Today is the Feast Day of The Transfiguration
Reflection on the Transfiguration and Today’s Collect
I like today’s Mass Collect:
O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration of your Only Begotten Son confirmed the mysteries of faith by the witness of the Fathers and wonderfully prefigured our full adoption to sonship, grant, we pray, to your servants, that, listening to the voice of your beloved Son, we may merit to become coheirs with him.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
The prayer summarizes the meaning of the Transfiguration: it is both a confirmation of the faith we profess and a glimpse of our future destiny as adopted children of God.
Jesus revealed His future glory on the mountain so that His disciples might see where the way of the cross truly leads: resurrection and transformation. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains (Summa Theologiae III, q.45, a.1), the Transfiguration was a vision of the goal of Christian life. Without it, the disciples might have remained fixated on suffering and death, forgetting that these were only the path to glory.
The Catechism expresses this clearly:
“Christ's Transfiguration aims at strengthening the apostles' faith in anticipation of his Passion: the ascent onto the high mountain prepares for the ascent to Calvary. Christ, Head of the Church, manifests what his Body contains and radiates in the sacraments: ‘the hope of glory’” (CCC 568; Col 1:27; St. Leo the Great, Sermon 51).
The Transfiguration is an invitation for us as well. Christ calls us to keep our eyes fixed on Him, not on the weight of our crosses. Our trials are not overcome by sheer human willpower or by gritting our teeth, but by hope—by the confidence that God is leading us to share in Christ’s own glory. At times, He gives us moments of “transfiguration” aka glimpses of His love and presence, to strengthen us in the midst of darkness.
This vision calls us to contemplative prayer, which the saints describe as the “prelude of eternal life.” In prayer, we learn to listen to the voice of the Heavenly Father—“This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mt 17:5)—and we are strengthened to carry our crosses with love and faith, knowing that what awaits us is far greater than anything we could imagine.
© 2025, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.