TJ The Transfiguration had a purpose also in relation to the disciples. It was designed to reconcile them to the incredible and repulsive idea of Messiah's sufferings by revealing to them the glories that should follow. What did they hear as they listened to the converse betwixt those two glorified saints who bore the greatest names on Israel's roll of honour ? They heard them talking of " the decease," or, as it is in Greek, " the exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." In the judgment of Moses and Elijah that issue, which seemed to the disciples an in-
1 Canon Scott Holland.
346 THE TRANSFIGURATION
tolerable ignominy and a crushing disaster, was a splendid triumph, like the mighty deliverance which God had wrought for Israel when He brought her by the hand of Moses out of the land of bondage and made her a free nation. It is very significant that in the copies of St. Luke's Gospel which were in use in St. Clirysostoin's day, this sentence ran: "They spake of the glory which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." And such was the conception of her Lord's sufferings which was by and by revealed to the Church. " We behold Jesus," it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "by reason of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour." x
He taketh us
On a high mountain, nor forsaketh us,
But turneth round upon us, glistening
In face and raiment, as He were a King.
In converse we discover at His side
Moses, Elias. ... He is glorified,
The Son of God : and Peter would abide
Forever with these three, and prays to rear
Three tabernacles. And the light grows drear.
Some sin is on us that no wise we wist;
We are closed up as in God's very fist;
We cannot see : only there floats above,
Rumbling and murmuring as an angry love,
Some element in havoc that doth press
Against the idle word that Peter said.
I know not by what stroke,
Beneath that awful cloak,
Elias and the Law-giver are brought
To nothingness in the Eternal Thought:
For presently we are allowed,
Through adumbrations of the cloud,
To hear the Father's Voice in its caress, As if from Chaos sped Toward that beloved Head —
Jealous and watered as of rain-drop tears That Voice appears
In majesty on the cloud's breaking rim :
" Lo, this is my beloved Son ; hear Him ! "
The Lord is glorified; we see
His Body as in glory it will be — Nothing it lacks
Save of His Wounds the lovely tracks.
1 D. Smith, Tit* Days of Hit Flesh, 274.
ST. MATTHEW xvn. i, 2 347
I, John, who lay upon His bosom, I
Must testify I never saw Him — now I see Him in the Father and rejoice : He standeth meek amid His snows,
Flushed as a rose, For we have heard that Voice. How maiden in humility His brow ! Almost He whispereth " No word of this ! It is our secret : I should take amiss That of this hour one word be said, Peter, till I am risen from the dead." And, having spoken, He looks back on me, And in an instant my theology Is given; and I know the Word is God.1
IL
The Significance of the Transfiguration.
" He was transfigured before them." It was Tindale who first used this word to describe the change that took place, and we have adhered to it ever since. It is the best English word we have to explain the original but not the most exact. " Trans- formed " is more literal, while " metamorphosed " is simply the Greek word anglicized, but it is too foreign and cumbrous. The word "changed," which is the equivalent for the same word in Corinthians, is too weak. We do not have a word that is exactly suitable and sufficient. Moreover, it is clear that the evangelists felt themselves at a loss adequately to describe the glory that covered their Lord at that supreme hour. One evangelist says, " The fashion of his countenance was altered " — " became other " as the word may be literally translated ; while another says " it did shine as the sun," and we understand that the face shone with a radiance exquisitely bright. And not the face only ; the whole body apparently became radiant with light, so that it shone through the garments, making them appear " white as the light." St. Mark finds his illustration on the spot, " exceeding white as snow." St. Luke goes further and finds his semblance in the lightning.
1 Michael Field, Mystic Trees, 20.
348 THE TRANSFIGURATION
TI It is possible that this radiance may be related to the so- called aura, which the abnormally extended vision of many " psychics " perceives as a luminous cloud of greater or less brilliance surrounding the human body ; which varies in extent and intensity with the vitality of the individual, and which they often report as shining with a white or golden glory about those who live an exceptionally holy life. This phenomenon, once dismissed as a patent absurdity by all " rational " persons, is now receiving the serious attention of physicians and psychologists ; and it is well within the range of possibilities that the next generation of scholars will find it no more " supernatural " than radio-activity or the wireless telegraph. It is one of the best attested of the abnormal phenomena connected with the mystic type : the lives of the saints providing us with examples of it which range from the great and luminous glory to a slight enhancement of person- ality under the stress of spiritual joy.1