We often approach the Transfiguration of Jesus by thinking it is about how things look. Which we contrast with how things are. Much like we compare the word transfigure to another word: transform.

This comparison is neither fair nor true. Looking different is also being different.

Jesus’s appearance dazzles those who witness it. Which confounds and confuses them. But it also frightens and disturbs them. Precisely because the spectacle itself marks a change in their reality. In short: Jesus may look different, but it also means that their world is different.

While the dazzling spectacles that make up transfigurations always astound us, it is the resulting confusion and fear that distract us.

Because if we honestly believed this difference is merely cosmetic, then what are we so afraid of?