One of the challenges in reading the biblical account of the Transfiguration is determining what is going on, and how it fits in with the rest of the gospel. It’s a story that explicitly occurs in all three of the Synoptic accounts, as well as in 2 Peter 1:16-18.
Perhaps the most famous depiction in the west of this story comes from Raphael, who was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici to pant the image for the cathedral of Narbonne in 1516. The painting proved to be a masterpiece, and never made it to its intended location, for it was kept by the Vatican, where it remains to this day. The thing that I love about this image is the way it brings together the story of the transfiguration with the following account in Matthew’s Gospel. These two stories are connected in Matthew. We are led from the narrative of God’s clear and definite culmination of the Law and the Prophets in the person of Jesus to a scene of chaos and frustration in the story of boy.
Raphael marries these two stories in a stunning way. The “moon-struck” boy seems to be seeing the resurrected Christ, unifying the composition through his gesture, as well as through the gestures of the gathered crowd. In the midst of the Chaos below, we are directed to the eschatological hope we have in Christ. This is particularly powerful in light of the intended context of the image. It was an altar piece.
Although we are now in a place of Chaos, sin, sickness, and disorder; we have a greater hope. Jesus comes down from the mountain and brings healing, and teaches the disciples to seek healing through prayer and fasting.
These are the very things the people of God would be doing as they come into the mass.
Raphael’s Transfiguration is an example of the kingdom of God as both NOW and NOT YET. We have received the hope of glory, but must work out that hope in a life that is still filled with struggle.
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