Each August we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The apostles Peter, James and John, see the praying Jesus’ appearance shine forth with the glory of God. Then they see Moses and the prophet Elijah conversing with Him. Finally, they hear the voice of the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.”
As many have pointed out, Moses and Elijah represent the testimony of the Law and the prophets to Jesus as Messiah, as the one who would fulfill God’s promises. He will bring a new covenant, not written on tablets of stone, as was the old covenant, but one written on people’s hearts. As the first reading from Daniel tells us, there will be “one like a Son of Man” (a human being), who will receive “dominion, glory and kingship; all nations and peoples of every language serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion…” (7:13-14).
Jesus is that Son of Man. But He is also the Son of God, who, as St. Paul tells us, emptied Himself to become one with us. His reign will begin on the cross as He offers Himself for us in a great act of love. Like the father and mother who shielded their baby from the hateful gunman in El Paso, He gave His life that we might live.
That is the point of what the Father tells the three apostles: “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” They didn’t want to listen to Jesus’ words that He must “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). They were interested in glory and power, not in His call that “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For anyone who wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” (Luke 9:23-25). It was all too much for them and so “They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.” Only after the Resurrection did they tell others, as we hear in the Second Letter of Peter.
How willing are we to follow Jesus, knowing that there is a cost to discipleship?
This is what the Mass and the Eucharist are all about. They are the grace-filled way to transform us after the image of Christ, to make us true sons and daughters of the Father. We listen to the Word so that we might come to know and put on the mind of Christ. Like the apostles, we are both challenged and comforted by what we hear. We offer ourselves, with the bread and the wine, that we might be transformed into true followers of Christ. We gather around the table of the Lord, knowing that He calls us not servants but friends, and nourishes us with His very self. We pray in the Our Father that we might forgive others, not just that God might forgive us, but in order that we might become reconcilers, exchanging peace not just with those around us in church, but bringing peace into our families, workplaces, community, nation and world. We receive the Eucharist that we might become the Body of Christ at work in the world. Strengthened by this holy nourishment, we are sent forth to bring the Gospel out into the world, “glorifying the Lord by our lives.”
That is the transfiguration to which we are called.
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is parochial vicar at St. Peter Church in Charlotte.