“There in their presence he was transfigured”

Icons are themselves signs; outward signs of something much deeper, something indescribable in ordinary language. Iconographers are said to write an icon not paint it. This icon of the Transfiguration is leading us into the mystery of the Incarnation, of that moment when the glory of God was glimpsed in the human person of Jesus. A strengthening moment for Peter, James and John who soon would witness the same Jesus writhing in torment and anguish in the Garden and on the Cross. A confirming moment for Jesus who knew that his revolutionary teaching on love and on the Kingdom was putting him outside the pale as far as the Jewish leaders were concerned. Soon they will say: “He must die.” The Transfiguration and Crucifixion of Jesus reflect the same mystery, the mystery of God sharing our humanity.

Something similar happens in our own lives. God reaffirms his love for us constantly; he lets us know that despite what we are feeling, we too are his beloved sons and daughters. Sometimes he lets us have a glimpse of his glory in ordinary, unspectacular events, in non-celebrity like people. When Jesus took the apostles up the mountain they were not expecting anything extraordinary, they may have gone there quite often to get away from the crowd or to pray, but the ordinary becomes extraordinary, Jesus was transfigured and their lives were changed.

The Incarnation means that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Here we catch a glimpse of that divinity; the love of the Father filled him to such an extent that he could not contain it. When we are at our most human, most open to the Father’s love, he will take over. But this scene is redolent of another, which the Apostles are yet to experience, the agony of Jesus in the Garden as he struggles to do the Father’s will, when darkness and suffering envelopes him. Jesus and the apostles needed this moment of Transfiguration to face up to that time of suffering, and so do we. Perhaps even by this second Sunday of Lent the darkness has come down and we need to go aside with Jesus, stay still in the Father’s presence, and let him speak to us.

And although I shall travel by night
And see only by the light of faith,
Descend on my soul now,
Like a river in peace,
To take away my uncertainties,
My fear of the dark.
(St John of the Cross)

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