Illuminations
The Light of the Cross
When Jesus took the chosen three to the top of Mount Tabor, he was transfigured before their eyes, and his raiment became dazzlingly white, purer than any fuller's soap could make it. Perhaps Jesus was what Milton called "dark with excess of bright," because Peter's first impulse is to contain the light, to house it. "Lord, it is good for us to be here," he says. "Let us erect three skenai," three structures with awnings, we might say, "one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elias." He didn't know what he was saying. Then a cloud from heaven overshadowed them, just as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and a voice came forth, saying, "This is my beloved Son; hear him." And when they came to, the apostles saw only Jesus, who commanded them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man should arise from the dead. They then wondered among themselves what Jesus meant by that.
The play of light and darkness upon the Mount of Transfiguration flashes back upon the history of the Jews and the immemorial early days of mankind, all the way to the darkness upon the face of the waters, when God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. It is also like a flash of sheet lightning in the distance, for an instant opening upon another mountain about to come, the bald skull of Golgotha. Darkness shall cover the land, and the earth shall tremble, tearing the hymen of the Temple in two, and graves shall give forth their dead, appearing to many.
What people are saying about Touchstone:
Can we say now that the darkness of that dread day is like the paste that Jesus made with the dust of the earth and his own spittle, pressing it into the eyes of the blind man and then commanding him to wash them in the pool of Siloam? It is bright with excess of dark. When Jesus cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" we know that Satan has not been kept at bay, a darkness waiting in the wings, a darkness suppressed. Christ enters into the heart of darkness, pierced with a lance. Light breaks forth from God when the sun falls, though I cannot tell whether even the blessed mother of Jesus could glimpse that light through her tears.
Sunset Changed to Sunrise
But upon us a light has shone, and Calvary itself glimmers with it, redeemed from darkness by the breaking of Easter yet to come. Hear the words of Clement of Alexandria:
Hail, O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than life here below. That light is eternal life; and whatever partakes of it lives. But night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror, gives place to the day of the Lord. Sleepless light is now over all, and the west has given credence to the east. For this was the end of the new creation. For the Sun of Righteousness, who drives his chariot over all, pervades equally all humanity, like his Father, who makes his sun to rise on all men, and distils on them the dew of the truth. He has changed sunset to sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life; and having wrenched man from destruction, he has raised him to the skies, transplanting mortality into immortality and translating earth to heaven—he, the husbandman of God.
If Jesus has changed sunset to sunrise—and here we may remember that the Jews reckoned the new day from sunset—it is not just a brightening of the days such as they were, but their transfiguration through the inverse. It is to strike Death dead and glut the mouth of the grave with its carcass. It is to flint fire from the hard dead heart of man. The "day of the Lord" foretold by the prophets Joel and Malachi comes here with the terror of man risen up against God, and God raining upon them a light like dew, to soak the dry earth and bring it to life.
These extravagant words of St. Clement have been paraphrased and made into a fine English hymn for Passiontide:
Sunset to sunrise changes now,
For God doth make his world anew;
On the Redeemer's thorn-crowned brow
The wonders of that dawn we view.E'en though the sun withholds his light,
Lo! a more heavenly lamp shines here,
And from the cross on Calvary's height
Gleams of eternity appear.
Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
18.2—March 2005
On Conservatism as Vexation, Vanity & Near Impossibility by Graeme Hunter
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
An Abandoned Ruling Principle & How to Get It Back by Adam MacLeod
35.6—Nov/Dec 2022
on the Divine Promise Fulfilled by the Child of Bethlehem by James M. Kushiner
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
