“Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep but kept awake, and they saw his glory…” (Catholic edition RSV, Luke 9:32)

Before we leave a place where we have lived but which we shall never see again, we take one farewell look round, and then with that memory in our minds, go on our way.  And Our Blessed Lord did exactly the same thing before he left this earth and returned to his glory in Heaven.  As his ministry in Galilee ended and he prepared to make that last journey to Jerusalem and to Calvary, he first took his Apostles with him to the most northern point of his travels, to Mount Hermon.

Starting from there he was able to traverse the whole length of the country; and so for the last time he passed through the towns and villages of Galilee, down the Jordan Valley, through Jericho and into Jerusalem itself until, on Good Friday, he stumbled the final thousand yards of the Way of Sorrows, and his journey ended at last with his feet fast nailed to the Cross.

It is small wonder, therefore, that as he made his way to Mount Hermon in preparation for that long purposeful journey, the thought of its end scarcely left his mind; and he began to warn his disciples of what was going to happen to him.  “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…and be killed (Catholic edition RSV, Matthew 16:21).

And so a hitherto unknown depression settled on the little group and they fell silent.  Each one’s mind filled now with bewilderment, now with apprehension, but still clinging to the hope that he was speaking in parables, that his words were not to be taken literally and that the apparent danger would pass.

Meanwhile as they made their way steadily north, the great snow-clad mass of Mount Hermon gradually filled the sky ahead until it rose above them.  Then Our Lord, with Peter and James and John, went up alone into that wild, still solitude.  Today it takes six hours to climb to the summit and four to descend (1) and, although they may not have gone so far, it is clear from the Gospel record that it was towards the end of the day when they halted.

And there, in the last absolutely unbroken quiet that he was to enjoy on earth, Jesus gave himself to prayer; and as St Luke tells us, although the three Apostles were heavy with sleep, they kept awake, and thus they saw his glory.  For Jesus suddenly seemed to be filled with light: his hands, his feet, even his seamless robe were bright and radiant, while his face shone with a light that was blinding in its intensity.

For the first and only time in his earthly life he was seen in his glory, a glory that held the three Apostles spellbound.  They were no longer conscious of Mount Hermon now, for they seemed to have been lifted out of this life altogether into a new life of rapture and ecstasy and joy.  This was Heaven, this was the unimaginable reality behind the passing beauty of a thousand sunsets, for this – though they knew it not – this was the glory of him who makes the sun to set; the glory of the true Light, who is the life of men, the Light shining in darkness and enlightening every man, and whose glory is the glory of the only Son of the Father (John 1:1-14).

But soon, too soon, the glory and the rapture passed and the three Apostles were conscious again of the slopes of Hermon and of the cold mountain wind and the first light of dawn as another day began.  And as they came down the mountain Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead” (Catholic edition RSV, Matthew 17:9).

The Transfiguration, coming as it did immediately after Our Lord’s first warning of his Passion and death, was designed to implant in the Apostles’ minds and hearts the certainty that, despised and rejected though he might be of men, he was nevertheless the chosen and beloved of God.  So when, at his journey’s end, they saw his face surmounted with the crown of thorns, and his hands and feet rent with the crucifying nails, and his seamless robe become a gambler’s prize, they would remember how before the journey started, they had been dazzled by the glory of his face and hands and feet and robe.

But the Transfiguration was also intended to prepare them for his Resurrection, when his material body would be raised to the supernatural level and thus become the perfect instrument for him to live that life of eternal glory which he had enjoyed with his Heavenly Father before he became Man, and which they had glimpsed, fleetingly but unforgettably, on Mount Hermon.  And so on Easter Day the Risen Christ told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Catholic edition RSV, Luke 24:26).

In Our Blessed Lord during his earthly life we see the moral perfection of human nature, the ultimate point beyond which no further development is possible because in him there was nothing that fell short of the moral perfection of God himself.

But in the Risen Christ we see also the ultimate perfection of human nature as a whole, beyond which no further development is possible because his whole being, soul and body together, has been raised to the supernatural level of God himself.

There is a widespread but mistaken idea that Christianity makes an essential contrast between what is material and what is spiritual, as though the two were opponents rather than partners.  So the soul is treated in isolation from the body or even, as the pagan philosophers of ancient Greece believed, as the unfortunate prisoner of the body.  Such an idea forms no part of the Christian religion which recognises that it is soul and body together which constitutes the complete human being.

The essential contrast which the Christian religion in general and the New Testament in particular makes is not between the material and the spiritual, between the soul and the body.  Rather, it is the contrast between the natural and the supernatural, between the soul and body as living together at the animal level and the soul and body as indwelt by the Spirit of God and raised together to the Divine level.

It is that latter state which is described in Holy Scripture as glory, that is, the Splendour of the Character and the Presence of God.  As such it is the Christian’s hope and the Christian’s goal, but the initial stages which lead to it begin here and now with that moral and spiritual transformation of the whole person which Christ sets in motion through his Sacraments of Holy Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion.

For Baptism makes it possible for us to share in Christ’s life.  Confirmation bestows on us his Holy Spirit to mould our characters in his own likeness.  And in Communion we receive him in his Risen and Ascended Body so that we, in our unity of body and soul, are made one with the Son of God himself, until that union with him reaches its culmination hereafter in the enjoyment of the splendour of God’s visible Presence and in the resurrection of the dead.

For then each soul will be clothed anew by God with a supernatural body which will be the perfect instrument for that life of eternal glory in Christ to which God has called us (1 Peter 5:10; see also 1 Thessalonians 2:12).

So St Paul compared the present with the future by declaring, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Catholic edition RSV, Romans 8:18, our emphasis).  But significantly he also pointed out that the sincere Christian is already being inwardly transfigured now: “And we all,…beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another…” (Catholic edition RSV, 2 Corinthians 3:18).

As to the fullness of that glory which finally awaits the Christian as a faithful child of God, the transfiguration of the Son of God enables us to catch a glimpse.  More than that we cannot say, except to echo the words of St John the Apostle: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (Catholic edition RSV, 1 John 3:2,3, our emphasis).

Note

According to one tradition the Transfiguration took place on Mount Tabor, and the Church of the Transfiguration is located there.  However, Daniel-Rops points out that Mount Tabor, a round hump in the middle of the Galilean plain, does not match the Gospel description of a “high mountain” and, at the time of Christ, it carried a Roman fortress and garrison.  Moreover, Mark tells us that after coming down from the mountain, Jesus and his disciples went on and passed through Galilee.  Mount Tabor is in the middle of Galilee whereas Mount Hermon is to the north and is much higher.  Luke tells us that Jesus and his disciples did not return from the mountain until the following day, which suggests a long journey on the mountain.  These factors support the belief, evident in this short talk, that Mount Hermon was the site of the Transfiguration. (2)

References

1. Daniel-Rops, H. (translated by Millar, R.W.) (1955) Jesus in his time, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

2. Daniel-Rops, H. (translated by Millar, R.W.) (1955) Jesus in his time, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.