The Transfiguration of the Lord, Dorling Kindersley.

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Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.  Matthew 17:1-2.

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In a court of law in countries with the Common Law tradition there are two standards of judgment, “the balance of evidence” and a decision “beyond a reasonable doubt”. The first is typically found with civil disputes, and the second in criminal trials. It has always been thus, with people accused of a criminal act being judged by a much higher standard than two people arguing against each other as to who is in the wrong. It is also logical, as a person being tried for a criminal offense might well end up losing all freedom, or, in certain states of the USA, life itself (a punishment which the Catholic Church has declared to be immoral, offensive and plain wrong; after all where is the logic in saying “You are evil for killing another, so we are going to kill you…”). I was thinking of these two standards of evidence when reading today’s remarkable gospel. First, today’s gospel is describing a theophany, an event which proclaims a very evident and clear manifestation of God present before whoever witnesses it. The three witnesses in today’s gospel, Peter, James and John, we are told, “fell prostrate and were very much afraid” for they were present at a theophany with none other than Moses and Elijah conversing with the Lord! Jesus was transfigured into a reality which was way beyond the simply human, gleaming in brilliant white light shining “like the sun”. Then a voice which must have been majestical and emanating from a cloud as if from heaven, announced that Jesus was his Son, and that they should “listen to him”. Did they have any doubt after that event that they were dealing with a man who was completely divine yet was as human as they were? Would you say that this was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus was not only from God but of God?

Yes they had seen wondrous events with this man curing the incurable, directing fishermen to spectacular catches, feeding thousands with almost nothing, but there were other wonder-workers famous in their day with whom Jesus could be compared. There was Honi HaMe’agel, for example, not to mention Apollonius of Tyana, both of them regarded as miracle workers and who were contemporaries of Jesus. So you have to balance the evidence and see which side wins. Maybe the balance of evidence is in Jesus’ favor, but today’s gospel event was way beyond anything in the apostles’ experience. Indeed the scene described in today’s first reading, a theophany in the Book of Daniel, might well have suggested itself to them as they witnessed their own incredible event. And it clearly remained in the consciousness of the early community as the Second Letter of St. Peter, today’s second reading, makes clear. Beyond any reasonable doubt, then, taking all this into consideration, Jesus was all that he claimed to be.

All of which makes me think once more of the greatest theophany, an event witnessed by no-one, in the dark and silence of a sealed tomb, where our Savior conquered the greatest enemy of all, death itself. And that inevitably brings us all back to the sole apparent silent witness to this event, the Shroud of Turin, one of, if not the, most heavily studied objects in history. That famous imprint of a crucified man shows a “negative” image in light brown on the top of two or three microfibers ranging between 10-15 micrometers in diameter, each thread containing 70-120 linen fibers, hence could not have been painted. So the image is minimal in the extreme, a mystery to most, with the Maillard reaction considered a possible cause. So this artifact might well be the most convincing evidence that results in the resurrection of Jesus being beyond a reasonable doubt! Even some have been moved to turn to God as a consequence. Could it be that this is what a theophany is all about, calling us to God where the evidence is way beyond a reasonable doubt? And with that comes the responsibility of thinking and acting like a brother or sister to the Lord, being a child of God, but with God’s help surrounding us at all times. Jesus is present to us whenever we are open to him and welcome him into ourselves. So the resurrection is true, and therefore Jesus’ teachings are the word of God, and our trust in them is absolute and to be followed.

The crucified man’s image, negative and positive, on the Shroud of Turin, Christendom College, 2022.

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