The Son Of Man Revealed In Preview

TRANSFIGURATION of our Lord

Our first reading today is Daniel’s narration of a Dream-vision that would help his readers and listeners to make some sense of the troubled times they lived in. This chapter starts off with hurricane winds and storms and giant beasts that stood for secular kingdoms at war with each other. And then the scene changes and a great throne is set up–what we heard today. It’s literally apocalyptic.

An Apocalypse, like the last book of the New Testament or the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, has one simple purpose–to convince the synagogue or church member that in the Big Picture, the Providence of God is still in control. The psalm we pray today agrees: The Lord reigns. As believers in Christ, we know that God won the battle with the evil one in the Paschal mystery; Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What we are doing in our day is mopping up, winning souls for the final manifestation of Christ’s victory.

In Daniel here, we see one of the OT references to “a son of man.” And, yes, this ben adam has divine status, and, yes, Jesus often identified Himself as the “son of man.” Therefore, Jesus called Himself the Messiah looked for by every observant Jew in the first century.

In our Epistle reading, in his second letter (probably written to the churches of Asia Minor), St. Peter narrates the vision that he himself saw, with key disciples James and John, on Mt. Tabor not long before Our Lord went up to Jerusalem to die. St. Peter’s recollections show up here. He wrote around 68 AD. His story also is recorded in St. Mark’s Gospel (chapter 9, verses 2-9) which adds that the apostles should keep the vision to themselves until after “the Son of Man rises from the dead.”

What may be the first record of the Transfiguration is proclaimed in today’s Gospel. Remember that traditionally St. Matthew’s Gospel was the first to be published, and probably was originally written in Aramaic, or perhaps Hebrew, since there are a number of idiomatic Hebrew expressions in it, translated into Greek. The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus, in conversation, along with the reference to “booths” by St. Peter, is reminiscent of the years the people of Israel resided in tents or booths as they journeyed to the Promised Land. We learn in St. Luke’s Gospel, which may contain St. James’ recollection of the event, that Moses and Elijah were discussing Christ’s “Passover”–his passion, death and resurrection.

Last, let me comment on the Collect of today’s Eucharist. We learn the purpose of Christ’s Transfiguration, as the Church sees it. Jesus was revealed in glory to confirm the mysteries of faith by the witness of the Fathers (Peter, James and John). And it “prefigured our full adoption to sonship” The Transfiguration of Christ looks forward to our own fulfillment as adopted children of the Father. If we can pray with confidence to the Father, we do so in and with the whole Body of Christ, united with the Resurrected Jesus, our Head.