It's been a busy sort of week, this one. The Rosary has been delayed each day to the evenings, with late nights and early mornings. Just having a quiet evening at the moment, after visiting the hospital again. A poor gentleman, not very old at all, died suddenly and before his family could reach him. So, I went over to read some psalms and the litany of the Saints. It was all rather sad. Death is awful, but we cannot dwell upon it, for much has been promised us about resurrection beyond death. And we get a taste of that in the liturgy of the Church today.
For today is the great memorial day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, when He tried to put heart into his inner circle among the Apostles, Peter, John and James, before the terrible ordeal of his Passion and Death, and gave them an idea of the glory that our human forms (beyond death) can one day have. Today, we commemorate this moment, when Christ appeared to the terrified Apostles to be clothed in light itself. Whiter than white; the evangelists don't even know how to describe the light. The tradition of the Church draws our minds towards the episode in the book of Exodus when Moses, newly descended from the presence of God on the Mountain, has a face so bright that horns of light appear to be emanating from it:
"Moses came down, after this, from Mount Sinai, bearing with him the two tablets on which the law was written; and his face, although he did not know it, was all radiant after the meeting at which he had held speech with God. The sight of that radiance made Aaron and the sons of Israel shrink from all near approach to him." - Exodus, 34: 29-30
I fancy that those Apostles must also have had shiny faces for a while, before they descended to the plain. The ancient Hebrews had a vivid idea of God being clothed in white and the old Psalms must have been rocketing through the minds of the Apostles, even as they watched the figures of Moses and Elijah appear alongside for a quick conference. Take, for example, Psalm 103(104):
"Bless the Lord, my soul; O Lord my God, what magnificence is Thine! Glory and beauty are Thy clothing. The light is a garment Thou dost wrap about Thee, the heavens a curtain Thy hand unfolds." - Psalm 103: 1-2
But Peter said a strange thing, still overcome with wonder at the sight. He said that he would be pleased to build three tents, one for Christ, and two for the two figures in the vision. An interesting idea. The Jews had just been celebrating the festival of Sukkot, or booths, a harvest festival which remembers when the Hebrews were a mostly agricultural people and would camp in booths in the fields during the season, and also when the Hebrews were wanderers in the desert after being freed from Egypt and before the arrival in the Holy Land, so that they would be camping in booths in the wilderness. Peter may have been so entranced by the new revelation of Christ's majesty, that he may have wanted to keep that for longer, that it might remain with the Apostles for a while. Just as the ancient Hebrews had been permitted to retain he presence of God in a tent-like tabernacle in the wilderness. Perhaps Peter could house the figure dressed in light in a tent, together with the Hebrew celebrities, Moses and Elijah. If Christ wanted to strengthen the Apostles' faith before his mistreatment by the Sadducees and the scribes with this vision, the Apostles went overboard in their desire to defend the Man they had seen clothed with light. They would, even now, establish His royal dignity. The following episode in the Gospel of S. Luke is this:
"...He sent messengers before Him, who came into a Samaritan village, to make all in readiness. But the Samaritans refused to receive Him, because His journey was in the direction of Jerusalem. When they found this, two of His disciples, James and John, asked Him, 'Lord, wouldst Thou have us bid fire come down from heaven, and consume them?' But He turned and rebuked them, 'You do not understand,' He said, 'what spirit it is you share.'" - Gospel of S. Luke, 9: 52-55
Only just recently, at Caesarea Philippi, Peter had declared for the first time that Christ was the Son of the living God, and been made the foundation of the Church by Christ. Immediately, He had sought to dissuade Christ from sacrificing Himself in Jerusalem. That was no way to go for a Jewish Messiah:
"...Simon Peter answered, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jona; it is not flesh and blood, it is My Father in heaven that has revealed this to thee. And I tell thee this in My turn, that thou art Peter, and it is upon this rock that I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' Then He strictly forbade them to tell any man that He, Jesus, was the Christ. From that time onwards Jesus began to make it known to His disciples that He must go up to Jerusalem, and there, with much ill usage from the chief priests and elders and scribes, must be put to death, and rise again on the third day. Whereupon Peter, drawing Him to his side, began remonstrating with Him; 'Never, Lord,' he said; 'no such thing shall befall Thee.' At which He turned round and said to Peter, 'Back, Satan; thou art a stone in my path; for these thoughts of thine are man’s, not God’s.'" - Gospel of S. Matthew, 16: 16-23
All of this is connected, you see. Christ shows His followers glimpses of who He is, and seemingly paradoxically tells them that he has to go up to a massive self-sacrifice in Jerusalem. And they cannot see the connection with the Passover; they cannot see that the Messiah was to be not a great military leader and political redeemer of His people, but a sacrificial Lamb and spiritual redeemer of the world. They would see this after the resurrection, and only then would they be permitted to tell the story of the Transfiguration.
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