Transfiguration
Fr. Dwight Campbell
03/01/2026
Homily 2nd Sunday Lent Yr A: Transfiguration
The Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent is always the Transfiguration:
when Jesus took the Apostles Peter James and John “up a high mountain and was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light.”
None of the Gospels ever mentions what high mountain this was; however, tradition tells us it was Mount Tabor – a high mountain in southern Galilee.
On each of my two pilgrimages to the Holy Land I offered Mass on Mount Tabor, at the Church of the Transfiguration.
On a clear day atop Mount Tabor, one can behold the Mediterranean sea off in the distance to the West.
To understand why Jesus was transfigured, we must consider what Jesus told the Apostles just a few days before hand:
that He must soon go up to Jerusalem and suffer at the hands of the elders, the scribes and chief priests, and be put to death; but that He would rise on the third day.
The Apostles no doubt were greatly disturbed by this prophecy of Jesus.
They had hoped that Jesus would usher in an earthly kingdom of Israel, and that they would share in His reign.
And now, their hopes were dashed; their hearts saddened.
As both God and man, the body of Jesus should have always emitted brilliant light, manifesting his glorious divinity; but Jesus kept His glory hidden from human eyes while here on earth, thereby allowing Himself to be crucified.
However, here on Mount Tabor, Jesus allowed His divinity to shine forth through His human body for a few brief moments in order to strengthen them so that they would not lose hope when they witnessed His suffering and death.
Appearing with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. Why?
Moses was the giver of the Law – the 10 Commandments and other laws for God’s Chosen People to prepare them for the coming of Christ.
In the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Old Testament and fifth book of the Pentateuch, the Torah, Moses speaks of a Prophet that will come after him.
The Jews understood this Prophet to be the Messiah; that is why the Jewish leaders asked John the Baptist, “Are you the Prophet?”
The great Prophet Elijah appeared along with Moses on Mount Tabor. He was the first of the prophets in ancient Israel – and thus represented all the prophets who foretold the coming of Christ, the Messiah.
The other prophecies in the Old Testament’s tell of how the Prophet Elijah is going to return to the earth during the reign of the Antichrist to denounce his lies and falsehoods, and thus to prepare for Christ’s Second Coming in glory on the Last Day.
But the Jews at the time of Christ thought that the Prophet Elijah would come to prepare for Christ’s first coming; and this is why they asked John the Baptist, “are you the Prophet Elijah?”
In fact, Jesus clarifies that John the Baptist came in the spirit of the Prophet Elijah, to prepare for His (Jesus’) first coming.
The presence of both Moses and Elijah along with Jesus on Mount Tabor was another proof that Jesus was truly the Messiah – who fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament – many of which spoke of how the Messiah would suffer and die for our sins, in order that we might one day share His glory in Heaven.
For the Apostles Peter, James and John, Our Lord’s Transfiguration – the glimpse of His glory – would be a great consolation for them when Jesus would undergo the horrible suffering of His crucifixion and death.
In fact, we know that this was firmly embedded in their minds; because St. John in his Gospel, says: “We saw his glory” (Jn 1:14) when he was transfigured; and St. Peter, in his second epistle, says:
“We were eyewitnesses of his grandeur, for he received from God the Father honor and glory, when out of the majestic glory a voice came down to him, saying ‘this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased’” (2 Pet 1:16).
In fact, this is another aspect of the Transfiguration – a revelation of the Holy Trinity: God the Father addresses His beloved Son; Jesus, the Son of God made man, shows forth his future glory; and the Holy Spirit’s presence is made manifest in the cloud that overshadowed them:
in both the old and new Testaments, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself many times in the form of a cloud which overshadows both persons an things:
God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses from a cloud; a cloud overshadowed the tent in which the 10 commandments were carried in the desert, and overshadowed the newly built temple of Solomon when the 10 Commandments were placed therein.
Also, Mary conceived Jesus in her womb at the Annunciation by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, there is an eschatological aspect to the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ; i.e., it reveals our future share in His glory in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the key to this future glory is the Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is the risen, glorified Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ who is now in Heaven; moreover, He is in our tabernacle, and He will be present – in His glorified state – on our altar in a few minutes.
And as the Church teaches, the risen, glorified Body and Blood of Our Lord is the pledge of our future glory in the Kingdom of Heaven; for Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the Last Day” (Jn 6:51 ff).
Thus, the Eucharist is a foretaste of our heavenly glory – in bodies transfigured in glory – the glory of Jesus Christ risen from the dead.
Pope St. Leo the Great alludes to this in a sermon in which He explains meaning of the Transfiguration for us, the members of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church.
St. Leo the Great says that Jesus, transfigured in glory provides “a firm foundation for the hope of holy Church. The whole body of Christ was to understand the kind of transformation that it would receive as His gift. The members of that body were to look forward to a share in that glory which first blazed out in Christ their Head” – AND, I would add, that is present in the Sacrament of Christ’s risen, glorified Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist.
Let us remember this as we receive Jesus today in Holy Communion and as we pass through this holy season of Lent, with our prayer, fasting, and acts of self-denial, keeping our eyes fixed on that heavenly glory that awaits us in the Kingdom, knowing that there we will bask in the glory of God, in glorified bodies transfigured like that of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.