Eyewitnesses

08-06-2017Weekly Reflection

Today, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, is a day of eyewitness accounts. The first, a vision reported by the prophet Daniel, was well known to Jesus and his apostles. The vision account was written in quite mystical and figurative language. It is a vision of heaven, powerful and memorable. There are flames of fire, burning wheels, the Ancient One, and a Son of Man. Clearly, Daniel saw something. But was it a dream? Was it real? Was it merely a clever myth?

Peter wants no such confusion about his vision! We are told in Matthew’s Gospel what he and his friends James and John saw when they went up on the mountain with Jesus one day. Jesus warned the three witnesses to tell no one until “the Son of Manhas been raised from the dead” (Matthew 17:9).Lest readers of one of the Gospels discount the story or simply write it off as a pious myth, Peter gives his own account of the Transfiguration of Jesus in his second letter to the church. He writes with authority, as an eye witness. He reports this message from God concerning Jesus:“This is my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” and he assures us that the message is “altogether reliable”(2Peter1: 17,19).