The Transfiguration

On Friday, August 6th, the Church celebrated the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The word “transfiguration” comes from the Latin trans, which mean across, and figurare, which means form or shape. The Transfiguration was the change in appearance of Christ before his disciples.

All three Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – tell the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus led his select disciples, Peter, James and John, up on a high mountain. In the Old Testament, mountains are sacred places where people encounter God. The same is true here. What started as a mountain retreat quickly changed as Jesus was transformed right before the eyes of the disciples. Matthew says that Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and both Matthew and Mark use the word transfigured to describe what happened to Jesus. For this brief time, Jesus took on an appearance more appropriate for the King of Glory than for a humble man.

God’s voice comes from a cloud overshadowing the mountain and He reveals to the disciples that Jesus is His beloved Son. Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets, also appear with Jesus. The appearance of these two Old Testament heroes confirms that Jesus is the fulfillment of both the Law and the prophets.

Inquiring minds want to know: since there weren’t photographs of Old Testament people and not even good written descriptions, how did the disciples know that the men who appeared with Jesus were Elijah and Moses? Scripture doesn’t say. It seems that the disciples just knew. This perhaps illustrates that we will instinctively know each other when we get to heaven.

With remarkable agreement, the three evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke place the event shortly after Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus’ first prediction of his passion and death. One of the Transfiguration accounts is read on the second Sunday of Lent each year, proclaiming Christ’s divinity to catechumens and baptized alike. The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent, by contrast, is the story of the temptation in the desert – affirmation of Jesus’ humanity. The two distinct but inseparable natures of the Lord – his humanity and divinity – are revealed.

The witnessing of the Transfiguration by Peter, James, and John didn’t just involve the changed appearance of Jesus – it changed how they looked at him. Even if they failed to fully understand what we understand today – that Jesus was God become man – they knew that he shared a special connection with God and with the revered Old Testament prophets.