A damaged icon of the Transfiguration laid out near the wreckage of Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa after a missile strike on July 23, 2023. Getty Images
The first Sunday in August this year is the Feast of the Transfiguration, and so our run of Ordinary Time Sundays is interrupted, though the Gospel is still taken from Matthew. Immediately before the passage we read, Jesus tells his disciples: “Truly I tell you, there aresome standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Mat 16:28). He emphasises the close connection between this promise and the events on the mountain by telling us that “six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John...” (17:1).
