The Glory of Mount Tabor

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, August 6th, 2023:
Feast of the Transfiguration

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Matthew
17.1-9

Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

We come again to the Feast of the Transfiguration, and I’m trembling a little before the task of reflecting with you on this great and august mystery. I suspect that more ink has been spilled in Christian libraries and monasteries on this Scripture passage than on many other passages, and that the symbolism and theology found in this Gospel story has been reflected and expounded upon by innumerable saints and fathers of the Church. Besides all of this, the reading also speaks for itself; the same Spirit which overshadowed the Apostles on the mountaintop will illuminate our hearts as we seek His face in this Scripture passage. So today, I would just like to share with you one simple way that one saint taught me to experience the glory of the Transfiguration more regularly in my daily life. To get there, we’ll turn to a recent saint: Pope John Paul II. 

In the year 2002, when John Paul II discerned that it was good for the whole Church to receive another set of Mysteries of the Rosary, he wrote an Apostolic Letter called The Rosary of the Virgin Mary. I can’t recommend this short letter enough. In it, he introduced the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, which reflect upon the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between his Baptism and his Passion, in which the Transfiguration is the fourth mystery. In his explanation of each part of the rosary, Pope John Paul II beautifully reflected on the “Glory Be” prayer which comes at the end of each decade. 

Now, without realizing it, I had fallen prey to an understanding of the Glory Be which you may hold as well. I saw it as a mere punctuation mark at the end of the decade: you finish meditating on the mystery with the ten Hail Mary’s, and then you need something to say before moving on to the next decade, so say the Glory Be!

John Paul II knows better than this! He taught that the Glory Be prayer at the end of each decade is a small moment of Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. He writes: “To the extent that meditation on the mystery is attentive and profound, and to the extent that it is enlivened – from one Hail Mary to another – by love for Christ and for Mary, the glorification of the Trinity at the end of each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to come: ‘It is good for us to be here!’” (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, par. 34). 

This letter from Saint John Paul II, and this reflection in particular, have truly helped me to return with renewed devotion to this sacred meditative prayer. The rosary has so much more beauty and mystery and glory to offer than I had first realized! As we reflect upon the Trinitarian manifestation of the Transfiguration this weekend, it is my prayer that we will return to that mountain top each time we get to pray this most exalted prayer: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!



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Sr. Angela Burnham

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