The Transfiguration of the Lord

Father Dan Juelfs
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
The Transfiguration of the Lord, August 2, 2023

“This is my beloved son. Listen to him.”

We’ve heard that line before. We heard it in the Father’s appearance at the time of Jesus’ baptism, when John the Baptist baptized Jesus into Jordan. The voice came from the cloud. Appeared like a dove and proclaimed that, “this is my beloved son. Listen to him.”

Not only John the Baptist, who identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but it’s also the Father who proclaims that special kind of relationship that Jesus had with himself, with the Father. 

And not only does Jesus have a special relationship with the Father, but, and in this instance on the occasion of the Transfiguration, we find that he appears with Moses and Elijah. Those two special people, if you will. Those two heroes from the Old Testament, at least in the minds of the Jewish people, because they represented God’s presence among them. Moses in terms of the law. God, who gave them the direction that they needed, cared enough about them to help them on their way. Elijah, who was the prophet of all the prophets that God sent. But Elijah was the one who continued to proclaim God’s care for them even when they failed. Even when they wandered off. 

And so, Jesus is associated in — for Peter, James and John — they begin to see the association of Jesus not simply as someone who was a powerful person. Someone who invited them, called them, guided them, directed them, proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to them, but now they hear the Father himself, proclaiming, “this is my beloved son.”

We see that he’s associated with the Old Testament peoples. That Jesus isn’t someone who is somehow separated from. He’s not a new person in that sense. He’s not a new way in which God makes his presence known. Yes, he is, but he’s very much tied in with their history. Very much a part of what they’ve already experienced as Jewish people. What was part of their Jewish tradition. And Jesus is somehow tied in with that. They begin to realize that.

Prior to that the apostle saw Jesus as another man in some sense. A man who ate with them, walked with them, taught them of course about the kingdom of heaven, and occasionally performed miracles. I mean, if you probably look at the time frame, the miracles are a small part of it, but they had experienced somehow the specialness of who Jesus was. 

But this experience of the Transfiguration gives them a whole new picture. A whole new understanding and Peter, as Peter often did, is willing to jump in there and say, “we’ve got to do something about this. Let’s build three tents. Let’s stay here. Let’s be part of this and the Father’s voice proclaiming.” 

What does Jesus do? Well, he says, “let’s go down from the mountain and keep going, but don’t tell anybody about this. Don’t proclaim this message.”

How did we, how did Peter, how would we respond if we had a similar kind of experience, a similar kind of situation? How would we see ourselves? How would we understand it? Obviously, we’re in a different position than Peter and the disciples. We know the rest of the story. We know the reality of the death and the resurrection.

But when Jesus says, “don’t tell anybody until after I’ve risen from the dead,” that had to add to their confusion. That had to make it even more difficult to not tell anybody. It also prepared them for the fact that when he did rise from the dead, they had a context. They had something to look back on and say, “he didn’t tell us that. We didn’t understand it. We didn’t figure it out. But, yes, he did tell us that. It’s not new.”

That as we celebrate our own faith at this point in history, obviously we celebrate it from a different perspective because we know how things ended, but I suspect we’d be just as confused as the disciples. I think we’d have just as much trouble as the disciples trying to wrap our heads around it. 

And yet, all of us at different times in our lives have those experiences of the sense of closeness. A sense of awareness of God’s presence. Something happens. Something’s triggered in us. We realize we’re not alone, and we depend upon those occasions because they help us through the times when we do feel like we’re alone. Help us through those times when we’re not really sure what’s going on? The everyday mundane things of life. They are part of our experience and obviously necessary, but those high point experiences give us the strength to deal with the day-to-day events of our lives.

Like the disciples, Jesus calls us to be faithful. Jesus says, “come on. We’re still going to Jerusalem and just don’t talk about this.” 

Jesus also tells us to rise. To be not afraid. To depend upon those experiences that we have to help us through the downtimes. To help us through the times when we don’t always find it so easy to believe. 

The Transfiguration experience gave the disciples some sense of what was going to happen.  They didn’t know it yet, but when it did happen, they were able to look back and say, “this is what we were seeing.” At least Peter, James, and John. The other disciples didn’t have that same experience, but they knew about it, they heard about it, and yet they still ran away at the crucifixion and they were still surprised when Jesus appeared to them, but they had a context. They had something to work with. 

As we celebrate our faith, this time in history and we celebrate this feast, it’s a reminder to us of all the ways in which God helps make his presence known, and also reminds us of our call to pay attention. Our call to be conscious of those things when they happen in our lives. Our call to be not afraid. To rise up. To follow Jesus.