Genesis 15: 5-18

Psalm 27: 1, 7-9, 13-14

Phillipians 3:20 - 4:1

Luke 9: 28-36

A few days ago, I peeked out our bedroom window before dawn and saw an amazing sight. The water was a bright, dark blue, and the sky along the horizon was a bright red, gradually blending to blue away from the horizon. I know this is nothing unusual. I’ve seen it many times before. But the air was so crisp and clean and clear that the whole thing looked incredibly beautiful. Unbeknownst to me, at that very same moment, Maggie was downstairs looking out the kitchen window at the very same sight. Only hours later did we compare notes and agree how breathtakingly gorgeous it was.

Every once in a while, we are privileged to come upon sudden and unexpected beauty and grandeur. Last summer, we drove to the North rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s heavily forested, so you don’t see the canyon until you park the car, walk up to the lodge, and go in. Then, all of a sudden, there it is, out this huge window.

When I was a kid, I remember us driving through a tunnel. When we came out, we were at the entrance to Yosemite. Just like that, it was all there — El Capitan, Half Dome, the falls, everything.

Another time, this city boy (born and raised in Los Angeles) spent my first night on the desert. When I stepped out into the total darkness, it seemed like the sky was ablaze with stars. I had never before seen the Milky Way.

I’m sure each of you has memories of sudden beauty, grandeur, and majesty that take your breath away. Today, we’re talking about one such moment — the transfiguration of Christ to his apostles.

I love the TV show "Touched By An Angel." The stories are good and the moral values they teach are wonderful. I’m not sure God really uses angels that way. It would seem to take away the need for faith. Still, it teaches the great truth that God loves us, each and every one of us. That’s real. But other things perhaps aren’t. For example, when Monica, Tess, and Andrew reveal who they really are, their hair seems to glow. It’s a very feeble attempt to show a transfiguration. And maybe, because they’re only angels, it’s okay.

But the transfiguration we’re talking about today was infinitely more powerful, because Jesus was revealing himself to be far more than an angel. He was revealing his divinity. The glow, the radiance, the light the apostles saw was dazzling. It put to shame the Milky Way or the sunrise over the ocean. The beauty of the sight far surpassed Yosemite, and the grandeur dwarfed the Grand Canyon.

Yet this transfiguration, as dazzling and breathtaking as it was, was but an infinitesimal foretaste of the beatific vision of God we will enjoy in heaven.

What was the most magnificent sight you’ve ever seen? Niagara Falls? The redwood forest of California? Crater Lake in Oregon? The glaciers of Alaska? The Matterhorn? Mt. Fuji? God, who made them all, is more magnificent than all of them put together.

For this next analogy, I feel a little handicapped, because I’m only a man, and don’t understand things from a woman’s perspective. Perhaps you women, understanding us better than we do you, can make your own analogy to correspond with this. Men, do you remember the first time you saw a beautiful woman without any clothes on? Now that’s breathtaking! There’s no need to be embarrassed by how powerful such an image is. It is, after all, an image of God. The book of Genesis tells us that God made man and woman in his own image. The human body, temple of the Holy Spirit, is the highest and most perfect of all God’s physical creations. God created the human form to reflect a tiny bit of himself. And he gave us eyes to behold that beauty; and he created and gave to us our ability to appreciate it. And God beheld all that he created, and said it was very, very good.

How many of you have seen the movie Titanic? It is a movie not to be missed. Some of the scenes of the ship at night, all lit up, moving quietly across the ocean, are truly spectacular.

Yet perhaps the most breathtaking scene has nothing to do with the ship. The young lovers are alone, and the beautiful girl drops her robe to the floor, revealing herself to the boy just as God had made her. Imagine what that young man felt at that moment. I tell you, that experience is nothing compared to what we will feel when we see, face to face, the source of that beauty and of all beauty, the God of the universe.

In the transfiguration, the apostles saw just a glimpse of that beauty as Jesus dropped one of the veils of humanity which concealed his radiant divinity. They were so overcome with delight that they wanted to stay there forever. "Oh, Master, it is so good to be here. Let us build three booths — for you and Moses and Elijah." These men had families. Peter had a wife. (Maybe the others did, too. We don’t know.) Yet their only thought was to do whatever was necessary so they could stay there forever.

When we get to heaven, we will feel like that, only multiplied a million times over. And the great thing is that we will be able to stay there forever.

St. Paul’s letter to the Phillipians tells us something else significant about the transfiguration. When Christ takes us home to heaven, we will have glorified bodies. We will look like He looked on the mountain. Oh, we won’t be God. But we will be more radiant than the angels (not just the ones on TV, but the real ones as well). Scripture tells us that.

So the transfiguration revealed something about Jesus to the apostles. But it also reveals to us something about what heaven will be like. It will be a place of incredible beauty, awesome grandeur, and breathtaking majesty. It will be a place of overflowing joy and peace. It will be a place where, in our glorified bodies, we will bask in the dazzling brilliance of the beatific vision. It will be a place we will never want to leave. (Nor, of course, will we have to.) It will be a place where we will forever sing, "My God, how great thou art!"

You know, it has been my experience that no matter how many times you sing a familiar song, the words never seem to lodge in the brain. They go in the eyes and out the mouth, with no stops in between. At the beginning of Mass, we sang Stuart Hine’s great song, "How Great Thou Art." But I’m not sure we absorbed the meaning of the words and how well they relate to what I’ve been talking about.

So I would like you to close your eyes and just listen as I recite the words of this hymn. Then at the end of the fourth verse, we will all lustily sing the refrain together. Now you don’t have to count the verses. I will let you know when it’s time to sing. I just want you to listen to the words and absorb their meaning.

"O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!

"When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze; Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!

"And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in; That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin; Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!

"When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!"

Now everyone sing!

"Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!"

And all God’s people said, "Amen!"

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