The Transfiguration of Jesus was a prelude to an even more important event: the Father's command to listen to Jesus (Mt 17:5). We need the Father's command to listen to Jesus because of our natural aversion to what Jesus is talking about — the cross. We don't want to hear about taking up the cross and dying on it daily (see Lk 9:23). With Peter, we are inclined to say to Jesus: "May You be spared, Master! God forbid that any such thing ever happen to You!" (Mt 16:22) (see The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 554) However, we must resist the temptation to contrive a crossless Christianity. We must listen to Jesus about the cross; for the agony, pain, and weakness of the cross is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24) — even the perfection of God's power (2 Cor 12:9).

If we obey the Father's voice and listen to Jesus, we will not only hear Jesus proclaiming the cross but also "speak of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2). Then people will be graced to listen to us. We will even come to the point of never boasting "of anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6:14). At the foot of the cross, we will say with the Father: "Listen to Jesus."

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert J. Buschmiller, January 29, 1996

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 5, 1996