This Sunday, August 6, the Church celebrates a special event in the life of Jesus and some of his Apostles: the Transfiguration. The story goes that Jesus took three of His Apostles and closest friends, Peter, James, and John, up a mountain to pray. Soon they see Jesus in a new and wholly awesome state! He is described in Matthew’s Gospel as having a face that “shone like the sun,” His clothing “became white as light,” and He is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah. All pretty incredible stuff!
However, I think what stands out to me most in this story is the human side of it. Sure, this moment appears to be one in which Jesus allows His divinity to shine through, both in its sensory brilliance and in its existence outside of space and time. And while this is certainly amazing and awe-inspiring, it is clear that Jesus is doing this for a reason, and it would seem to me a very human reason: so that his friends can understand a little more fully who He is.
In His Transfiguration, Jesus allows His friends to see Him as He will be after the resurrection and when He is seated at the right hand of the Father. To use some modern language, He allows a moment of vulnerability in their midst. And He does so, as He does all things, out of great love for, and a desire to be known by humanity. Finally, the whole event is capped off by the Father speaking to Jesus’ friends, asserting more clearly than ever who Jesus is: He is God’s Son with whom the Father is well pleased.
At the end of Matthew’s version of the story, which we will hear Sunday, Jesus says to the three Apostles with Him: “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” In that moment of the Resurrection, when Jesus is risen and is in all of His glory once again, these three Apostles and friends of Jesus will understand fully what they were privileged to see before. And St. Peter will indeed tell of it, which we hear in Sunday’s second reading, when he says, “We had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.”
As we celebrate this great event in Jesus’ life and the life of his friends, let us remember that Jesus also calls us His friends. While you and I may not have been on that mountain, we are eyewitnesses to His majesty in so many other ways. Jesus continues to reveal His divinity in our world, in the people around us, in His Church, and in the Sacraments. And so, let us pray that our hearts may be open to seeing Jesus’ majesty still visible in the places where we work, live, and worship, for God is still doing incredible things in our midst, to this very day.
Fr. Craig Irwin, OSFS
Associate Pastor
Gesu Catholic Church, Toledo, OH
