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From: Romans 8:31b-34

Trust in God

[31b] If God is for us, who is against us? [32] He who did not spare
his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all
things with him? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies; [34] who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus,
who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand
of God, who indeed intercedes for us?

Commentary:

31-39. The elect will emerge unscathed and victorious from all attacks,
dangers and sufferings and will do so not through their own efforts but
by virtue of the all-powerful aid of him who has loved them from all
eternity and who did not hesitate to have his own Son die for their
salvation. It is true that as long as we are on this earth we cannot
attain salvation, but we are assured that we will attain it precisely
because God will not withhold all the graces we need to obtain this
happy outcome: all that is needed is that we desire to receive this
divine help. Nothing that happens to us can separate us from the Lord
--not fear of death or love of life, not the bad angels or devils, not
the princes or the powers of this world, nor the sufferings we undergo
or which threaten us nor the worst that might befall us. "Paul
himself", St John Chrysostom reminds us, "had to contend with numerous
enemies. The barbarians attacked him; his custodians laid traps for
him; even the faithful, sometimes in great numbers, rose against him;
yet Paul always came out victorious. We should not forget that the
Christian who is faithful to the laws of his God will defeat both men
and Satan himself" ("Hom. on Rom.", 15).

This is the attitude which enables us to live as children of God, who
fear neither life nor death: "Our Lord wants us to be in the world and
to love the world but without being worldly. Our Lord wants us to
remain in this world--which is now so mixed up and where the clamor of
lust and disobedience and purposeless rebellion can be heard--to teach
people to live with joy [...]. Don't be afraid of the paganized world:
our Lord has in fact chosen us to be leaven, salt and light in this
world. Don't be worried. The world won't harm you unless you want it
to. No enemy of our soul can do anything if we don't consent. And we
won't consent, with the grace of God and the protection of our Mother
in heaven" (S. Bernal, "Monsignor Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer", p.
213).

31. This exclamation of the Apostle vividly reveals the full extent of
the love of God the Father, who not only listens to our prayers but
anticipates our needs. God is with us, he is always by our side. This
is a cry expressing confidence and optimism, despite our personal
wretchedness; it is firmly based on our sense of divine sonship.
"Clothed in grace, we can cross mountains (cf. Ps 103:10), and climb
the hill of our Christian duty, without halting on the way. If we use
these resources with a firm purpose and beg our Lord to grant us an
ever increasing hope, we shall possess the infectious joy of those who
know they are children of God: 'If God is for us, who is against us?'
(Rom 8:31) Let us be optimists. Moved by the power of hope, we shall
fight to wipe away the trail of filth and slime left by the sowers of
hatred. We shall find a new joyful perspective to the world, seeing
that it has sprung forth beautiful and fair from the hands of God. We
shall give it back to him with that same beauty" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends
of God", 219).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Mark 9:2-10

The Transfiguration

[2] And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and
led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was
transfigured before them, [3] and His garments became glistening,
intensely white, as no fuller on earth bleach them. [4] And there
appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.
[5] And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let
us make three booths, one for You and one for Moses and one for
Elijah." [6] For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly
afraid. [7] And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the
cloud, "This is My beloved Son; listen to Him." [8] And suddenly
looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.

[9] And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell
no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man should have risen from
the dead. [10] So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what
the rising from the dead meant.

Commentary:

2-10. We contemplate in awe this manifestation of the glory of the Son
of God to three of His disciples. Ever since the Incarnation, the
divinity of our Lord has usually been hidden behind His humanity. But
Christ wishes to show, to these favorite disciples, who will later be
pillars of the Church, the splendor of His divine glory, in order to
encourage them to follow the difficult way that lies ahead, fixing
their gaze on the happy goal which is awaiting them at the end. This
is why, as St. Thomas comments (cf. "Summa Theologia", III, q. 45, a.
1), it was appropriate for Him to give them an insight into His glory.
The fact that the Transfiguration comes immediately after the first
announcement of His passion, and His prophetic words about how His
followers would also have to carry His cross, shows us that "through
many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

What happened at the Transfiguration? To understand this miraculous
event in Christ's life, we must remember that in order to redeem us by
His passion and death our Lord freely renounced divine glory and became
man, assuming flesh which was capable of suffering and which was not
glorious, becoming like us in every way except sin (cf. Hebrew 4:15).
In the Transfiguration, Jesus Christ willed that the glory which was
His as God and which His soul had from the moment of the Incarnation,
should miraculously become present in His body. "We should learn from
Jesus' attitude in these trials. During His life on earth He did not
even want the glory that belong to Him. Though He had the right to be
treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians
2:6)" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 62). Bearing in
mind WHO became man (the divinity of the person and the glory of His
soul), it was appropriate for His body to be glorious; given the
PURPOSE of His Incarnation, it was not appropriate, usually, for His
glory to be evident. Christ shows His glory in the Transfiguration in
order to move us to desire the divine glory which will be given us so
that, having this hope, we too can understand "that the sufferings of
this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be
revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).

2. According to Deuteronomy (19:15), to bear witness to anything the
evidence of two or three much concur. Perhaps this is why Jesus wanted
three Apostles to be present. It should be pointed out that these
three Apostles were specially loved by Him; they were with Him also at
the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37) and will also be
closest to Him during His agony at Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). Cf. note
on Matthew 17:1-13.

7. This is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of the
Transfiguration: "Just as in Baptism, where the mystery of the first
regeneration was proclaimed, the operation of the whole Trinity was
made manifest, because the Son Incarnate was there, the Holy Spirit
appeared under the form of a dove, and the Father made Himself known in
the voice; so also in the Transfiguration, which is the sign of the
second regeneration [the Resurrection], the whole Trinity appears--the
Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the bright
cloud; for just as in Baptism He confers innocence, as signified by the
simplicity of the dove, so in the Resurrection will He give His elect
the clarity of glory and the refreshment from every form of evil, as
signified by the bright cloud" ("Summa Theologiae", III, q. 45, 1.4 ad
2). For, really, the Transfiguration was in some way an anticipation
not only of Christ's glorification but also of ours. As St. Paul says,
"it is the same Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we
are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we
may also be glorified with Him" (Romans 8:16-17).

10. That the dead would rise was already revealed in the Old Testament
(cf. Daniel 12:2-3; 2 Maccabees 7:9; 12:43) and was believed by pious
Jews (cf. John 11:23-25). However, they were unable to understand the
profound truth of the death and Resurrection of the Lord: they expected
a glorious and triumphant Messiah, despite the prophecy that He would
suffer and die (cf. Isaiah 53). Hence the Apostles' oblique approach;
they too do not dare to directly question our Lord about His
Resurrection.