In this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word, we focus on three details relevant for apologetical discussions found in the first reading and the Gospel for this upcoming Sunday’s Feast of the Transfiguration. The topics that these details relate to are Jesus’ Divinity and the intercession of the saints.
Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080623.cfm
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Hey everyone,
Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.
I’m Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.
In this episode, we’re going to focus on three details found in the first reading and the Gospel for this upcoming Sunday’s Feast of the Transfiguration. The relevant apologetical topics are Jesus’ Divinity and the intercession of the saints.
Let’s start with the first detail, which is found in both the first reading and the Gospel: the imagery of white clothing.
Here’s what we read in Daniel 7:9, which is part of the first reading taken from Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14:
9 As I watched [the prophet says] Thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took his throne. His clothing was white as snow, the hair on his head like pure wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire.
Now, here’s what we read from Mathew 17:1-2, which is part of the Gospel reading taken in its entirety from Matthew 17:1-9:
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 b And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light
The white clothing of Jesus in the transfiguration is meant to be read in light of what Daniel sees in the first reading: the Ancient of Days in white clothing.
What’s the significance? Jesus is equal to the Ancient of Days, who is the Father. He is not the same person as the Ancient of Days because, as we’ll see in a moment, Jesus is the one that Daniel describes in his vision as one “like a Son of Man.” Nevertheless, He is equal in glory to that of the Father, and thus Divine.
Now, this leads us to the second detail worth highlighting: Daniel’s description of the one “like a Son of Man.” He writes,
13 As the visions during the night continued, I saw coming with the clouds of heaven. One like a son of man. When he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, 14 He received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed
The specific detail is Daniel’s description of the one “like a son of man . . . coming with [or on] the clouds of heaven.”
This figure is commonly seen as the messianic king, but, as New Testament scholar Brant Pitre argues in his book The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ, this detail suggests that this king is not just a human king—he’s a divine one (143-145).
Pitre points out that according to Jeremiah 4:13, only God comes in judgment on clouds. Here’s what Jeremiah says,
Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them. [God] COMES up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles – woe to us, for we are ruined.
Pitre also highlights the fact that Daniel doesn’t say, “He is a son of man,” but he is “like a son of man.” Pitre writes, “He appears to be a merely human figure but is in fact a heavenly being” (The Case for Jesus, 144; emphasis in original).
The contemporary Jewish scholar Daniel Boyarin concurs. He describes this figure as a “second divine figure” (the first being the ancient of days) and “a God who looks like a human being” (The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ, 32-33).
What does this have to do with Jesus? Well, Jesus explicitly identifies Himself as this “one like a son of Man” who comes in judgment “on the clouds of heaven.” Consider what he says before the High priest at his trial: “you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). If only God comes in judgment on clouds of heaven, and Jesus says He’s the one coming on the clouds of heaven in judgment, then he’s claiming to be God. This explains why the high priest charges Jesus with blasphemy. Mark reports:
63 And the high priest tore his clothes, and said, “Why do we still need witnesses? 64 You have heard his blasphemy.
Jesus would not have been charged with blasphemy for merely claiming to be the Messianic King. His claim to be the one coming on the clouds of heaven was taken as a claim to be God. And it was not just taken as so. Jesus intended it to be so. Notice that Jesus doesn’t attempt to clarify the high priest’s thought that He just claimed to be equal to God. In fact, He confirms the high priest’s thought by willingly accepting death as the consequence for His claim.
Let’s now turn to the Gospel reading and highlight the detail that’s relevant to the topic of the intercession of the saints, as I mentioned at the outset of this episode. Matthew doesn’t just record that Jesus changed in His appearance. He also reports in verse 3: “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.”This verse serves us well in conversations about the intercession of the saints in two ways.
First, it refutes the common charge that we can’t communicate with the dead. Often, Protestants will appeal to Moses’s prohibition of necromancy in Deuteronomy 18:12 as evidence that the invocation of the saints is something that we ought not do, since when we invoke the saints to pray for us we’re communicating with the dead.
Here is where Jesus’ conversation with Moses comes into play: He’s communicating with a dead guy. And aren’t we called to imitate Jesus? If we couldn’t communicate with the holy ones who’ve gone before us in anyway whatsoever, then Jesus would be giving us a bad example here.
The objection that appeals to Deuteronomy 18:12 wrongly assumes necromancy means simply communicating with the dead. Jesus’ conversation with Moses proves this to be so. What Deuteronomy 18:12 condemns is the practice of conjuring up the spirits of the dead to inquire secret knowledge from them. And the context of the passage bears this out. This is not what we do when we invoke the saints to pray for us.
The second way Jesus’ conversation with Moses applies to conversations about the intercession of the saints is that it shows how someone can be cognitively active after death. Some claim that the invocation of the saints is futile because they can’t “hear” us in the afterlife. In other words, it’ s pointless to ask for their intercession because, as Ecclesiastes 9:5 says, “the dead know nothing.”
Although this statement is true as it applies to departed souls when left to their own power, it is not true on supposition that God gives the departed a grace to engage such cognitive activity. This is clearly done for the blessed in Heaven who have the grace of the Beatific Vision. But as Jesus’ conversation with Moses shows, it is also true for some even before Christ’s Ascension.
Conclusion
Well, that does it for this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. The readings for this upcoming Sunday’s Feast of the Transfiguration give us opportunity to reflect on to key apologetical topics:
- The Divinity of Jesus, and
- The Intercession of the Saints
I hope that what I shared with you will help you in your own apologetical conversations.
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I hope you have a blessed Feast of the Transfiguration.