The transfiguration was a revealing by Jesus to his closest disciples of the luminous reality of the true universe of divine light and life from which we all came and to which we will all return. He is the self realised light of Christ, which is our true nature as boundless love/light but which we have forgotten. In this three dimensional world the luminous universe is veiled from our mortal eye’s. For Peter, John and James the veil was momentarily lifted. They needed to see Jesus as divine light and love as they came closer to the horror of his death by crucifixion, so that they could be grounded in the reality of who Jesus’ is. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says
“I am the light that is before all things; I am all things; all things come forth from me; all things return to me”. (Logion 77).
The transfiguration is linked with two other sayings of Jesus
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”. (Matthew 5:14-16)
And
Jesus said: ‘If they say to you: “Where do you come from?’ Say to them: ‘We come from the Light. The place where the Light is manifest from itself, has established itself and manifests through their image.’ If they ask: ‘Is it you?’ answer: ‘We are children of the Light, the chosen of the living Father.’ (Logion 50)
Jesus importantly reminds the disciples that they are fractals of the divine light present in this world. This world is not our home but it can become a school to help us remember who we are and return home.
Thomas Merton experienced Transfiguration one day in the town of Louisville:
“…In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . . it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift”
(Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander)
May the feast of the Transfiguration remind you that you are love and light and that you ask the Father/Mother of us all to open our eyes to the love we are.