Christ, My Light And Salvation: Psalm 27
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD
THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, Moses and Elias: Who appeared in Glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9.29-30).
From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Master "began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. .. and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor do the others understand it better than he does. Jesus is telling them, "It's time for me to head towards Jerusalems' cross; for the hour has come to begin my exodus into heavenly glory, an exodus which must pass through the door of pain, misery, and death.”
This is the context in which the mysterious episode of Jesus' Transfiguration takes place on a high mountain before the witnesses he chose: Peter, James, and John. Jesus' face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses and Elijah appear. Luke records the three men speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem." Peter, in awe of the vision before him and enraptured by the presence of heaven, is moved to speak, telling our Lord that three booths should be built, that they might dwell in the presence of heavenly Glory with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Suddenly, a bright shining cloud envelopes them all, and a voice from heaven says: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?" So begins the 27th psalm appointed for this feast of the Transfiguration. By appointing this psalm for this feast, holy mother church is telling us that the Lord of Light is non-other than the Lord Jesus Christ: he is our light and salvation. Pairing this psalm with the Transfiguration also shows us the definitive image of the illuminated Christ- the transfigured Lord in all his Glory is the definitive icon and image of the Lord of Light. So when we think of Christ as our light, we are to recall the beauty of the Transfiguration as recorded in the Gospels.
You see, Glory shone upon Moses, but Glory shone from within Jesus. His body radiated divine Glory from the inside out because Jesus is a perfect union (a hypostasis) of humanity and Divinity; he is the Son of Man born into this world through a virgin womb and eternally the Son of God who has no beginning, neither does he have an end. Imagine, if you can, how beautiful this scene would have been (we're talking about the Glory of heaven appearing on earth in the person of Jesus Christ). Matthew describes it this way,
”And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" (Matt 17.1-9).
St. Mark writes, "And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them" (Mark 9.2-9).
Finally, Luke says, "And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white" (Luke 9.29).
Surely, the Lord was transformed into that Glory with which he would come afterward in his Kingdom. The change is accentuated in splendor. It did not diminish his outward appearance; his body had become spiritually charged; even his garments were changed, which were white to such a high degree that, as Mark the Evangelist says, "his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them."
I want us to comprehend the magnitude of what those three disciples witnessed at the foot of the mount: they saw heaven on earth and all of its Glory in the transfigured person of Christ. With such heavenly realities unfolding within the mundane and earthly realm, who wouldn't be seized by a yearning to remain amidst the Glory of God on earth, among the company of the prophets, filled with a fearful joy as Peter, James, and John are taken into the shekhinah glory cloud, enveloped within heaven? No wonder Peter wanted to stay there, "Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." Awashed in such heavenly wonder, Peter desired to remain with the glorified Christ to look upon his face, beholding heaven on earth. And we would do well to desire the same.
"One thing have I desired of the LORD which I will require; even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord." The psalmist is directing this desire to dwell with our Lord towards the work of prayer, where in which our deepest longings for intimacy with the illuminated Christ (for he was glorified by the resurrection and raised into heaven) and attaining joy in worship is found by abiding in the consolation and light of his Sanctuary through prayer: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles.”
We find no fault in Peter's desire to build three booths but in numbering Jesus as one of Israel’s great prophets. He did not realize (at that time) the supremacy of Christ, who is greater than the Law and the Prophets, Jesus, the greater Moses, the greater Elijah, the Alpha, and the Omega. The writer of Hebrews says,
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1.1-2).
"One thing have I required; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord." We were illumined by Christ in our baptism, when by faith we were brought into the Glory of Jesus Christ, into his resurrected body, enveloped if you will, as Peter and the others were within the cloud on the Holy Mount. And prayer is how we remain with Christ. In fact, prayer is how we are transformed and will be transfigured. Listen closely again to St. Luke's transfiguration account: "And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white." Jesus was Transfigured through prayer "while he was praying.”
Remember, Jesus was discussing his exodus with Moses and Elijah; he was contemplating the death which lay before him. And he prayed. Perhaps he prayed Psalm 27,
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? Though an host of men were laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid; and though there rose up war against me, yet I will put my trust in him (Psalm 27.1-2).
The prayer of faith is the prayer that transforms. Faith turns to God in prayer and prays in the face of adversities and trials. Faith prays within the strength of the Holy Spirit with humility and quiet confidence: "Whom then shall I fear? Of whom then shall I be afraid?" Faith asks in prayer,
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8.31-35)
And faith answers: "The Lord is my light and my salvation."
Beloved the transfigured and glorified Christ is our assurance that every earthly and spiritual enemy is powerless over those who abide in the illuminated Lord because if we are in him, we have already overcome death and are inheritors of eternal beatitude in the Kingdom to come. The Lord of Light has transferred us into the Kingdom of Light, for as Peters says, "At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (1 Pt 2:9-10). "For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Friends, God’s face is the point of arrival on the spiritual quest of our prayer: to "contemplate the Lord's goodness" (cf. v. 13).
In the Psalms, to "seek the face of the Lord" is literary imagery for entering into the Temple to celebrate and experience communion with the God of Israel. You remember that the table of Showbread stood inside the Temple. Showbread (Hebrew: לחם הפנים Leḥem haPānīm, literally: "Bread of the Faces") was the face of God, his presence in the Temple. Prayer, especially the Eucharistic liturgy, is how we pursue and behold the face of Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion. And, although we don't see him perfectly within the bread and wine, we, unlike Moses with unveiled faces, behold the Glory of the Lord (in prayer, in reading the Gospels, and mysteriously through partaking of his most precious body and blood). The Lord of Light has revealed his face to us in the Eucharist to have and behold until he comes again in the fullness of his Glory. And through prayer and partaking of the sacrament, we are being transformed into his same image from one degree of Glory to another.
Dear Christians, I exhort and encourage each of us to give ourselves to prayer, asking for grace to incite within our hearts the desire to be with our Lord Jesus Christ, a deep longing for intimacy with the Lord of Light, who is our salvation. He has revealed his face to us by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us seek his face in prayer, trusting him with all that we have and all that we are. And when we find him, and he speaks into our souls and circumstances, then may we trust and heed the words of our Father, "This is my beloved Son; hear him." Amen+
