1. Is “the one like a Son of man … [whose] dominion is an everlasting dominion ... ” a foreshadowing of the “beloved Son” in the Gospel? The Gospel tells us to listen to him. Did he speak once for all time or does he continually speak?

2. What things have power over us in our life? Are they good things? Would we like to see some of them lose some of their hold?

Second Reading
2 Peter 1:16-19

1. Peter’s letter suggests that his readers “will do well to be attentive” to the prophetic message that he, James, and John received at the transfiguration. Were these three disciples able to be attentive and listen when they were receiving that message? Are you always attentive to inspiration?
 
2. What are some “dark places” that could use “a lamp shining … until day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart”? (Examples: Immigration, clean water supply, environmental safely, political fairness, human trafficking, threats of nuclear weapons, homelessness, health care)

Gospel
Matthew 17:1-9

1. In the Transfiguration the disciples were invited to behold Jesus in his glory––to stop talking and listen to him. Do you ask yourself every night if you saw or heard Jesus during the day?

2. What should the contemplation of the Lord’s face, shining like the sun, move us to do?

Brothers and sisters, this Gospel traces a path for us too. … In fact, it is by staying with [Jesus] that we learn to recognize on his face the luminous beauty of love he gives us, even when it bears the marks of the cross. And it is in his school that we learn to glimpse the same beauty on the faces of the people who walk beside us every day — family, friends, colleagues who take care of us in the most varied ways.

How many bright faces, how many smiles, how many wrinkles, how many tears and scars reveal love around us! Let us learn to recognize them and to fill our hearts with them. And then let us set out in order to bring the light we have received to others as well, through concrete acts of love (cf 1 Jn 3:18), diving into our daily affairs more generously, loving, serving, and forgiving with greater earnestness and willingness. The contemplation of God’s wonders, the contemplation of God’s face, of the Lord’s face, must move us to the service of others.

Pope Francis Angelus
March 5, 2023