Our Parish Name
Transfiguration of the Lord
All three Synoptic Gospels provide noteworthy similarity in their description of how the Transfiguration took place (Mark 9:2-10, Matthew 17:1-9, and Luke 9:28-36). The gospels situate the event between Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Messiah and the first prediction of his passion and death. Additional reference to this pivotal moment in the life of Jesus and his disciples comes when Peter describes himself as an eyewitness to the “sovereign majesty” of Jesus in his second letter (2 Peter 1:16-18).
Tradition identifies the holy mountain where the Transfiguration was revealed as Mount Tabor. This uniquely beautiful mountain rises to a height of 1,843 feet and lies in the southern portion of Galilee, which is in the north of Israel. Mount Tabor is situated at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley which is just 5 miles east of Nazareth and 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee.
Peter’s eagerness to set up three booths or tents links the Transfiguration to the Jewish festival of Tabernacles known as Sukkot. Like all Jewish feasts, this harvest festival contains three key dimensions. It celebrates creation, remembers God’s saving action in history, and fosters hope for the day we will truly meet the long-awaited Lord and Messiah.
The majestic panorama of nature atop a high mountain connects Peter, James, and John with all of creation. The appearance of the patriarch Moses and the prophet Elijah binds them more closely with their ancestors in faith through the saving history contained within the Law and the Prophets. Finally, the transfigured Jesus gives the three disciples a privileged glimpse of the fullness which is yet to come, now that they have professed him to be the Christ, their Lord and Messiah.
The Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord each year on August 6. This is a time of great rejoicing since the springtime seeds of creation have now been “transfigured” into the fullness of fruit, flower, and field. The Second Sunday of Lent, roughly 40 days before Easter, is yet another time in the year when the Church hears the account of the Transfiguration. Together with the gospel passage from the First Sunday of Lent—the Temptation of Jesus in the desert—the Church reflects at the start of each Lent on the two distinct but inseparable natures of Jesus the Christ: his divinity and his humanity.
In October 2002, Pope John Paul II included the Transfiguration when he issued his apostolic letter The Rosary of the Virgin and introduced the new Luminous Mysteries or “Mysteries of Light” to the Catholic Rosary. These mysteries focus on the public ministry of Jesus and bridge the period of Jesus’ life between the Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries. The five new mysteries are the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist.
When Saint Thomas Aquinas reflected on the Transfiguration he saw it as the way Jesus revealed to his disciples the splendor of his beauty for the purpose of hope for the future. His transfiguration inspires believers who profess to be his disciples yet today. This decisive event helps believers aspire to the day in which they, too, will be transfigured in glory, just as Jesus was on Mount Tabor. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body
(Philippians 3:21).
Tradition identifies the holy mountain where the Transfiguration was revealed as Mount Tabor. This uniquely beautiful mountain rises to a height of 1,843 feet and lies in the southern portion of Galilee, which is in the north of Israel. Mount Tabor is situated at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley which is just 5 miles east of Nazareth and 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee.
Peter’s eagerness to set up three booths or tents links the Transfiguration to the Jewish festival of Tabernacles known as Sukkot. Like all Jewish feasts, this harvest festival contains three key dimensions. It celebrates creation, remembers God’s saving action in history, and fosters hope for the day we will truly meet the long-awaited Lord and Messiah.
The majestic panorama of nature atop a high mountain connects Peter, James, and John with all of creation. The appearance of the patriarch Moses and the prophet Elijah binds them more closely with their ancestors in faith through the saving history contained within the Law and the Prophets. Finally, the transfigured Jesus gives the three disciples a privileged glimpse of the fullness which is yet to come, now that they have professed him to be the Christ, their Lord and Messiah.
The Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord each year on August 6. This is a time of great rejoicing since the springtime seeds of creation have now been “transfigured” into the fullness of fruit, flower, and field. The Second Sunday of Lent, roughly 40 days before Easter, is yet another time in the year when the Church hears the account of the Transfiguration. Together with the gospel passage from the First Sunday of Lent—the Temptation of Jesus in the desert—the Church reflects at the start of each Lent on the two distinct but inseparable natures of Jesus the Christ: his divinity and his humanity.
In October 2002, Pope John Paul II included the Transfiguration when he issued his apostolic letter The Rosary of the Virgin and introduced the new Luminous Mysteries or “Mysteries of Light” to the Catholic Rosary. These mysteries focus on the public ministry of Jesus and bridge the period of Jesus’ life between the Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries. The five new mysteries are the Baptism of Jesus, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist.
When Saint Thomas Aquinas reflected on the Transfiguration he saw it as the way Jesus revealed to his disciples the splendor of his beauty for the purpose of hope for the future. His transfiguration inspires believers who profess to be his disciples yet today. This decisive event helps believers aspire to the day in which they, too, will be transfigured in glory, just as Jesus was on Mount Tabor. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body
(Philippians 3:21).