Feast of the Transfiguration

onAug 6, 2025

Speculum Iustitiae Conference for Canon and Civil Lawyers

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

La Crosse, Wisconsin August 6, 2025

Dn 7, 9-10. 13-14
Ps 97, 1-2. 5-6. 9
2 Pt 1, 16-19
Lk 9, 28-36

Homily

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

At the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the Apostles Peter, James and John saw before their eyes the fulfillment of the heavenly vision of the Prophet Daniel. They were privileged to see, in anticipation, the fullness of the “dominion and glory and kingdom” of Christ, given by God the Father to His only-begotten Son, their Master and Lord, through His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension.[1] They recognized in the transfigured Christ the Son of Man from the vision of Daniel, Who receives from the Ancient One, God the Father, “an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,” and Whom, therefore, “all peoples, nations, and languages” are to serve.[2]

Saint Peter gives an eyewitness account of the Transfiguration. In teaching the truth about the coming of Christ into the world for our salvation, he declares that he is not following “cleverly devised myths.”[3] He saw with his eyes the glory which Christ received from His Father, and he heard with his ears the voice of God, interpreting the meaning of what he saw: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”[4]

Saint Peter, speaking also for Saints James and John, gives witness to what he had seen and heard, so that, as he instructs us, we may be attentive to it “as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”[5] Indeed, it is the Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, of which the Prophet Daniel was given a heavenly vision and which the Apostles Peter, James and John saw before their very eyes, which alone is light for us in the darkness of our world and which is the promise of the dawn, of the everlasting light of the morning star, for us at the Coming of Christ in glory on the Last Day.

Having witnessed the Transfiguration, the Gospel tells us that the Apostles Peter, James and John wanted to remain on the mountain; they wanted to rest in the vision of Christ’s kingship over heaven and earth. Their desire is most understandable, but the manifestation of the dominion, glory and kingship of Christ was for His mission, was a sign of the way in which Our Lord had yet to go to win for us the victory over sin, the victory of eternal life. Blessed Columba Marmion, in his commentary on the Transfiguration, writes:

What did Jesus speak of when He was upon the mountain with Moses and Elias? Of His Divine prerogatives, of His glory which transported His disciples? No; He spoke of His approaching Passion, of the excess of His sufferings which filled Moses and Elias with wonderment as much as did the excess of His love. It is by the Cross that Christ leads us to life, and because He knows that we are weak in time of trial, He willed to show us by His Transfiguration what glory we are called to share with Him, if we remain faithful: Coheredes autem Christi, si tamen compatimur, ut et conglorificemur [Joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Rom. viii, 17]. Here below, it is not the time for repose, but the time for toil, effort, struggle and patience.[6]

Contemplating the Mystery of Faith in the Transfiguration, we are led to place all our trust in the Lord, embracing the way of the Cross with Him so as to attain with Him eternal life.

Blessed Columba exhorts us:

It is Jesus alone Whom it behoves us to hear and follow. Let us yield ourselves to Him by faith, confidence, love, humility and obedience. If the soul is closed to earth’s clamours, to the tumult of the passions and senses, the Incarnate Word will Himself become Master of it, little by little. He will make us understand that true joys, the deepest joys, are those that are found in His service.[7]

Surely, the Apostles did not understand, at the time, the source of Christ’s glory, namely, the ceaseless and immeasurable love of God for all men, without boundary, which demanded that Christ, God the Son Incarnate, follow the way of the Cross, that He suffer the cruelest passion and death, that His Most Sacred Heart be pierced by the spear of the Roman soldier to pour out every last ounce of His life for our eternal salvation. After Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, they surely understood that only the gift of the love of God, poured forth, without measure and without ceasing, from the glorious-pierced Heart of Christ the King, brings light to the darkness of our lives, gives us the sure hope of the gift of eternal light and life with God in Heaven. They also understood their mission to be the heralds, not of “cleverly devised myths,”[8] but of the truth of the Mystery of Faith, the truth which is indeed our light, our life and our salvation.

We who are canonists and civil lawyers are blessed to begin our annual time together as we seek the grace to be ever more effective ministers of justice which is the minimum and indispensable expression of the divine charity which inhabits our hearts. Reflecting upon the eyewitness report of Saint Peter to us, today, we are deeply conscious that our service of justice flows from our life in Christ, received through Baptism, restored through Penance, and nourished through the Holy Eucharist. It flows from our participation in the Mystery of Faith, making us heralds of divine justice and love. We are called to serve the order written by God upon the human heart from the moment of the Creation and restored to the human heart by God the Son from the moment of the Redemption, and thus to give glory to God and to sustain the community of His children with Him and with each other. Through our humble service, we are called to manifest Christ, Whose “everlasting dominion … shall not pass away,” and Whom “all peoples, nations, and languages” are to serve.[9]

In a world which ever more rebels against the divine order written in nature and, above all, upon the human heart, and restored by the Redemptive Incarnation of God the Son, we can easily lose sight of the nature of our service of justice and its finality. We can begin to attempt to administer justice in a way in which it can never be administered, that is, without prayer to God and respect for His law. We thereby falsify the administration of justice, obscuring the face of Christ in the Church and separating from God and one another those who seek our help to do what justice demands, to serve God and to honor one another.

We are blessed to begin our annual time together on the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Let us lift up our hearts to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, ever open for us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Beholding the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we understand our call to pour out, for our brothers and sisters, the truth and love which we have first received from the Heart of Jesus. We understand that we will fulfill our mission as ministers of justice to the degree that we love our brothers and sisters as Christ Himself loves them, to the degree that we speak to them the truth with love.

May Christ reign in our hearts from His glorious-pierced Heart. With the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may our hearts belong totally to Our Lord Jesus, so that He may purify, heal and strengthen them to be fonts of His immeasurable and unceasing justice and love.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE

[1] Dn 7, 14.

[2] Dn 7, 14.

[3] 2 Pet 1, 16.

[4] 2 Pet 1, 17.

[5] 2 Pet 1, 19.

[6] “Voyez : de quoi donc s’entretenait-il sur la montagne avec Moïse et Elie ? De ses prérogatives divines, de sa gloire, qui transportait ses disciples ? Non, il parlait de sa passion prochaine, de l’excès de ses souffrances qui étonnaient Moïse et Elie, autant que les éblouissait l’excès de son amour. C’est par la croix que le Christ nous mène à la vie ; et parce qu’il sait que nous sommes faibles dans l’épreuve, il a voulu nous montrer par sa Transfiguration quelle gloire nous étions appelés à partager avec lui, si nous demeurions fidèles : Coheredes autem Christi, si tamen compatimur, ut et conglorificemur. Ici-bas, ce n’est pas le temps du repos, mais celui du travail, de l’effort, de la lutte, de la patience.” Columba Marmion, Le Christ dan ses mystères (Maredsous [Belgique]: Les Éditions de Maredsous, 1947), p. 274. [Hereafter, Marmion]. English translation: Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, tr. Mother M. St. Thomas of Tyburn Convent (Stamullen, County Meath [Ireland]: The Cenacle Press at Silverstream Priory, 2022), p. 241. [Hereafter, MarmionEng].

[7] “C’est Jésus seul qu’il faut écouter et suivre. Livrons-nous à lui par la foi, la confiance, l’amour, l’humilité, l’obéissance, l’abandon. Si notre âme se ferme aux bruits de la terre, au tumulte des passions e des sens, le Verbe incarné s’en rendra maître peu à peu ; il nous fera comprendre les vraies joies ; les joies les plus profondes sont celles qu’on trouve à le servir.” Marmion, pp. 273-274. English translation: MarmionEng, p. 240.

[8] 2 Pet 1, 16.

[9] Dn 7, 14.