Introduction
Each year on the Second Sunday of Lent, the Church pairs a first reading about God’s covenant with Abraham with the Gospel of the Transfiguration, revealing that the promise first entrusted to Abraham reaches its fulfillment in Christ.
1st Reading – Genesis 12:1-4a
The LORD said to Abram:
“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
“I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you.”
Abram went as the LORD directed him.
In today’s Gospel reading, we will see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Our first reading provides the context in which that fulfillment must be understood. We hear the call of Abram — the true beginning of salvation history.
The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
The story of Abram begins with startling abruptness. There is no indication that he has ever sought God or even known Him. Up to this point in Scripture, Abram has never spoken, never prayed, never received a revelation, and never been described as righteous or faithful. He likely lived within a thoroughly pagan culture (cf. Joshua 24:2). God’s call comes not as a reward for devotion but as an act of free, sovereign grace.
Abram is asked to relinquish the most basic sources of identity in the ancient world: family, clan, and homeland. These ties defined one’s past, secured one’s place in the present, and guaranteed one’s inheritance in the future. In traditional societies, such a departure would be unthinkable apart from catastrophe.
The name Abram means “exalted father,” yet he is seventy-five years old and childless.
“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.
God is asking Abram to start a new life and trust entirely in this five-fold divine promise:
- I will make you a great nation: a promise later solemnized in covenant form (Genesis 15) and fulfilled through the emergence of Israel under the leadership of Moses
- I will bless you: with divine favor, protection, and fruitfulness
- I will make your name great: a promise deepened in Genesis 17 and given royal expression in the Davidic covenant
- I will bless those that bless you: Abram’s destiny will shape the destiny of others
- I will curse those who curse you: an assurance that God himself will defend the people who come from Abram
All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.”
This final promise widens the horizon beyond Abram and his descendants to all humanity. It is reaffirmed after the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) and reaches its definitive fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abraham through whom the blessing promised to the nations is fully realized (cf. Galatians 3:8).
These blessings do not merely enhance Abram’s personal fortunes; they establish him as a conduit of divine grace. He will become the measure by which blessing itself is understood.
Abram went as the LORD directed him.
What is striking is not only that Abram obeys, but that he does so without delay. No objections are voiced, no conditions negotiated.
Salvation history begins with a call; Abram’s obedience sets in motion.
2nd Reading – 2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Beloved:
Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
not according to our works
but according to his own design
and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
but now made manifest
through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel.
In today’s second reading, Paul urges Timothy to endure present trials with confidence, for the God who first called Abraham has now fulfilled his word in Christ, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light.
Written from prison in Rome shortly before his martyrdom, Second Timothy is traditionally regarded as Saint Paul’s final letter. Timothy was Paul’s trusted co-worker and the bishop of the Christian community in Ephesus.
Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.
Paul encourages Timothy to remain steadfast and unashamed of the Gospel, even as Paul himself suffers imprisonment for preaching it.
Fidelity to Christ entails participation in his sufferings, but that endurance is sustained not by human resolve but by God’s grace.
He saved us and called us to a holy life,
The kerygmatic nature of verses 9-10 has led some to classify it as a Christian hymn, something the early Christians would have recited as a profession of faith. It outlines what God has done for us and what Christ has done on our behalf.
The hymn begins with a twofold affirmation of grace: 1) he saved us from a life of sin, and 2) he called us to a life of holiness. We have been rescued from one life and invited into another.
not according to our works
Neither salvation nor the call to holiness is the result of any deed we might have done. They are not rewards for good behavior; they have come to us freely out of God’s gratuitous love.
Grace precedes merit; even our good works are themselves the fruit of grace.
At the same time, Paul does not deny human responsibility. Salvation unfolds across time: accomplished definitively in Christ (past), active in us through grace (present), and brought to completion when we stand before Christ’s judgment seat (future; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10). Thus, we “work out” what God has first worked within us (Philippians 2:12-13).
but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,
Paul teaches elsewhere that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), which means his purpose of holiness was set in motion long before we could respond.
Notice that the grace we receive originates in God’s eternal design and is given in Christ. This points to Christ’s preexistence: the Son was not an afterthought in history but the one through whom the Father’s saving design was always intended.
but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus,
Christ’s “appearance” (epiphaneia) in the Incarnation is the moment when the fullness of God’s eternal plan was revealed in history.
who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Christ destroyed death, not by avoiding it but by entering it and conquering it through the Resurrection. Death’s dominion is broken; it no longer has the final word. The term aphtharsía (“incorruptibility”) points to the imperishable life revealed in the risen Christ and promised to those united to him.
The passage thus ends where it began: with the Gospel. At first, the Gospel is the cause of suffering. In the end, it is revealed as the proclamation of victory: through it, we come to know that death has been overcome and eternal life has been brought to light.
Gospel – Matthew 17:1-9
Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him.”
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Rise, and do not be afraid.”
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
“Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
The Church proclaims the Transfiguration on the Second Sunday of Lent to give us a deliberate glimpse of glory before the road to Calvary grows darker.
After beginning Lent last week in the desert with Jesus’ temptation, we are led up the mountain to see his radiance, a moment meant to strengthen disciples for the coming Passion and to reveal the true end of the Lenten journey.
The Transfiguration reminds us that the penitential nature of Lent is ordered toward transformation— our own metamorphōsis in Christ — so that we can embrace the Cross with hope, knowing the Resurrection already shines ahead.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
These three are the inner circle of the apostles. They alone witness the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:37), the agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37), and now the Transfiguration. At decisive moments, Jesus draws them closer to prepare them for leadership after the Resurrection.
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
In Scripture, mountains are privileged places of divine revelation. Moses encountered God on Sinai (Exodus 24), and Elijah heard the Lord there as well (1 Kings 19).
Matthew does not name the mountain; the theological symbolism matters more than the geography.
And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.
The verb here for “transfigured” is metemorphōthē, meaning to be changed in form or to be transformed. (This is the same root from which we get the English word metamorphosis.)
This is not a change in Jesus’ identity but a revelation of it. His divine glory, ordinarily veiled by his humanity, shines forth.
Unlike Moses, whose face shone brightly when it reflected God’s glory (Exodus 34), Jesus radiates glory from within. White garments are the traditional dress of heavenly beings.
In this moment, the disciples are seeing Jesus’ divinity.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.
Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets — the entirety of Israel’s Scriptures. Their presence testifies that Jesus fulfills the whole of God’s saving plan (Matthew 5:17).
Neither Matthew nor Mark tells us what was discussed, but according to Luke 9:31: “They spoke about his departure (exodus), which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”
Elijah was assumed bodily into heaven (2 Kings 2:11) and Hebrew legend has it that Moses was also assumed. This may explain how both can appear here in bodily form.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
Peter’s offer to build three tents at the Transfiguration reveals both the beauty and the limitation of his response to divine glory: overwhelmed by the radiance of Christ and the presence of the ancient heroes, he instinctively tries to preserve the moment.
It’s a moment of devotion mixed with confusion — Peter’s faith is reaching beyond his own understanding. Luke’s gospel even notes that Peter “did not know what he was saying” (Luke 9:33).
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
This is no ordinary cloud, but the luminous and mysterious shekinah — the glory‑cloud that signifies God’s own presence. In the Exodus, the Lord led Israel by a “pillar of cloud” (Exodus 13:21-22). When the tabernacle was completed, a cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord filled the sanctuary (Exodus 40:34-35). God descended in a cloud upon Sinai when giving Moses the tablets of the Law (Exodus 24:15-18). And when Solomon dedicated the temple, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so completely that the priests could not stand to minister (1 Kings 8:10–11).
then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
God the Father repeats the declaration from Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:17) but adds a command: Listen to him.
This declaration makes it clear that Jesus is not merely another prophetic figure alongside Moses and Elijah, but the beloved Son whose authority surpasses theirs. The Law and the Prophets find their fulfillment in him; he is the One to whom they have always pointed.
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.
The disciples respond to this proclamation with awe and holy fear — the proper posture before divine majesty.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”
As throughout the Gospel, Jesus’ touch restores and reassures.
The divine glory that inspires fear is inseparable from the compassionate presence of the Son.
And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
Moses and Elijah disappear.
The revelation is complete: Jesus stands alone as the definitive Word of the Father.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Note that after this display of his divine glory and revelation as the beloved Son, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man: the figure of heavenly authority in Daniel 7 who attains glory through suffering.
Why charge the disciples to remain silent? Because the Transfiguration can only be understood in light of the Resurrection. Apart from the Cross, the vision would be misunderstood as a display of earthly triumph.
Also, the disciples should not proclaim what they do not yet themselves understand. Earlier in the Gospel, Peter rebuked Jesus when he warned the disciples of his coming death (Matthew 16:22). Only after Jesus rises from the dead will the disciples grasp that the radiance they glimpsed on the mountain and the agony they will witness on Calvary belong to the same divine Son.
Connections and Themes
Divine blessings. The readings for this Sunday reveal a God who pours out grace that is both superabundant and entirely unearned. In our first reading, Abram is called because God had a plan for him, not because Abram had performed some noteworthy deed. In our second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that we are saved and called to holiness “not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.” In the gospel reading, the three apostles did nothing to warrant the privilege of witnessing the transfiguration of Jesus. They didn’t even understand its significance. Before there is obedience, sacrifice, or suffering, there is blessing. Salvation begins not in human effort but in divine generosity.
Listen to him. The ultimate blessing of God is Jesus himself. At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appear as representatives of the Law and the Prophets, but they do not remain. The Father’s voice interrupts the vision with a decisive command: This is my beloved Son… listen to him. All the authority of Israel’s sacred history converges and finds its fulfillment in Christ. He is not merely one teacher among many, but the definitive revelation of the Father. The vision on the mountain calls us not simply to admire Jesus, but to shape our lives in obedient faith to his word.
A new beginning. The Transfiguration reveals not only who Jesus is, but what we are meant to become. On the mountain, the hidden glory of Christ is made visible, marking the beginning of his journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross. In him we glimpse both the radiant Son and the destiny of all who are united to him. Lent, therefore, is a season of new beginnings, no matter how long we have walked in faith, or how newly we have begun. This is a time to step forward again in trust, to listen more deeply, to repent more honestly, and to allow grace to reshape us.
The vision of the Transfiguration does not invite passive wonder; it summons us to our own metamorphōsis, so that by Easter we may reflect more clearly the glory of the Beloved Son.
Sunday Readings 