Transfiguration of Our Lord — Homily by Fr. Ermatinger

Translation of the Epistle for the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord

For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount. And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

Translation of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew

At that time, Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, Arise, and fear not. And they lifting up their eyes saw no one but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.

The Saving Word of the Gospel

Transcription of Audio

Translation of the epistle for the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord. For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. And this voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount. And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. translation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew At that time, Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them, Arise, and fear not. And they lifting up their eyes saw no one but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead. 

The saving word of the gospel

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St. Paul begins his Letter, Chapter 2 of the Letter to the Philippians, with what’s called a Christological Hymn. And in this hymn, we see these striking words that Christ being God, sought not His divinity as something to grasp at but emptied Himself in order to become like us; taking the form of a slave. So, Paul is speaking about not only the radical and central mystery of our Faith, which is the Incarnation, but the radical humility of God who submits Himself not only to the laws of our nature but also to the sinful will of men.

And in the midst of this, Paul uses this verb kenosis. Kenosis, which is an interesting word, it means to empty oneself; self-emptying. And so, that’s also called a kenotic hymn, the hymn of self-emptying, and the mystery that makes this truly revelation is that He remains God in the midst of all of the humiliation.

This mystery of the Transfiguration, so say the Church Fathers, was revealed to these three most intimate followers of Christ as something of a preparation for His Passion. And indeed, we see in the different treatments of the Transfiguration in the Synoptic Gospels, we see that Christ is speaking with Moses and Elijah and, it says, about His Exodus. His Exodus; this leaving slavery into the land of freedom. And this transformation, the word that’s used for transfiguration is metamorphosis. This transformation from the glorious Person of the Blessed Trinity to One who has taken upon Himself human nature, yet without undergoing any change in His divinity; this is a mystery. He lost nothing, we gained everything.

And so, what is visible, His humanity, also becomes the vehicle to reveal this glory as He is transfigured. Whatever form that took, it was something that certainly struck Peter, who many years later is still referring to it in his letter that we just heard. What is visible about the Sacred Humanity of Christ is now momentarily revealed as glorious in His Body, but it says even that His clothing shone like snow. I would assume that the garments Our Lord was wearing were knitted by the Blessed Mother. And so, we’ve got the clothing knitted by the Mother and His Sacred Humanity, which was knit in her womb, now revealing this hidden divinity. So, His divinity is not abolished. His humanity is not suspended. It’s both of them together, not confused. His divinity shines through His humanity in this moment. And He’s speaking to these already glorified prophets Moses and Elijah, and in the presence of three of His disciples who will later be glorified.

The Transfiguration always reminds me as something of a paradigm for the life of prayer. There’s the place of a mountain, which in Scripture we always see the mountain as a place of encounter between God and man. It’s in the heights. It takes an effort to climb up. It’s the pinnacle itself. Above us, there’s a goal to be reached. To climb a mountain, one needs certain preparations and to climb this mountain of prayer, we certainly need certain preparations: Number one, to be in a state of grace for our prayer to have any merit, but we also need, if we’re going to engage in adoration and true mental prayer, we need to have the attitude of a penitent; one who is continually being converted. And when we cease to have that, our prayer falls into something mechanical and something rote. But when we have this awareness that we are constantly in need of conversion, our prayer comes alive.

Something else that is a necessary tool for the journey, climbing the mountain of prayer, is to not hold any grudges. If we harbor any rancor for anyone, no matter when the offense took place, decades ago or yesterday, we harbor any rancor we will not be able to engage in true mental prayer. We present to Our Lord what’s called an obex. In theology, an obex is an insurmountable obstacle. So, rancor, this lack of forgiveness, is an obstacle to union with Christ. And, in prayer Christ reveals Himself, and I’m certainly I’m not speaking in terms of visions or voices, but there is a certain perception of His loving presence. There’s a new awareness of His presence. There’s a new understanding often of what it is He wants from us, or perhaps He corrects us in our prayer, calls us to greater poverty of spirit, whatever it may be.

It’s important not to go into prayer with preconceived notions of what’s supposed to happen, or what I’m supposed to get out of this. Sometimes people go into prayer looking for consolation, and that’s not a healthy relationship to have with Our Lord. We don’t instrumentalize Our Lord to get something less than Our Lord. We should be attached to the God of consolation, not the constellation of God.

And we see an example here of Peter, who says it’s good to be here. He just wants to remain in this moment. And nonetheless, he’s not called to be a contemplative on a mountaintop. He’s called to be an Apostle. And so, he’s not supposed to hang on to this consolation. And what happens? As soon as he says the words, It’s good for us to be here, the Father practically interrupts him and says, This is My beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased; hear Him. And hear Him, and hearing in scriptural language is not simply an exercise of the auditory faculties. Hearing regards obedience. In fact, the very word in Latin audire means to hear. And so, when the Father is saying, hear Him, He’s saying obey Him, to listen to Him.

And so, this is our task; to habitually conform our wills to the will of another. And this is no easy task, especially when we have our attachments, many of those things that we left at the base of a mountain. And we go into prayer, and sometimes during prayer, we have distractions. It’s good and healthy to take note of the nature of one’s distractions in prayer because the distractions in prayer often reveal where our disordered attachments lie. And so, we ought not be perturbed by distractions. We take note of them. Thank you, Guardian Angel, for showing me where I’m placing obstacles to union with my Beloved, Jesus Christ. And so, we take note of the nature of our distractions; often they point towards a certain disorder that we’ve got in our own hearts. When we have a true encounter with Christ in mental prayer, Thomas Aquinas tells us it should be refreshing, but it should also strengthen us for the task at hand. 

And what is that task? This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased; hear Him. To obey the will of God. Alone, we cannot.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Fr. Ermatinger