The Feast of the Transfiguration, Sunday, August 6, 2023

Matthew 17:1–9

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.  As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

“Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”  Mount Tabor, the traditional site for the  Transfiguration, rises almost two thousand feet above the surrounding plain near the Sea of Galilee and presents a marvelous view from its summit.  It is a rather steep feature and it would have required a lot of work to get to the top, particularly since no roads went up it at the time.  It takes a few hours to climb.  Since Jesus often chose places like this to pray, his Apostles might have thought, as they made their way up, that he proposed to do this here.  On the other hand, he preferred to go off by himself to pray.  They knew that when he took the three of them along apart from the other Apostles, they saw wondrous healings and even the dead rise.  

“And he was transfigured before them.”  The Greek verb here is the root of the English “metamorphosis”, which means “a transformation”.  The Greek is customarily translated as “he was transfigured”, which has the sense of being transformed into something greater or more beautiful.  The question arises, then: Was he or his appearance transformed into this greater reality, or was he or it revealed to be thus in actuality?  We can think of Jesus himself as a sacrament in which the outer appearance signifies the power of God.  In the case of Jesus, the appearance of his Body was that of a Jewish man, but his words and his actions, also part of his appearance, indicated far more.  In this way, the Transfiguration meant the revealing of his glory inasmuch as human eye could bear it.  It was also a sign of the transformation his Body would undergo in the Resurrection, when it became spiritualized.

“His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”  The Lord’s Transfiguration dazzled his Apostles, and yet it drew their vision on with its glory.  This was the light of pure love, the end of every human desire.  Peter later described it in the presence of St. Mark, who duly recorded his words: “And his garments became shining and exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller upon earth can make white” (Mark 9, 2).  St. Luke says, “His shape of his countenance was altered and his raiment became white and glittering” (Luke 9, 29).  

“And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.”  St. Luke adds: “And they spoke of his decease that he should accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9, 31).  That is, of the Lord’s Passion and Death.  Jesus stood in the center of these two holy men, showing himself to be their superior.  Both had seen a vision of God, Moses while still alive, and Elijah when he was carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot.  God had formed the people of Israel from the law and the covenant which he made through Moses.  Elijah was to come again at the beginning of the end of the age to announce the Messiah, who would form the people anew.  The Fathers saw Moses as signifying the Jewish law, and Elijah as signifying the prophets calling the people to observe that law.  Together, they signify the old covenant, which would be “transfigured” into the new covenant of Jesus: “This is my Blood of the new covenant, which shall be shed for many” (Mark 14, 24).  

“Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  St. Mark adds, “For he knew not what he said: for they were struck with fear” (Mark 9, 5).  Peter evidently surmised that Jesus meant to make this mountain his headquarters and that he and James and John were brought along to serve Jesus, Moses, and Elijah there.  They could not have raised proper tents, of course, but they could have gathered wood from the trees that abound on Tabor for shelters until something more fitting could be constructed.

“A bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice.”  This might remind us of the dedication of the temple of Solomon, nearly a thousand years before: “A cloud filled the house of the Lord, 

and the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8, 10-11).  Here, the dedication of the Body of the Lord, for which the earthly temple was but a sign, is manifested by his Father for his coming Sacrifice on the Cross.  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”, the Father’s own words thundering through creation, as they had at the beginning of his Son’s earthly ministry, reaching even our ears today.

“When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”  It shall be thus for the blessed souls at the end of time.  The angels will reconstitute their bodies and they will tremble in anticipation of the great judgment, but the Lord shall call to them still in their graves, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”

“And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.”  Suddenly, without warning, all was as it had been.

“Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”  St. Mark adds, “And they kept the word to themselves; questioning together what that should mean, when he shall be risen from the dead” (Mark 9, 9).  In their wonder at what they had seen, the Apostles must have thought that Jesus was speaking in parables here.  In light of this vision of his glory, at this validation by God himself, what could he mean?  So much they would not understand until after it had happened, when they looked back and remembered, and when he came back to explain it to them.  We cannot now imagine the glory of heaven although the Lord and his saints have told us about it, and entire chapters of the Book of Revelation are given over to it.  Still, “eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2, 9).  We have a hint, in the words of today’s Gospel reading, of the beatific vision.