It's no secret that I am transfixed by Jesus' Transfiguration. Even after years of meditating on it, I keep "seeing" new things in this Mystery. Some years ago a friend pointed out how the Transfiguration demonstrated visually what we are told so many other places in the New Testament: Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
As [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses [representing the Law] and Elijah [representing the Prophets], appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem ... a cloud appeared and covered them, and [Peter, James, and John] were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. (Lk.9:29-36)
My friend zeroed in on the way Jesus now stood there alone, embodying in His Life and Person all that Moses and Elijah had revealed in part. My friend was absolutely right. But there's another side of the equation.
The voice, a manifestation of God the Father, and the cloud, a visual representation of the Holy Spirit, also give way to Jesus standing alone before the apostles. The thirty-something year old man standing before them speaks the words of the Father, and He is the conduit through which the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the world! "[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God ... in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col.1:15,19). The Transfiguration says all of this. Turning to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the first verses read like a theological commentary on this event:
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Heb.1:1-3)
And so long as I'm quoting those verses from Hebrews, let me quote St. John of the Cross:
In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at one in this sole Word - and he has no more to say ... because what was spoken before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. (CCC 65)
I have always found it curious that Matthew's Gospel omits Jesus' appearances in Jerusalem following His Resurrection and focus instead on Galilee. When the women ran from his empty tomb to tell the apostles, "Jesus met them and said 'Hail!' And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me" (Mt.28:9-10). No narrative of Jesus appearing to the Eleven in the Upper Room or on the road to Emmaus; Matthew simply continues:
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Mt.28:16-20)
What is Matthew up to? He was clearly aware of prior appearances of Jesus to the Eleven (Jesus had directed them to a specific mountain in Galilee, something not part of His message to the women; so Jesus appeared to the Eleven while still in Jerusalem) and yet Matthew felt compelled to get to this mountain and Jesus "Great Commission." Why?
I put that question to the Lord the other day. I had just finished my re-reading of Matthew, recalled being puzzled by this before, and thought, "I'm just going to ask the primary author!" (The beauty of reading Scripture is that the same Spirit Who inspired it lives within us!) And as I simply began to think about Matthew and his Gospel, I recalled the significance of the mountain.
I would suggest that it is the same Galilean mountain spoken of in Matthew 5:1, "Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain and when He sat down His disciples came to him. And He opened His mouth and taught them ..." The three chapters following that introduction make up the Sermon on the Mount, where Matthew reveals Jesus as the New Moses, completing and deepening the Law that Moses was given atop Mount Sinai. Again and again we hear Jesus cite the Mosaic Law, "You have heard that it was said ... but I say to you ...," one example being "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt.5:27-28).
I believe that Matthew places the emphasis on Jesus' Resurrection appearances in Galilee to drive home His identity as the prophesied New Moses (Deut.18:19-20), dispatching the New Law from His Galilean Sinai, "All authority in heaven and on earth given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I am with you always, to the end of the age." Now that's a Gospel, that's "Good News"! Amen?
