Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

418 The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ
solations. But they should serve to show the more clearly that our lasting
home is not on this earth; they should enkindle in us a yearning and
desire for an eternal transfiguration in heaven, the true home of our
soul. To be sure, in order to attain this we must walk the same path
that Christ has walked: suffer, and so enter into glory.
The shaking and trembling of the earth mentioned in the second
verse of the antiphon should induce us to look beyond Tabor to the end
of time when Christ will come again in great power and glory. At that
moment not only Moses and Elias and the three Apostles, but all mankind
just risen from the grave, will see Him in His glory and offer Him
homage. The ardent longing of all the just is centered on that great day
when "the body of our lowness will be made like to the body of His
glory" (Philipp. 3, 21), on that transfiguration at their entrance into
the courts of heaven.
The Introit for the feast of St. Lawrence seems to have served as a
model for this Introit; compare for instance Illuxerunt and Confessio,
corrusca-(Hones) and pulchritudo, (corrusca)-tiones tuae and conspectu
eius, contremuit terra and (sanctificati)-one eius. In the original melody
the first phrase closes by tarrying quietly on the dominant, while here
it is supplemented with the words orbi terrae, whose melody is evidently
modeled on that over terra. These two words must be sung somewhat
more broadly. The melody over commota est is energetic and forceful.
GRADUAL
Text and melody were explained on the Sunday within the octave
of Christmas. We can scarcely picture to ourselves the Christ Child in
the manger without giving thought also to the transfigured glory of His
divinity. On Christmas we consider above all else His human charm
and entrancing beauty. Today, however, we contemplate the divine
element which transfigures the Son of Man. Never before did a human
form radiate such supernatural beauty as did Christ's on Tabor. He
who would sing praises of this King of glory must needs do so with the
feelings of deepest emotion and reverential enthusiasm.
ALLELUIA VERSE (Wisd. 7: 26)
1. Candor est lucis aeternae, 2. 1. He is the brightness of eternal
speculum sine macula, 3. et imago light, 2. the unspotted mirror, 3. and
bonitatis illius. the image of his goodness.
The shining countenance and the transfigured appearance of Jesus
on Tabor were irradiations of the divinity which dwelt in Him. This
divinity, in turn, was naught but the reflected splendor of the eternal