Transfiguration of Jesus

Transfiguration of Christ
August 6, 2006

"I saw one like a Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven..." (Daniel 7: 9-14). "He was transfigured before them." (Mark 9:2-10)

The prophet Daniel has a vision of the "Son of Man" (the term Jesus uses most often in the Gospels to refer to himself) coming to lead the people to their final destiny. These mystical visions are not necessarily to be taken literally. They are a promise that the misery of the present life can be transformed.

Jesus again takes his disciples up on a mountain, where their heavenly Father reveals his true identity. We have from the beginning understood this as one of the defining events in Christ's life, a glimpse into our future with God. The disciples' confidence in Jesus allowed them a brief vision of this divine reality. Then Jesus instructs them not to say anything until the "Son of Man has risen from the dead"! Even they could not understand the full significance of what they had seen and heard. How could they have possibly imagined that they had not only experienced Jesus' future but our own?

The Transfiguration story reveals something beyond the obvious fact that God had something very special in store for Jesus. We might be inclined to do as the disciples wanted, and stay gazing, overwhelmed and in awe at Jesus' special relationship with God. It is clear however that we, like Jesus and the disciples, will have to eventually return from this marvelous vision, without forgetting it, to the every day challenges of the life of faith.

There are wonderful transformations, God being revealed to us, daily if we have the eyes to see and ears to hear them. A courageous friend recently wrote a last sermon to her congregation because of advancing Parkinson's disease. She has lost a daughter, been divorced just this year, and daily works her addiction recovery program. She prays: "God of my emptiness, so often you have used my emptiness to draw me to you. Do so again. It is the emptiness that tells me you are there waiting to complete me. I am suspended in this place, not always able to feel your touch, but knowing by my aching that you can embrace me... I am a woman incomplete".

We all have similar transformations occurring in ourselves and those around us. God is as surely present here as on the mountain of Transfiguration. How different our worlds could be if we saw them all. We will all be transformed into the perfect realization of our potential as daughters and sons of the Most High. The second reading today says it beautifully, "You will do well to be attentive...as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." (II Peter 1: 16 -19)