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Choose a topic from Part 3a:

• The Incarnation
• Our Blessed Lady
• Our Lord Jesus Christ
  • 31. Our Lord's Body
  • 32. The Conception of Christ
  • 33. The Mode of Our Lord's Conception
  • 34. The Perfection of Our Lord Before His Birth
  • 35. The Nativity of Christ
  • 36. The Manifestation of the New-Born Christ
  • 37. Legal Observances Regarding the Christ Child
  • 38. The Baptism of St. John the Baptist
  • 39. The Baptizing of Christ by St. John the Baptist
  • 40. Our Lord's Life
  • 41. The Temptation in the Desert
  • 42. The Preaching of Christ
  • 43. The Miracles of Christ: In General
  • 44. Miracles of Christ: In Particular
  • 45. The Transfiguration
  • 46. The Passion of Christ
  • 47. The Effecting Cause of the Passion
  • 48. The Efficacy of the Passion of Christ
  • 49. Actual Effects of the Passion of Christ
  • 50. The Death of Our Lord
  • 51. The Burial of Our Lord
  • 52. The Descent Into Hell
  • 53. The Resurrection
  • 54. The Risen Christ
  • 55. The Manifestation of the Risen Christ
  • 56. Causal Power of the Resurrection
  • 57. The Ascension
  • 58. Our Lord at the Father's Right Hand
  • 59. Our Lord's Power as Judge
• The Sacraments in General
• Baptism
• Confirmation
• The Holy Eucharist
• Penance

45. The Transfiguration

1. In St. Matthew's Gospel (chap. 17) we read that ourLord was transfigured in the sight of his apostles Peter, James,and John. "And he was transfigured before them. And his facedid shine as the sun, and his garments became white as snow."Thus the three apostles had a glimpse of such glory as would cometo them after their life of fidelity to God, through hardships andtrials. Our Lord had told the apostles of his coming Passion beforehe gave them this encouraging experience of seeing theTransfiguration. Christ as man had the glory of the beatific visionfrom the first instant of his existence in Mary's womb. But hewas not to have the "overflow of heavenly glory into hisbody" until his Resurrection from the dead.

2. In the Transfiguration, our Lord showed by way ofanticipation the clarity of his bodily glory. This was theessential clarity of true heavenly glory, here manifested in a newmode, that is, as miraculously produced. In the glory following theResurrection, the clarity of the glorified body is not a miracle;it belongs to the glorified body as such.

3. Our Lord chose as witnesses to the Transfiguration, notonly the three apostles, but Moses and Elias who appearedvisibly.

4. As at the baptism of Christ by St. John, so here on themountain of Transfiguration, the voice of God the Father proclaimedthe divine Sonship of Christ. The baptism of Christ by Johnforetold the true baptism which brings grace; the Transfigurationforetold thetriumph of grace in glory. Both grace and gloryare available to man, but only through the Son of God who becameman. Hence it is notably suitable that the divinity of Christshould be divinely proclaimed on these two occasions: the baptismby John, and the Transfiguration on the mount.

"Lord, take from me everything that hinders me from going to You. give me all that will lead me to You. Take me from myself and give me to Yourself."
St Nicholas Flue

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"Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars."
Thomas á Kempis

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"Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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