feast day: August 6
about:
- other names: The Transfiguration of Jesus; The Transfiguration of the Lord; The Transfiguration of Christ
- location of the Transfiguration: Mount Thabor
- The brightness was not something added to Christ but the manifestation of His true divine nature.
- For Peter, James, and John, it was also a glimpse of the glories of heaven and of the resurrected body promised to all Christians. As Christ was transfigured, two others appeared with Him: Moses, representing the Old Testament Law, and Elijah, representing the prophets. Thus Christ, Who stood between the two and spoke with them, appeared to the disciples as the fulfillment of both the Law and the prophets.
- At Christ's baptism in the Jordan, the voice of God the Father was heard to proclaim that "This is my beloved Son" (Matthew 3:17). During the Transfiguration, God the Father pronounced the same words (Matthew 17:5).
- Despite the importance of this event, the Feast of the Transfiguration was not among the earliest of the Christian feasts. It was celebrated in Asia starting in the fourth or fifth century and spread throughout the Christian East in the centuries following. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that it wasn't commonly celebrated in the West until the tenth century. Pope Callixtus III elevated the Transfiguration to a feast of the universal Church and established August 6 as the date of its celebration.
- The Transfiguration of Christ is the culminating point of His public life, as His Baptism is its starting point, and His Ascension its end.
- Moreover, this glorious event has been related in detail by St. Matthew (17:1-6), St. Mark (9:1-8), and St. Luke (9:28-36), while St. Peter (2 Peter 1:16-18) and St. John (1:14), two of the privileged witnesses, make allusion to it.
- About a week after His sojourn in Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them to a high mountain apart, where He was transfigured before their ravished eyes. St. Matthew and St. Mark express this phenomenon by the word metemorphothe, which the Vulgate renders transfiguratus est. The Synoptics explain the true meaning of the word by adding "his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow," according to the Vulgate, or "as light," according to the Greek text.
- This dazzling brightness which emanated from His whole Body was produced by an interior shining of His Divinity. False Judaism had rejected the Messias, and now true Judaism, represented by Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets, recognized and adored Him, while for the second time God the Father proclaimed Him His only-begotten and well-loved Son. By this glorious manifestation the Divine Master, who had just foretold His Passion to the Apostles (Matthew 16:21), and who spoke with Moses and Elias of the trials which awaited Him at Jerusalem, strengthened the faith of his three friends and prepared them for the terrible struggle of which they were to be witnesses in Gethsemani, by giving them a foretaste of the glory and heavenly delights to which we attain by suffering.
link:
- "Transfiguration" (Catholic Encyclopedia):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15019a.htm
- "The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ" (About Catholicism):
http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Transfiguration.htm
- "Transfiguration of Jesus" (Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus