The Transfiguration is as Important Now as When It Happened

The Feast of the Transfiguration was especially powerful for me this year. 

My sister died almost three months ago and the grief has been hard to bear. During the long months when she was suffering — what I think of now as her own personal passion — my oldest son would call me every night before bed to talk. 

He spent much of the time reminding me that there were limits to what I could control, and that I had to accept the things I could not change. He was an enormous help. After she died, I tried to assuage my grief by telling myself that she is gone and there is nothing I can do about it.

That did not help me at all. What I have found that does help is to simply pray the words from St Paul, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for them that love Him.

That verse reminds me of the glorious future that awaits all of us who love Jesus. My sister is already there. I will see her one day, but in the meantime, she is happy and free, like a little child again.

I love the Feast of the Transfiguration the same way I love that verse. Both of them point to our future. Both of them are a promise and a fulfillment of what we only vaguely can see and know right now, in this life. 

I didn’t write about the Feast on the day itself because, at that time, I had no words. The mass that day had been a balm for my heart, and I didn’t have any words or thoughts to share. All I had were emotions and feelings. 

Even now, I don’t have useful words or ideas to give you. The reason I’m writing this is simply to talk about the beautiful readings at the mass that day. 

I was edgy and close to bitter when I took my seat in the pew. That happens to me a lot these days. 

I don’t trust a church and I don’t respect clergy who ignore the cruelty and sadism of what rapists do to other people; who excuse the harm, blame the victims and support rapists for powerful positions.  

I think I would have left, except that the Eucharist is real. Christ in the Eucharist calls me back, and when I go to Him, He is always, unfailingly, there. 

So mass is difficult for me. I feel deeply unsafe in the Church that once sheltered me. And I know that this is not my fault. 

I was edgy and, as I often am when I first sit down for mass, close to bitter. Most of the time, that lasts until I physically accept Christ in the disguise of a bit of bread. Then, always, it is gone and all I feel is love. 

As I said, the Eucharist is real.

But this day was different. The mass readings were so beautiful they lifted me up and out of my mixed up emotions. Those words smoothed out the rough edges and poured down grace on my head like dew drops, falling from above. 

For a brief moment during the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were allowed to see into the other dimension to which we will all go one day. They saw Jesus, transfigured into a being of light who was “all in white” as he talked to Moses and Elijah about his coming Passion. 

Peter, being Peter, babbled senselessly about building three shelters to mark the spot. 

Then they heard a voice like thunder saying This is my beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased. Obey Him. 

It was all there; eternity right in front of them. 

And they did what any of us would do; they fell on their faces before Him. 

When they looked up, there was no one there but Jesus. 

Much later, after the trial, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension; after years of ministry, beatings and suffering, Peter wrote about the Transfiguration. 

Matthew, Mark and Luke  each recorded the Transfiguration. But Peter’s simple testimony in a letter to a struggling Christian church has the power of plain spoken eyewitness testimony. 

This happened, it really happened. And it happened to me. 

That was the second reading. 

The first was from the book of Daniel, and it was written long before Jesus was born. In the 6^th century BC, while he was a prisoner in a strange land, Daniel had a vision of things to come. 

He foresaw Jesus. He foresaw the spread of Christianity to every land on earth. For a devout practitioner of such an exclusive and small religion as Judaism was at that time, that vision of universality may have been somewhat shocking. 

But God gave him this glimpse into eternal things, and he wrote it down for the generations. Six hundred years later, Peter, John and James, who were also, as Daniel had been, part of a conquered people, living under foreign rule, saw Daniel’s vision fulfilled on a mountaintop as the Son of Man stood before them, revealed in His glory. 

It is no small miracle that a grieving grandmother should be sitting in a pew in a church on the windswept prairie in the middle of a continent, the existence of which was totally unknown to either Daniel or Peter, and be swept up into the peace of Christ by the words they wrote thousands of years ago.

We are, each of us, jewels in a long chain of creation that goes all the way back to the moment when God spoke existence into existence. Peter and Daniel never dreamed of me, but we are all one in Christ. 

I don’t have any big thoughts to share with you about the Feast of the Transfiguration. All I know is that it’s true. It happened. That, and the simple fact that the meaning it imparts is just as important to us now as it was to Peter, James and John when they fell on their faces before Him. 

The testimony of Daniel as to what he witnessed:

As I watched:

Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne.

His clothing was bright as snow, and the hair on his head as white as wool; his throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire.

A surging stream of fire flowed out from where he sat; Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him.

The court was convened and the books were opened.

As the visions during the night continued, I saw:

One like a Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven;

When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him,

The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.

The testimony of Peter about what he witnessed:

Beloved:

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,

“This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.

You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Note: The verse from St Paul that I’ve been praying is 1 Corinthians 2:9. The allusion to dew drops that I used refers to Isaiah 45:8. The mass readings are Daniel 7-9: 10, 13-14 and 2 Peter 1: 16-19. You can read an account of the Transfiguration in Matthew 17: 1-8.