Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Yesterday's Feast: The Transfiguration


I should have put this up yesterday, The Feast of the Transfiguration.
In order to understand it, we have to connect it to all those encounters with God in the Old Testament, when men saw his glory, especially the most important, the shekinah on Mount Sinai. Moses (both Moses and Elijah saw God’s glory) ascended the holy mountain, God comes down veiled in the cloud, Moses returns to the People of Israel bearing the Law. The Lord comes down the mountain with the Apostles and they, or at least Peter with an understanding of who Jesus is, the incident that follows the Transfiguration is Simon Peter, who having heard the words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” makes his declaration “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, and the Lord in turn saying, “You are Peter and upon this rock I build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”

Thus it is the embryonic Church, with its faith in Jesus the Christ, and His relationship with the Father that Jesus descends the mountain with. Moses' encounter with God is a "prophecy" of the Transfiguration, the Law of the Old Covenant prefigures the relationship of Christ and the Church, which is based on the revelation on the Holy Mountain.

1 comment:

Physiocrat said...

6 August is also, incidentally, Hiroshima Day.

Here is Uppsala it was celebrated by launching floating lanterns into the river at dusk, whilst a quartet played appropriate baroque music. It was very moving.

There is an obvious connection between the two events in that they are precisely and diametrically opposed.

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