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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 (II 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 Cęsarea 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.
source:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15019a.htm |
