What a privilege Jesus offers to three of his disciples! He exposes his true, divine self to them and they see him not as a man, but as God.

The part of the passage that stands out to me is that the disciples were “so terrified” in coming face to face with Jesus’ glory. The power and majesty of the spectacle is so much that they do not know what to say. Apart from their inability to comprehend Jesus’ Transfiguration, the disciples clearly do not understand what he is saying about his death and Resurrection.

I love reading about how dumbfounded the disciples were in Jesus’ true presence, because I can relate. So many times when I am in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or preparing to receive the Eucharist I simply do not know what to say or how best to express my thoughts and emotions. It is so comforting to see that Jesus requires nothing of those lucky disciples. He simply transfigures before them and God the Father tells them to listen to Jesus. More important than doing anything (building tents, making any form of sacrifice or prayer, etc.), the only command that God makes of the disciples is to listen.

I also am interested in how the disciples handle this situation where they do not understand Jesus as he talks about his death and Resurrection. Instead of becoming frustrated, as I often am when I cannot understand a Scripture verse or a homily, they ponder the matter and ask questions. Following their calm and inquisitive example is a way I will try to get more out of Lent this year.

We have no reason to be jealous of how lucky those three disciples were to see Jesus face to face. Jesus offers himself to us as fully present in the Eucharist and ready for us in Adoration. And when we are counted as equal to those disciples in seeing Jesus face to face, how comforting it is to know that we are only asked to listen.