The church tradition tells us that Jesus's transfiguration took place on Mount Tabor. The mountain rises like a sugarloaf in a vast plain in the middle of Galilee. The mountain is exceedingly high and beautiful and was anciently covered with green trees and shrubs. Therewith Jesus was Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. While Jesus prayed, the scripture says that Jesus' whole body and face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow. The three apostles saw Moses and Elijah in his company. (Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36)
The transfiguration is not mentioned in the Gospel of John. However, the tradition refers to John 1:14 as a clue of the transfiguration and describes the whole of John's Gospel as the Gospel of the Transfiguration.
The most attractive feature of Jesus' transfiguration is that his whole body and face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow. Most academic commentaries explain away Jesus' face and body as luminous as the sun at the transfiguration. They describe it as a description of the spiritual illumination of the minds of the three disciples. They say that Jesus' face and body did not shine, but the disciples' eyes were opened to the truth.
While I am happy to acknowledge, the eyes of the disciples were opened to the truth. They were spiritually illuminated; I believe Jesus' face and body shone like the sun at this event. It seems such a betrayal of our faith only to spiritualise the fact of Jesus' transfiguration and deny that the Divine Light did not fall upon Jesus.
I have seen glimpses of this Divine and Heavenly Light many times. Today, I would like to share my most recent sighting of this light and its meaning for us.
In one event leading up to Thursday last week, I was blessed to see, which I believe, this light. The event was my participation in a live summit of an International Support Group for the Grieving the Loss of a Loved One. This summit took place on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in South Carolina, USA (Wednesday midnight in Melbourne).
Now, let me share what I witnessed at the summit. Eight of us formed The International Support Group at a Spirituality in Later Life conference in 2008. Since then, the membership has grown; we have almost eighty members in 17 countries. The members of the group come from all walks of life. The primary purpose of this support group is to assist people who grieve the loss of a loved one.
The purpose of the quarterly summit is for us to share stories of hope, faith, and love, share resources, and encourage one another in our work.
At the summit on Wednesday, one of our newest members, Raelynn, a mother who had lost his eight-year-old son two years ago, shared with us an incredibly beautiful story. The story was about a miracle witnessed at the time of her son Xander's death. Xander died of Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) in June 2018.
AFM is a severe nerve-related condition that occurs mainly in children, especially among male children. It is a disease similar to polio, but rare and deadly. While many children recover from the condition, children whose immunity is severely compromised succumb to the illness and death.
During the last days of Xander's illness, the family set up an online link for Xander to communicate with his friends and other family members spread across several states in America. It had been a wonderful lifeline for Xander to talk to his friends. The family also used the online link to join with the other family members to pray for him.
On the day Xander died with his family present, accidentally, the laptop had been left switched on with the link to his family and friends. The computer was relegated to a corner of the room unattended. Unbeknown to some family members living in three of the neighbouring states where Xander was dying, they had attempted to contact Xander at different times of the afternoon. These are relatives who live in Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia.
However, they had been discouraged from contacting him because each time they logged on to the computer to talk to Xander, they only saw the side of his bed and a bright light. They thought a window in the room might have been left open for Xander to bathe in the summer sun. They did not want to disturb him or ring the family on the phone.
However, one of Xander's older cousins, Josh, living in Oak Hill, Tennessee, acted differently. Having seen what he had thought was a sunlit room on the screen, he thought it was unusual for the tech-savvy Xander to leave the computer that way. He decided to record what he was seeing. Josh recorded what he saw in Xander's room, only to banter with Xander when he spoke to him the next time.
However, the situation had been quite different in Xander's room that day. The room was dimly lit as Xander took his last breaths. His parents and two older siblings had been sitting around the bed and bidding him farewell. Although it was summer, that day also had not been very sunny.
Three months after Xander's passing, one of his older siblings had been talking to Josh, the cousin in Tennessee, about what had happened on the day Xander died. During the conversation, Josh realised that the surroundings described by Xander's eldest sister (17 years of age) were contrary to what Josh had seen and recorded on the day.
Josh was utterly surprised and shared the clip he had recorded with the family. The family could not believe what they saw: except for a small part of the leg board of Xander's bed, the rest of the room had been flooded with an incredibly bright light. The family knew well that the room was not lit that afternoon. They saw some movements around the bed, corresponding to the movements of the family members at the time of Xander's passing. Still, none of them had seen the light that was on the video clip. The clip with its on-screen timer ran for 32 minutes, corresponding to the time Xander slipped away into unconsciousness and died.
Being utterly astonished by what was seen in the video clip, the family consulted two of the best light technology experts in the country to examine the light in the video clip. One scientist was chosen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Boston, and the other from California State University. Although they used different terms to explain, both scientists described the light seen in the video clip as genuine (that is not superimposed) but not created by photons produced by the movement of electrons in atoms. Thus, the source of the light is unknown.
In general terms, the light in the video clip did not originate in how science understands and explains light. One scientist recommended sending the video clip to a NATO lab for further analysis.
Upon receiving the two independent scientific reports, Raelynn and the family were convinced that God's Light had fallen on Xander at his death. They were amazed that they did not see it but reminisced about the last couple of hours they spent with Xander with thanksgiving to God. They remembered that some unexplainable power held them deeply loved, composed, and hopeful. They recognised beyond any doubt that Xander went to be with God.
This was the story Raelynn told us at the summit on Wednesday. We were extremely privileged that Raelynn allowed us to watch four minutes of that video clip. Those 26 of us at the summit were speechless for a few minutes after listening to Raelynn and watching the short clip at the end of her talk.
We often overlook that the Light of God appears and falls upon individuals and shines at events when Heaven and Earth meet. This meeting between Heaven and Earth, God and his people, happens more often than we think.
The Bible mentions several of these instances. Here are some of the events recorded in the Bible: the pillar of light that guided the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21; Ps 78:14); Moses' face shone after meeting God up on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:29,35); Moses' witness that the Lord shone from Mount Paran before Moses blessed the Israelites (Deuteronomy 33:3); the Psalmist's prayer that the light of the Lord's face shine on us (Ps. 4:6); Heaven's Light reflected on the angel of the Lord who came down from Heaven to roll away the tombstone at the time of Jesus' resurrection (Matthew 28:2-3; in Luke's reporting of Jesus' resurrection, the two men whom the women met were dressed in dazzling clothes, reflecting their heavenly origin (Luke 24:4); and it was a light from Heaven that fell on Saul to knock him down as he marched to persecute the Christians (Acts 22:6).
While the circumstances vary, I believe the same Light of God or Heaven fell upon the individuals and events above, on Jesus at his transfiguration and resurrection, and on Xander at the time of his passing. In other words, qualitatively, it is the same light.
This Light of God is the outward manifestation of God's love. It is also the intrinsic value of God's creation. It is also the core of our very being or our spirit. The light falls upon us and bathes us even though we may not see it unless we are in direct union with God. It is like electricity is available in the circuit; unless a globe is put into the socket, we do not see the light.
Many mystics and near-death experiencers emphatically witness God's light in Heaven. The Carmelite mystic St. Mary of Jesus Crucified (1846-1878) saw Heaven while dying of several knife wounds. She declared: "I contemplated the radiant throne of the Holy Trinity, and Our Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity. There was no sun or lamps, yet everything shone with an indescribable light."
The 17th Century seer Emanuel Swedenborg, blessed to visit and see Heaven while living in this world, describes Heaven's light in his voluminous work Heaven and Hell this way: "Heaven's light is not natural like the light of our world, but spiritual. It comes from the Lord as the sun, and that sun, …, is divine love. While what emanates from the Lord as the sun is called divine truth in the heavens, it is divine good as one with divine truth. This is the source of light and warmth for angels: they get their light from the divine truth and their warmth from the divine good. We can, therefore, conclude that Heaven's light, because of the nature of its source, is spiritual and not natural, as is its warmth" (Section 127).
The Psalmist beautifully expresses creation's praise to God: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night, they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun" (Ps. 19:1-4).
Because God's Light is the core of our very being, Jesus asked us to let our light before people so they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5:16). This Divine Light was so brilliant in Jesus, and he said: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." (John 8:12). It was this light that shone forth from Jesus as Divine Light fell upon him at the transfiguration.
The brilliance of that Divine Light at Jesus' transfiguration would have been so remarkable. About forty years later, Peter, present at the transfiguration, described his experience this way: "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased.' We heard this voice from Heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain." (2 Peter 1:16-18).
We thank God for Jesus, who shone the light on the world. We thank Jesus for his love for us and for rekindling that light in us. May God's Light and His Love fall upon us to bless and warm us. Amen
