In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It took place high atop a mountain and only three people saw what took place.
Today, we celebrate a major feast day that our ancestors called “Vartavar.” It’s proper name is “The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Transfiguration was a stunning moment filled with light and glory. The Light and Glory of Heaven not only surrounded Jesus, but it emanated from within Him. That is the Transfiguration.
That Transfiguration proved to Peter, James and John that He was the One the world had been waiting for. It was the moment when the Divinity of Christ overshadowed the Humanity of Christ. All this took place as crowds of people came to hear Him teach and preach and heal the people of the land. They came to see Him and touch Him or be Touched by Him.
So after six days of this, He instructed three of His disciples to go with Him to a nearby mountain for rest and prayer. What He didn’t tell them at this point was that they were about to see something that no one on earth had ever seen before. They were about to experience the Holy Trinity. They were about to experience God—the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together. As was read a moment ago, these three disciples witnessed Jesus Christ standing inside the Kingdom of Heaven. At that moment, the three disciples saw Him as the Son of God who always was and always will be. They saw a “peek” into Heaven.
The three disciples followed Jesus up the mountain to find peace and to get away from the noise of village life and find a quiet moment for pray and when they did that, they saw the Glory of God. So, we should ask ourselves on this feast day: “What is the Glory of God?”
The Glory that God promises is very different than the glory that the world promises. The Glory of God promises is a Glory felt from within. The Glory of the Soul united with God in both the good days and bad days of life.
This is the Glory that escapes so many people because they are told—we are told—to look everywhere else but up to find this kind of Glory, but the Glory that God offers is the only kind of Glory that will go with us into the Gates of Heaven and not fade away or grow old or be stolen from us.
The Glory that Christ promises lasts forever. This is one of the more important messages of this feast day celebration. God waits every day for each of us to pause for a moment and follow Him to a quiet place where He will show us how to achieve true peace in this world, how to achieve lasting glory in a world that repeatedly tells us to place our trust in the temporary things of this life because He knows that too many of us will become tempted and distracted by the temporary glories of this world and “blur out” the Glory of His World that will last forever and ever and never fade away.
So, let’s leave here today asking ourselves:
- What comes to mind first?
- What kind of Glory do you seek or do your children seek?
- Which does it reflect more—the Glory of God or the glory of this world?
The Feast of Vartavar invites us to follow God into never ending glory. When you think of Glory, what comes to mind?
Amen.