Transfiguration Of Jesus

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.