Transfiguration

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the more important (if sometimes overlooked) feasts of the liturgical year. It was also the theme of the Sacred Liturgy Conference I attended back in June. More on that in a few days, probably.

This event definitively revealed the divinity of Christ. It appears in the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28–36). Two of the witnesses refer to it in their writings, but they do not tell the story (2 Peter 1:16–18, John 1:14).

Let’s walk through Saint Mark’s telling, which is the Gospel reading for the feast this year.

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.

The Law and the Prophets in the persons of Moses and Elijah are seen to be fulfilled in Jesus. Exhausted from their climb up the mountain, the Apostles are jolted awake. Peter gibbers, but he makes an effort to find some way to honour them all. James and John, those “sons of thunder”, are merely thunderstruck it appears.

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

As at His baptism by John, Jesus’ identity is confirmed by God the Father. If the apostles were terrified before, I can only imagine their state of mind now.

And then… silence. The flash and bang were gone. The ghostly figures were gone. The Apostles stood at the mountain top, alone with the Lord. In silence.

After the Resurrection, Saint Peter (at least) preached on the subject, particularly if one accepts the ancient tradition of the Fathers that Saint Mark compiled his Gospel from a series of lectures that Peter gave on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

In any case, in his second letter, which is another of today’s readings, Peter testifies in his own powerful words:

Beloved: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory, “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

(2 Peter 1:16-19)

No recorded words have survived from the second witness, Saint James.

We conclude, as does sacred scripture itself, with Saint John, the third witness. Near the end of the magnificent prologue to his Gospel, we have his testimony in passing:

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

(John 1:14)

And amen to that!