The feast of the Transfiguration is an anticipation of the Resurrection and the Parousia. For a brief moment Jesus is experienced by the three disciples in His glory. They have a privileged glimpse of the nature of Jesus - His Sonship, His authority. The same Peter who at an earlier moment tried to keep Jesus from talking about His suffering, now wants to build tents! He characterizes the tendency in many of us to be selective about the image of Jesus with which we are comfortable and the aspects of discipleship we think we can handle. The voice of the Father urges the disciples (and us) to listen to His Son - with openness to the full message. They do not remain on the mountain top but come back down into the crowds, back to the message of the cross.

The second reading also carries an admonition to attentiveness. We are to pay attention to the Word, the lamp shinning in the dark until the final day, when darkness itself becomes light.