SATURDAY, AUGUST 6: Christians today remember one of the most spectacular miracles in the Bible: the Transfiguration of Jesus. Three of the four Gospels report the miraculous event “on the mountain,” during which Jesus transfigured and became radiant with white clothing. (Wikipedia has details.) Accounts detail the journey of Jesus and three disciples to an unnamed mountain, where Jesus beams with light and appears next to Moses and Elijah. While surrounded by prophets, Jesus is called “Son” by a voice that seems to come from the sky, and the disciples assume this voice to be that of God the Father. Thomas Aquinas noted that this singular event displayed the “perfection of life in Heaven.” (Hear this event in music with help from Vatican Radio.)
Although the Mount of Transfiguration is never named specifically, tradition holds that it is Mount Tabor; a church was built on Mount Tabor in the fourth century and dedicated on Aug. 6. Eastern Christians have marked the Transfiguration of the Lord since the fourth century (Get details at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America), and Western Christians began four centuries later (Check out American Catholic for more), but no one can seem to precisely describe what Peter, James and John saw.
