Years ago, we took our very sweet aunt Peggy out for breakfast. We forgot to tell her
where we were going. When we parked the car, she asked, “Where am I and why am I
here?” Every day, in some small ways, we ask similar questions. In more important
moments, we also wonder: “Where am I and why am I here?”
Abram was called by God to set off from his home, in Ur of the Chaldees, modern day
Iraq, in the second millennium before Christ. He journeyed to a land he didn’t know,
trusting in God.
We are on a similar journey. If we choose to follow Jesus, we may not be sure where
He will lead us. Like Abram, we put our lives in God’s hands, not just once repeatedly
as we go.
Inevitably, we run into difficulties on the way. We think the difficulties are a mistake.
They shouldn’t be there because we are in God’s hands. St. Thomas Aquinas reminds
us that, after Jesus had foretold the Passion, He instructed His disciples to follow along
His path (Mt 16:21, 24).
We are, St. Thomas describes us as, “those who follow the footsteps of His Passion”
(3a. 45, 1). Paul and Barnabas preached, “Through many tribulations we must enter into
the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Paul instructs Timothy: “Bear your share of the hardship which the Gospel entails” (2
Tim 1:8). Tribulations are not our destination. The tribulations bring us out of ourselves
to be flexible to where God leads us.
Similar to Thomas the Apostle, we might be inclined to say, “Lord, we do not know
where You are going, how can we know the way” (Jn 14:5). St. Thomas explains that,
“In order for anyone to go straight along a road, he must have some knowledge of the
end… Above all it is necessary when hard and rough is the road, heavy the going, but
delightful the end” (3a. 45, 1).
Where is our journey going? Thomas asserts that an archer wouldn’t shoot straight
unless he sees the target.
In today’s Gospel, God revealed who Jesus was the beloved Son and the Spirit rested
upon Him. The Transfiguration gave the disciples an inside view of who Jesus really
was before His Passion, when he appeared so forsaken.
Thomas explains that through our adoption as God’s children, we begin a process of
being conformed to the image of His Son: “The adoption of sons of God is through a
certain conformity of image to the natural Son of God” (3a. 45, 4). The Father is
conforming us in the image of the Son.

Thomas shows that this process of our conformity into the image of the Son occurs in
two ways. These are represented by two moments of Jesus’ life: His Baptism and His
Transfiguration.
Thomas reflects that this process begins in our own baptisms: “In Baptism… we acquire
grace” (3a. 45, 4). The process of our being formed in the image of the Son reflects the
Trinitarian nature of Jesus’ Baptism:
Just as in the Baptism, where the mystery of the first regeneration was
proclaimed, the operation of the whole Trinity was made manifest, because the
Incarnate Son was there, the Holy Ghost appeared under the form of a dove and
the Father made Himself known in the voice” (3a. 45, 4, ad 2).
Our conformity to Christ is also a Trinitarian process. Thomas explains that the visible
manifestation of the Spirit was the dove at Christ’s Baptism, “in order to show forth
Christ’s authorship over the grace given through spiritual rebirth.” This was confirmed by
the Father’s declaration that Christ was His Son, “so that others might be born again in
the likeness of His only begotten Son” (1a. 43, 7, ad 6).
Our conformity to the image of the Son is imperfect. Thomas says that we are moving
“by the grace of the wayfarer, which is imperfect conformity” (3a. 45, 4). We are in
process. Thomas recalls John’s First Letter: “We are now the sons of God, and it has
not appeared what we shall be; we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:2).
Thomas calls our attention to the fact that the voice of the Father declaring that Jesus is
His Son is heard in both the Baptism and the Transfiguration: “The words are to be
understood of God’s eternal speaking, by which God the Father uttered the only-
begotten and co-eternal Word” (3a. 45, 4 ad 1).
The words are the same in each occasion, yet Thomas points out that they are “not for
the same purpose, but in order to show the diverse modes in which men can be
partakers of the likeness of the eternal Sonship” (3a. 45, 4 ad 1).
Thomas teaches that the imperfect stage of the wayfarer eventually leads to the perfect
stage in glory: “Christ came to give grace actually and to promise glory by His words”
(3a. 45, 4).
This second conformity is indicated by the Transfiguration, in which the Trinity is also
present: “The Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the bright cloud”
(3a. 45, 4, ad 2).
Thomas says that “It was fitting that He should show His disciples the glory of His
brightness, which is to be transfigured, to which He will transfigure those who are His”
(3a. 45, 1). Even our bodies will be transformed as Paul writes: “He will change the
body of our lowliness to be fashioned like His glorious body” (Phil 3:21).

According to Thomas, Christ wished to be transfigured to show us His glory to stir up a
desire for it (3a. 45, 3).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.
References to Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae give the part of the Summa, which,
in these references, is the third part. This is followed by the question, which in these
references is question 45, with one reference to 43. Thirdly are the articles from which
the quotations are taken. Those from question 45 are from articles 1, 3, 4 and 7. If the
reference is to Thomas’ response to an objection that he raised in the beginning of the
article, it is identified as “ad” (the Latin for “to”) followed by the number of the objection.