by Fr. Tommy Lane
Jesus is true God and true man, divine and human. We see Jesus’ divinity in his transfiguration shining like the sun. Jesus’ divinity shone through his humanity in his transfiguration; his divinity was visible in light. It was not that light shone on Jesus; Jesus himself shone. Jesus was light. God’s light was visible on other occasions also. When Moses came down Mount Sinai after talking with God, the skin of his face was radiant (Exod 34:29-30). Whenever Moses used to speak with God, his face shone afterwards and he had to cover his face with a veil (Exod 34:33-35). When Paul was on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians, light from the sky shone around him and Jesus spoke to him telling him he was persecuting him when persecuting Christians. (Acts 9:3-5) Paul was blind for three days after this experience. No wonder that Paul wrote later that God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16).
Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration. They saw Jesus as they had never seen him. How true the words of Peter: “it is good that we are here.” (Matt 17:4) It is good to be with the Lord. It is good to be with Jesus. Deep within us all, there is a longing for God. Because of all the distractions of the world, we might not always be so aware of our longing for God. One of the Psalms expresses beautifully how we all long for God:
O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you
my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary
land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see
your strength and your glory. (Ps 63:2-3)
We all have this longing for God. The only question is “Are we aware that our longing is for God?” If not, then we will try to fill and satisfy it some other way. Just as Peter said, “it is good that we are here,” the only way for us to fill and satisfy our longing for God is like Peter, James, and John to spend time with Jesus.
While we will not see Jesus transfigured when we pray, we will be in the presence of Jesus. When we pray, in a sense, we are on the mountain with Jesus. When we pray, we “listen to him.” We listen to Jesus as the Father asked Peter, James, and John. When Jesus revealed his divinity in light to Peter, James, and John, it was Jesus loving them. It was an act of love for them from Jesus. When we pray, we enter into the love of Jesus for us. When we pray, we are receiving Jesus’ love for us. The words of a contemporary French spiritual writer, Jacques Philippe, on Jesus loving us when we pray are helpful:
Prayer, then, is an act of love of God. Praying means accepting God’s love trustingly. Praying is not first and foremost doing something for God, but primarily accepting his love, letting ourselves be loved by him. We find it hard to put this into practice, because we do not believe strongly enough in God’s love; we often feel that we are unworthy of that love, and we are more centered on ourselves than on him. In our subtle pride, we want to do beautiful things for God instead of trying to find out what God wants to do for us gratuitously. (Jacques Philippe Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 786)
So, really when we pray, we experience Jesus, not in as dramatic a way as Peter, James and John, but we meet Jesus. Here are more of Philippe’s thoughts:
Prayer brings us the greatest possible benefits. It brings us the most essential of gifts, God himself, and everything that we can find in him: trust and confidence, peace, light, strength, positive growth. (Jacques Philippe Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 829)
To experience his transfiguration, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain by themselves. Jesus wanted them alone with him for this transfiguration experience. We also have to leave what we are doing, in a sense, to go up a spiritual mountain to be alone with Jesus when we pray. So to pray, we need as much as possible to find quiet and stillness without distractions. Philippe says starting our prayer well will help us as we pray:
The beginning is important. What counts most is to put ourselves truly in God’s presence. Depending on circumstances, we can think of God present in our hearts or imagine Christ as a friend we’re with, or place ourselves under the loving eyes of our Father in heaven, or look at the Eucharist with eyes full of faith (if it is in a time of Eucharistic adoration). This deliberate act of putting ourselves in God’s presence sometimes requires an effort. We have to lay our worries aside, along with everything else we have on our minds or occupying our imaginations, in order to turn resolutely to face God and direct our attention and love to him. (Jacques Philippe Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 1271)
We can imagine that Peter probably felt embarrassed afterwards for having offered to Jesus to make three tents (Matt 17:4). What if we are not satisfied afterwards with our prayer? Philippe writes:
Another piece of advice is never to be discontented with our prayer. Even if it was difficult, even if we feel we’ve done no good at all because we were dry, distracted the whole time, fell asleep, and so on, we should still be happy with it. We have spent time with God, and that is enough. We did nothing on our side, but he certainly did something in us, and we can thank him for it with an act of humility and faith. Whatever our prayer was like, the last word of it should always be an act of thanksgiving. (Jacques Philippe Thirsting for Prayer Kindle Location 1287)
When Jesus revealed his divinity in light to Peter, James, and John, it was Jesus loving them. When we pray, we enter into the love of Jesus for us.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2023
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for August 6: The Transfiguration of the Lord
Listen to Jesus even as he predicts his passion and death! 2006
Related Homilies: Jesus’ transfiguration: a lesson in prayer 2016
Jesus’ transfiguration reminds us who we are and not to be negative
Jesus always ready to forgive 2023
stories about light of Jesus and light in Guadalupe