Today is the 6th of August, the day on
which the Church remembers the transfiguration of Jesus. Since it is a feast of
the Lord, according to the liturgical norms, it is more important than a Sunday
in Ordinary Time. So, today, instead of celebrating the usual Sunday liturgy,
we celebrate the liturgy of the transfiguration of the Lord.
Admittedly, we commemorate this event every
year on the second Sunday of Lent. On that occasion, we consider the transfiguration
like a kind of foretaste, at the beginning of Lent, of Christ’s resurrection.
Actually, after predicting for the first time his passion, Jesus, by showing
his glory to his disciples, wants to prepare them to face that trial. But maybe
there are also other meanings in this event, that during Lent could escape our
notice. So, we have today the opportunity to consider this mystery regardless
of its undeniable reference to the passion and resurrection of Christ.
If we take the gospel and go to read the last
verse before today’s passage, we find Jesus making the following statement:
“Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16:28). The
transfiguration takes place six days after this prediction. Well, according to some
Fathers of the Church, the transfiguration would be the fulfillment of that
prediction; it would be the taking possession of the kingdom on the part of
Jesus. And some of those standing there—i.e. Peter, James and John—were present.
We find a confirmation to this interpretation in the second reading. Let us
make a digression. The transfiguration is narrated not only by the three
synoptic gospels; there is a reference to it even in the second letter of
Peter, who had been an eyewitness to the event. It is interesting to notice
that Peter does not mention other events (e.g. the resurrection); he refers
only to the transfiguration. It means that it was a very important event in the
life of Jesus and in his personal experience. Well, Peter says in his letter:
“He—Jesus—received honor and glory from God the Father.” You see? The
transfiguration was a glorification; we could say, it was a kind of
enthronement, as if at that moment his kingdom were inaugurated. So, the
apostles on Mount Tabor “see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
But, at the same time, the transfiguration is a
prophecy of Christ’s second coming—the so-called parousia. Even this
aspect is present in the second reading. You have heard what Peter says at the
beginning of today’s selection: “We made known to you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” Where we read the word “coming,” in the original Greek
text we exactly find the term parousia. So, Peter is speaking of the
final coming of Jesus in his glory, and makes reference to the transfiguration.
Evidently, for him the transfiguration is somehow a foretaste of the parousia.
At the end of the age Christ, as we say in the Creed, “will come again in
glory—with the glory he received on the day of his transfiguration—to judge the
living and the dead.”
But there is another aspect that strikes us in
the second reading. The three apostles were “eyewitnesses (literally,
“spectators”) of his majesty.” In Matthew’s gospel, their experience is
considered a “vision” (v. 9). John, who was one of the three eyewitnesses, says
at the beginning of his gospel, “And we saw his glory (et vidimus gloriam
eius), the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (Jn
1:14). And yet Peter, in his letter, does not linger on what they saw, but on what
they heard: “This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” And
straight after, he adds: “We ourselves heard this voice (et hanc vocem nos
audivimus) come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.”
Why such a stress on hearing, rather than on seeing? Maybe, if he had said,
like John, “We saw,” someone could have dismissed them, saying that they had
hallucinations. It is more difficult to be mistaken in hearing: “We ourselves
heard this voice come from heaven.” And we have to be grateful to them for
their witness. Our faith is based not on “cleverly devised myths,” but on the
testimony of those who saw with their eyes and heard with their ears. The
gospel is not a fable, but a report of historical events. It is thanks to the
apostles that we know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, his beloved.
Q
