Rarely does a feast take the place of the regular Sunday liturgy as is the case with the feast of the Transfiguration today. Normally, if a feast or even some solemnities fall on a Sunday, they are moved to the next day. Liturgical laws, however, prescribe that when a feast celebrating particular events in the life of the Lord falls on a Sunday, that feast displaces the observance in the ordinary calendar. Such feasts as Christmas, the Exaltation of the Cross, and today’s feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord take precedence over the Sunday of Ordinary Time. Hence, this Sunday, August 6th, we’re skipping the readings and liturgy of the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time to focus on this important revelation of the glory of the Lord experienced by the apostles, Peter, James and John.
Tradition holds that the transfiguration took place at Mount Tabor; hence, the Eastern Church calls this festival—Taborion, based on the Psalmist’s mention of Mount Tabor in Psalm 89:12, “Tabor and Hermon will exult your name.” However, given the timing of the event—right after Peter’s profession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, which is in the north where Mount Hermon is located—some scholars posit that the event took place at Hermon rather than Tabor. More so, Mount Hermon, which is 9,200 feet high with eternal snows seemed more apropos for this event than Tabor which is no more than 1,000 feet high and located in the south: meaning that it would have taken several days to arrive to it from Caesarea Philippi on foot, apart from Tabor not being in the direction of Jerusalem where He was headed. In any case, the transfiguration has connections with other Old Testament mountain experiences—particularly, the giving of the law to Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 24), and the end of the great drought (I Kings 18). The presence of Moses at the transfiguration reveals that Jesus fulfils the law, the giving of which caused the mountain to be covered with the cloud of the Shekinah—glory of God. Both Moses and Jesus had their faces shine brightly, leaving both the people who went up the mountain with Moses and the three apostles of Jesus in awe of what they had seen.
Elijah was another person who climbed to the Mountain of the Lord—Carmel, from where the divine contest with the prophets of Baal took place, and a cloud brought about the end of the great drought (I Kings 18:45). The presence of the greatest of Israel’s prophets at the transfiguration was also emblematic of the passage of the baton of divine restoration from Elijah to Jesus, in order to end finally the great harlotry with sin and the drought of divine mercy.
The cloud that appeared to Moses and Elijah came with thunder and lightening, scaring the people and making them tremble at such nebulous and mysterious experience. In the transfiguration, the manifestation of the glory of Jesus, the appearance of the cloud, and the voice are signs of the arrival of the times of the Messiah. According to Danielou, one of the qualities of this messianic times was the dwelling of the just in the tents—signified by the huts normally erected during the Feast of the Tabernacles. The prophet Daniel had centuries earlier announced the coming of One like a Son of Man on the clouds of heaven who would receive dominion, glory, and kingship. Peter would later testify: “With our own eyes we saw his glory, when the voice came to him from the Supreme Glory, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am pleased!’ We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Pet 1:16-18). Peter and the two other apostles were content at this luminous event with remaining there forever. Even with no equipment, they wanted to embark on a tent-making project just for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. No wonder He is depicted in Christian art as heaven’s gatekeeper who always stands outside. But if these men saw only a vision of the likeness of the glory heaven, imagine how much more awe-inspiring would heaven be!
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo