A brief meditation designed to snap you back into the restoring power of God’s love.
2026-02-15
Transfiguration Sunday: An invitation to come closer to God
This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday, a special celebration marking the transition from the end of the Epiphany season to the beginning of Lent. The Gospels tell us that Jesus took three of his closest disciples up a mountain, where his human appearance was transformed into radiant, supernatural light. It was an epiphany; the eternal glory of the Son of God was revealed to the astonished disciples.
This was not the first time God had revealed himself to his servants in that way. Moses had a similar experience:
The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God. […] When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:12-13; 15-18).
To the people at the foot of the mountain, the glory of God appeared as a “consuming fire.” They were terrified and afraid of dying, feeling sinful and unworthy to be in God’s presence. However, God invited Moses to overcome his fear and come closer to receive God’s law. (Exodus 19).
Centuries later, the same scene repeated; the same God, this time in the flesh, shone with his glory. God the Father spoke from heaven, and the same cloud, the glory of the Holy Spirit, enveloped the disciples, who were also confused and terrified in God’s presence, like their ancestors (Matthew 17:1-9).
In both cases, God invited his servants to draw near to his presence. If I were in Moses’ sandals or Peter’s shoes, standing in God’s radiant presence, I’d probably be shaking in fear too. But the surprising revelation is that we already are in God’s glorious presence. See what Paul wrote to the Hebrew church in the first century and to us:
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. […] Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. (Hebrews 12:18-19; 21-24a).
Jesus is our Epiphany. In Him, we can experience forgiveness and grace rather than terror and confusion; we can enjoy fellowship with the Father in the Holy Spirit. In Christ, we partake in the fellowship of the Church and become part of God’s heavenly family. He sends us the glorious, ever-present Holy Spirit to clothe us in His love and power, to follow Him, and to give us the faith and energy to face the challenges and evils of this world. Let’s climb any mountain and remove any obstacle that stands in our way to Him; the invitation to come closer to Him is still open to you and me.
In Christ’s radiant grace,
Alvaro Palacio.
gcitorontoeast.org 