The Easter of Summer
Year A – Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Matthew 17:1–9: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here!’
1. The Feast of the Transfiguration
The ‘Easter of summer’. On 6 August, we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. This celebration is particularly dear to the Eastern Church, which calls it the ‘Easter of summer’ and counts it among the twelve great feasts of the Byzantine liturgical calendar.
Why precisely 6 August? According to tradition, the Transfiguration of Jesus took place forty days before his crucifixion. Since we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September, the Transfiguration was fixed forty days earlier.
The first fruits of a transfigured universe. While the East has emphasised the importance of this feast, the West has tended to neglect it. Today, there is a growing awareness of the need to rediscover its value. We should also remember that the Transfiguration has been included among the ‘Luminous Mysteries’ of the Rosary. Teilhard de Chardin described it as ‘the most beautiful mystery of Christianity’, because it represents the first fruits of a transfigured universe, a universe that has become ‘Christic’.
The Transfiguration according to the Gospel of Matthew. The three Synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark and Luke — recount this episode in similar terms. The liturgy presents us with Matthew’s version, the Gospel that we hear during this liturgical year, Cycle A.
Where it takes place. The Gospels speak of ‘a mountain’. According to tradition, this is Mount Tabor, which rises alone from the plain of Galilee. Matthew speaks of ‘a high mountain’. We know that, in the Bible, the mountain has a powerful symbolic meaning: it is the place of closeness to and encounter with God. Matthew attaches particular importance to mountains: this would be the fifth of the seven mountains mentioned in his Gospel.
The context of the event. The setting in which this episode takes place appears to be the Jewish Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (Sukkot), which commemorates the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness. During the seven days of the feast, people dwell in shelters. Peter’s proposal — ‘I will put up three shelters here’ — is therefore not a ‘foolish remark’ uttered by a stammering Peter, but expresses his desire to remain in that place and celebrate the feast being observed at that time.
Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. Indeed, at the time of Jesus, the expression ‘Moses and the Prophets’ referred to the whole of Scripture. They are now in dialogue with the definitive Word, Jesus Christ. Both, moreover, are connected with Sinai, also known as Horeb. This ‘high mountain’ thus becomes the new Sinai!
An epiphany of Christ and of the Trinity. Finally, it is clear that this account reveals the glorious Christ and offers a foretaste of the resurrection. Peter, James and John, who would also be privileged witnesses of the Passion, are led by Jesus up the mountain and introduced into the mystery of his person.
It is also a Trinitarian epiphany, similar to that of Jesus’ baptism: the Father makes his voice heard, while the Spirit is revealed through the luminous cloud that overshadows them.
As we can see, this Gospel offers us many themes for meditation and prayer. I shall limit myself to two reflections.
2. The Transfiguration and the ‘meantime’ in which we live
This feast, the ‘Easter of summer’, reminds us that we live in the time of the… ‘meantime’! It is the time of every human being, stretching from birth to death and lived in the hope of attaining a lasting fulfilment: happiness.
The ‘meantime’ is also the time of the believer, lived between two Easters: Christ’s Easter and the one that awaits us at the end of time. The Transfiguration illuminates this ‘meantime’, not in order to abolish it, but to fill it with hope.
Our desire would be to attain immediately the peace, joy, life and happiness of the final age: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here! Let us put up the tents here!’ But no: we must go down into the valley!
What purpose, then, does that vision serve? ‘We climb, we see, we descend. Then we no longer see. But we have seen. There is an art to finding one’s way through the lower regions [of the plain] by remembering what one has seen in the higher regions. When we can no longer see, we can at least still know that there are things above’ (René Daumal, French philosopher and Surrealist poet).
3. The Transfiguration, an epiphany of beauty
Humanity seeks beauty in all its forms. Today, more than ever, people are taking greater care of their bodies, cosmetic procedures are multiplying and concern for the environment is increasing. In contrast with this trend, however, the exploitation of nature, the degradation of certain urban areas and indifference in the face of growing poverty are also increasing.
Is ours a time of ‘transfiguration’ or of… ‘disfiguration’?
On 6 August 1945, the United States dropped on Hiroshima the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare and, three days later, a second bomb on Nagasaki. A considerable part of the Japanese Catholic community lived in Nagasaki, particularly in the district of Urakami. Those bombings tragically contributed to the end of the Second World War and marked the beginning of the atomic age. On the day of the Transfiguration, humanity thus entered the age of the mass ‘disfiguration’ of its fellow human beings, and no one yet knows where this path may lead us.
Jesus, ‘the most beautiful of the sons of men’ (Psalm 44:3), came to reveal true beauty to us. This is not a seductive beauty, but a transfigured and paschal beauty: the beauty of the ‘Good and Beautiful Shepherd’ (John 10:11–18), who lays down his life for the flock.
At times, this beauty is veiled and unrecognisable, like that of the Servant of the Lord, ‘a man of sorrows […] from whom people hide their faces’ (Isaiah 53:3). Only by contemplating the beauty of crucified love can we, in our turn, be transfigured and become witnesses to true beauty, the beauty that will transfigure the world.
For reflection and prayer
Let us reflect more deeply on this extraordinary affirmation of Saint Paul:
‘And all of us, with unveiled faces, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image, from glory to glory, through the action of the Spirit of the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Grace to ask for:
‘Let me see your face’ (Psalm 27).
‘Show me your glory’ (Exodus 33:18–23).
Fr Manuel João Pereira Correia, MCCJ
Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
