"Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light." (Matthew 17:1-2) There were many special moments the disciples treasured in their walk with Jesus in the three years of His ministry with them here on this earth. But this event at Mount Tabor would come to be for Peter crucial to his faith and proclamation. The experience of the Transfiguration of Jesus was for him the confirmation of the Lordship of Jesus. He declares, "We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father...we were with Him on the holy mountain." (2 Peter 1:16) It was an event to which Peter attached utmost sanctity that transformed everything connected to that moment. He would continue to describe even the venue of the event as the holy mountain, rendered holy obviously by the manifestation of the glory of Jesus.

"We Have Beheld His Glory" (John 1:14)
At the Transfiguration, the figure of Jesus was transformed. His form was changed from its ordinary human presentation. The Gospel tries to explain with inadequate vocabulary a divine experience saying that His Face was dazzling like the sun, and His garments as radiant as white - so glorious was the form. The disciples had always seen Jesus as a limited human being - a form the Son of God had taken up temporarily. St. Paul describes this movement of God’s saving love where "though He was in the form of God...(He) emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." (Philippians 2:7) His original nature and eternal form was the form of glory as of the Heavenly Glory of God! But He could not hold on to that form when He saw the distress, the suffering, the sin of us, struggling in this valley of tears. So He hid that divine, glorious form and descended to make His dwelling among men. It is when the disciples ascended Mount Tabor to pray that they were afforded a glimpse of this true divine form of Jesus. And it indeed was such an awesome grand display of the glory and splendour of God – forever having an impact on the proclamation of Jesus as Christ and Lord!

Looking at the transfigured Lord, Simon Peter declared, "Lord, it is good that we are here." (Matthew 17:4) It was a great experience to behold Jesus in His glorious form. Simon Peter was used to the common human form of Jesus – vulnerable to human pressures, being opposed and threatened, eating, drinking, tired, walking the dusty roads of the country and having no place to lay His head. Peter did not always feel it is easy to be with Jesus. But when he saw the glorious form of Jesus, he really was taken up.

"I Pray Thee, Show Me Thy Glory" (Exodus 33:18)
In our daily walk, we too get tired. We often find it burdensome being a Christian, living with the spouse, going through this human existence. Challenges rush up against us, problems keep piling up and life becomes far too painful to be relished. We think of giving up on our dreams, our commitments and even on life itself. In such moments we need to take in the Mount Tabor experience. It of course does not mean we must climb up that mountain. But what is required is that we come away to a lonely place to be in the presence of God, the way Jesus did.

To understand what this Tabor experience is about, we need to see the context of the Transfiguration. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to be betrayed and crucified. It was to prepare Himself for that fearful agony that He came up this mountain to be with His Father. It was a divine appointment. He heard the voice of the Heavenly Father strengthening Him, "You are my beloved Son! With you I am well pleased." (Matthew 17:5) And the divine glorious form clothed Him. He was empowered to accomplish His salvation mission.

We too have a glorious form prepared for us. We cannot think that we are meant to live in this limited human form always. St. Paul assures us that "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven." (1 Corinthians 15:49) And he further says that "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Corinthians 15-51-52) For our destiny is clear – "This perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15: 53)

By Baptism, we got that great privilege to be sons and daughters of God. The promise is fulfilled and we received the "power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:13--14) The divine form lies hidden in our hearts as a seed that must bear fruit and manifest itself in the appointed time. So we shall not imagine all that we have in our existence is this human form. St. John confirms this revelation that is to happen of our real and glorious form as the children of God. "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as He is." (1 John 3:2)