By Clement Harrold
August 6, 2026
For many Catholics, the Transfiguration is a somewhat perplexing mystery.
We know that it’s important, but we aren’t always sure how or why.
What is the significance of Jesus appearing in glorified form on the mountaintop, only for Him to descend the mountain shortly thereafter?
While there’s a lot we could say about this luminous event, the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers us a clue in the following section:
[T]he Transfiguration “is the sacrament of the second regeneration”: our own Resurrection. From now on we share in the Lord’s Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments of the Body of Christ. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming, when he “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body” [Phil 3:21]. But it also recalls that “it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” [Acts 14:22]. (§556)
Just as Christ’s baptism highlighted our own need for baptism, so His Transfiguration reveals that we too shall be transfigured through the resurrection of our bodies. In this way, the Transfiguration “gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming.”
But what exactly will Christ’s glorious coming look like? And what will the resurrection of our bodies involve?
Let’s address these questions in turn.
“He Will Come Again in Glory . . .”
A crucial part of the Christian message is the fact that although Jesus left us for a time, He intends to return at the end of the world.
We allude to this mystery every time we pray the Our Father, when we make the petition “thy Kingdom come.” Likewise, some of the very last words in the Bible are these: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
In the New Testament, the Second Coming of Christ is sometimes referred to as the parousia, a Greek word meaning “coming” or “presence.”
This parousia is alluded to by the angels who speak to the disciples following Christ’s Ascension: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
In the Olivet Discourse in Matthew’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” (Matt 24:30).
In a lengthy reply, Jesus explains that at the end of time there “will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt 24:30).
Similar prophecies are found in other parts of Sacred Scripture, such as 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 and Revelation 1:7.
Taken together these passages suggest that Christ’s appearance at His Second Coming will be much the same as His appearance at the Transfiguration. As we profess every Sunday in the Nicene Creed, He will come again “in glory.”
“. . . To Judge the Living and the Dead”
As Christians we also believe that Christ’s glorious return will usher in a time of judgment.
Interestingly, the Scriptures only allude indirectly to the personal judgment each of us faces at the moment of death (cf. Luke 16:22–23; 23:43; Phil 1:23; 2 Cor 5:8; Heb 9:27). Much more attention is given to the general judgment that will occur at the end of the world.
At the Areopagus in Athens, St. Paul explains that God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31). And in his letter to the Corinthian church Paul warns, “[W]e must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Cor 5:10).
In His explanation of the parable of the weeds, Jesus tells us that “at the close of the age” His angels will gather the wicked souls into the fiery furnace, while “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (see Matt 13:24–30; 36–43).
In Matthew 25, Jesus again offers a sobering description of what His triumphant return will involve:
When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. (Matt 25:31–33)
The Catechism alludes to this passage when it explains what the final judgment will entail:
Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the Last Day in his preaching. Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God’s grace as nothing be condemned. Our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. On the Last Day Jesus will say: “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” [Matt 25:40]. (§678)
Another vivid description of the final judgment is found in Revelation 20:11–15, where we’re told that “all were judged by what they had done.”
Finally, we should pay attention to Our Lord’s words in John 5, when He explains that the hour is coming when those who are in the tombs will rise from their graves: “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (v. 29).
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Join us on the Road to Emmaus.
“I Look Forward to the Resurrection of the Body . . .”
We’re now in a position to reflect more deeply on what we mean when we say that we look forward to the resurrection of the body, or as it’s also known, the “general resurrection.”
John 5 is one example of a passage that explicitly connects the resurrection of the body with the final judgment.
A similar theme is found in Philippians 3, where St. Paul teaches that the transfiguration of our bodies will coincide with Christ’s return to the earth:
But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Phil 3:20–21)
St. Paul also references the resurrection of the body in Romans 8:23: “but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Paul’s most extended treatment of this topic comes in 1 Corinthians 15.
There he explains that it is the historical reality of Christ’s individual Resurrection which gives us hope in the future mystery of our own general resurrection: “Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor 15:23).
Of course, Paul isn’t inventing the general resurrection out of whole cloth.
On the contrary, his ideas are firmly rooted in the Old Testament, which hinted at the future resurrection of our mortal bodies (see Job 19:25–27; Ezek 37:1–4; Dan 12:2–3; 2 Macc 7:9,14,29).
Finally, we should remember Christ’s own preaching, in which he firmly rebuked the theological errors of the Sadducees, who denied the reality of the resurrection:
You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. . . . And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. (Matt 22:29, 31–32)
In other words, the souls of the faithful departed aren’t really dead—in fact, they’re more alive than we are! But if Christ’s own conquest of death involved Him receiving His body back in glorified form, then it stands to reason that the same will be true for us, provided we are faithful to Him.
“. . . And the Life of the World to Come”
In its section on the resurrection of the body, the Catechism explains that this mystery “exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith.”
Nevertheless, we may take consolation in the fact that “our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies” (§1000).
The Catechism quotes from St. Irenaeus:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection. (Against Heresies 4,18,4–5)
In the Holy Eucharist, we already begin to live a heavenly reality here on earth.
This prepares us for the eternal reality that awaits us, of which St. Paul speaks in awe-filled terms: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
No eye has seen nor ear has heard, but Divine Revelation has nevertheless given us some clues as to the overall trajectory of salvation history. As we have seen, at the end of the world Christ will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead.
At that point all of us will receive our bodies back.
The resurrected bodies of those who have conformed themselves to Christ will not exist in the same form as the bodies we now bear. Rather, our bodies will be transfigured just like His glorious body.
At the same time, we will receive the three preternatural gifts that Adam and Eve received at the dawn of the creation, but which they subsequently lost through the Fall:
- Infused knowledge (intimate understanding of God)
- Immortality (preservation from suffering and death)
- Integrity (harmony of appetites and passions under the rule of reason)
The word “preternatural” is based on the Latin preposition praeter, meaning “beyond.” Thus the preternatural gifts refer to divine favors that surpass our natural capacity, without surpassing created nature altogether. (Theologians also speak of the angels as possessing preternatural powers.)
Like Adam and Eve in the garden, we will enjoy preternatural gifts in the life of the world to come.
But unlike Adam and Eve in the garden, we will also enjoy something more than this, namely, our participation in the supernatural life of God, which totally surpasses the whole created order:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. (2 Pet 1:3–4)
Want More? Become a Member.
Support the Mission of the St. Paul Center
About Clement Harrold
Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s degree in theology, philosophy, and classics from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. He is a columnist for The Catholic Herald, and his writings have appeared in First Things, Word on Fire, Catholic Answers Magazine, Church Life Journal, Our Sunday Visitor Magazine, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.
