We live in a world of suffering, a world broken and disintegrated, in which Christ's Transfiguration uncovers reality and reveals to our skeptical minds a new humanity that has either entered into the light of the Risen One or is still called to do so. Ever since Pentecost, the Transfiguration no longer takes place on Mount Tabor, but within every person who welcomes Christ, the image of the Father who sends the Spirit upon his beloved. Our darkness is removed to the extent that we become Christ-like.
The light enables us to assume our human condition, a condition that remains limited until our death, but is nonetheless restored in its essence as it awaits a "body of glory." The Transfiguration reminds us that for true disciples, tears, suffering, wounds of body and soul will all be transformed in the joy of the Resurrection. In the Transfiguration and through Christ's Resurrection - this "reverse Transfiguration" - we draw not only the strength to face every new day, but to
make every moment a "Eucharist," to be priest of the world, offering to God His own creation. The Transfiguration, whose presence at the heart of Christianity reveals its ultimate goal, is also at the heart of iconography, providing its fundamental themes of light and glory.
Michel Quenot, from
The Resurrection and the Icon, chapter 5, Icons Related to the Resurrection, Transfiguration
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