On this last Sunday of Epiphany, the Collect and the Gospel reading focus on the Transfiguration. Long before Jesus, Yahweh appeared in glory on a mountain and Moses entered that glory. When Jesus is glorified on the Holy Mountain, Moses is there again, along with Elijah.
Christians frequently think of the Transfiguration as proof of Jesus’ divinity. Jesus normally kept His divine nature concealed behind the veil of His humanity, but on the Mount, for once, the divinity shines through.
In the gospels, the Transfiguration has a very different purpose. Jesus goes to the mount of transfiguration just after He has announced that He is going to Jerusalem to suffer and die and just before He sets His face toward the capital for that journey to the cross.
The Transfiguration is the bridge from Epiphany – which commemorates Jesus’ appearance to the Gentiles – to Lent – when we meditate on the sufferings and death of Jesus. The Transfiguration previews the final, climactic manifestation of God’s glory in Jesus, the glory He displays in His death, the glory of His self-gift for His bride.
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