Whether This Clarity Was the Clarity of Glory?
Objection 1: It would seem that this clarity was not the clarity of
glory. For a gloss of Bede on Matt. 17:2, "He was transfigured before
them," says: "In His mortal body He shows forth, not the state of
immortality, but clarity like to that of future immortality." But the
clarity of glory is the clarity of immortality. Therefore the clarity
which Christ showed to His disciples was not the clarity of glory.
Obj. 2: Further, on Luke 9:27 "(That) shall not taste death unless
[Vulg.: 'till'] they see the kingdom of God," Bede's gloss says:
"That is, the glorification of the body in an imaginary vision of
future beatitude." But the image of a thing is not the thing itself.
Therefore this was not the clarity of beatitude.
Obj. 3: Further, the clarity of glory is only in a human body. But
this clarity of the transfiguration was seen not only in Christ's
body, but also in His garments, and in "the bright cloud" which
"overshaded" the disciples. Therefore it seems that this was not the
clarity of glory.
_On the contrary,_ Jerome says on the words "He was transfigured
before them" (Matt. 17:2): "He appeared to the Apostles such as He
will appear on the day of judgment." And on Matt. 16:28, "Till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom," Chrysostom says: "Wishing
to show with what kind of glory He is afterwards to come, so far as
it was possible for them to learn it, He showed it to them in their
present life, that they might not grieve even over the death of their
Lord."
_I answer that,_ The clarity which Christ assumed in His
transfiguration was the clarity of glory as to its essence, but not
as to its mode of being. For the clarity of the glorified body is
derived from that of the soul, as Augustine says (Ep. ad Diosc.
cxviii). And in like manner the clarity of Christ's body in His
transfiguration was derived from His Godhead, as Damascene says
(Orat. de Transfig.) and from the glory of His soul. That the glory
of His soul did not overflow into His body from the first moment of
Christ's conception was due to a certain Divine dispensation, that,
as stated above (Q. 14, A. 1, ad 2), He might fulfil the mysteries of
our redemption in a passible body. This did not, however, deprive
Christ of His power of outpouring the glory of His soul into His
body. And this He did, as to clarity, in His transfiguration, but
otherwise than in a glorified body. For the clarity of the soul
overflows into a glorified body, by way of a permanent quality
affecting the body. Hence bodily refulgence is not miraculous in a
glorified body. But in Christ's transfiguration clarity overflowed
from His Godhead and from His soul into His body, not as an immanent
quality affecting His very body, but rather after the manner of a
transient passion, as when the air is lit up by the sun. Consequently
the refulgence, which appeared in Christ's body then, was miraculous:
just as was the fact of His walking on the waves of the sea. Hence
Dionysius says (Ep. ad Cai. iv): "Christ excelled man in doing that
which is proper to man: this is shown in His supernatural conception
of a virgin and in the unstable waters bearing the weight of material
and earthly feet."
Wherefore we must not say, as Hugh of St. Victor [*Innocent III, De
Myst. Miss. iv] said, that Christ assumed the gift of clarity in the
transfiguration, of agility in walking on the sea, and of subtlety in
coming forth from the Virgin's closed womb: because the gifts are
immanent qualities of a glorified body. _On the contrary,_ whatever
pertained to the gifts, that He had miraculously. The same is to be
said, as to the soul, of the vision in which Paul saw God in a
rapture, as we have stated in the Second Part (II-II, Q. 175, A. 3,
ad 2).
Reply Obj. 1: The words quoted prove, not that the clarity of Christ
was not that of glory, but that it was not the clarity of a glorified
body, since Christ's body was not as yet immortal. And just as it was
by dispensation that in Christ the glory of the soul should not
overflow into the body so was it possible that by dispensation it
might overflow as to the gift of clarity and not as to that of
impassibility.
Reply Obj. 2: This clarity is said to have been imaginary, not as
though it were not really the clarity of glory, but because it was a
kind of image representing that perfection of glory, in virtue of
which the body will be glorious.
Reply Obj. 3: Just as the clarity which was in Christ's body was a
representation of His body's future clarity, so the clarity which was
in His garments signified the future clarity of the saints, which
will be surpassed by that of Christ, just as the brightness of the
snow is surpassed by that of the sun. Hence Gregory says (Moral.
xxxii) that Christ's garments became resplendent, "because in the
height of heavenly clarity all the saints will cling to Him in the
refulgence of righteousness. For His garments signify the righteous,
because He will unite them to Himself," according to Isa. 49:18:
"Thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament."
The bright cloud signifies the glory of the Holy Ghost or the "power
of the Father," as Origen says (Tract. iii in Matth.), by which in
the glory to come the saints will be covered. Or, again, it may be
said fittingly that it signifies the clarity of the world redeemed,
which clarity will cover the saints as a tent. Hence when Peter
proposed to make tents, "a bright cloud overshaded" the disciples.
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