the glory of

August 6 is the day when liturgical churches remember the Transfiguration of Jesus, a stunning biblical event in which we see Jesus glorified and catch a glimpse of the future Kingdom of God, which is, in fact, present alongside us at this very moment.

Why August 6?  In 1456, the Kingdom of Hungary broke a siege and turned back an invasion by the Ottoman Turks.  News of this victory arrived in Rome on 6 August, and in celebration of this glorious victory, Pope Callixtus III declared that it be celebrated perpetually on that date with the universal remembrance of Jesus' Glorious Transfiguration.  A strange coupling indeed.

None the more strange than August 6 also marking the date of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on a civilian population in Hiroshima.  Though it and a similar explosion in Nagasaki did hasten the end of World War II, it became the ultimate manifestation of the glory of man in all its dreadful power, which changed the world for the worse ever since. 

The Glory of God, seen in the Transfigured Jesus on the mountain and in His Ascended Glory and descending Holy Spirit, has changed the world for the better ever since.  It is this Ultimate Glory, The King in all His Beauty, that we are invited to behold.

So which glory will we focus on?  The glory of man, with its wars, rumors of wars, presidential jockeying, and other bad news that we cannot see but only hear about, that which is too much for us to take in? (Ps. 131:1)  Or will it be The Glory of God, far surpassing any human glory, that we can actually "see" and take in?  It is that Supreme Glory, The Lord, Whom we are to contemplate with unveiled faces, such that we can be transformed into His Image with ever-increasing Glory which comes from Him Who is The Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).