The Transfiguration of Jesus is a transformation but of a kind we cannot fully comprehend. The scene is set with a high mountain, the appearance of Elijah and Moses and the overshadowing cloud, and is a reminder of the way God’s awesome presence was revealed in the Old Testament. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter had been the first to profess belief in Jesus as the expected Messiah. The glorious transfiguration of Jesus affirms the revelation that produced Peter’s act of faith, but also it affirms Jesus as the Son of Man who is destined to suffer. “Was it not ordained,†Jesus would later say to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “that the Christ should suffer and so enter into His glory?†Suffering was to become a part of Peter’s discipleship; for all who would follow the Lord it is unavoidable. “Yet each man kills the thing he loves,†wrote Oscar Wilde. “The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!â€
In today’s first reading the action also takes place on a mountain: Abraham is tested to the utmost limit when commanded by God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac in love of and obedience to God even to the most extreme point imaginable. Child sacrifice was practiced by Israel’s neighbors and part of the writer’s purpose was to warn against its happening. Ultimately, however, Abraham’s response is but a reflection of God’s love for us. In the words of the second reading, “God did not spare His own Son but have Him up to benefit us all.†To lose ourselves for Christ’s sake we are called to have something of Abraham’s unselfish love and faith.
An actor’s skill in losing self-identity when portraying a character enables him or her to make that character believable. The greatest actors can make us forget the actor and believe totally in the reality of the character portrayed. We are called, in a sense to do something similar as we seek to respond to the voice from the cloud, “This is My Son, the Beloved. Listen to Him.†Our text is not a play; it is the word of the Lord. Like an actor we are to listen, to seek to understand, and then to let the words become a part of us. We are not seeking simply to immerse ourselves in a character from a play. We seek to be transformed into Christ; and, if we are to do that, Christ calls us to be empty of self. Then it will not be just I that live but Christ that lives in me.