Transfiguration

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the April 1977 Conference.

Elder David B. Haight opens his talk with an intriguing statement:

Shortly before the Savior’s betrayal…an event now known as the Transfiguration occurred, which I am sure was meant for our spiritual enlightenment as well as for those who were personal witnesses.

I find that intriguing because I haven't ever thought of this experience being for "our spiritual enlightenment." I've read about the Mount of Transfiguration, of course, but it always seemed like one of those extraordinary things that happened to Peter, James, and John because they were apostles, and needed to be eyewitnesses, and NOT something that would have much application to any…normal person. So, immediately I started wondering what the idea of "transfiguration" could possibly mean for ME, and all I could come up with was that maybe each temple experience could kind of approximate or foreshadow a more complete transfiguration. I've just been reading this article about how the whole point of the temple ceremony is to, literally, come into the presence of God. That journey happens symbolically, yes, but it is meant to be received in a very literal sense as well.

Elder Haight continues to describe what happened in the New Testament transfiguration experience, and it's interesting that he focuses first on what Jesus was seeing and feeling (I've always thought of it mostly from Peter, James, and John's perspective):

Perhaps Jesus felt not only a sense of the heavenly calm which that solitary opportunity for communion with His Father would bring, but even more, a sense that He would be supported in the coming hour by ministrations not of this earth. He was to be illuminated with a light which needed no aid from the sun or the moon or the stars. He went up to prepare for His coming death.

And then the benefits for the apostles:

He took His three apostles with Him in the belief that they, after having seen His glory—the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father—might be fortified, that their faith might be strengthened to prepare them for the insults and humiliating events which were to follow.

Both of those descriptions fit into the idea of what we could receive from a meaningful temple experience. Calm, communion with the father, a sense of angelic support. Illumination and preparation. Fortification against trials. I've felt all of these blessings at various times in the temple, and it makes me think maybe I have been "transfigured" by those experiences—just a little, not anything like the apostles seeing Jesus' glory in person, of course, but still—these things have changed me in not-insignificant ways. Perhaps permanently? If I let them?

I feel like I still have a lot more pondering to do before really understanding what Elder Haight was driving at by choosing this topic and saying it should enlighten all of us. But here's one more thought I had: occasionally I've read criticism about how the current LDS church leaders don't "see God" and have constant manifestations and visions, etc. like the early church leaders did. I have no such worries and think other people have addressed this misconception well. But I couldn't help but think about this question as I read Elder Haight's talk. He doesn't say anything about it explicitly. He is humble and unassuming in his tone, which is consistent with how I always think of him. But the structure of his talk made me think there was something in his topic that came from a very personal place. He starts his talk with a testimony of President Kimball:

He to whom you have just listened, Spencer Woolley Kimball, is God’s prophet to all the world. Not only are the heavens not sealed, as many suppose, but a living prophet is here admonishing and counseling and is available to all who will listen. He is God’s anointed for all mankind to follow.

Then he describes, in detail, the transfiguration of Christ and his apostles in the New Testament. And then he draws a direct line from that miraculous event to the miraculous vision Joseph Smith had of Jesus Christ in the Kirtland Temple. Last, he returns to the latter-day apostles:

Those keys—the same that were delivered to Peter, James, and John on the mountain—authorize us to carry the gospel to all nations and declare the power, glory, and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the day of His coming is near.

I don't know if Elder Haight (or President Kimball, for that matter) had had his own literal "transfiguration" experience, and I don't think it really matters, but I just felt from his words that he knew what he was talking about. Transfiguration, and the accompanying blessings that come from a personal encounter with God, were not abstract concepts to him. They were real. They were relevant. And they had application to the rest of the church as well.

Elder Haight ends with this:

We invite people everywhere to inquire further into this divine message which we have to offer to all mankind.

This talk makes me want to do just that!

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Other posts in this series:

• Integrity of Our Leaders by Nathaniel Givens
• Blessings and Righteousness by Daniel Ortner