The Transfiguration is one of the really beautiful moments in the Gospel, before Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, when Jesus reveals his heavenly glory. He gives these three apostles, Peter, James and John, a glimpse of his majesty and his splendour as the Son of the Father and the second person of the Trinity.  

So many commentators say that the reason Jesus would do this for these three disciples in particular, is because they were about to follow the Lord to his death with all the confusion, fear and uncertainty that was going to mean for them. He gives them a sign of who he is so they have the strength and assurance, that even though they’re going to go through darkness and suffering, they’ve seen the light and they can hope in that.  

While this was a very special encounter that Jesus only gave the first three of his apostles, this is how Jesus acts with each of us because he calls all of us in this life of discipleship, to follow him through trials and challenges.  

The way of being a Christian is the way of the cross. Jesus leads us into this, but he doesn’t expect us to go into it blindly, he doesn’t expect us to hope in something that we haven’t seen. As disciples, we should expect that God will reveal something of his glory, his love and his power to strengthen us, and to give us something to cling to when we follow him in our trials and sufferings.  

The other reason Jesus gives us this real taste of his glory and love is because as disciples we are also called to witness our faith to others. In the Second Letter of St Peter, we hear St Peter talking about this great gift of faith and that it’s not any “cleverly invented myths that we’re repeating to you when we talk about Jesus” (2 Peter 1.16). He says, we have seen this majesty for ourselves.  

So when someone asks us why we follow Jesus or why we’re Christian or why we go to church, we can say that we know the Lord, that we’ve seen the wonder of God’s love and the wonder of his power and majesty in our own life. In this, we’re not just saying Christianity seems like a good idea, but that we have truly encountered the Lord personally.  

We should be encouraged to seek that side of the Lord, particularly if our faith isn’t strong or if we’re in darkness. God wants to give us that revealing insight, that glimpse of his glory so that we can be strengthened. And when we’ve drawn close to the Lord and when he reveals something of his majesty, glory and his love to us we can share that with others as the disciples did.