Meditation On The Transfiguration
In celebration of today's Feast of the Transfiguration, here is a friar's reflection on the Transfiguration found in St. Anthony's Messenger.
Connecting to Jesus’ Glory
To set the scene for this mystery, we see Jesus inviting Peter, James and John to withdraw with him from the busy plain of everyday life and come to a place apart—to a high mountaintop. Pope John Paul II calls the Transfiguration “the mystery of light par excellence,” presumably because during this exalted event, the glory of Jesus’ divine nature glowed brilliantly through his humanity, totally transfiguring Jesus: “[H]is face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2).
The event dramatically reminds us that Jesus is truly divine as well as human. The glory of Jesus’ divine nature is usually hidden by his humanity. But now God’s voice from the cloud proclaims the full meaning of Christ: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
Writing about the Transfiguration in his apostolic exhortation, The Consecrated Life, Pope John Paul II offers this reflection: “The Transfiguration is not only the revelation of Christ’s glory but also a preparation for facing Christ’s cross. It involves both ‘going up the mountain’ and ‘coming down the mountain.’
“The disciples who have enjoyed this intimacy with the Master—surrounded by the splendor of the Trinitarian life and of the communion of saints and, as it were, caught up on the horizon of eternity—are immediately brought back to daily reality, where they see ‘Jesus only,’ in the lowliness of his human nature. And we are invited to return to the valley, to share with him the toil of God’s plan and to set off courageously on the way of the cross” (#14).
Application to my life today: Even if we feel crushed, oppressed or dehumanized, it’s consoling to know that nothing can really separate us from God’s glory. By clinging to God in trust and prayer, we, the branches, remain one with the Vine (John 15:5), sharing in the divine life.
Connecting to Jesus’ Glory
To set the scene for this mystery, we see Jesus inviting Peter, James and John to withdraw with him from the busy plain of everyday life and come to a place apart—to a high mountaintop. Pope John Paul II calls the Transfiguration “the mystery of light par excellence,” presumably because during this exalted event, the glory of Jesus’ divine nature glowed brilliantly through his humanity, totally transfiguring Jesus: “[H]is face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light” (Matthew 17:2).
The event dramatically reminds us that Jesus is truly divine as well as human. The glory of Jesus’ divine nature is usually hidden by his humanity. But now God’s voice from the cloud proclaims the full meaning of Christ: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
Writing about the Transfiguration in his apostolic exhortation, The Consecrated Life, Pope John Paul II offers this reflection: “The Transfiguration is not only the revelation of Christ’s glory but also a preparation for facing Christ’s cross. It involves both ‘going up the mountain’ and ‘coming down the mountain.’
“The disciples who have enjoyed this intimacy with the Master—surrounded by the splendor of the Trinitarian life and of the communion of saints and, as it were, caught up on the horizon of eternity—are immediately brought back to daily reality, where they see ‘Jesus only,’ in the lowliness of his human nature. And we are invited to return to the valley, to share with him the toil of God’s plan and to set off courageously on the way of the cross” (#14).
Application to my life today: Even if we feel crushed, oppressed or dehumanized, it’s consoling to know that nothing can really separate us from God’s glory. By clinging to God in trust and prayer, we, the branches, remain one with the Vine (John 15:5), sharing in the divine life.
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