The Transfiguration

Peace be with you.

Friends, it’s a wonderful grace that the Feast of the Transfiguration

this year falls on Sunday.

So we’re going to, as our Sunday readings,

examine this marvelous event from the life of Jesus

that has so captivated the minds of Christians

from the very beginning.

Think of the artists and poets up and down the ages who’ve loved

the scene of the Transfiguration.

But notice, please, the first reading

the Church gives us for today.

It might strike you as curious,

but it’s very apropos.

It’s from the seventh chapter of the book of the prophet Daniel.

Fascinating book by the way.

You can read it in a couple of sittings.

If you’re interested, go to your Old Testament,

find the book of the prophet Daniel.

Well, Daniel Chapter 7 is the account of a vision

that Daniel has of a series of beasts

rising from the sea.

Well, these symbolize a series of kingdoms

that will emerge, worldly kingdoms,

each one giving way, each one being destroyed,

in preparation for a final kingdom,

the kingdom of God.

And at the close of that, then he has this

magnificent vision of the Ancient of Days,

of God sitting on His throne

and then coming on the clouds of heaven.

He says, “One like a Son of Man,”

and to that Son of Man is given power and glory.

So there’s the vision, there’s the prophecy.

How did they read it?

Well, in Jesus’ time,

they read this emergence of the beast

as a succession of four kingdoms.

And so they guessed at the end of that fourth kingdom,

the Messiah, the Son of Man, would emerge.

Well, what were the four kingdoms?

They read them as Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Four worldly kingdoms that oppressed ancient Israel.

The Romans in Jesus’ time were in power.

They were an oppressive force,

and many Jews predicted and hoped for their demise.

Can you see why the messianic fervor was intense

at the time of Jesus? Because they sensed,

“Okay, the fourth kingdom’s upon us.”

And so when Rome falls, the Messiah,

the Son of Man, will come,

and He will be given a throne to rule.

The king is about to assume power.

Now, if you think this is just wild speculation

that had nothing to do with Jesus, think again.

Remember in the accounts of the Passion

—at Jesus’ trial when He’s asked directly,

“Are you the Messiah?”

And they’re expecting this carpenter from Galilee to say,

“No, I’m not the Messiah. I’m not the Messiah.”

What does He say?

“I Am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man

seated at the right hand of the Power,’

and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’”

That’s when they tore their garments.

They knew exactly what He was doing.

He was quoting Daniel chapter 7.

“Yes, I Am. I am the Messiah,

the one predicted to come

at the end of these four kingdoms,

who is now ready to assume in power and glory

my throne to rule the nations.”

That’s how they saw Jesus.

That’s how they began to intuit His importance.

At the end of His life,

that’s when He announces clearly,

“Yes, this is who I Am.”

Now, in light of that, everybody,

take a look again at this story of the Transfiguration,

which has all kinds of overtones and undertones,

and we can look at it from many different standpoints.

Look at it now from this standpoint:

Jesus appears on top of the mountain.

First of all, the mountain, where we go up,

where God comes down.

The mountain is the place of encounter.

A cloud overshadows them.

And then Jesus is transfigured.

The Greek there is literally “metamorphosis.”

He goes beyond the form that He has.

That might be the best way to translate it.

“Meta” means beyond, “morphe” means form.

Metamorphosis is to go beyond the form that you have.

So Jesus on the cloud appears now

in a glorious form. Who’s with Him?

Moses and Elijah. Moses standing for the Law,

Elijah standing for prophecy,

the two great divisions of the Old Testament.

What do both Law and prophecy look toward?

They look toward this fulfillment.

Law, Torah, right?

God’s direction to His people.

But it’s never been followed adequately

until the hope dawned,

the great King who would finally be the obedient

servant of Torah would come.

What did the prophets look forward to?

They looked forward to the coming of this “mashiach,”

this anointed One,

who would fulfill all the promises of Israel.

Do you see now, everybody?

This is like a beautiful icon.

On the cloud, in the glory of His metamorphosis,

accompanied by the Law and prophecy,

Jesus appears.

The King has come; that’s the idea.

“I saw: One like a Son of Man

coming on the clouds of heaven,”

assuming the throne of His authority.

What’s the term that Jesus uses of Himself

over and over again in the New Testament?

“The Son of Man. The Son of Man.

The Son of Man.”

Attentive Jewish listeners would’ve been thinking,

“Daniel 7. Daniel 7.

Daniel 7.”

The Transfiguration is the manifestation even before

the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus’ deepest identity.

Now, notice something else.

What’s the nature of this King who’s come to reign?

Is he human?

Yeah.

And you find that throughout the Old Testament,

the anticipation of a son of David who would rule,

a son of David who’d be the “mashiach,”

the anointed one.

At the same time in the Old Testament,

there’s the keen anticipation that God Himself will come

and shepherd His people.

These wicked shepherds are described in Isaiah

and Ezekiel and so on, and then God says,

“But the day will come when I Myself will shepherd my people.”

Okay, so which is it?

Is the Messiah a son of David, a human figure,

or is he the God of Israel?

Answer: both.

Both.

And where do we see it, everybody?

You see it in this account of the Transfiguration.

Is Jesus’ humanity questioned here?

Not at all.

No, Jesus, whom they know, Jesus their friend.

They go up the mountain together with Him.

But then metamorphosis

—He goes beyond the form He has,

displaying the glory of His divinity.

He’s both divine and human:

His divinity not competing with His humanity,

His humanity not overwhelmed by His divinity,

but rather His humanity becoming translucent

and transfigured and elevated by His divinity.

There He is.

That’s the King.

There He is.

That’s the King.

One coming on the clouds, manifesting His glory,

ready to assume His throne.

What’s the upshot now of all this

for Peter, James, and John and for us?

Okay, we know who the King is.

Let’s get in His army.

Go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible.

Go back to the book of Genesis.

What’s Adam’s task?

Well, he’s tilling the soil of the garden,

that’s true.

But the ancient interpreters read one of his tasks

as a kingly task;

it was now to go on the march and to expand

the beauty and glory of Eden

to the rest of the world.

What’s Israel looking for all throughout its history?

The true King

who would bring the order of God’s kingdom

out now to the wider world

in a way they never quite imagined.

The King has emerged, both divine and human,

the transfigured Lord, the fulfillment of

Daniel Chapter 7.

Just a last thought here.

This is from Thomas Aquinas.

I’ve always loved it.

How come those three figures are there,

Peter, James, and John?

Thomas’ answer:

because Peter’s the one who loved Jesus the most.

Look at Peter, his heart always open.

He loved Jesus the most.

Why is John there?

John’s the one that Jesus loved the most.

He’s the beloved disciple.

Why is James there?

He’s the first of the Apostles to be martyred,

to give his life for Jesus.

What does it mean, everybody,

to join the army of this King?

It means we fall in love with Him.

Like Peter,

we need to love Him with all our hearts.

Like John, we need to allow Him to love us.

That’s an important thing, everybody,

in the spiritual life, I think.

Yes, we should love the Lord.

We hear that all the time.

But to let Him love us.

When Paul says,

“It is no longer I who live,

but it is Christ who lives in me,”

it means he’s allowed Christ to come into his heart.

He’s allowed Christ to love him.

And then like James, we’re an army.

Under the aegis and direction of this King,

we’ve got to be ready to give our lives for Him.

So James, this martyr,

the first martyr among the Apostles.

The intense love for Jesus,

accompanied by a willingness to give

our lives for Him

—we’ll change the world that way.

The point is, we mustn’t think of the

Transfiguration as this kind of one-off event.

“Isn’t that amazing? Jesus manifested His glory.”

Well, yeah, He did, and that’s marvelous,

and we kind of see who He is.

But no, no, much more than that.

He manifested His glory precisely as the King,

anticipated by both Law and prophecy.

He manifested Himself as King who wants an army

of those who love Him

and are willing to give their lives for Him.

That’s why it’s such an important detail that

after the Transfiguration is over,

it’s like the lights have gone out and

Elijah and Moses are gone,

and they’re just there with Jesus.

And then it says just very simply,

“they come back down the mountain.”

It’s like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Once they’ve seen the Lord, what do they do?

They go back to Jerusalem.

They go back to Jerusalem

to join the Eleven, to join the army.

So now these three, having seen what they saw,

having taken in the King,

they now go back down the mountain

to start fighting the good fight.

Where do we experience a Transfiguration?

Every Mass.

Every Mass.

Think of the readings from the Old Testament.

We listen to Law and to prophecy.

Think of now the elevation of the host and of the chalice.

What do we see but the Transfigured Lord?

What do we see but our King?

And then having received Him,

having expressed our love for Him,

having allowed Him to love us,

we are then sent forth:

“Go forth. Go in peace.

The Mass has ended.

Go to love and serve the Lord.”

Become soldiers in the army of the King.

Go, everybody, from Daniel Chapter 7

all the way to the Transfiguration

and see it as the description

of what our spiritual lives are all about:

falling in love with this Transfigured King

and having the courage to fight in His army.

And God bless you.