This is another of the major feast days which falls in what is commonly called (in modern times) "Ordinary Time." The Feast of the Transfiguration is anything but "ordinary" thus my renewed push to call this season "Ordinal Time."
What is the Transfiguration?
About a week after His sojourn in Cæsarea Philippi, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them to a high mountain apart, where He was transfigured before their ravished eyes. St. Matthew and St. Mark express this phenomenon by the word metemorphothe, which the Vulgate renders transfiguratus est. The Synoptics explain the true meaning of the word by adding "his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow," according to the Vulgate, or "as light," according to the Greek text.
This dazzling brightness which emanated from His whole Body was produced by an interior shining of His Divinity. False Judaism had rejected the Messias, and now true Judaism, represented by Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets, recognized and adored Him, while for the second time God the Father proclaimed Him His only-begotten and well-loved Son. By this glorious manifestation the Divine Master, who had just foretold His Passion to the Apostles (Matthew 16:21), and who spoke with Moses and Elias of the trials which awaited Him at Jerusalem, strengthened the faith of his three friends and prepared them for the terrible struggle of which they were to be witnesses in Gethsemani, by giving them a foretaste of the glory and heavenly delights to which we attain by suffering.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15019a.htm
More reading on the Transfiguration:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15019a.htm
http://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-church-year/transfiguration
Ten Things You Need to Know About the Transfiguration (Jimmy Akin) http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-jesus-transfiguration/
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