The Transfiguration of the Lord is what is generally referred to as an epiphany, a moment in which the tremendous glory of God shines through into our human reality. In it, Jesus’ heavenly glory is closely linked with his suffering and death.
Strange, is it not, that the terrible suffering and death which Jesus was to pass through in Jerusalem, should be spoken of in the same breath as his glory. And yet it is true; in Jesus, glory and suffering become one and the same thing. Jesus is glorified on the cross. It is an act of self-emptying, of complete obedience to the Father.
Today, we too often think of glory as the human achievements of famous people. We speak of “fame and glory” when we think of Hollywood film stars in sparkling dresses with flowing blonde tresses, walking along red carpets on their way to the Oscars, fixed public smiles on their faces and adoring fans gushing from either side at the ropes while thousands of camera bulbs flash and light up the night. But it is only a step from this to the scandal-mag reports of drug and alcohol abuse, messy divorces and wild self-indulgence. Fame it may be, but glory it is not.
Glory is something quite the opposite; it is the light of God’s holiness, unbearable to sinful human beings. It is a promise and pledge of the eternal future which can be ours if we seek the holiness of God with all our hearts. And it is linked with suffering because only the death and Resurrection of Jesus can open the way to glory for us. If sin is not dealt with, we remain excluded from God’s glory precisely because in our sinful state it is unbearable to us. When he sent his Son to die for us, God decided to pay the price of sin which we could not afford, in order that we might share in his glory.
What a far cry this holiness, the blaze of God’s unmediated and sinless presence is from the cheap, tinselly glory of earthly powers! CS Lewis once described the delights of the world as being “…as the half-nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears that his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive and even now at his door.” What an expression of the reality of heavenly glory over and against that of the world!
Jesus wants us to share in that glory. And if we really want him, then the pains of purification will not deter us. We will welcome then, to quote Dorothy Sayers, as a sick man welcomes the healing pains of surgery. The vision of the transfigured Jesus in today’s gospel is a pledge of hope, a small sign that the glory of heaven is real. We should follow that hope with all that is within us, and should allow nothing, not even the difficult process of purification from sin, to deter us from achieving it.
Fr Phillip.
