Saint Matthew’s Gospel (Mt. 16 vs. 21-22 & 17 vs. 1-9), brings out the close connection between the Transfiguration and the Passion of Jesus. The Divine Master wished to teach His disciples in this way that it was impossible -- for Him as well as for them – to reach the glory of the Transfiguration without passing through suffering. It was the same lesson that He would give later to the two disciples at Emmaus: “Ought not Christ to have suffer these things and so to enter into His glory?” (Lk. 24 vs. 26). What has been disfigured by sin cannot regain its original supernatural beauty except by way of purifying suffering. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
When sin entered the world, life as we would have known it was changed forever! Sin brought death, and with it, hardship and pain. Suffering was something that would now be a part of man’s life, and although man had walked away from God, God would not abandon man. He promised to send a Savior to restore to us what had been lost.