The Second Sunday of Lent brings us the Transfiguration. If we treat it as strictly factual we miss the rich symbolism of the episode. In describing it as a ‘vision’, Matthew helps us to view it in the context of Old Testament revelation. The Transfiguration can be viewed as the other side of the predictions of the Passion to come and of the call to follow Christ in his sufferings. It reminds us of the glory of the resurrection.

Jesus took Peter, James and John reminds us of the mystery of the people whom God chooses. Peter has just been told that he is the rock on which I will build my Church, but Jesus takes James and John along too. He takes them up a high mountain, the place of revelation. On the mountain, Moses, the lawgiver, received the revelation of the God of the Covenant and the tables of the Law, which would help the people of the Covenant to live in his love. On the mountain, Elijah, the great prophet, discovered God in the gentle breeze as God of tenderness and calm. In that company, we are reminded, Jesus is lawgiver of the New Covenant, fulfilling prophecy.

I will make three tents is perhaps a reference to the Jewish feast of Tents or Tabernacles (a word which comes from the translation of ‘tent’ into Latin). This feast celebrates the passage of the Chosen People through the desert when they lived in tents. During the feast people lived in tents for eight days, awaiting the coming of the Messiah with frequent singing of the psalms that celebrate the messianic promises and imploring God to hasten his coming.

As at Jesus’ baptism, this God of tenderness speaks: “This is my beloved Son; with Him I am well pleased”, which is referred to later in the New Testament: “We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain” [2 Peter 1:18]. My beloved Son designates Jesus as the Messiah, a title given to the king, and it was as a king descended from David that the Messiah was expected to come, as Isaiah indicates [42:1]. Listen to him would have reminded those familiar with Sacred Scripture of the words of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy: “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people: you shall heed such a prophet” [18:15]. The bright cloud in the Old Testament was a vehicle of revelation, indicating the presence of God, since no one could see the face of God and live. It is no surprise that, faced with the presence of the Almighty, the apostles are seized with fear. When Isaiah heard: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord” he could only respond: “Woe is me! I am lost . . . for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” [3:5]. As so often, Jesus eases fear and reassures by touch. Then he asks them not to divulge what they have seen, because people will not be able to take it in until they have experienced Jesus raised from the dead. In this way Jesus confirms that he is the promised Messiah.