The transfigured Jesus is shown to the disciples together with Moses and Elijah who, in Jewish tradition, represent the Law and the Prophets. In Jesus, these two great traditions reach their proper fulfilment. Moses and Elijah are also the two figures in the Hebrew scriptures who have direct, personal encounters with God.

Perhaps that affirms that the disciples encounter God in and through their encounter with Christ.

Peter is delighted by this glimpse of the glorified Christ and wants to commemorate the experience by building three tents. But the voice of God interrupts Peter’s request. God seems to say, ‘Forget about building tents, Peter, the important thing is to listen to my beloved Son’.

Through our deep attention to the word of God spoken in Jesus we remain in contact with the heart of God, allowing God’s love to transform and transfigure us and to ‘burst forth’ in goodness.

Being transfigured is a revolution of mind and heart driven by God’s Spirit and enabled by our open heartedness to God’s Word. When we are ‘shot through’ with the presence of God, God can be seen in, and experienced through, us.

It takes faith and perseverance to dare to allow ourselves to be tempted by the passion, hope and vision of God rather than our own desires and wants. It takes great faith to trust in God’s word to us. But if we do, the living word of the Chosen One forms in us the heart of God.