_I

The gradual unfolding of truths of the spiritual order is well illustrated in the historical fact of our Lord’s Transfiguration and in its liturgical re-presentation.¹ Apprehension of divine truths, by mankind at large or by individuals, from acceptance to full realization, is a process of more or less slow growth. Such a development is discernible in the life and work of Moses, the representative of the Law, and in that of Elias, the representative of the Prophets, both of whom appeared on Mount Tabor. What they had prefigured in their lives or foretold regarding the Savior in their day, was about to be fully realized in Him in whose behalf they appeared as witnesses. Our Lord’s glorification upon the mount, in turn, presented truths of which Peter, James and John, whom He had taken with Him, had not then even an inkling. They indeed came face to face with an astonishing manifestation and experienced such keen delight that their capacity for enlightenment and for happiness at that time was completely filled. Peter exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here”;² but he knew not whereof he spoke. Only later, when he was better informed and was testifying to the truth of what he had seen and heard on the mount, could he speak of having “a more sure word of prophecy” and remark thereon: “Ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts.”³

That also the world of today take heed, seek and await enlightenment, is the concern of the Church in the liturgy of this feast. Inasmuch as the Old Testament figures and prophecies were realized in Christ, the Old Law itself prefigured the New; hence, what was realized in Christ is also to be realized, according to grace and capacity, in the members of His Mystical Body, His Church, His Kingdom—the New Law. For this grace we pray with the Church on this feast-day: “Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that by the understanding of a purified mind, we may attain to the most sacred mystery of the Transfiguration of Thy Son, which we are celebrating with a solemn worship.”⁴

This mystery the liturgy unfolds gradually. We are made aware of it, for instance, through St. Peter’s efforts to convey its central truth to the more or less untutored of his time:

_{^{Brethren, labor the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall not sin at any time. For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…. I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance: knowing that shortly I must put off my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath pointed out to me.5}}

St. Peter speaks in veiled words and refers to his approaching martyrdom. Then, from the sermon of Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461) on the Transfiguration, we learn considerably more. Evidently his hearers were already conversant with their membership in Christ’s Mystical Body:

_{^{Of this metamorphosis the chief work was to remove from the hearts of the disciples the stumbling at the cross. Before their eyes was unveiled the splendor of His hidden majesty, that the lowliness of His freely-chosen suffering might not confound their faith. But none the less was there here laid by the Providence of God a solid foundation for the hope of the holy Church, whereby the whole Body of Christ should know with what a change it is yet to be honored. The members of that body, whose Head hath already been transfigured in light, may promise themselves a share in His glory. . . .}}

_{^{The pages of either Covenant strengthen one another and the brightness of open glory maketh manifest and distinct Him whom the former prophecies had promised under the veil of mysteries. . . . And the Lord’s example was to call the faith of believers to this, that albeit we are behoven to have no doubts concerning the promise of eternal blessedness, yet we are to understand that, amid the trials of this life, we are to seek for endurance before glory.6}}

_II

Already such a cursory glimpse of the liturgy of the feast may serve to enlighten one. But enlightenment is not its only purpose. We are to take a further step, so that the mystery of the Transfiguration is to a degree realized by us. This is done if we take our part in its liturgical re-presentation.

On participating in the Vespers, for instance, we do not do so alone; other members of Christ’s Mystical Body are there, united with the officiating priest and in Christ for the purpose of singing in praise and gratitude to our heavenly Father. The Vesper Antiphons recount the details of the wonderful manifestation upon Mount Tabor to have these in mind. Then, without undue stretching of the imagination, the church or chapel becomes for us our holy mount; for there in our tabernacle our Lord is truly present. And we are firm in the belief, as St. Paul expresses it in the Chapter reading, that our Lord “shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious Body.” Therefore, with an understanding heart and together even with the whole Church, we “sing in grace in our hearts to God in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles.”⁷

One who thus takes part in the liturgical divine service realizes the Transfiguration mystery to the extent of the grace accruing through prayer and sacramental, and according to one’s disposition to be co-active. One’s activity consists in acknowledging the glory of God that is His, and in expressing deep-felt gratitude and praise that is His due, because of His mercy and His love for us in sending us the Savior, who, through His redeeming and atoning sufferings, has made our adoptive sonship possible and actual, and has privileged us to share in His life and work and glory.

At Matins, the Invitatory prompts one to be properly active at the outset: “The most high King, the King of glory, even Christ, Him let us worship.” This we proceed to do, giving voice to the stirrings in mind and heart in the words of the Psalmist:

_{^{Come, let us praise the Lord with joy; let us joyfully sing to God our Savior. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.8}}

_{^{O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth! For Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.}}

_{^{What is man that Thou art mindful of him; or the son of man that Thou visitest him?}}

_{^{Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, and hast set him over the works of Thy hands.9}}

_{^{Bring to the Lord glory and honor; bring to the Lord glory to His name; adore ye the Lord in His holy court.}}

_{^{The voice of the Lord is in power; the voice of the Lord in magnificence.10}}

With Psalm 44, we give expression to the renown of the King and praise His adorable beauty and might; in Psalm 75, we praise Him for having enlightened us wonderfully “from the everlasting hills” and for saving “all the meek of the earth”; in Psalm 83, we look in wonderment to the better life: “How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. . . . Blessed is the man whose help is from Thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps in the vale of tears.”

Similar thoughts and aspirations are echoed in the Responsories. These are drawn from the Prophets, from the Psalms, from the Gospels, Epistles, even from the Apocalypse, and definitely refer to as well as unveil more the mystery of the Transfiguration. They are admirably summarized in the Oration said throughout the Office and in the Mass, in which we pray that the mystery might be perfectly realized in us:

_{^{O God, Thou hast confirmed the mysteries of the faith in the glorious Transfiguration of Thy only-begotten Son through the testimony of the fathers, and by Thy voice coming from the shining cloud hast wondrously signified our perfect adoption of sons: grant in Thy kindness that we become coheirs with the selfsame King of Glory, and that in His glory we might have a share.}}

_III

The Mass of the feast enables the actively participating worshiper to advance still further toward entering into the actuality of what is conveyed by the mystery. To the co-activity with grace in prayer and sacramental is added that in sacrifice and sacrament. There is actually an exchanging of gifts, a trading,¹¹ a giving and receiving,¹² or, as the liturgy now and then refers to it, a commercium.¹³

To be sure, these sacred dealings with the Most High require spiritual integrity on our part; hence the confession of sins and the seeking of absolution in the preliminary prayers said at the foot of the altar, and the appeal for mercy in the Kyrie. In the Mass of the Catechumens, we receive God’s word, through the Epistle, the Gospel, and the sermon. For this, in the lyric portions—Introit, Gradual, Alleluia-verse—as in the great Doxology, we send on High our word of grateful praise. And in the Collect we receive the grace we humbly ask for.

In the Mass of the Faithful, beginning with the offering of bread and wine for our sins, for all Christians living and dead, and for the whole world, we unite ourselves with our Lord—that “by the mystical union of this water and wine we may be made partakers of His divinity who deigned to become partaker of our humanity.”¹⁴ And in the Secret on this feast-day we pray: “We beseech Thee, O Lord, sanctify the gifts we offer through the glorious Transfiguration of Thy Only-begotten, and purify us from the stains of sin through the bright light of His shining.”

In exchange for our gifts, our Father, in the Consecration, gives us His divine Son, that we might have a truly pleasing Gift to offer Him in the performance of our highest religious acts.¹⁵ But do we not realize, at the same time, that our Lord is here renewing the great Sacrifice of Himself for us? Again His “Blood of the new and eternal Testament” is being “shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.” Can we, then, do less than with our gifts offer also ourselves with Him? How otherwise can we be “made partakers of His Divinity who deigned to become partaker of our humanity”? Thus the re-presented mystery of the Transfiguration and our adoptive sonship in and through Him assume a new significance.

The exchanging of gifts proceeds. Having with ours also made of ourselves an immolation to the Father, He with His Gift also immolates Him, but now upon the altar of our heart. In the peace and embrace of holy Communion, we are united with Him, and with one another in Him, the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. How often, in such communings with our Lord within us, did we not feel as Peter did upon the holy mount, and as if to say, “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” Or, as a young man once remarked in his way, “That’s how I’d like to be all the time.” What, then, must the glory of heaven be! But our time is not yet, as it was not then for Peter, James and John. With our Lord they had to descend to the vale below, where the blind and the halting, the eager for the word of God and the insane were awaiting their ministrations. And so we proceed to make good our act of self-immolation, keeping ourselves unspotted and doing good to men in the vale here below, to the glory of our heavenly Father.

_*

These few suggestions may be of some use for an entering into the liturgical representation of the Transfiguration mystery actively and, with the grace at our asking especially during the Mass, effectively. Thus through symbol, word and act, we come to deal with the spiritual realities behind them¹⁶ and with values that are eternal—not with fictions, or as St. Peter says in the Epistle, “we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is in power and present in the members of His Mystical Body today, sanctifying Himself for them, doing good in the world, sowing the good seed of His teaching, being patient with the erring and those hardly able to grasp the truth, suffering in the cause of justice, and laying down His life to save men from slavery to gods of their own making—and thus in Him and His own is the Father glorified. In that sublime activity we have the privilege to share, according to grace and calling. That is the mystery of the Transfiguration. Eternal blessedness can come only through the sufferings of Christ and through a life in Him.

_{^{Image Source: AB/Picryl}}

1. This year the feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration (August 6) is celebrated on a Sunday. [Editor’s note: this was also the case in 1933 when the article was first published.]
2. Gospel of the feast.
3. Epistle.
4. Postcommunion of the Mass.
5. First Lesson of Matins. The Breviary translations are from the English work of the Marquess of Bute.
6. Fourth, fifth and sixth Lessons of Matins.
7. Coloss. 3, 16.
8. Ps. 94.
9. Ps. 8.
10. Ps. 28.
11. “Trade till I come” (Luke 19, 13).
12. “Give and it shall be given to you” (Luke 6, 38).
13. E.g., in the Secret of the Mass the fourth Sunday after Easter: “O God, who by the sacred exchangings at this Sacrifice hast made us sharers of the one supreme Divinity: grant, we beseech Thee, that as we know Thy truth, we may also attain to it by a worthy life.”
14. The prayer, Deus qui humanae, said at the mingling of water with the wine.
15. The sacrificial offerings in adoration, thanksgiving, petition and atonement—in, through, and with our most sacred Victim.
16. Cf. Isaias, ch. 55.