6 August 2019
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
In 2 Peter 1:16-19, the Rock of the Apostles affirms that what he teaches are not “cleverly devised myths” but rather that he himself, together with others, had been “eyewitnesses of his majesty,” and that “we ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.” Peter is referring to the event of the transfiguration of our Lord which we celebrate today using Luke 9:28-36.
In Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, the disciples go up with Jesus for a simple reason: to pray! They are not going up for a show, but rather to simply commune with the Father, much as Abraham and Issac when they went up on the mountain to offer sacrifice. And it is while Jesus was praying that his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. Peter and the others had begun to fall asleep while Jesus was praying (as they will do again on the Mount of Olives) but now they are roused and they see not so much the glory of Moses and Elijah, but “they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.” In what does this glory consist? Its revelation here is a grace of Christ’s prayer and his life that we can only truly know by sharing that prayer and that life, both of which are truly offered to us for us to share with Jesus. But a key element is that Moses and Elijah are present not to speak of themselves, but of the “exodus that Jesus was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.” This exodus that the Lord accomplishes is not one that he must accomplish for himself, out of some need for self-fulfillment. It is a gift of Love, one that we can only enter if we follow Jesus into the exodus that he wishes to accomplish for us, and then remain with him wherever he leads us.
Towards the end of the ancient Gloria hymn, which we sing today and most Sundays and major feasts, we declare “you alone are holy, you alone are Lord, you alone are the most high, Jesus Christ…” On this feast, let us ask for the grace to truly mean the words of this prayer, so that we may come to know the glory of the Lord as he reveals it through his life by letting our lives become nothing other than a sharing in his.