The Transfiguration of the Lord [A]
Daniel 7:9-10,13-14  +  2 Peter 1:16-19  +  Matthew 17:1-9
August 6, 2026

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Jesus’ Transfiguration.  Within this scene that the Gospel Reading describes, there are three icons for us to attend to.  Each icon symbolizes a different experience of our spiritual life.  These three icons are:  the tent; the cross; and the glory.  What do these three symbolize?

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The first icon is the tent of which Peter speaks.  He says to Jesus, “If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  Peter wants to make tents so they can stay there and prolong their experience on the mountaintop.

Peter is a beginner in the spiritual life.  He is a child in the spiritual life.  He’s like a child who wants to start supper with dessert.

God does not want His pastors to encourage Jesus’ disciples to be like Peter.  The tent symbolizes what is man-made.  It cannot fulfill man.  It can be used on the journey like a tool, but when substituted for what is God-made, it turns the Faith inside-out.

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The second icon is the Cross of which Jesus speaks.  He charged the three apostles, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”  Today’s Gospel Reading comes from St. Matthew’s account of the Gospel.  In St. Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, we hear that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah “spoke of [Jesus’] exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.”  This exodus is the Way of the Cross.

Jesus is the Master of the spiritual life.  He is God the Father’s “beloved Son, with whom [the Father is] well pleased”.  The Father bids us to listen to him because He is the Father’s own divine Word.

The world encourages us to build tents to rest in fleeting pleasures.  The Lord commands that we take up our own crosses and follow Him to Calvary.  The world spins in circles, leading nowhere.  The Cross leads to death, and through Christ, to eternal life.  This is why the motto of St. Bruno’s Carthusian order is “stat crux dum volvitur orbis”:  “the cross stands while the world turns”.

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The third icon is the glory of the Father.  This is the glory of the Father’s only-begotten Son.  This glory is a gift to the apostles to fortify them against the roadblocks along the Way of the Cross.

This glory is not man-made.  It is divine, yet it is fleeting.  It is not something in which the apostles can rest, but a gift for which to give thanks as they continue to follow Jesus.  This glory shines forth twice in this scene.  The Father’s glory shines forth first in His Son.  Jesus “was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”  The Father’s glory also shines through the cloud as He speaks:  “behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’”

The Father wishes that we would gaze upon His beloved Son, and listen to Him as calls us to follow Him to Calvary.  This brief gift is a means to a much greater end.  Sharing in the gift of the Cross is the only means by which to experience the Father’s glory without end in Heaven.