“For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.”
He did not know what to say, they were so frightened — the fear is the same ecstatic terror as the storm stilling (Mark 4:41) and the resurrection appearance. The disciples' encounter with divine glory produces not understanding but fear. The fear is the appropriate response to genuine theophany — it does not mean the disciples have failed but that they are in the presence of something categorically beyond ordinary experience. The fear is the honest account of what it is like to be human in the presence of the divine.
Church Fathers on Mark 9:6
After the consummation of the cross, the glory of the resurrection is shewn, that they, who were to see with their own eyes the glory of the resurrection to come, might not fear the shame of the cross.
And He takes with Him the three chief of the Apostles, Peter, as confessing and loving Him, John, as the beloved one, James, as being sublime in speech and as a divine; for so displeasing was he to the Jews, that Herod wishing to please the Jews slew him.
Our Saviour then when transfigured did not lose the substance of real flesh, but shewed forth the glory of His own or of our future resurrection; for such as He then appeared to the Apostles, He will after the judgment appear to all His elect.
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!