The Kwild Thing has sent me a virtual card celebrating the
Transfiguration, for which I am most grateful.  The following extract
from my homily at this morning's Mass may be of interest:

A little while ago, I visited Mount Tabor, which many believe to be the
mountain on which Jesus was transfigured.  It is the only hill in
Galilee which could reasonably be described as a high mountain.  The
bus can get only half-way up the mountain, so you have to transfer to a
taxi for the remainder of the journey.  From the top there is a fine
view over the whole region of the Galilee, and there is a beautiful
church, with three chapels, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for
Elijah.

On this visit I noticed something which I hadn't realised before. On
the mountain there is a plaque, in Latin, noting that some people
believe that this mountain is also the place where Jesus appeared to
his disciples after the resurrection.  Saint Matthew, you may recall,
does not say that Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem.  He
appears to the women, and tells them, "Go and tell my brothers that
they must leave for Galilee;  they will see me there."  The disciples,
says Matthew, set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had
arranged to meet them.  And there they saw him, and fell down before
him.

If the tradition mentioned on the plaque is true, then the Mount of the
Transfiguration is also the Mount of the Resurrection.  The disciples
saw the Lord risen from the dead in the same place where they had seen
him transfigured with Moses and Elijah.

Although Saint Mark, whose Gospel we read today, does not mention our
Lord's resurrection appearance on that mountain in Galilee, he also, it
seems to me, draws a connexion between the transfiguration and the
resurrection.  He describes the Transfiguration right in the middle of
his book, and the resurrection right at the end.  So if you divide his
gospel exactly in half, the first half ends with the Transfiguration,
and the second with his Resurrection.  Those who witnessed the
Transfiguration are said to have been frightened;  the same is said of
the women who were witnesses to the Resurrection.  The Transfiguration
story ends with Jesus telling his disciples not to say anything to
anybody about it, until after his Resurrection - thus drawing the
connexion between the two events;  the Resurrection story, and Mark's
Gospel itself, ends with the women saying nothing to anybody about it,
because they were afraid.  

[There is a cautionary tale for numerologists in all this.  If you
number Mark's verses consecutively, his story of the Transfiguration
ends at verse 333, and his entire Gospel at verse 666.  This looks
jolly interesting, until one reflects that it is entirely fortuitous; 
Mark did not number his verses.  This was not done until the 16th
century.]

Oriens.

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