The Transfiguration of the Lord

On a high mountain — tradition says Tabor — Jesus took Peter, James, and John apart and was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light, and Moses and Elijah appeared, speaking with him about his coming death in Jerusalem. Peter, overwhelmed, offered to build three tents. Then a cloud overshadowed them and a voice said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

The Transfiguration is a hinge in the Gospels: it occurs just after Peter's confession and Jesus' first prediction of the Passion, and just before the journey to Jerusalem begins in earnest. For a moment the veil is lifted and the disciples see who Jesus truly is — not despite the Cross but because of it. The glory they glimpse is the glory that awaits on the other side of suffering.

The feast on August 6 was extended to the universal Church in 1457 to commemorate the Christian victory at Belgrade. But its deeper meaning is for every believer: that the ordinary — a human face, common clothing, a mountain walk — can become radiant with the divine. The Transfiguration promises that what happened to Christ on Tabor will happen to all who follow him through death into life.