To understand the story of the Transfiguration, you have to know when it takes place. In all three synoptic gospels, the Transfiguration follows two critical events:
First, Jesus asks his apostles who they say he is, and Peter proclaims that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Up to this point, Jesus has not revealed his true identity to anyone, and in fact has rebuked the evil spirits that have named him as the Son of God (see Mark 3:11-12, for one example). Just as God gradually reveals the depth of his love and the grandeur of his plan for our salvation in the Old Testament, Jesus gradually reveals to his followers who he is and how he will save us.
Second, now that the apostles know who Jesus is, Jesus can tell them about his Passion: He began to teach them that the Son of Man “must suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” As happened before, Peter is the only one of the apostles to speak up, telling Jesus “God forbid, Lord! No such thing should ever happen to you.” (Matthew 16:21-22) We can imagine the shock all of the apostles felt upon hearing Jesus tell them he would be killed; Peter likely said what they were all thinking. (So great was their shock that they seemed not to have heard Jesus foretell his resurrection, or they didn’t understand what that meant.)
Jesus rebukes Peter (“Get behind me, Satan!” – as harsh as this sounds, Jesus recognizes that Peter’s human concern masks the voice of the evil one, trying to lure him away from his divine mission to save us), but then explains to his apostles what following him means: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) (1)
In all three synoptic gospels, the Transfiguration story is placed immediately after these events. The evangelists even specify when it takes place – “six days later” in Mark and Matthew, while Luke has it “eight days later.” (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2, Luke 9:28) The apostles have not yet recovered from the shock of Jesus’ prediction. They cannot grasp how God’s Beloved Son could be killed by men. Could this really happen? Why would God allow it to happen? What good could come from it? They would not fully understand these mysteries until after the Resurrection. But Jesus knows every need we have. In this instance, he saw that his friends were suffering, so he sought to console them.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola recognized the concepts of consolation and desolation as key elements of everyone’s journey towards holiness. Periods of desolation, which even the saints experience at times, can lead us away from God. In states of desolation we don’t (for whatever reason) feel aware of God’s presence in our lives. In such a state we are inclined to pull away from others, forego our practices of prayer and good works, and turn inward.
Saint Ignatius counseled his fellow Jesuits, and anyone striving toward holiness, to persevere through such periods. Continue saying your prayers and practicing your good works, even when you don’t feel like it. Stay connected with others even when you want to be alone. And remember in those moments of desolation the times when Christ consoled you:
“I call it consolation when some interior movement in the soul is caused, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord; and when it can, in consequence, love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but in the Creator of them all.”
Note that Saint Ignatius uses the passive voice – the movement of the soul “is caused” by the grace of God working within us. We have to give God’s grace the chance to work within us. This comes by our habitual fiat to his grace through our prayers, works of mercy, and participation in the sacraments.
God will grant us moments of consolation at the times of his choosing, knowing when we are most in need of feeling his divine love deep within us, and knowing too, when a period of suffering or desolation is what we need to ultimately lead us closer to God. For none are united to Christ without suffering (to some degree at least) as he suffered for us.
For Peter, James and John, the desolation caused by Jesus’ prediction of his Passion is not offset for several days until they witness his Transfiguration, the sign of his risen glory. Likewise, they each suffered through the utter despair of his Passion and the grief of Holy Saturday before beholding the Risen Lord at Easter. Saint Ignatius counsels us to remember our times of consolation when we feel despair. We can’t know if Peter, James or John recalled the Transfiguration as Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb, but there are suggestions – in the way Peter and John ran to the tomb Easter morning, and above all the way John saw the empty tomb “and believed” (John 20:8) – that the Transfiguration gave them some hope to cling to even in their darkest moments. They could not reconcile the glory of the Transfiguration and the suffering of the cross. Not until they saw the Risen Lord could they see that the desolation of the cross was not an end but one stage of a journey, and that the consolation of the Transfiguration was a preview of heaven, when we will be (in Pope Benedict’s words) “immersed in an ocean of love.” (2)
Very few people will experience a consolation as powerful and vivid as the Transfiguration, but God certainly grants consolation, moments of grace, to those who seek him with a sincere and contrite heart. Those moments are as unique as each person God lovingly created. Holding on to and cherishing those moments is a sure way to grow in faith, hope and love.
Notes:
(1) Luke adds that we must take up our cross “daily” – a reminder that not many will be called to martyrdom like the apostles, but all have works of mercy to perform in the name of our Lord. (Luke 9:23)
(2) See Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love).
Image: The Transfiguration by Raphael (downloaded from Wikipedia Commons). This painting was Raphael’s final work, and considered by many (including the artist) to be his masterpiece.
