While Jesus was in Galilee, about one year before His Passion, He
manifested His glory to three of His most beloved disciples – the same
who were afterward witnesses of His Agony in the Garden: Peter and the
two sons of Zebedee, James, and John. He led them to the summit of
Mount Thabor, as it is generally believed – this mountain, situated on a
plain in Galilee, best answering the description of the evangelists. The
face of the Divine Savior became resplendent as the Sun and His garments
white as snow. Moses and Elias appeared at His side and conversed with
Him on the death He was to suffer at Jerusalem. Peter, in admiration,
exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” He then proposed to erect
three tents: one for the Savior, the other for Moses and the third for Elias.
While he yet spoke, a luminous cloud enveloped them and a voice was
heard proceeding for it: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased; hear Him.” The three Apostles fell prostrate; but Jesus touched
them and commanded them to arise. When they arose, the vision had
vanished, and Our Lord stood beside them in His ordinary guise. It was
meet that those who so soon should behold Jesus in the depths of the
humiliation to which His sacred humanity was to be subject in
Gethsemani, should catch a glimpse of that gloried humanity and of His
Divinity, that they might be strengthened against temptation.
PRAYER: O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration, of Thy Onlybegotten Son confirmed the sacraments of the faith by the testimony of the
fathers, and in the voice which came down from the shining cloud,
wondrously foreshowed the perfect adoption of sons: deign in Thy mercy,
to make us coheirs with this King of glory, and grant that we may be made
partakers of that same glory. Amen.
Lives of the Saints, Pages 303-304