Transfiguration of the Lord

Biography

Later it was celebrated in the Syriac, Byzantine and Coptic rites. In the act of the Transfiguration, the Lord wants to prepare the hearts of his disciples to overcome the scandal of the cross. But this feast is also an announcement of the wonderful adoption that makes us children of God in Jesus Christ and of the radiance with which one day the entire body of the Church will shine. Jesus had spoken to his disciples of his imminent Passion and Death. And so that they would not waver in their faith, he invited three of them, Peter, James and John, to climb with him to Mount Tabor, precisely the three who would see his agony in Gethsemane. On Tabor the Lord showed them his glory and splendor, while Moses and Elijah appeared speaking with Jesus. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. A cloud formed and covered them, and a voice came out of it, saying: "THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I HAVE ALL MY PLEASURE. LISTEN TO HIM." This voice would comfort them at the time of trial. The voice of the Father is urgent. If Jesus is the Beloved in whom he has all his pleasures, it means that the Father will only be pleased in us as long as we resemble Jesus, as we imitate him, as we reflect his image, and reproduce his gestures and words. The Father will only be pleased with us if we listen to Jesus, who is his Word, whom he has named heir of everything, and is the reflection of his glory. Some Holy Fathers provide a curious interpretation of the Transfiguration. Jesus, they say, was always transfigured, his Divinity always radiated through the envelope of human nature, his face was always resplendent - "that luminous halo that the holiest souls give off" - but the disciples, entangled in problems of preeminence, engrossed in small details, mixed among the crowds, entertained in small things, could not glimpse the brilliance of Jesus' face. It was enough for them to leave the thickness of the valley, to climb the mountain, to put aside their minuscule worries, to purify their eyes, to look more closely, without hindrance, at the face of Jesus, for them to discover the brilliance of his gaze, the always radiant face of Jesus. An author says that, if man looked frequently at the sky, wings would end up growing. GOD GAVE US THE EYES TO LOOK ABOVE.