The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ
2 Peter 1:10-19; Matthew 17:1-9
Feast of our Lord. Holy Day of obligation
Read 2 Peter 1:10-19
There are some who say that Christianity is nothing other than a nice set of ideals taught by a great moral teacher some 2,000 years ago. ‘You are welcome to follow these teachings if you wish. However, these teachings, like bodily resurrection, cannot be accepted, because there are not true. They fail to meet the standards of modern-day science.’
The difficulty of these assertions against Christianity is that there are some very bad assumptions. For one, there is an assumption that all truth can only be demonstrated scientifically. This is not so – ask all the great philosophers before the scientific method of the western world was developed. A second assumption is that the teachings of Jesus are true but the miracles, the stupendous, marvellous events recorded in the New Testament, are not true. They make this assumption because any particular miracle cannot be replicated in laboratory conditions (perhaps it is because none of them is the Son of God).
Let us take for example the transfiguration of the Lord, the feast which we celebrate today. We hear of the event as described by Matthew in his Gospel. And we hear of Peter describing the very same event to those whom he wrote, explaining that there is a great glory to which we are called, that all started with our baptism, and it includes not only a spiritual resurrection but a bodily resurrection. What evidence is there? Peter saw with his own eyes the glory of God shining bodily through Jesus (and again after the resurrection of our Lord), and heard with his own ears the voice of the Father, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” But James and John also testified to it because they are included in the “we” to which Peter refers. And again, Matthew confirms this. There are four witnesses. Now, in a court of law, one witness may corroborate, but four witnesses who state the same thing gives evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the event must be true.
Friends, today is a day of rejoicing. We entered in the life of the Lord when we, body and soul, were washed in the waters of baptism. Let’s accept Peter’s exhortation to be mindful of our lives, to recognize the great call to glory, and already begin to live it now with our souls and our bodies.