6 August
The Transfiguration
Today we celebrate the occasion on which Christ, as he was beginning
to teach his disciples that he must die and rise again, revealed
himself in shining splendour to Peter, James, and John. Moses and
Elijah were present, and are taken to signify that the Law and the
Prophets testify that Jesus is the promised Messiah. God the Father
also proclaimed him as such, saying, "This is my Beloved Son. Listen
to him." For a moment the veil is drawn aside, and men still on
earth are permitted a glimpse of the heavenly reality, the glory of
the Eternal Triune God.
In the East, the Festival of the Transfiguration has been
celebrated since the late fourth century, and is one of the twelve
great festivals of the East Orthodox calendar. In the West it was
observed after the ninth century by some monastic orders, and in
1457 Pope Callistus III ordered its general observance. At the time
of the Reformation, it was still felt in some countries to be a
"recent innovation", and so was not immediately taken over into most
Reformation calendars, but is now found on most calendars that have
been revised in the twentieth century.
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