Description
Imagining the Lectionary: Transfiguration
Reflection accompanying images “Transfiguration” and “man looking across landscape”
"Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in
kingdom glory." Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the
brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance
changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face.
His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also
there in deep conversation with him. Peter broke in, "Master, this is a great moment!
What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you,
one for Moses, one for Elijah?" While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-
radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: "This is
my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him."
Matthew 16:28 -17:5
Believe it or not these two images are representations of the same scene, the second
photograph of the guy looking out across the Derbyshire landscape being the starting
point for the image manipulation process which led to "transfiguration". Everything
you see in the abstract image - apart from the text - has its origins in the ordinary
photograph.
It is as though this metamorphosis of perception adds an extra dimension of seen
significance to the original pixels. Once apprehended in this way such a definitive
insight cannot be unseen; it influences all future cognition. The theophany witnessed
by the three disciples of Jesus functions as just such a paradigm defining moment.
Continues...