Today, the Church recalls the Transfiguration of Jesus upon the holy mountain.
The Gospel of St. Mark recounts it thusly:
“Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tabernacles:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice,
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.”
For disciples of Jesus, the message is clear: we must honor the the Law and the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, even as we come understand them through the primary lens of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh; for Elijah and Moses receded into the cloud, leaving Jesus alone with his disciples as the voice of God said “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Thus, all Holy Scripture must be read through the lens of the Word of God made flesh, Jesus, and that lens is the revelation that God is love...self-emptying, self-revealing love.
O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
