The Transfiguration of the Lord (Year B) - 6 August

6th August 2024
“At His Transfiguration, Christ showed His disciples the splendour of His beauty, to which He will shape and colour those who are His: ‘He will reform our lowness configured to the body of His glory.’” - St Thomas Aquinas
 
A reflection on today's gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
 
"He became transfigured before them as the glory of His Divinity flashed through the threads of His earthly raiment. It was not so much a light that was shining from without as the beauty of the Godhead that shone from within. It was not the full manifestation of Divinity which no man of earth could see; nor was His body glorified, for He had not risen from the dead, but it possessed a quality of glory. His crib, His carpenter trade, His bearing opprobrium from enemies were a humiliation; fittingly there should also be epiphanies of glory, as the angels’ song at His birth and the voice of the Father during the baptism.
 
"Now as He nears Calvary, a new glory surrounds Him. The voice again invests Him in the robes of the priesthood, to offer sacrifice. The glory that shone around Him as the Temple of God was not something with which He was outwardly invested, but rather a natural expression of the inherent loveliness of ‘Him who came down from heaven.’ The wonder was not this momentary radiance around Him; it was rather that at all other times it was repressed. As Moses, after communing with God, put a veil over his face to hide it from the people of Israel, so Christ had veiled His glory in humanity. But for this brief moment, He turned it aside so that men might see it; the outgoing of these rays was the transitory proclamation to every human eye of the Son of Righteousness. As the Cross came nearer, His glory became greater. So it may be that the coming of the antiChrist or the final crucifixion of the good will be preceded by an extraordinary glory of Christ in His members.
 
"In man, the body is a kind of a cage of the soul. In Christ, the Body was the Temple of Divinity. In the Garden of Eden, we know that man and woman were naked but not ashamed. This is because the glory of the soul before sin shone through the body and became a kind of a raiment. Here too in the Transfiguration, the Divinity shone through humanity. This was probably much more natural than for Christ to be seen in any other pose, namely, without that glory. It took restraint to hide the Divinity that was in Him.
 
"‘And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him.’ The Old Testament was coming to meet the New. Moses the publisher of the Law, Elijah the chief of the Prophets—both of them were seen shining in the Light of Christ Himself Who, as the Son of God, gave the Law and sent the Prophets. The subject of conversation of Moses, Elijah and Christ was not what He had taught, but His sacrificial death (Lk 9:30-31); it was His duty as Mediator which fulfilled the Law, the Prophets and the Eternal Decrees. Their work done, they pointed to Him to see the Redemption accomplished.
 
"What the Apostles noticed as particularly beautiful and glorified were His face and His garments—the face which later would be splattered with blood flowing from a crown of thorns; and the garments, which would be a robe of scorn with which sneering Herod would dress Him. The gossamer of light which now surrounded Him would be exchanged for nakedness when He would be stripped on a hill.
 
"While the Apostles were standing at what seemed to be the very vestibule of heaven, a cloud formed, overshadowing them. When God sets up a cloud it is a manifest sign that there are bonds which man dare not break. At His baptism, the heavens were opened; now at the Transfiguration they opened again to install Him in His office as Mediator, and to distinguish Him from Moses and the Prophets. It was heaven itself that was sending Him on His mission, not the perverse will of men. At the baptism, the voice from heaven was for Jesus Himself; on the Hill of the Transfiguration it was for the disciples. The shouts of ‘Crucify’ would be too much for their ears if they did not know that it behooved the Son to suffer. It was not Moses nor Elijah they were to hear, but Him who apparently would die like any other teacher, but was more than a prophet. The voice testified to the unbroken and undivided union of Father and Son; it recalled also the words of Moses that in due time God would raise up from Israel One like Himself Whom they should hear.
 
"The Apostles, awakening at the brilliance of what they had seen, found their spokesman, as almost always, in Peter. A week before, Peter was trying to find a way to glory without the Cross. Now he thought the Transfiguration a good short cut to salvation by having a Mount of the Beatitudes or a Mount of the Transfiguration without the Mount of Calvary. It was Peter’s second attempt to dissuade Our Lord from going to Jerusalem to be crucified. Before Calvary he was the spokesman for all those who would enter into glory without purchasing it by self-denial and sacrifice. Peter in his impetuosity here felt that the glory which God brought down from the heavens, and of which the angels sang at Bethlehem, could be tabernacled among men without a war against sin. Peter forgot that as the dove rested his foot only after the deluge, so true peace comes only after the Crucifixion.
 
"Like a child, Peter tried to capitalise and make permanent this transient glory. To the Saviour, it was an anticipation of what was reflected from the other side of the Cross; to Peter, it was a manifestation of an earthly Messianic glory that ought to be housed. The Lord Who called Peter ‘Satan’ because he would have a crown without a Cross now ignored his noncrucial humanism, for He knew that ‘he spoke at random.’ But after the Resurrection, Peter would know. Then he would recall the scene, saying:
 
"‘We had been eye-witnesses of His exaltation. Such honour, such glory was bestowed on Him by God the Father, that a voice came to Him out of the splendour which dazzles human eyes; This, it said, is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; to Him, then, listen. We, his companions on the holy mountain, heard that voice coming from heaven, and now the word of the prophets gives us more confidence than ever. It is with good reason that you are paying so much attention to that word; It will go on shining, like a lamp in some darkened room, until the dawn breaks, and the day star rises in your hearts’ (2 Peter 1:16–20)."
(Life of Christ)
 
Prayer for the Transfiguration of the Lord
 
Jesus Christ, the glory of the sky. Christ, of earth the hope secure. Only Son of God most high. Offspring of a maiden pure.
 
Purest Light, within us dwell, never from our souls depart. Come, the shades of earth expel, fill and purify the heart.
 
Help us now Thy praise to sing. Praise for this returning day. Light and life let morning bring, clouds and darkness flee away.
 
Faith in Him, Whose name we bear, in our heart of hearts abound! Hope, thy brightest torch prepare, all with holy love be crowned.
 
Praise the Father, praise the Son, Spirit blest, to Thee be praise! To the Eternal Three in One, Glory be through endless days. Amen. 💖💐🙏
 
Food for thought
 
The noble love of Jesus urges us to do great things and spurs us on to desire perfection. Love tends upward to God and is not occupied with the things of earth. Love also will be free from all worldly affections, so that its inner vision does not become dimmed, nor does it let itself be trapped by any temporal interest or downcast by misfortune. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, nothing fuller, nothing better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of God and can find its rest only in God above all He has created.