Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa for the Solemnity of the Transfiguration

Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the Solemnity of the Transfiguration, Sunday 6th of August 2023.

Mt 17: 1-9

The act of Listening is highlighted throughout The Gospel of Matthew as an essential and central aspect to the experience of faith.  

This is portrayed by the borrowing of Old Testament Scriptures, which he does so often to indicate that the Gospel is first and foremost a Word heard: A Word so deeply heard that it can be fulfilled in a definitive way.

He also proposes that listening is an attitude that defines the believer’s journey.

Consider, for example, the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said that those who hear His Words and put it into practice their house is built on rock (Mt 7:24).

Or the parabolic discourse (Mt 13), which the Liturgy has offered us in its entirety the past few Sundays: Every parable, after all, is built around the theme of listening, of opening one's heart to receive and cherish the seed of the Word, which is the real treasure. The precious pearl.

Listening, then, is the proper attitude of the disciple, but not only that. In chapter 8, of Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus speaking to the sea in a menacing way, and the sea immediately calms down; Afterwards, He is found commanding the demons to leave the two possessed men and be casted into the swineherds, and they also obeyed His word. Nothing resists the Word but man's freedom: Later (Mt 12:41-42), Jesus rebukes the scribes and pharisees who asked for a sign, reminding them that the inhabitants of Nineveh were converted not because they saw signs but because they heard the word of Jonah; And the same with the queen of the South, upon hearing the words of Solomon.

"Whoever has ears ought to hear" (Mt 11:15; 13:43): It is a phrase repeated several times.

You may wonder, why this long introduction?

Because the theme of listening is also central in today's passage (Mt 17:1-9).

Jesus goes up a mountain, the place par excellence where God reveals himself, where God speaks.

For Jesus is also first and foremost one who listens, one who is received, one who obeys.

And this is also confirmed by the presence on the mountain of Moses and Elijah alongside Jesus: Jesus is constantly in relationship with the Scriptures, with all that God has said, because everything in him is fulfilled.

On the mountain, then, where Jesus went up to listen, the Father speaks.

He says what He had already said at the Baptism (Mt. 3:17), He speaks about His Son, His beloved Son with whom the Father is pleased, with whom He rejoices. He adds, "Listen to him" (Mt 17:5).

Then we could say that transfiguration is nothing other than what happens to the one who listens: the encounter with the Father, the filial relationship with Him, cannot fail to transform life and make it become, slowly, what everyone's life is called to be: a place of God's presence, a temple of His Spirit and His Glory…

This Meditation was originally published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.