Raphael's Transfiguration: The Glory of Christ Can Restore Our Chaotic World
“And it came to pass about eight days after these words, that he took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain to pray. And whilst he prayed, the shape of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and glittering. And behold two men were talking with him. And they were Moses and Elias, appearing in majesty.” —Luke 9:28-31
Raphael’s painting of the Transfiguration is one of the great triumphs of Christian art. It depicts the Gospel scene (Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9) where the apostles Peter, James, and John are favored with a vision of Jesus Christ in his divine glory, flanked by the Old Testament prophets Moses and Elias, and the voice of God the Father from on high, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.”
In Raphael’s painting (his last masterpiece before he died), Christ immediately draws the eye, His clothes “white as snow” as the Gospel describes him, the glory-cloud from whence came the Father’s voice shining behind him. Christ’s arms are raised in a position of priestly blessing and divine authority. Moses has his arms wrapped about the tablets on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments, and Elias seems to be holding the (Jewish) Law.
Here is the meeting of the Old and the New Covenants, the Law and the Prophets honoring God made flesh. But even as the presence of the Jewish prophets shows that there is no New Testament without the Old, just so by Jesus’s preeminence is shown the fact that the New surpasses the Old by fulfilling it and adding to or perfecting it.
The Apostles Peter, James, and John lie prostrate in awe and fear below Christ’s feet, worshipping and wondering. Peter, head of the apostles, is in the center, identifiable by his traditional clothing colors in Christian art of blue and yellow. Peter looks up; one can almost hear him say with his typical beautiful enthusiasm mixed with some lack of understanding (Matt.17:4), “Lord, it is good for us to be here. . .” John and James are not looking up, too overcome for the moment by the splendor of their Master. “We saw his glory,” John wrote later, “the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn. 1:14)
But what is so particularly unique about this painting is that Raphael included in it the Gospel passage following the Transfiguration. Jesus comes down from the mountain to find that his disciples or apostles left behind could not exorcise a demon from a boy. Jesus exorcises the demon Himself and says that some demons can be cast out only by prayer and fasting. But here in Raphael’s painting Jesus, being still on the mountain, has not yet come to save the boy from the possessing demon. The apostles point and command in vain—the demon will not leave the boy. The possessed boy himself stands in a wild posture, with his father restraining him. Jesus is transfigured on Mt. Tabor, but at the same moment a demon is causing chaos at the mountain’s foot.
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration. I went to Divine Liturgy at my local Byzantine Catholic Church today, and the priest talked about how we can only see reality properly with the aid of God’s grace. The priest also blessed baskets of fruit and produce, an old tradition for this feast. With God there is goodness and life and order, and without God there is darkness and demonic control.
A Christ-filled world is beautiful and shining and glorious and holy. A Christ-less world is terrifying and full of suffering and chaotic and disorderly. If we have not Christ, we will seek in vain to solve our problems and cure our suffering, just as the apostles exorcised in vain; and without Christ we will always be at the mercy of demons and every other force for evil, like the poor possessed boy. But with Christ, suffering has meaning, problems are solved, order is brought to chaos, terror is replaced with awe, and demons are vanquished. Indeed, even the suffering of the innocent is no longer purposeless, for if Jesus truly possesses the glory of the Transfiguration, He will grant to all those who believe in Him that same glory after they die.
What is the point of the death of a 20-year-old shot in the head while driving his ambulance, a nine-year-old forced to be a grown man’s child bride, a baby dying of a lung condition only hours after birth? What, indeed? The first two instances show us a world where sin (contingent on the gift of free will) has the power to persecute innocence, the last example shows a world where an uncontrollable evil befalls one who never could have brought it on himself. If men turn from God and His Son, they sin and make misery. If there is not life after death, the death of an hours-old baby has no recompense. But if Christ is at the center of our world—suddenly order and meaning and happiness and justice enter in. Suddenly there is a promise of perfect happiness and justice after death.
But just as men have the free will to choose to sin, Christ cannot help us if we do not freely ask. Jesus exorcised the boy who had been brought by his father to be healed. Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John only after they had willingly made the exhausting climb up Mt. Tabor. We must hear Christ as the Father commanded. It is easy to sin—it is hard to be a saint. Think of what Jesus suffered to bring salvation to the world in His Passion and Crucifixion!
Our modern world is the perfect example of a world without God. Murder (abortion, terrorism, etc.) defended, sexual perversion celebrated, divides deliberately deepened, hatreds inflamed, evil regimes pandered to, ugliness praised, and appalling crimes against humanity ignored. . .
We are in the part of Raphael’s painting where chaos reigns. The only solution to this chaos is the order of the glorified Christ. Until we too climb the mountain and worship Christ, we will forever be at the mercy of demons.