This homily is based on Luke 9:28-36 for the Second Sunday of Lent.
It’s not every day during his earthly life that you see our Lord bathed in heavenly light. In fact, such displays of divinity are quite few and far between. Unless my memory fails me, this so-called Transfiguration of the Lord is probably the only recorded one aside from the Resurrection appearances and the Ascension–which don’t really count because that’s already the Risen Lord we’re dealing with.
This homily is based on Mark 9:2-10.
When a friend residing in the UK heard that my sister and I were headed for the Lake District up north some years ago, she said, “It’s beautiful up there, but you must be crazy to go there in the dead of winter! You’ll freeze!” But since it was probably our only chance to go, we went anyway, stepping out of the train after a three-hour trip, wrapped in layers upon layers of protection.
This homily is based on Matthew 17:1-9 for the Transfiguration of our Lord.
The Transfiguration of our Lord was–quite literally–“a brief shining moment.” It was that one fleeting moment when Jesus’ divinity–normally hidden during his earthly life–shone through, but only for one fleeting moment.
One moment Jesus’ face was bright like the sun, and his clothes white as light as he stood there between the two great prophets, Moses and Elijah. The next moment he was alone and it was “only Jesus.”