Fourth Luminous Mystery - Confirmation: A Vision of a Vision

The Transfiguration
by Ivanka Demchuk

Something was missing from the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, mainly the earthly life of Jesus and the founding of His Church with the Seven Sacraments he established for the salvation of souls. Therefore, John Paul II filled in the absent 33 years with the Luminous Mysteries which are the Seven Sacraments.

The first, second and fifth Luminous Mysteries are self explanatory. They are the Sacraments of Baptism (The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan), Holy Matrimony (The Wedding at Cana) with the fifth mystery being both Holy Orders and Holy Eucharist (The Institution of the Eucharist).

The third Luminous Mystery represents Confession and Extreme Unction (The Proclamation of the Kingdom, with a call to repentance and conversion) both of which leave us ready to enter the Kingdom sinless (Extreme Unction includes Confession).

That leaves the fourth Luminous Mystery (The Transfiguration) to signify Confirmation.

The Transfiguration is a vision of a vision. While Moses (the Old Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) are having a vision of Jesus and conversing with Him, Peter, James and John are witnessing that vision through their own vision of the scene. They're having a vision of the vision of Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. How does that apply to Confirmation? It applies because through his Transfiguration, "Jesus confirmed them in their faith."

Many websites delve into the Transfiguration in depth identifying all aspects of this particular scene in Christ's life and the meaning of it. Whole books have been written on the Transfiguration, particularly Light on the Mountain: Greek Patristic and Byzantine Homilies on the Transfiguration of the Lord, published in 2013. The homilies are by Greek and Byzantine fathers back when the Church was one.

Here are a few of their observations:

Leontius of Byzantium (6th century) 

He brought them up the mountain, and briefly opened the door of his Incarnation for them, and showed them clearly what great glory was concealed within him. He made it perfectly clear to the Apostles that he is "the Lord of all things, in heaven and on earth and under the earth." He lured Elijah down from above, he fished Moses up from below, he set Peter and James and John alongside him from those still on earth: for the whole is known from the extremes.

Cyril of Alexandria (5th century) - Homily 51 on Luke

The appearance of Moses and Elijah beside him, then, and their conversation with each other, was a divine stratagem for actually revealing that our Lord Jesus Christ had been preceded on his way by the Law and the Prophets, revealed by the Law and the Prophets themselves to be their Lord, in those very respects in which, constantly with each other, they had foretold him. For what the prophets said is not at variance with what is said by the Law. This, I think, is what is meant by the fact that holy Moses was speaking with the best of all the prophets - and that is Elijah.

Proclus of Constantinople - d. 446

For Christ was transfigured, not simply to be so, but that he might show us the transfiguration of our nature that is to come - his second coming, for our salvation, which will be on the clouds, with the voice of archangels. For he is the one who has "wrapped himself in light as in a garment" since he is "judge of the living and the dead." Therefore he brought Moses and Elijah into the scene, to offer the confirming sign of these figures from ancient times.

Pantoleon, Deacon and Chartophylax - 6th century

For we ourselves were also "night", but now having put on Christ, we fit better with the appellation "day". For we were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord. Blessed are you Christ, through whom the human person has come to be called "light". Blessed are you, Christ, through whom human nature lent a covering to God, and the divine nature has wrapped its outward appearance around human substance.

Anastasius, Monk and Presbyter of Sinai - 7th century. Anastasius of Sinai is the abbot of St Catherine's Monastery depicted in Rembrandt's 1631 painting "Anastasius".

Anastasius
by Rembrandt, 1631

Be changed by a good and holy transformation, leave the world behind, depart from the earth, abandon the flesh. Let go of this creation, and go over to the Creator...So then, let each of us who has received God in his heart, and who has been transfigured into that divine form, say in our joy: "It is good for us to be here, where everything is full of light...where God is to be seen."

Andrew of Crete - 8th century

They will put off their former life, and receive only your grace, which comes to fullness in your Spirit and your divine fire, according to the Gospel's exclusionary decision; grace that is exalted, immaterial grace that never ends or grows old or decays, but that, in the limitless way grace acts, always advances, and is lifted up to what is greater and more divine, by the burning heat of the Spirit.

Become, in every fiber of your being, the pure devotee of better, heavenly things, and receive in the Spirit the pure and blessed gift of sharing in the life of the Word, whose outcome is divinization and the enjoyment of ineffable blessings. As a result, true virtue, shaped and stamped by all the virtues, will be revealed in you; and in your steady contemplation of what is, truth will be revealed in you. Wisdom itself will become known..

John of Damascus - 680 - 750

For just as soldiers and boxers and field laborers and merchants take up their hard work with great eagerness, and face the waves of the sea and wild beasts, and pay no heed to pirates, so that they might lay hold of the prize they long for...so spiritual infantry and spiritual boxers and spiritual field workers and merchants do not yearn for earthly gain...They will be fitted out...for contests where they are not ranged against human opponents...but they fight against the rulers of darkness, and struggle by being beaten, and gather wealth by stripping it away, and thrust the rudder of the Cross against the triple waves of the world and the wicked spirits that stir them up, and drive out howling beasts by the power of the Spirit, and sow the word of religious reverence in human hearts.

Through the Transfiguration Jesus confirmed Peter, James and John in their faith. As John of Damascus says, It was fitting, surely, that those who were going to become witnesses of his sufferings later on should gaze on his glory...Moses and Elijah stand, as servants, alongside their Lord in glory, and are observed by their fellow servants as conversing with him. For it was right that when they saw the glory and the freedom of access accorded their fellow servants, they should be amazed at the loving adaptation of the Lord to their needs, and should become all the more eager and courageous with regard to their coming struggles.