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WE BECAME EYE-WITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY AS HE RECEIVED HONOR AND GLORY FROM GOD THE FATHER. The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event that reflects all the mysteries of Christ and of our salvation. The Evangelists came to realize this only after the resurrection when they were more fully enlightened by the divine light of the Spirit so that they could properly appreciate the significance of the light shining on the face of Christ on the holy mountain. Teilhard de Chardin stated the case quite explicitly when he wrote that "This beautiful day of the Transfiguration: the symbol of all that I believe and of all that I love (cf. Dictionaire de Spiritualité 15 s.v. Transfiguration, 1160)." That the Lord Jesus is truly the beloved Son of the eternal Father and at the same time truly man is affirmed explicitly here. "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." The Holy Spirit too attests to his divinity in the form of the luminous cloud that overshadows him, as he had overshadowed Mary when the Lord was conceived in her womb. The presence of Moses the man who is the figure of the Law and of Elijah the greatest of the early prophets in subordinate roles as they speak with the glorified Lord, witnesses to him as the one who fulfills and surpasses the revelation given through them. The subject of their converse with Jesus is his coming passion and death, seen within the setting of the divine glory that transfuses his whole person, thus prefiguring the coming resurrection.

Accordingly, it is not surprising that this mystery of our Lord's transfiguration was commemorated already in the fourth century in the Armenian liturgy. It soon came into striking prominence in the spirituality of monks dedicated to the contemplative life. The oldest extant representation of this event dates from the sixth century and is found in the apse of St. Catherine Monastery in the Sinai peninsula where monks have lived continuously throughout the intervening years to the present. In the West too it was in the monastic setting of Cluny that awareness of the significance of this mystery grew increasingly prominent and led to the introduction of the Feast in the Benedictine liturgy.

But if this celebration has spread throughout the Western as well as the Eastern Church to be commemorated by all the faithful, it is because each of us has Christ as the one Savior by whose death and resurrection, prefigured here, we have the firm hope of salvation. However much the way of life of individual Christians may differ, all of us are destined for the same final goal of contemplating the glory of God manifested in the risen humanity of his beloved Son, Jesus. That silence and a measure of solitude prepare our minds and hearts for such contemplation is a part of the lesson taught here, for Matthew introduces his account by recounting that Jesus took his three chosen companions apart from the others and the high mountain they ascended separated them from the bustle and noise of the populated plain. Especially to be noted as well is that the transfiguration took place while Jesus was engaged in prayer. St. John Damascene commented on this feature in the following terms.

"Aside", "for prayer" For silence is the mother of prayer and prayer is the manifestation of the divine glory. For, when we shall have closed the door of our senses and have found ourselves with ourselves and with God, and are liberated from what transpires in the exterior world, we shall have entered into ourselves and we will see the kingdom of God clearly in ourselves ( PG 96: 561 A, B cf. Feraudy "L'Icône de la Transfiguration", pp. 166, 167) .

Jesus by his transfiguration, he adds, shows that prayer is the path by which we mount to God and makes the divine glory present. Where God's glory is present it is active and creative. The Transfiguration is a revelation of that luminous spiritual power that emanates from our living and glorified Savior and which is offered to each of us who open our hearts and minds to him in ardent prayer. The energy proceeding from his person penetrates into the depths of our spirit and achieves, day by day, that transformation which renders us increasingly acceptable to the Father for it makes us resemble his son more and more. On this Feast of the Transfiguration then, let us resolve to open our most intimate self to the action of this transforming function of the glorified Lord Jesus. The same person who appeared in glory on Mt. Tabor to his chosen disciples is present here among us in his words, in the witness of the Father's declaration comes to us on this altar and in the Eucharist. May we receive him with lively faith and the firm resolve to follow where this divine inner guide leads us until we too are transfigured into children of light.

Abbot John Eudes Bamberger

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