This weekend by a coincidence, the feast day of the Transfiguration falls on the Sunday and, being a feast, ranks with the Sunday and is able to ride over the Sunday, filling our churches with white, a colour that is vividly described in the gospels by the men who heard first-hand descriptions (from the Apostles Ss. Peter, James and John) of Christ dressed in light. Dressed in light! There’s a psalm about that…
“Bless the Lord, my soul;
Psalm 103(104): 1-3 [link]
O Lord my God, what magnificence is Thine!
Glory and beauty are Thy clothing.
The light is a garment Thou dost wrap about Thee,
the heavens a curtain Thy hand unfolds.
The waters of heaven are Thy ante-chamber, the clouds Thy chariot;
on the wings of the wind Thou dost come and go.”
As we see in our second reading this Sunday S. Peter, who was charged with the other two Apostles to not reveal this vision until after the Resurrection, was eloquent in his description of it: as a lamp in some darkened room. ‘When I am gone,’ he wrote to the early Church, ‘you will remember what I have said…’ Take it away, Peter…
“And I will see to it that, when I am gone, you shall always be able to remember what I have been saying. We were not crediting fables of man’s invention, when we preached to you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about His coming; we had been eye-witnesses of His exaltation. Such honour, such glory was bestowed on Him by God the Father, that a Voice came to Him out of the splendour which dazzles human eyes; ‘This,’ it said, ‘is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; to Him, then, listen.’ We, His companions on the holy mountain, heard that voice coming from heaven, and now the word of the prophets gives us more confidence than ever. It is with good reason that you are paying so much attention to that word; it will go on shining, like a lamp in some darkened room, until the dawn breaks, and the day-star rises in your hearts.”
II Peter 1: 15: 19 [link]
And what about the other two Apostles? What had they to say? James, the first of the Apostles to be killed didn’t write anything we have preserved, but John wrote us another gospel, notoriously missing out this crucial story from it, the story of the Transfiguration. But, he did write a nice long letter which we have preserved. And it begins like this…
“Our message concerns that Word, Who is life; what He was from the first, what we have heard about Him, what our own eyes have seen of Him; what it was that met our gaze, and the touch of our hands. Yes, Life dawned; and it is as eye-witnesses that we give you news of that Life, that eternal Life, Which ever abode with the Father and has dawned, now, on us…”
I John 1: 1-2 [link]
It’s all about light and light dawning on darkened minds. The picture above this article is a stylisation of the Transfiguration event, with the transfigured Christ surrounded by the figures of Moses holding the Ten Commandments (a summary of the Hebrew Law) and Elijah holding a scroll of prophecy. Long ago, Christ not yet in the form of man had given the Law to Moses and he had given the words of the prophecies through men like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Although Elijah himself left no writings, in the Jewish mind he represented all the prophets. The word of God in the Ten Commandments was supposed to draw men and women into a union of hearts with God: to enlighten minds. The prophecies had two functions: to call people back to the observance of the Law (and so into a union of hearts with God), and to foretell the coming of a new breakthrough. A new light, that would bring the darkness to an end. The prophet Ezekiel foretold wonderfully that God Himself would arrive as a shepherd to guide His people…
“…but now I mean to protect this flock of Mine against your greed, give beast redress against its fellow.… They shall have a single shepherd to tend all of them now; who should tend them but My servant David? He shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, now that he rules them on earth; such is My divine promise to them. Such a covenant I will make as shall grant them security; beasts of prey there shall be none, safe resting, now, in the desert, safe sleeping in the woods; on My hill-sides they shall dwell, a blessed people in a blessed home, rain in its season fall on them, and blessings all the while.”
Ezekiel, 34: 22-26 [link]
And that is the meaning of the Transfiguration event. Behold, God has arrived, clothed in light. He is both the Good Shepherd of Ezekiel and the Son of David of the prophecy, to rule us upon earth. In the transfigured Christ, the Jewish Messiah is revealed to the startled Apostles as the fulfilment of Law and Prophecy.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 