The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, August 5, 2024

Mark 9, 2-10

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. 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.

The Holy Church on this day celebrates the Lord’s Transfiguration in the presence of three of his Apostles, an event which marks the final stage of his final journey to Jerusalem.  In the Gospel Reading for the Mass for this feast, St. Mark relates to us his master St. Peter’s experience of the Transfiguration, in which we see how the glory of the Son of God is so overwhelming to even the most faithful  believers that they are reduced to incoherence.

“Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.”  Though it is possible that Jesus was related through his Mother to James and John, there is no favoritism here.  It is not for nothing that the Lord called these brother “the sons of thunder”, a nickname so resonant that St. Mark hands it down to us from the lips of St. Peter.  These three Apostles were the most impulsive of all of them — quick to believe, quick to act on their belief.  They were zealous for the Lord Jesus in a way that outshined the zeal of the others.  These, then, were the most prepared to witness what was to follow.

“And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.”  The Greek word translated here is “transfigured” means “transformed” (it is the word from which we get “metamorphosis”).  That is, the incarnate Son of God took on another form.  The Evangelist notably does not tell us the nature of that form except to describe the new appearance of his clothing.  This omission tells us more than a detailed inventory of his features would.  Here we might supply verses from the Scriptures to help us — the burning bush: “The Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt; the vision of the guard who sees the three young men in the fiery furnace in Babylon: “Behold, I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God” (Daniel 3, 92); and in the words of St. Paul; “Colossians 1:15–16 (D-R): the firstborn of every creature.  In him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him and in him” (Colossians 1, 15-16).  But we should also see that the omission of describing the transfigured Jesus fits the tradition in the Scriptures of not attempting to describe Almighty God.  In Isaiah 6, 1-2, the Prophet has a vision of God in the Temple: he describes him as sitting on a throne and accompanied by seraphim, but says nothing else about how he looked.  And in the Book of Revelation, St. John sees Almighty God enthroned, but very conspicuously does not describe him, even though he describes the Son as a Lamb, wounded, yet living, and covered with eyes; and the Holy Spirit as seven lamps.  

“Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.”  The two greatest of Israel’s Prophets take subordinate positions to the Lord Jesus, and were not themselves transfigured.  St. Luke tells us why they were there: “They spoke of his Death that he should accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9, 31).  The Apostles, much later, would look back on this event and understand that the Lord was showing them that his Death was foreseen by the Prophets.

“He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.”  Peter, always the one to step forward and to offer the Lord service, felt called upon to provide shelter for Jesus and the Prophets, as though he thought they would remain there for some time.  As Peter strove to make sense of what he was seeing, he seems to have reasoned that as this was occurring on the way to Jerusalem, Moses and Elijah had joined the Son of Man in the taking of the city and the reestablishment of the Kingdom of David: Elijah, who had rebuked the wicked kings of the old kingdom, and Moses, who led the Hebrews into battle against the hostile Gentiles.

And then a voice from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”  We should understand that both the Greek and the Hebrew words for “to listen” also mean “to obey”.  The voice might have thundered, as the Father’s voice did after Jesus arrived in Jerusalem (cf. John 12, 28).  In this case, the believing Apostles understood the voice while the Pharisees, in Jerusalem, did not.

“Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.”  It began without a sound, very suddenly, and it was over in the same way.  The apparition was meant for the Apostles, and ended when they could absorb it no longer, their senses reeling and their minds overwhelmed.  The Lord gave them a little time to recover: to stand still, to look around, to shake their heads as though to clear them so as to understand.  They would have stared at him, and he would have looked back at them, God viewing them through human eyes.  Then, without speaking, he lead them down the slope.

“He charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”  When they were ready, he spoke to them and told them to say nothing about this to anyone until after some impossible time, “when the Son of Man had risen from the dead” — for surely, after this display of his power and might he was not going to die?  

“So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what ‘rising from the dead’ meant.”  The doctrine of resurrection of the dead was taught by the Pharisees and appears in the Prophets.  What they questioned was what this had to do with Jesus.

But they could not have spoken about what they had seen anyway.  At least, not for some time.