The transfiguration of Jesus
1 And he went on to say, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the kingdom of God coming with power.”
2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high moun tain. There his appearance was changed before their eyes.
3 Even his clothes shone, becoming as white as no bleach of this world could make them.
4 Elijah and Moses appeared to them; the two were talking with Jesus.
5 Then Peter spoke and said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
6 For he did not know what to say; they were overcome with awe.
7 But a cloud formed, covering them in a sha dow, and from the cloud came this word, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”
8 And suddenly, as they looked around, they no longer saw anyone except Jesus with them.
9 As they came down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man be risen from the dead.
10 So they kept this to themselves, al though they discussed with one another what ‘to rise from the dead’ could mean.
The question about Elijah
11 Finally they asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus answered them, “Of course, Eli jah will come first so that everything may be as it should be… But, why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be despised?
13 I tell you that Elijah has already come and they have treated him as they pleased, as the Scrip tures say of him.”
The boy with an evil spirit
14 When they came to the place where they had left the disciples, they saw many peo ple around and some teachers of the Law arguing with them.
15 When the people saw Jesus, they were astonished and ran to greet him.
16 He asked, “What are you arguing about with them?” A man an swered him from the crowd,
17 “Master, I brought my son to you for he has a dumb spirit.
18 Whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they could not.”
19 Jesus replied, “You faithless people. How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.”
20 And they brought the boy to him.
As soon as the spirit saw Jesus, it shook and convulsed the boy who fell on the ground and began rolling about, foam ing at the mouth.
21 Then Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He replied, “From childhood.
22 And it has often thrown him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. If you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “Why do you say: ‘If you can?’ All things are possible for one who be lieves.”
24 Im mediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe, but help the little faith I have.”
25 Jesus saw that the crowd was increasing rapidly, so he ordered the evil spirit, “Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you: Leave the boy and never enter him again.”
26 The evil spirit shook and convulsed the boy and with a terrible shriek came out. The boy lay like a corpse and people said, “He is dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him and the boy stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive out the spirit?”
29 And he answered, “Only prayer can drive out this kind, nothing else.”
Jesus again speaks of his passion
30 After leaving that place, they made their way through Galilee; but Jesus did not want people to know where he was
31 because he was teaching his disciples. And he told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into human hands. They will kill him, but three days after he has been killed, he will rise.”
32 The disciples, however, did not understand these words and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.
Who is the greatest?
33 They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”
34 But they did not answer because they had been arguing about who was the greatest.
35 Then he sat down, called the Twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, let him be last of all and servant of all.”
36 Then he took a little child, placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them,
37 “Whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but the One who sent me.”
38 John said to him, “Master, we saw someone who drove out de mons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he does not belong to our group.”
39 Jesus answered, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon after speak evil of me.
40 For whoever is not against us is for us.
41 If anyone gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ and bear his name, truly, I say to you, he will not go without reward.
If your eye causes you to sin
42 If anyone should cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble and sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a great millstone around his neck.
43 If your hand makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a hand than with two hands to go to hell,
44 to the fire that never goes out.
45 And if your foot makes you fall into sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter life without a foot than with both feet to be thrown into hell.
46 And if your eye makes you fall into sin, tear it out!
47 It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, keeping both eyes, to be thrown into hell
48 where the worms that eat them never die, and the fire never goes out.
49 The fire itself will preserve them.
50 Salt is a good thing; but if it loses its salt iness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.”
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Comments Mark, Chapter 9
• 9.1 The transfiguration of Jesus is the mid point of Mark’s Gospel.
This manifestation is in fact one of the most important in the New Testament. In the liturgy of oriental Churches, the feast of the Trans figuration holds a place of supreme importance.
Though not the summit, it is in fact the summary of all revelation. Moses and Elijah, the spokesmen of the Law and the Prophets (in a word, of all the Old Testament) present the Christ of the Gospel to the apostles Peter, James and John, those who will be responsible for the preaching of the Gospel.
As Moses and Elijah were led by God to the Holy Mountain, to witness his glory (Ex 33:18; 1 K 19:9), so the apostles are led apart by Jesus; they too climb the mountain and there Jesus manifests his glory to them.
Jesus had just announced his passion and his death: the day had come when the Father confirmed his end that was very near (Lk 9:31) and gave him a foretaste of his resurrection. Moses and Elijah were the witnesses, they who, in a certain way, escaped the corruption of death (Dt 34:6; 2 K 2:11).
A cloud formed covering them in a shadow. The cloud mentioned here is that which, in several episodes of the Bible, both indicates and hides the mysterious presence of God (Ex 19 and 1 K 8:10).
Listen to him! (v. 7). The apostles have been accompanying Jesus for more than a year, with misunderstanding increasing be tween him and the religious authorities of the people of God. For them a question could arise: Is not Jesus mistaken? Are not the certitudes of God’s people on the side of the priests and scribes?
The Father himself intervenes, just as he had done in the past for John the Baptist: Listen to him! “Listen to him for he is the Word made flesh” (Jn 1:14; Heb 1:1). He is the Prophet, and all the others speak only for him (Dt 18:17).
When Jesus worked miracles for the sick, and over the forces of nature, he showed that the present order of the world is not permanent. Now the curtains are partially opened: would that the apostles understood that the Son of Man, as Jesus calls himself, is close to his resur rection. In a little while his fellow citizens will hang him on a cross. In a little while, too, the Father will give him the Glory that awaits him. The shining cloud, the dazzling white clothes are external signs that indicate something of the mystery of Jesus: the day he rises from among the dead, his human nature will be transformed and extended by divine Energies, so that he may fill everything in everyone.
• 11. On going down the mountain, the apostles feel uneasy, “Why did Moses and Elijah speak of the imminent death of Jesus?” They cling to their illusions, finding support in the Bible which said that Elijah had to return to earth to prepare the way before the Messiah would come, so that he should not encounter any opposition (Mal 3:1 and 4:23).
Jesus asserts again what he had said many times: he has to be rejected. Not all that is written in the Bible is to be understood literally. Elijah was not to return personally from heaven, but rather John the Baptist had already come as the new Elijah (Lk 1:16).
• 14. All things are possible for one who believes (v. 23). Jesus has gone back to the crowd and again he meets with human unbelief. The prayer of the child’s father would be a model for all Christian prayer. If we turn to God in prayer, it is because we have faith; and yet in doing this we discover the poverty and the fragility of our faith.
Why could not we drive out the spirit? (v. 28). The apostles wonder: did Jesus not give them power over the demons? They are not aware of their lack of faith and easily forget how far they are from their Master. To them are directed the sharp words of Jesus: You, faithless people! How many people think they are great believers when, in fact their faith has still not moved any thing!
Only prayer can drive out this kind. Various people mentioned in the Gospels as being possessed may have been mentally sick and could be cured by magnetic force, by the laying on of hands (Mk 6:5). Not this lad. Sometimes we find ourselves like Jesus close to the power of Evil, and prayer is needed to overcome it.
In the Gospel of Mark we find only four references to prayer and these in only a few words. It is because prayer was not a novelty for the Jews.
What is prayer? It is to direct our spirit to God. There are thousands of ways of praying, of keeping our spirit oriented toward God, striving towards him and listening to him: praying the Psalms and other prayers of the Church, meditating on the rosary, singing, Bible reading, etc. The purpose of all these prayers is that the Lord may give us the spirit of prayer, that we may be able to communicate with God in the depth of our spirit, even while working and minding our tasks.
Jesus shows us in these pages the way to expel the demon, because the evil spirit multiplies obstacles to discourage us, as soon as he knows we have decided to follow Christ (Mt 12:43; 13:19).
• 30. Time is running out for Jesus. He now de di cates himself chiefly to preparing the group of apostles who will have the tremendous responsibility of continuing his work. They did not un derstand about his death and resurrection: these things cannot be understood until they have happened. They prefer not to question or know; leaving Jesus very isolated.
SERVANTS
• 33. The apostles return to Capernaum, the center of their missionary expeditions, and most probably stay in the house of Simon Peter.
They have preached the kingdom of God, performing miraculous cures, and have expelled demons. They still lack the most important quality of all: to be humble.
We also follow Christ, make sac rifices for him, and look like good Chris tians, and God per forms through us some miracles great or small… Can we compare ourselves with our neighbor? Do we have the right to impose ourselves on others when they prefer the services of another person? Should we consider ourselves superior to those who do not reach our level?
The last sentence of Jesus is as impor tant as the first: Whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name… The dignity of the human person stems from this identification with Christ.
THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
• 35. God does not wait for us to be baptized before he recognizes his Son in us. He created us “in Christ.” This means that he created each of us so that we bear the likeness of his Son: see what Paul says in Ephesians.
Of course, it is something much greater when God calls us to believe and chooses us to share in the mission and life of his Church.
The Church has always taught the surpassing dignity of the human person and, in the end, convinced the world. More than anyone else, the martyrs taught us the superior value of the human person over any interest or collective bonds. It is impossi ble to separate this dignity of the human person from our relationship with the Father. Those who do not share in this belief cannot easily explain their commitment to human rights.
The greatest gift of God to humans is not that we can think and love, but that we can say to God: “You are my Father,” and that God looks at us thinking, “You are my son/daughter.”
• 38. SEPARATE CHURCHES
While Jesus prepares his apos tles, whom he wants to leave in charge of his Church, others preach the Gospel and expel demons. In the same way nowadays, outside the Catholic Church, the Church of the apostles, others of diverse Christian denominations do apostolic work.
This evangelization outside the Church, at times against the Church, offers a challenge. If others evangelize, it is perhaps because the Church does not reach a great number of people: God wants others to do what we do not. The proliferation of separate churches is for the Catholic Church a call to reform.
For the Church finds itself paralyzed for want of a true spirit of poverty and because of its massive structures which no longer allow simple people to find there the fresh life-giving air of the Gospel.
In addition, a missionary sense is often completely absent: too many Catholics are not ready to leave their own practices and little groups, with the end result that the Church is seemingly absent in a great number of places, especially in the urban masses and among immigrants.
With that how can we condemn those who by their missionary action allow a great number of people to meet Jesus Christ in fervent and welcoming communities, even if everything there is not authentic?
In saying this we do not forget the many riches of Christian tradition which have often been lost by those who left the Church, especially the certitude that everything human must be redeemed and saved, and the joyful and humble way of believing and doing the will of the Fa ther of which Mary is the finest symbol.
Several things seem to us out of place in these churches: the miracle used as an instrument of propaganda, the pressures on the sick, the threat en ing with punishments from God… Many enclose themselves in their cults, far from the “world,” making ecumen ism impossible, that is the dialogue and common seeking with other Christians.
There is, however, no room for envy or hatred: who can harm us if we do the work of God?
• 42. See commentary on Matthew 18:6.
To be thrown into Gehenna, says Jesus (v. 45). This word was used to designate hell.
To enter life… to enter the kingdom; this is one and the same thing. The kingdom of God is not a place where God will put us; it is a life that invades us; it is a person’s meeting with self, the total realization of a person’s potential; the perfect union with God through which the sons and daughters are transformed into the likeness of the Father.
Have salt in yourselves (v. 50). This concludes the speech after the discussion with the apostles (9:34). Of course we should make ourselves ser vants of others (9:35). That does not mean that we should be oppressed persons. The salt signifies the creativity and the talents of each one. Let us be persons fully alive, even if it includes disagreements, but always concerned about maintaining loving relations and mutual respect.