“And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.”
Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: this is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him! — the cloud is the Shekinah — the cloud of divine presence that covered Sinai (Exodus 19:9), filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34), and led Israel through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21). The voice from the cloud repeats the baptismal declaration (this is my Son, whom I love) with the crucial addition: listen to him. The addition is the transfiguration's specific application: in the presence of Moses (the law) and Elijah (the prophets), the voice says not observe the law or follow the prophets but listen to him. Jesus supersedes even these.
Church Fathers on Mark 9:7
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
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