One can hardly begin to imagine the amazing things that the Apostles, especially the inner trio of Peter, John and James, saw during their time with Our Lord. But if you were to ask which event stood out above the others, the answer might surprise you at first. You might think for St. Peter it would have been the event of the miraculous catch or walking on water, but instead he mentions only one—the Transfiguration. Given nearly three decades to reflect upon it, the Vicar of Christ in his second encyclical still finds it to be the most formative event in His life, describing himself as receiving honor and glory from God the Father when he was an eyewitness of the majesty of Christ on the holy mountain (c.f 2Pt 1:16-19). It is this truly awe-inspiring event on the mount of Transfiguration that the Church invites us to celebrate today.
To set the tone, it is worth mentioning that the Transfiguration is one of the few events in the life of Christ which is found in all three Synoptic Gospels. The Holy Spirit thought that this episode was not only formative in the life of the Apostles but ought also to be for the Christians that were to follow. For each of the mysteries of Christ’s life are recorded within Sacred Scripture not only for our knowledge but as invitations for our participation. The Church reminds us of this invitation by including this feast with the liturgical calendar because, as Pope Pius XII reminds us, although these historical events occurred in the past, “they still influence us because each of the mysteries brings its own special grace for our salvation” (Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 165). It is then the Church’s hope that we will lay hold of the special grace attached to the Transfiguration.
What the Transfiguration Reveals
Grasping what made this experience so monumental for St. Peter will help us to drink more fully of the mystery ourselves. In this single event we find a compendium of Christology. The Transfiguration reveals the fullness of the Person of Christ—true God and true man.
When asked, most Christians would say that Ss. Peter, John and James witnessed His divinity. This is true to a certain extent, but what they saw was the glory of His sacred humanity. A moment’s reflection on the accounts will make this clear. First, their reaction betrays this belief. They are clearly awed by the fact that “His face shone like the sun and His garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2), but they are not at any pains to look away. Instead when the Divine presence is manifested in the cloud, they “fell on their faces” because they know that “man shall not see me and live” (Ex 33:20). It is the word spoken by the Father that reveals Christ’s divinity to them—“This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” (Mt 17:6).
His divinity, according to St. Thomas, was also made known to the Apostles in His power over the living and the dead. Elijah was(and still is) among the living. He has never died and lives within some heavenly realm until his return to defeat the Antichrist as one of the two witnesses (c.f. Rev 11:3-12). Christ had power to summon him. Christ also was the Lord of the dead, able to bring forth Moses from the realm of Abraham’s bosom. It was to preach to them of His Exodus, that is His Passion, Death and Resurrection, that He brought them forth.
One suspects that the profundity of the Transfiguration for Peter was not just because it revealed Christ’s divinity to Him, but because it also put flesh around the divinity. It is the foundation for what has since been explained as the Hypostatic Union. Although it would take the fullness of Christ’s mission and the gift of the Holy Spirit to realize it, the Apostles now knew that this was a man, but no mere man, that was walking around with them.
The Second Person of the Trinity, the “Beloved Son” is God. In the fullness of time, He took to Himself a human nature without setting aside His divine personality. He remained and remains a divine Person that used a human nature (not a human person) as His instrument for our salvation. In the natural course of events, when a body and soul are fused together in conception, a person is formed. But in Christ, the body and soul united to the Second Person of the Trinity so that He supplied the personality. This is why we can accurately say that God became man and not that a man became God.
This uniting of the human nature with the Eternal Word is called the Hypostatic Union. This union means that the body and soul of Christ enjoy special privileges. One of those privileges was the Beatific Vision. This is the direct vision of God that all the blessed in heaven possess; each being able to see all things in their divine relationship. It is a source of constant joy and glory so that this beatitude overflows from the soul into the body, making it shine like the sun. This effect, one of the four qualities of a glorified body, is called Clarity.
It is a miracle that is, a suspension of what naturally happens that the effects of the Beatific Vision did not flow into all the regions and powers of Christ’s soul allowing Him to suffer and sorrow. Otherwise He could not be the “Man of Sorrows.” Likewise it is a miracle that His Glory did not overflow into His body.
The Transfiguration is a result of God “suspending” this miracle so that the natural clarity of Christ’s body shines forth. He suspends this miracle to reveal the other three qualities of the glorified humanity at other points in His public ministry. He shows His natural agility by walking on water, His natural subtlety by passing from Mary’s womb, leaving her virginity intact and His impassibility when He was unharmed by the Jews attempts to stone Him. But because clarity is perceptible to the human eye, the Transfiguration becomes a testimony to the full humanity of Christ. It is the testimony of the fullness of divinity and humanity in this single event that leaves the indelible mark on St. Peter’s mind.
The Transfiguration and Us
The Hypostatic Union plays into this in a second way as well. In Mystici Corporis Christi, Pope Pius XII says “[F]or hardly was He conceived in the womb of the Mother of God, when He began to enjoy the Beatific Vision, and in that vision all the members of His Mystical Body were continually and unceasingly present to Him, and He embraced them with His redeeming love.” (75). It was the Beatific Vision that made each one of us present at the Transfiguration. He performed this miracle then not just for the Apostles, but for each one of us individually. He simply awaits our active participation in this mystery so that He can give to us the graces He has already won.
Like all of His mysteries, there are personal graces to be found for each one of us; graces we discover through personal meditation upon the mystery itself. There are also the more “generic” graces attached to the mystery of the Transfiguration as well. Blessed Columba Marmion articulates a three-fold grace that Christ wants to give us when we ascend the summit of Tabor. The first is the grace of increased faith. We can re-echo the Father’s declaration by proclaiming, “Yes Father that is Your Beloved Son. I believe. Help my unbelief.” Secondly, there is the grace of hope. The Transfiguration reveals to us our destiny. By sharing the Sonship of Christ, we come to share in His blessed reward. Finally, there is the grace of charity won by doing whatever He tells us. The commands of God are always supplemented by the power to fulfill them. And in this regard, the Transfiguration becomes a great source of salvation here and now.