In six days (the very number denoting perfect fulfillment)^[1] the whole world, this perfect work of art, was made.^[2] But there is One who transcends all the things of the world, all that belongs to the six days. Being eternal, this One beholds not only what is seen in time, but what is not seen and is eternal. If therefore any one of us wishes to be taken by Jesus, and led up by him into the high mountain, and be deemed worthy to witness his transfiguration apart, let him pass beyond the six days, because he no longer beholds the things which are seen, nor longer loves the world, nor the things in the world.^[3]

Leaving out of their calculation the day on which Jesus spoke these words, and the day on which he exhibited that memorable spectacle on the mount, they have regarded simply the intermediate days, and have used the expression, after six days. But Luke, reckoning in the extreme day at either end, that is to say, the first day and the last day, has made it after eight days,^[1] in accordance with that mode of speech in which the part is put for the whole.

The Lord who is beyond measure measures out nourishment to all,

adapting to our eyes the sight of himself,

to our hearing his voice,

His blessing to our appetite,

His wisdom to our tongue. HYMNS

He disclosed, it is said, a glimpse of the Godhead. He manifested to them the God who was dwelling among them.^[1]

Listen spiritually that it is not said simply, he was transfigured, but with a certain necessary addition, which Matthew and Mark have recorded; for, according to both, he was transfigured before them^[1] [in the presence of Peter, James and John]. The text suggests that it would be possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some of his disciples, and not before others. But if you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus as seen by those who went up into the lofty mountain apart from the others, view with me the Jesus in the Gospels. Remember that Jesus was more literally apprehended by those below according to the flesh^[2]—by those who did not go up to the lofty mountain of wisdom, who did not go up through words and deeds that are uplifting. But there were others by whom he became known no longer after the flesh, but in his divinity. To this all the Gospels attest. He was beheld in the form of God according to their spiritual knowledge.^[3] It was before these who ascended and in their presence that Jesus was transfigured, not to those who remained below.

But when he is transfigured, his face also shines as the sun that he may be manifested to the children of light who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,^[1] and are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the sons of day, and walk honestly as in the day.^[2] Being manifested, he will shine unto them not simply as the sun, but as demonstrated to be the sun of righteousness.^[3]

What this sun is to the eyes of the flesh, that is the Lord to the eyes of the heart.

Perhaps the fullers upon the earth refers to the wise men of this world who cultivate the art of rhetoric. They imagine that their own poor thoughts might appear bright and clean because of their speech, adorned as it is with verbal bleaching. But the One who shows his own garments glistening to those who have ascended, and even brighter than any bleaching could ever make them, is the Word, who exhibits in the expression of the Scriptures (which are despised by many) the glistening of his thoughts, when the raiment of Jesus becomes white and dazzling.^[1]

How did he shine? Tell me. Exceedingly. And how do you express this? He shone as the sun.^[1] As the sun, you say? Yes. Why the sun? Because I do not know any other luminary more brilliant. And he was white, you say, as snow?^[2] Why as snow? Because I do not know any other substance which is whiter. But he did not strictly speaking shine merely as the sun shines daily. This is proved by what follows: the disciples fell to the ground.^[3] If he had shone as the sun daily shines, the disciples would not have fallen, for they saw the sun every day, and did not fall. But inasmuch as he shone more brilliantly than the sun or snow, they, being unable to bear the splendor, fell to the earth.

If anyone asks what the Lord’s garments, which became white as snow, represent typologically, we can properly understand them as pointing to the church of his saints [who] . . . at the time of the resurrection will be purified from every blemish of iniquity and at the same time from all the darkness of mortality.^[1] Concerning the Lord’s garments the Evangelist Mark remarks that they became as bright as snow, such as no bleacher on earth can make them white.^[2] It is evident to everyone that there is no one who can live on earth without corruption and sorrow. So it is evident to all who are wise, although heretics deny it, that there is no one who can live on earth without being touched by some sin. But what a cleansing agent (that is, a teacher of souls or some extraordinary purifier of his body) cannot do on earth, that the Lord will do in heaven. He will purify the church, which is his clothing, from all defilement of flesh and spirit,^[3] renewing [her] besides with eternal blessedness and light of flesh and spirit.

When the Son of God in his transfiguration is so understood and beheld as if his face were a sun, and his clothes white as the light itself, immediately it will appear to those who behold Jesus in this way that he is conversing with Moses (the law) and Elijah (the prophets). By means of the device of synecdoche^[1] he is holding conversation not with one prophet only, but symbolically with all the prophets.

For both the one and the other had courageously withstood a tyrant: one the Egyptian, the other Ahab; and this on behalf of a people who were both ungrateful and disobedient. . . . And both were simple unlearned men. One was slow of speech and weak of voice.^[1] The other a rough countryman. And both were men who had despised the riches of this world. For Moses possessed nothing. And Elijah had nothing but his sheepskin. GOSPEL OF ST.

Moses and Elijah, who talked with the Lord on the mountain, and spoke about his passion and resurrection, represent the oracles of the law and prophets which were fulfilled in the Lord. . . . The figures of Moses and Elijah embrace all who are finally to reign with the Lord.^[1] By Moses, who died and was buried, we can understand those who at the judgment are going to be raised up from death.^[2] By Elijah, on the other hand, who has not yet paid the debt of death,^[3] we understand those who are going to be found alive in the flesh at the judge’s coming.

In most holy contemplation we shall be ever filled with the sight of God shining gloriously around us as once it shone for the disciples at the divine transfiguration.^[1] And there we shall be, our minds away from passion and from earth, and we shall have a conceptual gift of light from him and, somehow, in a way we cannot know, we shall be united with him and, our understanding carried away, blessedly happy, we shall be struck by his blazing light. Marvelously, our minds will be like those in the heavens above.

O Peter, even though you have ascended the mountain, even though you see Jesus transfigured, even though his garments are white; nevertheless, because Christ has not yet suffered for you, you are still unable to know the truth.

It seems to me that this cloud is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Naturally, a tent gives shelter and overshadows those who are within; the cloud, therefore, serves the purpose of the tents. O Peter, you who want to set up three tents, have regard for the one tent of the Holy Spirit who shelters us equally.

In his baptism he identified him, saying: You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.^[1] He declared him on the mount, saying: This is my beloved Son, hear him.^[2] He declared him in his passion, when the sun hid itself, and sea and earth trembled. He declared him in the centurion, who said: Truly this was the Son of God.^[3]

Do not set up tents equally for the Lord and his servants. This is my beloved Son; hear him,^[1] my Son, not Moses or Elijah. They are servants; this is the Son. This is my Son, of my nature, of my substance, abiding in me, and he is all that I am. This is my beloved Son. They, too, indeed are dear to me, but he is my beloved; hear him, therefore. They proclaim and teach him, but you, hear him. He is the Lord and master, they are companions in service. Moses and Elijah speak of Christ; they are your fellow servants. He is the Lord; hear him.

Moses was there, and Elijah. The voice did not say: These are my beloved sons. For One only is the Son; others are adopted. It is he that is commended to them: He from whom the law and prophets derive their glory.

So He bound them to silence. Furthermore he spoke of his passion as though it were the reason why he asked them to be silent. Note that he did not tell them that they must never tell this to anyone. Instead they should not tell it until he had risen from the dead. In this respect he was silent as to what was painful, and spoke only of what was joyful. GOSPEL OF ST.

Note the extreme accuracy of [the prophetic] expression.^[1] He does not say He will restore the heart of the son to the father, but of the father to the son.^[2] GOSPEL OF ST.

Then—when? When he was confessed to be the Christ, the Son of God. Again on the mountain, when he had shown them the marvelous vision, and the prophets had been discoursing of his glory, he reminded them of his passion. GOSPEL OF ST.

Christ called John Elijah, not because he was Elijah, but because he was fulfilling the ministry of that prophet. GOSPEL OF ST.

These spirits therefore, having lost the simplicity of their created being and the primitive fineness of their nature, are now clogged and laden with iniquity. Utterly undone themselves, they make it their whole business to undo others, for companions in misery. Being depraved themselves, they would infuse the same depravity into others. . . . When we command them by the one true God, the wretches, bitterly against their will, fall into horrible shiverings, and either spring straightaway from the bodies they possess, or vanish by degrees, according to the faith of the patient or the grace of the physician.

Though it was the boy who fell on the ground, it was the devil in him who was in anguish. The possessed boy was merely convulsed, while the usurping spirit was being convicted by the awesome judge. The captive was detained, but the captor was punished. Through the wrenching of the human body, the punishment of the devil was made manifest.

Lacking the premise of original sin, what possible cause can be imagined in this youth why he should since childhood have been vexed with this most fierce demonic possession? It seems clear that no actual sin of his own could have elicited this. So let the catholic remember and confess that no one is born into this world free from the taint of the first transgression.^[1] Let him implore the grace of God through which he might be delivered from this body of death through Jesus Christ our Lord.^[2]

The Scripture indicates that this man was extremely weak in faith, as is evident at four points: from Christ’s saying that All things are possible to him that believes;^[1] from the saying of the man himself as he approached, Help me in my unbelief;^[2] from Christ’s commanding the devil to enter no more into him;^[3] and from the man’s saying again to Christ, If you can.^[4] THE GOSPEL OF ST.

In saying, When the Son of Man shall come, shall he find faith upon the earth? our Lord spoke of that faith which is fully matured, which is so seldom found on earth. The church’s faith is full, for who would come here if there were no fullness of faith? And whose faith when fully matured would not move mountains?^[1] Look at the apostles themselves, who would not have left all they had, trodden under foot this world’s hope, and followed the Lord, if they had not had proportionally great faith. And yet if they had already experienced a completely matured faith, they would have not said to the Lord, Increase our faith.^[2] Rather we find here an emerging faith, which is not yet full faith, in that father who when he had presented to the Lord his son to be cured of an evil spirit and was asked whether he believed, answered, Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief.^[3] Lord, says he, I believe. I believe: therefore there was faith; but help me in my unbelief: therefore there was not full faith.^[4]

Where faith fails, prayer perishes. For who prays for that in which he does not believe? . . . So then in order that we may pray, let us believe,^[1] and let us pray that this same faith by which we pray may not falter.

Seeing that his faith was being driven by the waves of unbelief on the rocks which would cause a fearful shipwreck,^[1] he asks of the Lord an aid to his faith, saying Lord, help me in my unbelief.^[2] So thoroughly did the apostles and those who live in the gospel realize that everything which is good is brought to completion by the aid of the Lord, and not imagine that they could preserve their faith unharmed by their own strength or free will, that they prayed that it might be helped and granted to them by the Lord.^[3]

So great is the virtue of faith that even those who refuse to keep it still presume to praise it. Truly deservedly is faith extolled, for without it no good work is ever begun or completed.

As he revealed himself to him in the reality of his Godhead by his power to save, so he further exhibited to him the reality of his human nature by taking him by the hand.

Fasting is the weapon of choice for battling with the more dreadful demons.^[1] Should we be surprised if the expulsion of the spirit of iniquity requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?

The Lord himself consecrated his baptism by a forty days’ fast,^[1] and taught us that the more violent devils cannot be overcome except by prayer and fasting.