Feast of the Transfiguration
In Galilee, where Jesus’ public ministry took place, there are many beautiful rolling hills, but one mountain stands above them all: Mt. Tabor. From the earliest centuries of Christianity, Mt. Tabor was believed to have been the site where Jesus’ Transfiguration took place.
Matthew, Mark and Luke describe this event with remarkable agreement. To understand it, it’s important to consider what happened before, but also what would follow. What happened a week before was the occasion in which Jesus presented a question to his disciples: Who do the people say that I am? Then, more importantly, Who do you say that I am?
As we know, it was Peter, who was given divine insight, prompting him to answer: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus gave Peter a gold star—as well as keys to the kingdom—but then nuanced this truth, by saying that even though he was Son of the living God, suffering and death were in his not too distant future. Jesus’ Transfiguration is sandwiched by death: his foretelling of it, but then also its occurrence.
Knowing that his death would shake his disciples, Jesus brought his inner-circle—Peter, James and John—to the mountain, to give them a fleeting glimpse of just what would enable him to transcend the suffering and death that was soon to come.
They hadn’t a clue what was coming. Suddenly, Jesus’ face and clothes became white like light. A cloud emerged, accompanied by a voice that must have been like the sound of thunder. In imagining that scene, it's hard not to think of Moses’ experience, as described in chapter 24 of Exodus, where God called him to the top of Mount Sinai, while the people of Israel remained at the bottom of the mountain. At a certain point, a cloud engulfed the top of the mountain and Moses himself. It’s said that “to the Israelites the glory of the LORD was seen as a consuming fire on top of the mountain” (Ex 24:17). Like the fire within the cloud on Mt. Sinai, light was not so much shining upon Jesus, as much as it was radiating like fire from within. Peter, James and John beheld Jesus in his divinity.
As our Catechism says it: “For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory, confirming Peter's confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the way of the cross at Jerusalem in order to "enter into his glory’" (CCC, 555).
We don’t know exactly the date that the Transfiguration occurred, but the Church has celebrated it on August 6th at least as far back as 1456. So, it’s interesting that another inexplicable phenomenon occurred on this date in 1945—the bombing of Hiroshima—another moment in which a powerful and transformative light emerged from above.
A Jesuit priest by the name of Pedro Arrupe, living in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, described his experience. After the blinding light had subsided, he could have frozen in place from the shock of it all, but he acted, utilizing his medical training, attending to the overwhelming number of dying and injured.
The next morning, he and his fellow religious stopped to celebrate Mass. With them were the wounded and misplaced people whom he had picked up along the way. Arrupe describes this experience: “Assuredly, it was in such moments of tragedy that we felt God most near to us. It is at such moments one feels in need of supernatural assistance. The external surroundings in which the Holy Sacrifice was being offered were not such as might promote sensible devotion. In turning around to say ‘Dominus vobiscum’, I saw before my eyes many wounded, suffering terribly.
“While reading the Epistle and the Gospel, I had to be careful not to touch with my feet the children that lay so close to me. They wanted to see closely this stranger who was wearing such odd clothing and performing those ceremonies they had never seen before. In spite of it all, I do not think I have ever said Mass with such devotion.”
Fr. Arrupe died in 1991. His account is both beautiful and horrible. The Transfiguration of the Lord, especially as it’s sandwiched with death, is also both beautiful and horrible. But in this, as Jesus intended to reveal to his disciples, death is not the end. The glimpse of glory he revealed in his Transfiguration, would be the glory that would be revealed most fully in his Resurrection. Suffering and the glory to follow are inextricably linked—not just for Jesus, but also for you and me.
As Jesus said to his disciples just before his Transfiguration: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:24-25). Do you believe him? If the answer is “I don’t know”, then consider what you could do to strengthen your faith. If the answer is “Yes”, then demonstrate your living faith. Show, by your witness, by overcoming the stronghold of sin, that the glory that comes through Jesus’ cross is stronger than death.