Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration

Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration

Aug. 6, 2022
2 Pet 1: 16-19
Luke 9: 28-36
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

(by Bellini)

“We possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable” (2 Pet 1: 19). 

Not only Peter and the earliest disciples of Jesus possess the prophetic message.  So do all who hear and receive the apostolic preaching, the apostolic faith.

What is this prophetic message that we possess, this altogether reliable message?  We know it well:  that Jesus is the beloved Son of God (1 Pet 1:17; cf. Luke 9:35 ||) and his humanity bears the glory of God.  He is “a lamp shining in a dark place” (1 Pet 1:19), our world of sin and suffering, promising to his disciples—to those who “listen to him” (Luke 9:35)—a brighter day when he, “the morning star” (2 Pet 1:19), “the dawn from on high” (Luke 1:78), will rise.

The prophetic message reveals to Peter, James, and John, altho they don’t perceive it on Mt. Tabor, that Jesus’ divine glory will be fully manifest only when he has completed his exodus, completed what “he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31), namely, his Passover, his becoming the paschal lamb who will lead his people out of darkness and into the light.

The prophetic message includes both the Law given by Moses, a code of moral conduct that Jesus lived by and teaches us to live by; and the mission of Elijah and all the prophets, a constant call to conversion and fidelity, and by their insistence on social justice, on care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien in our midst, pointing us toward another law:  the beatitudes.

By heeding the Law and the prophets, by insisting in his ministry on their fulfillment, Jesus acted as God’s chosen Son and so merited to “receive honor and glory from God the Father,” not just in “that unique declaration … from the majestic glory” on the mountaintop (1 Pet 1:17) but, further, in his resurrection and ascension.  The prophetic message handed from Jesus to the apostles and to us is that “honor and glory from God the Father” is offered to all God’s chosen sons and daughters, all who listen to Jesus.

The 3 favored apostles were stunned into silence and subsequently struggled to follow Jesus and listen to him.  No different with us, who haven’t been favored with any special visions (at least none has been reported to or experienced by the chronicler).  So we strive to listen faithfully to Jesus, to receive the prophetic message, to make it part of our spiritual DNA, to possess it—and be possessed by it.