my great regret, to pass over in silence many of the scenes recounted by the sacred writers. There is, however, one page, a page so unique and complete in itself, one mystery so full of grandeur and at the same time so profit-

I. Joan. 1, 18. he able for our souls that we must consecrate a whole conference to it. This is the Transfiguration *.

Nothing ought to be dearer to us than the dogma of the Divinity of Jesus: first of all because nothing is more pleasing to Him ; secondly, because this dogma is at once the foundation, the centre and the crown of all our inner life. Now the Transfiguration is one of those episodes whence the splendour of the Divinity especially shines out before our eyes.

Let us then contemplate it with faith, but likewise with love. The more ardent this faith is, the greater will be the love wherewith we shall approach Jesus in this mystery, and the richer and deeper will be our capacity of being inwardly filled with His light and flooded by His grace.

Christ Jesus, Eternal Word, Divine Master, You are the splendour of the Father and the brightness of His substance ; You Yourself have said : “If anyone loves Me, I will manifest Myself to him”, grant that we may love You fervently so that we may receive from You an intenser light upon Your Divinity ; for, as You again told us, the secret of our life, of everlasting life, is to know that our Heavenly Father is the one true God, and that You are His Christ, sent here below to be our King and the High Priest of our salvation. Enlighten the eyes of our souls with a ray of those divine splendours that shone on Thabor, so that our faith in Your divinity, our hope in Your merits, and our love for Your adorable Person may be thereby strengthened and increased.

I

Let us first follow the Gospel narration ; we will afterwards endeavour to penetrate its meaning.

It is the last year of the public life of Jesus. Until now Our Lord has only made very rare allusions to His future Passion ; but, says St. Matthew : “ From that time Jesus began to shew to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again”. And He adds: ‘“ There are some of them that stand here that shall not taste death till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom” }.¹

Soon after this prediction, our Divine Saviour takes with Him some of His disciples. These are the three apostles of predilection : Peter upon whom a few days before He had promised to found His Church? ; James who was to be the first martyr of the apostolic college ; John, the disciple of love. Christ Jesus had already chosen them to be the witnesses of the raising of the daughter of Jairus ; now He leads them upon a high mountain to be the witnesses of a still greater manifestation of His Divinity. You know that tradition sees in this “high mountain” Mount Thabor. Isolated, it rises at some leagues to the east of Nazareth. It is covered with a rich vegetation ; from its summit, the view extends in every direction.

It is here, upon this height, far distant from the sounds of earth, Seorswm®, that Jesus goes with His disciples. And, according to His custom, He enters into prayer ; it is St. Luke who gives this detail : Et facta est, dum oraret, species vultus ejus altera*, and whilst He prays, He: is transfigured. His countenance shines like the sun, His raiment becomes white as snow ; He is surrounded with a divine atmosphere.

When Jesus begins to pray, His disciples fall asleep ; but presently the dazzling light awakes them, they behold Him resplendent, and at His side are Moses and Elias, talking with Him. And Peter is filled with such joy at the sight of the Master’s glory that beside Himself, not knowing what he says, he cries out : Bonum est nos hic esse®. “Master, it is good for us to be here”. O Lord, it is good to be here with Thee ; it is good that this should be the end of the conflict with the Pharisees, and the snares laid by them, the end of weariness and journeyings, and humiliations. Let us stay here ; we will make three tents : one for Thee, one for Moses, one for Elias, and, as for us, we will dwell with Thee.²

The Apostles believe themselves to be as it were in heaven, so resplendent is the glory of Jesus, so greatly does the sight of Him satisfy their hearts.

While Peter is thus speaking, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice comes out of this cloud, saying : “ This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased : hear ye Him”. Immediately, filled with awe and reverence, the apostles throw themselves down in adoration before God.

But Jesus touches them and says to them : “ Arise, and fear not”. They, lifting up their eyes, see “no one but only Jesus” : Neminem viderunt msi solum Jesum*. They see Jesus, as they had seen Him a few moments before, when they ascended the mountain with Him ; they see the same Jesus Whom they were accustomed to see ; Jesus, the Son of the carpenter of Nazareth ; Jesus Who before long is to die upon a cross.

II

Such is the mystery as it is described in the Holy Gospel. Let us now see what is its meaning.

For everything in the life of Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is full of signification. Christ, if I may thus express myself, is the great Sacrament of the New Law. What is a sacrament ? In the wide sense of the word, it is the outward sign of an inward grace. It may then be said that Christ is the great Sacrament of all the graces that God has given to humanity. As the Apostle St. John tells us, Christ appeared in the midst of us as “the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” ; and he immediately adds: ‘and of His fulness we all have received”’*. Christ Jesus gives us all graces as the Man- God, because He has merited them for us, and because the Eternal Father constituted Him the one High Priest, and supreme Mediator ; He gives us these graces in each one of His mysteries.

I have said that each of Our Lord’s mysteries ought to be for us an object of contemplation ; His mysteries ought also to be, as it were, sacraments producing within us, according to the measure of our faith and love, their own special grace.³

And this is true of each of the states of Jesus, of each of His actions. For if Christ is always the Son of God, if in all that He says and does He first of all glorifies His Father, neither does He ever separate us from the thought of Him. To each of His mysteries, He attaches a grace which is to help us to reproduce within ourselves His divine features in order to make us like unto Him.

This is why Christ Jesus desires that we should know His mysteries, and search deeply into them, with reverence certainly, but likewise with confidence ; and that, above all, as being members of His Mystical Body, we should live supernaturally by means of the inward grace that He attached to them when He lived them for us.

This is what the great St. Leo in speaking of the Transfiguration tells us : “‘ The Gospel narrative which we have just heard with our bodily ears and which has touched the inward hearing of our minds, invites us to seek out the meaning of this great mystery”*. It is a precious grace to be able to penetrate into the mysteries of Jesus, because “this is eternal life”: Haec est vita aeterna?. Our Saviour Himself said to His disciples that He gave this grace of spiritual understanding only to those who followed Him : Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni Det, caeteris in parabolis °,

This grace is so important for our souls that the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, makes it the very object of her petition in the postcommunion of the Feast : “Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that with purified minds, we may apprehend the most holy mystery of the Transfiguration of Thy Son, which we now celebrate with

1. Evangelica lectio, dilectissimi, quae per aures corporis imiteriorem mentium nostrarum pulsavit auditum, ad magni sacramenti nos intelligentiam vocat. Sermo LI Sabbato ante secundam dominicam Quadrages. A section of this beautiful sermon forms the lessons of the second a solemn office...” Ut sacrosancta Filii tui transfigurationis mysteria quae solemni celebramus officio, purificatae mentis intelligentia consequamur *.⁴

Let us, therefore, consider the meaning of this mystery.

First of all for the Apostles, since it was before three of them that the mystery was manifested.

Why was Christ transfigured in their sight ?

St. Leo tells us this, too, very clearly : ‘The principal end of this transfiguration was to remove the scandal of © the Cross from the hearts of the disciples ; the humiliations of a Passion voluntarily accepted would no longer trouble their faith after the transcendency of the hidden dignity of the Son of God had been revealed ” *.

The Apostles, who lived in close intercourse with the Divine Master and yet remained imbued with the prejudices of their race touching the destinies of a glorious Messias, would not admit that the Christ could suffer. Look at St. Peter, the prince of the Apostolic College. A short time before, he had proclaimed, in the presence and in the name of all, the Divinity of Jesus : “ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” *. Both the love that he bore to Our Lord, and the earthly conceptions of His Kingdom to which he yet clung, made him reject the idea of his Master’s death. Therefore, when Christ Jesus, a few days - before His transfiguration, had spoken openly to His disciples of His approaching Passion, Peter was disturbed. Taking Jesus aside, he had protested : “ Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall not be unto Thee”. But our Divine Saviour at once rebuked His apostle : ‘“‘Go behind Me, Satan, (that is to say adversary), thou art a scandal unto Me, because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men’’‘.

Our Lord foresaw then that His apostles would be scan-

1. To say it in passing, it is note-worthy that this demand forms also the object of the postcommunion of the Epiphany, that other “manifestation” of the Divinity of Jesus; the same idea is emphasized in the postcommunion of the Mass of the Ascension. dalized by His abasements, that His Cross would be for them an occasion of falling away. These three apostles whom He chose to be present at His transfiguration, He would likewise take, in preference to the others, to be soon afterwards the witnesses of His weakness, His anguish and distress in the Garden of Olives. He wishes to arm them in advance against the shock which His state of humiliation would then cause to their faith. He wishes to strengthen this faith by His Transfiguration. How so?⁵

To begin with, by the mystery itself.

During His mortal life, Christ Jesus appeared to be a man like other men: Habitu inventus ut homo, says St.Paul?. This is so true that many of those who saw Him took Him for an ordinary man ; even those nearest to Him, Sui, that is to say those whom the sacred writer, according: to the expression of the time, calls the fratres Domini ?, His cousins, on hearing His doctrine which seemed to them so extraordinary, accused Him of madness* ; those who had known Him in Joseph’s workshop were astonished and asked one another whence came this wisdom : Nonne hic est fabri filius * ?

Doubtless, there was in Jesus a divine inward virtue which was manifested by miracles : Virtus de illo exibat et sanabat omnes®. An aroma of divinity, as it were, went forth from Him and drew the multitude after Him ; we read in the Gospel that it sometimes happened that the Jews, although gross and earthly, remained three days without food in order to follow Him °.

But, outwardly, the Divinity was veiled under the infirmity of mortal flesh. Jesus was subject to the varied. and ordinary conditions of weak and passible human life : subject to hunger, thirst, weariness, sleep, conflict, flight. That was Christ’s ordinary life, the humble existence whereof the apostles were the daily witnesses.

And now, upon the Mount, they behold Christ transfigured : the Divinity shines out, all powerful, through the veil of His Humanity. The countenance of Jesus shines like the sun ; His garments become shining white, “as no fuller upon earth can make white”, says St. Mark*. The apostles understand by this marvel that this Jesus is truly God ; the majesty of His Divinity overpowers them ; the eternal glory of their Master is fully revealed to them.⁶

And lo, Moses and Elias also appear beside Jesus, speaking with Him and adoring Him.

You know that for the apostles, as for all favtical Jews, Moses and the Prophets summed up everything ; Moses was their Lawgiver, the Prophets are here represented by Elias, one of the greatest amongst them. The Law and the Prophets came, in these personages, to attest that Christ is truly the Messias, prefigured and predicted. The Pharisees may henceforth make their attacks upon Jesus, some of His disciples may leave Him ; the presence of Moses and Elias proves to Peter and his companions that Jesus respects the Law, and is in accord with the Prophets ; He is truly the One sent by God.

Finally, to reach the climax of all these testimonies, to ‘complete the evidence of this manifestation of the Divinity of Jesus, the voice of the Eternal Father is heard. God the Father declares that Jesus is His Son, God like Himself. All this combines to consolidate the faith of the apostles in Him Whom Peter had confessed as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

III

The disciples of Jesus did not perhaps at this moment penetrate into all the greatness of this scene nor all the depths of the mystery of which they were privileged witnesses. It was enough for them to be forearmed against the scandal of the Cross ; this is why Christ forbade them to speak then of this vision ?.

Later, after the Resurrection, when on the day of Pen- | tecost the Holy Spirit had confirmed them in their dignity as apostles, they then revealed, by the voice of Peter, the splendours they had contemplated. Peter, the visible head of the Church, he who had received from the Incarnate⁷

Word the mission of confirming his brethren in the faith *, announces how the majesty of Jesus had been revealed to him, and “ Jesus received from God the Father, honour and glory... when we were with Him in the Holy Mount ” ?. Peter, the supreme pastor, recalls this vision in order to exhort the faithful, and us with them, not to waver in the faith.

For it was likewise for us that the Transfiguration took place. The disciples chosen to witness it, says St. Leo, represent the whole Church ; it is to her, as well as to the Apostles, that the Father speaks in declaring the Divinity of His Son Jesus and in bidding us hear Him °.

The Church, in the collect for the Feast, perfectly sums up the precious teachings of this mystery. For us, as for the Apostles, the Transfiguration “confirms our faith” : Fidei sacramenta patrum testimonio roborastt ;—secondly, “our adoption of children of God is herein shewn forth in a wonderful manner” : Et adoptionem filiorum perfectam, voce delapsa in nube lucida, muirabiliter praesignasti ;— finally, the Church beseeches “that we may one day be made co-heirs with the King of glory and share in His triumph” : Ut ipsius Regis gloriae nos coheredes efficias, et ejusdem gloriae tribuas esse consortes.

The Transfiguration confirms our faith.

What in fact is faith ? It is a mysterious participation in the knowledge that God has of Himself. God knows Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father in knowing Himself begets from all eternity a Son like unto and equal to Himself. Hic est Filius meus dilectus in quo mihi bene complacuit. These words are the greatest revelation that God has made to the world, they are like the very echo of the life of the Father. The Father, inasmuch as He is Father, lives to beget His Son ; this begetting which has neither beginning nor end constitutes the very property of the Father. In eternity, we shall see with wonder, admiration and love, this procession of the Son begotten in the bosom of the Father. This procession is eternal : Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. This “to-day”, this hodie, is the now of eternity.⁸

When He tells us that Jesus is His beloved Son, the Father reveals to us His life ; and when we believe in this revelation, we participate in the knowledge of God Himself. The Father knows the Son in endless glory ;.as for us, we know Him in the shadows of faith whilst awaiting the light of eternity. The Father declares that the Babe of Bethlehem, the Youth of Nazareth, the Preacher of Judea, the Victim of Calvary is His Son, His well-beloved Son ; our faith is to believe this.

It is an excellent thing in the spiritual life to have this testimony of the Father ever present, as it were, before the eyes of the heart. Nothing upholds our faith sO powerfully. When we read the Gospel, or a Life of Our Lord, when we celebrate His mysteries, when we visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament, when we prepare ourselves to receive Him in our hearts in Holy Communion, or when we adore ‘Him after having received Him, in our whole life, in fine, let us try to have these words habitually before us : “ This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased”.

And let us then say : Yea, Father, I believe these words, . I will repeat them after Thee : this Jesus Who is within me through faith, through Communion, is Thy Son ; and because Thou hast said it, I believe it ; and because I _ believe it, I adore Thy Son, so as to render Him my homage; and by Him, in Him, so likewise to render to Thee, O Heavenly Father, in union with Thy Spirit, all honour and all glory.

Such a prayer is extremely pleasing to our Father in Heaven ; and when it is true, pure, frequent, it makes us the object of the Father’s love ; God includes us in the delight that He takes in His own Son Jesus. Our Lord Himself tells us so: “The Father Himself loveth you, because you have... believed that I came out from God ” 2, that I am His Son. And what happiness for a soul to be the object of the love of the Father, of this Father from Whom comes down “every perfect gift” *® to rejoice the heart !

t Ls 5 il 7. fOans XVI, 27-3. yacaly i 7.

It is likewise very pleasing to Jesus. He has it at heart that we should confess His Divinity, that we should have in it a living, strong and deep faith, secure against every attack. “Blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in Me”, says Jesus ; who—despite the abasements of My Incarnation, the obscure labours of My Hidden Life, the humiliations of My Passion, the attacks and blasphemies of which I am unceasingly the object, the conflicts that My disciples and the Church must sustain here below,— remains firm in His faith in Me, and is not ashamed of

Me.

Look at the Apostles during the Passion of Jesus : their faith was weak ; they took to flight. St. John alone followed His Divine Master as far as Calvary. And we know that after the Resurrection, when Magdalen and the other holy women came to say on behalf of Christ Himself that they had seen Him risen, the apostles did not believe them ; “these words seemed to them as idle tales”.

Look again at the two disciples on the way to Emmaus ; it was necessary that Our Lord should join them and, opening to them the meaning of the Scripture, show them that “all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms ” ?, before He entered into His glory.

Let us, then, believe firmly in the Divinity of Jesus ; never let us tamper with this faith ; let us, in order to sustain it, recall the testimony of the Eternal Father on the day of the Transfiguration ; our faith will find therein one of its best supports.

The collect for the Feast says secondly that our adoption of children of God was wonderfully foreshewn by the Divine Voice that came from the bright cloud.

The Eternal Father makes known to us that Jesus is His Son ; but, as you know, Jesus is also “the Firstborn amongst many brethren” *. Having taken a human nature, He makes us partakers, by His grace, of His Divine Sonship. If He is God’s own Son by nature, we are so by grace. Jesus is one of ourselves by His Incarnation ; He makes us like to Him in bestowing upon us a participation in His Divinity, so that we make with Him only one mystical body. That is the Divine adoption : Ut filii Dei nominemur et simus }.⁹

In declaring that Jesus is His Son, the Father declares that those who, by grace, are partakers of His divinity, are equally, although by another title, His children. It is through Jesus, the Incarnate Word, that this adoption is given to us : Genuit nos verbo veritatis. And in adopting us as His children, the Father gives us the right of one day sharing His divine and glorious life. That is the “perfect adoption’, Adoptio perfecta.

On God’s part, it is perfect, for the seal of infinite wisdom is set upon all His works : Domine, omnia in sapientia fecistt®. See indeed what incomparable riches God heaps upon His adopted children :—sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the actual graces granted to us daily : all that constitutes the supernatural domain for us here below. And to assure us of all these riches, there is the Incarnation of His Son, the infinite merits of Jesus applied to us in the Sacraments, the Church with all the privileges which the title of Bride of Christ confers upon her. Yes, this adoption, on God’s part, is perfect.

But on our part ? Here below it cannot be perfect. It ever goes on developing from the day when it was given to us in baptism ; it is a germ which has to grow, an outline which has to be filled in, a dawn which must reach its full noontide. We shall attain perfection when, after we have been perseveringly faithful, our adoption comes to its fruition in glory : Si filu et heredes, heredes quidem Dei, coheredes autem Christi *.

This is why the Church ends the collect for this Feast by asking that we may come to perfect adoption which is only consummated in the glory of Heaven : Concede propitius... ut ipsius regis gloriae nos coheredes efficias et ejusdem gloriae tribuas esse consortes.

In the Transfiguration we see, in fact, the revelation of our future greatness. This glory which surrounds Jesus is to become our portion. Wherefore? Because He gives to us, His members, the right of participating in the inheritance that He possesses as the very Son of God.¹⁰

This is the thought of St. Leo : “ Upon this mystery of the Transfiguration, a providence not less great has founded the hope of the Church ; so that the whole body of Christ may recognize what a transformation will be granted to it, and that the members may be assured that they will be sharers in the honour which shone forth in their Fieade e+:

Here below, by grace, we are God’s children ; but “ it hath not yet appeared what we shall be “one day in consequence of this adoption: Nunc filu sumus ; et nondum apparuit quid erimus? ; that day will come when the lightnings having enlightened the world, and the voice of judgment having made the earth to shake and tremble to its foundations , the just, according to the words of Jesus Himself, shall ‘shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” : Tunc justi fulgebunt sicut sol in regno Patris eorum. Their bodies will be glorious like unto Christ’s Body upon Thabor ; it is the same glory which shines upon the Humanity of the Incarnate Word that will transfigure our bodies. St. Paul expressly tells us so: Reformabit corpus humilitatis nostrae, configuratum corpori claritatis suae *,

Doubtless, we ought not to believe that Christ, upon the holy Mount, had all the glory wherewith His Humanity is now resplendent in Heaven ; it was only a reflection of that glory and yet it was so dazzling that the disciples were ravished.

Whence then came this wonderful radiance ? From the Divinity. It was an overflowing of the Divinity upon the holy Humanity, an irradiation from the furnace of eternal life which was ordinarily hidden in Christ, and now at this hour caused His sacred body to shine with marvellous splendour. This was not a borrowed light, coming from without, but rather a reflection of that incommensurable majesty which Christ contained within Himself. For love of us, Jesus, during His earthly life, habitually hid the divine life under the veil of mortal flesh. He prevented it from overflowing in a continuous light which would have blinded our feeble eyes ; but at the Transfiguration, the Word gave full liberty to His eternal glory ; He allowed it to throw its splendour upon the humanity which He had taken.¹¹

This shows us that our holiness is no other thing than our resemblance to Christ Jesus, not a holiness of which we ourselves can be the first source, but a flowing forth in us of the Divine life.

Through the grace of Christ, this holiness began to “ dawn” in us at the time of our baptism which inaugurated our transformation into the image of Jesus. Indeed, here below, holiness is but an inward transfiguration modelled upon Christ : Praedestinavit nos [Deus] conformes fiert maginis Filii suit. By our fidelity to the Holy Spirit’s action, this image grows, little by little, is developed and perfected until we reach eternal life. Then the transformation will appear in the sight of the angels and the elect. This will be the supreme ratification of “ the perfect adoption”, which will cause an inexhaustible spring of joy to well up within us.

IV

Such is the glorious state which awaits us, because it is the glorious state of Jesus, our Head, Whose members we are—the wonderful state whereof the Transfiguration upon Thabor gives us a glimpse and proposes to our faith as an object of hope.

But, you may say, what are we to do in order to attain to it ? What path must be followed so as to arrive at this blessed glory of which we contemplate a ray in the Transfiguration of Our Divine Saviour ?

_ ‘There is but one path, and it is the Father Who shows it to us. The Father, Who adopts us, Who calls us to the heavenly inheritance that we may be partakers of His beatitude, and share one unending day in the plenitude of life,— the Father Himself points out the way to us, and it is in this same mystery that He points it out : “ This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased ”.¹²

It is true that we already heard these words at the Baptism of Jesus ; but at the Transfiguration, the Father adds something new which contains all the secret of our life : Ipsum audite, “Hear ye Him”. It is as if, in order .to make us attain to Him, God referred us to Jesus. And such is, indeed, the economy of the Divine designs.

Being God’s Son, Who lives for ever in the bosom of the Father, Jesus, the Word Incarnate, makes known to us the Divine secrets : [pse enarravit?. He is the Light that enlightens every man coming into this world ; where that light shines, there is no darkness ; to hear Him is truly to hear the Father Who calls us, because the doctrine of Jesus is not His own doctrine, but the doctrine of Him Who sent Him ? ; all that which He teaches us, His Father has bidden Him reveal to us : Ommia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis*, He is henceforward the only way that leads to the Father, Nemo venit ad Patrem, nisi per me ?. In former times, God had spoken by Moses and the Prophets ; now, He speaks to us only by His Son : Mulitfariam multisque modis olim Deus loquens patribus in prophetis, novissime, diebus istis, locutus est nobis in Filio ®*.

And see how in order to made us understand this more clearly, Moses and Elias disappear when the voice of the Father tells us to hear His Son : Et dum fieret vox (Patris), imventus est Jesus solus®, Christ alone is henceforth the one Mediator ; He alone fulfils the prophecies and sums up the Law. He substitutes realities for figures and predictions ; He replaces the Old Law of servitude by the New Law of adoption and love. To be the child of the Eternal Father, to attain the perfect and glorious adoption, we have but to listen to Jesus : Oves meae vocem meam audiunt *.

And when does He speak to us ? He speaks to us in the Gospel ; He speaks to us by the voice of the Church ;

I. Joan. 1, 18. — 2. Cf. Joan. vu, 16. — 3. Ibid. xv, 15. — 4. Ibid. xIv, 6.— 5. Hebr. 1, 1-2. — 6. Luc. Ix, 36. — 7. Joan. X, 27.

Christ in His Mysteries. 16 by that of events and trials ; by the inspiration of His Spirit.

But in order to listen well, silence is needful ; it is needful that we should often, like Jesus at the Transfiguration, go apart into a solitary place, Seorsum. Certainly Jesus is to be found everywhere, even in the turmoil of great cities, but He is only heard well in a peaceful soul surrounded by an atmosphere of silence ; He is only well understood in a soul that prays : Dum oraret. It is then above all that He reveals Himself to the soul, drawing her to Him and transfiguring her in Him. At the hour of prayer, let us think that the Father is showing us His Son : Hic est Filius meus dilectus. Then, let us adore Him with deep reverence, living faith and ardent love. And then too, we shall hear Him ; He alone has the words of eternal life : Domine, ad quem ibimus ? Verba vitae aeternae habes +.

Let us listen to Him by faith, by this acceptation of all that He says to us. Yea, Lord, I believe it because Thou dost say it ; Thou art ever in sinw Patris : Thou seest the » Divine secrets in the splendour of eternal light ; we believe what Thou dost reveal to us. Faith is for us that lamp spoken of by the Apostle who witnessed Thy Transfiguration? : that light that shines in the darkness in order to guide us : Lucerna lucens in caliginoso loco.

It is in this light surrounded by darkness that we walk ; and, despite this very darkness, wé must walk valiantly. To hear Jesus is not only to listen to Him with the ears of the body, He is to be heard too with the ears of the heart. Our faith must be practical, and put into action by works worthy of a true disciple of Jesus, conformed to the spirit of His Gospel. This is what St. Paul calls “ to please God”’, placere Deo?, a term that the Church herself repeats* when she asks for us that we may be worthy children of our Heavenly Father.

And this, despite temptations, trials, sufferings. Do not let us listen to the voice of the Evil One : his suggestions are those of a prince of darkness ; do not let us be led away . by the prejudices of the world : its maxims are deceptive ; let us take care not to be seduced by the solicitations of the senses : to satisfy them only brings trouble upon the soul.¹³

It is Jesus alone Whom it behoves us to hear and follow. Let us yield ourselves to Him by faith, confidence, love, humility and obedience. If the soul is closed to earth’s clamours, to the tumult of the passions and senses, the Incarnate Word will Himself become Master of it, little by little. He will make us understand that true joys, the deepest joys, are those that are found in His service. The soul that has the happiness of being admitted, like the privileged Apostles, into the Divine Master’s intimacy, will sometimes feel constrained to cry out with St. Peter : Domine, bonum est nos hic esse, “ Lord, it is good for us to begueres’; ‘

Doubtless, Jesus does not always lead us to Thabor, there where “it is good to be” ; He does not always give us sensible consolations ; if He does give them, we ought not to reject them, for they come from Him ; we must accept them humbly, but without seeking them for themselves and without being attached to them. St. Leo remarks that our Lord did not reply when St. Peter proposed to build tabernacles so as to make a permanent abode in this place of beatitude ; not, continues St. Leo, that this was to be condemned, but because it was not the hour. As long as we are here below, it is much more often to Calvary that Jesus leads us, that is to say through contradictions, trials and temptations *.

What did Jesus speak of when He was upon the mountain with Moses and Elias? Of His Divine prerogatives, of His glory which transported His disciples ? No ; He spoke of His approaching Passion, of the excess of His sufferings which filled Moses and Elias with wonderment as much as did the excess of His love. It is by the

1. Huic suggestionti Dominus non vespondit, significans non quidem improbum, sed tnordinatum esse quod cuperet ; cum salvari mundus nisi Christi morte non posset, et exemplo Domini in hoc vocaretuy credentium fides, ut licet non oporteyet de beatitudinis promissionibus dubitari, intelligeremus tamen inter tentationes hujus vitae prius nobis tolerantiam postulandam esse quam gloviam ; quia tempova patiendi non potest telicitas praevenive regnand. I, C.

Cross that Christ leads us to life, and, because He knows that we are weak in time of trial, He willed to show us by His Transfiguration what glory we are called to share with Him, if we remain faithful : Coheredes autem Christi, st tamen conpatimur, ut et conglorificemur*. Here below, it is not the time for repose, but the time for toil, effort, struggle and patience.

Let us remain faithful to Jesus in spite of everything. We have heard that He is the Son of God, equal to God ; His words do not pass away : He is the Eternal Word. Now, He affirms that he that follows Him shall have the “light of life” : Habebit lumen vitae?. Happy the soul that listens to Him, and Him only, and listens always, without doubting His word, without being shaken by the blasphemies of His enemies, without being overcome by temptation or cast down by trial* ! We know not, says St. Paul, what a weight of giory is laid up for us in return for the least suffering borne in union with Christ Jesus *. “God is faithful” ® ; and in all the vicissitudes through which a soul passes, God infallibly leads her to this transformation which makes her like unto His Son.

Thus our transfiguration into Jesus is inwardly brought about, little by little, until the day comes when the soul will appear radiant in that company of the elect who bear the mark of the Lamb, those whom the Lamb transfigures because they are His own.

Our Lord Himself has promised this to us. ‘‘ The world shall rejoice” ®, He said before leaving us, but here below you shall be in sorrow and trial as I was before entering into My glory : Oportuit pati Christum et ita intrare in gloriam suam". That is necessary, it is the way of My providence ; but remain steadfast. ‘‘ Have confidence”, confidite*®. “Tam with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” °®. Now your faith receives Me each day

1, Rom. VI, 17. — 2. Joan. vil, 12. — 3. Nec ideo quisquam aut pati pro justitia timeat, aut de promissorum vetributione diffidat quia per labovem ad requiem, et per mortem tvansitury ad vitam : cum omnen humilitatis nostvae wnfirmitatem ille susceperit, im quo si in confessione et in dilectione ipsius permaneamus, et quod vicit vincimus, et quod promisit accipimus. I, C. — 4. Cf. II Cor. rv, 17. — 5. I Cor. 1, 9; x, 13; II Thess. m, 3. — 6. Joan. xvi, 20. — 7. Luc. XXIV, 26. — 8. Joan, xv, 33.—9. Matth. xxvmI, 20. in the mystery of My self-abasement, but I will come one day in the full revelation of My glory. And you, My faithful disciples, shall share this glory, for you are one with Me. Did I not ask this of My Father when about to pay the price of it by My Sacrifice? “ Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me, because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the world” : Pater, voLo ut ubi sum ego, et ili sint MECUM, ut videant claritatem meam quam dedisti mihi?. As for you whom I have called My friends, to whom I have confided the secrets of My Divine life, as My Father ordained ; you who have believed, and have not left Me, you shall enter into my joy, and live by Me. Full life, perfect joy, because it will be My own life and My personal joy that I will give you, My life and My joy as Son of God, Ut gaudium MEUM in vobis sit, et gaudium vestrum IMPLEATUR ?.

Footnotes

1. 1. The Church makes us read the Gospel narrative of the Transfigutation twice : on the second Sunday in Lent, so as to encourage us to do penance by the distant perspective of the glory that Christ promises to us in His Transfiguration; and again on August 6, a solemnity that she celebrates solely in honour of the manifestation of the Divine splendour of Jesus on Mount Thabor.
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2. 1. Matth. xvi, 21, 28. — 2. Ibid. 18. — 3. Ibid. xvi, 1; Marc. XI, r. — 4. Lue. Ix, 29. — 5. Matth. xvu, 24; Marc. x1, 4-5; Lue. IX, 33.
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3. 1. Matth. xvi, 5-8 ; cf. Marc. Ix, 6-7 ; Luc. IX, 34-36.— 2. Joan. I, 14, 16.
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4. nocturn of Matins of the Feast. 2. Joan, XvII, 3. — 3. Luc. vitl, 10; cf. Matth. xm, 11; Marc. Iv, If. ↩

5. 2. In qua tvansfiguratione illud quidem pyrincipaliter agebatur, ut de cordibus discipulorum crucis scandalum tollevetuy ; nec conturbaret eorum fidem voluntariae humilitas passionis, quibus vevelata esset absconditae excellentia dignitatis. Ibid.— 3. Matth. xvi, 16.— 4. Matth. xvi, 22-23.
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6. 1. Philipp. u, 7. — 2. Cf. Joan. vil, 3. — 3. Marc. mI, 21.— 4. ‘Matth. xm, 55. — 5. Luc. VI, 19. — 6. Matth. xv, 32.
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7. 1, Mare. Ix, 2. — 2. Matth. xv, g ; Marc. Ix, 8. ↩

8. 1. Luc. xxu, 32. — 2. II Petr. 1, 16-18. Epistle of the Feast. — 3. Haec, dilectissimi, non ad illorum tantum utilitatem dicta sunt, qut ca propriis auribus audierunt, sed in illis tribus apostolis universa Ecclesia didicit quidquid eorum et aspectus vidit et auditus accepit, I. c.
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9. 1. Matth. x1, 6; Luc. vu, 23.— 2. Luc. XXIv, 44.— 3. Rom. VIM, 29
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10. 1. I Joan, mm, 1. — 2, Jac.1, 18.— 3. Ps. cm, 24.— 4. Rom. vim, 17.
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11. 1. Sed non minove providentia spes sanctae Ecclesiae fundabatur, ut totum corpus Christi agnosceret quali esset commutatione donandum, ut ejus sibi honoris consortium membra permitterent qui in capite praefulsisset. I, C. — 2, I Joan. m1, 2. — 3. Illuxerunt coruscationes tuae orbi terrae, commota est et contremuit terva (Introit of the Feast). — 4. Matth, XII, 43. — 5. Philipp. m1, 21.
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12. 1. Rom. Vill, 29.
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13. 1. Joan. VI, 69. — 2. II Petr. 1, 16-18. Epistle for the Feast. — 3. I Thess. Iv. Epistle for the second Sunday in Lent. — 4. Tibi etiam placitis moribus dignantes deservire concedas. Postcommunion for the second Sunday in Lent.
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