Feast of the Transfiguration and Transfiguration Sunday

[Tis_Bearself]

So yesterday (Aug 6) was the Feast of the Transfiguration and it raised a few questions in my mind:

1. Given that the Church celebrates Transfiguration Sunday on second Sunday of Lent as preparation for Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, why do we keep this other feast of the Transfiguration in August as well? What is the point of having two of them? It seems reasonable to celebrate Transfiguration during Lent because the event itself was to prepare three of the Apostles for Christ’s upcoming passion, death and resurrection. It seems rather out of place in August, not to mention repetitive.
2. I understand the Anglicans and Lutherans celebrate Transfiguration Sunday on the “last Sunday of Epiphany” which means the last Sunday before Lent begins. I’ve read some explanation for this online saying that in a “lectionary-based church” like Anglicans and Lutherans, that just happens to be where the Transfiguration reading falls. Which makes no sense because Catholics also use a Lectionary and have the Transfiguration on a different Sunday, actually in Lent. Plus it’s my understanding that Anglican and Lutheran lectionaries were based on the Roman Catholic lectionary. So why do the Anglicans and Lutherans have the Transfiguration Sunday prior to Lent while Catholics have it within Lent?

(The organization of the lectionary in general outside of Lent and Advent makes very little sense to me, but that’s a topic for another thread.)

 

[Vico]

…

(The organization of the lectionary in general outside of Lent and Advent makes very little sense to me, but that’s a topic for another thread.)

One set of feasts is based upon the day of the year. Another set of feasts is relative to Easter.

The Feast of the Transfiguration is the ancient feast, and falls into one of the four eastern penitential seasons. In the Byzantine Catholic Church there is no Transfiguration Sunday.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The Eastern way seems to make more sense here if Christians can’t even all agree on which Sunday should be Transfiguration Sunday.
What are the four penitential seasons?

 

[Dovekin]

August 6 is the traditional date in the Sanctoral cycle, the feasts fixed by calendar instead of by relation to Easter.

The Sunday readings outside advent and lent now parallel the Sanctoral cycle. Each of the synoptic gospels is read over a given year of Sundays, from Epiphany to Christ the King. The Transfiguration would come up about wk 23 for Mt; 24 for Mk; and week 13 for Luke, while Aug 6 falls around wk 19. It is not an exact match, but the passages that lead up to the Transfiguration in the gospels are read around the time of the feast of the Transfiguration. (well, not Luke, but…)

The “last sunday in epiphany” is 2 weeks before Transfiguration Sunday. My guess is that someone wanted it outside of Lent, instead of during, I am not sure why. It is a key part of “purification and enlightenment” which is how RCIA labels Lent, at least as I think about it. But the glory revealed does conflict with the penitential aspect. Just my guess.

Aug 6 was the day when Paul VI died, which I always thought was ironic. He almost took his motto from the Transfiguration, and he issued his first encyclical on Aug 6, so it surprised me when he died that day.

 

[Vico]

The Eastern way seems to make more sense here if Christians can’t even all agree on which Sunday should be Transfiguration Sunday.
What are the four penitential seasons?

The four major penitential seasons are, in Byzantine discipline:

• Nativity Fast - 40 day preparation for the Nativity (December 25)
• Great Lent - 40 day preparation for Pascha (Easter)
• Apostle’s Fast - from first Monday after Pentecost, preparation for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29)
• Dormition Fast - two week preparation for the Dormition (August 15)

Also I should mention that the post-festive period for the Transfiguration through August 13, so that may occur on the next Sunday.

 

[womanatwell]

Though the Transfiguration might be chronologically leading to Christ’s crucifixion, so did many other events. The Transfiguration also prefigured the glory of the resurrection. The Transfiguration that is celebrated on August 6 is a major event in the country of El Salvador and has carried from there into other countries including ours. IMO, it is worthy of two Feasts per year.

Margaret Pfeil, who earned a PhD in moral theology from Notre Dame, gives a short background of history of the Feast of Transfiguration (FYI, the article is about the Transfiguration theology of Bishop Oscar Romero, link HERE):

Since the first centuries of the church, this theophany has received significant theological and pastoral attention, as seen in the work of Irenaeus, John Chrysostom, and Maximus the Confessor, among others. As a liturgical feast, it has been celebrated since at least the fifth century in the East and from about the eighth century in the West. The date chosen for commemoration of the Transfiguration, August 6, precedes the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by 40 days, reflecting traditional belief about the length of time between Jesus’ transfiguration and crucifixion. (Footnote: Stevenson, Rooted in Detachment , 13).