Fr John Okoro Egbulefu CCE (Founder of the Emmanuelites)

Rome 6th August 2026

1) First, Standing at the foot of the mountain as on a plane ground, let us begin with the hymn: “We shall go up with joy to the house of our Father.” // “I rejoiced when I heard them say, ‘let us go to God’s house’. And now my feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem” (Psalm).

2) Then, Climbing on and along the body of the mountain as an ascending movement, let us get a mystical - mysterious and paradoxical - action that signifies a past event and effects a present even.

On the one hand it - the Climbing on and along the body of the mountain as an ascending movement - signifies, represents, recaptures, recalls to memory, the original way of the cross, via Crucis which the Son of Man had to go in order to procure and secure the redemption of humanity from that evil of death which man had incurred through man’s grave sin, offence against God, that way which terminated at the peak, top, zenith, of Golgotha’s high mount, it is the way of that holy Cross carried along the road to Golgotha by Christ by which He has redeemed the world, a strenuous uphill task that He, out of love for humanity, willingly undertook to fulfill, the cross He carried on His shoulders as assigned to Him by the Father. In correspondence to this let us first sing about Him to Him: “Pro nobis introivit Jesus secundum ordinem Melchisedek, Pontifex factus in aeternum. Habentes ergo Pontificem magnum qui penetravit caelos, Jesum Filium Dei teneamus confessionem” (Emmanuelite Cantata).

On the other hand it - the Climbing on and along the body of the mountain as an ascending movement - is a method for effecting the journey of us humans towards an appointment and encounter with God who is waiting for our arrival into the presence of His divine majesty, we, the traveling humans, who, without wealth and without home in this transitory world, like the poor Son of Man, are plodding on our way to God on whom we are focused and to whom we are singing as we journey: “Nearer and nearer our Lord and God we are coming to You, stronger and stronger our faith in You, deeper and deeper our love for You, higher and higher, joyous and joyous our hope on You, wider and wider, clearer and clearer our knowledge of You, the longer and longer we move to You who are waiting for us. Amen” (Emmanuelite Cantata).

3) Arrival and Standing at the top of the climbed mountain

3a) the happenings at the top of the mountain

3aa) the transfiguration proper of the Lord Jesus upon beholding whose beauty - the glorious splendour of whose radiant face glowing like the Sun shining much brighter by far than the moon and the constellation of stars, and the enchanting beauty of whose clothes shining as white as the light - let us accordingly as the posterity of His disciples that He took along with Him to the peak of Mount Tabor as the scene of the transfiguration, chant to Him another new beautiful hymn: “Domine Deus noster magnificatus es, vehementer majestatem et decorem induisti, amictus lumine sicut vestimento. Amen” (Emmanuelite Cantata);

3ab) the dialogue between, on the one hand, the transfigured Incarnate Son of God, the enfleshed Logos - eternal creative Word of God - as a person, the Logos in His incarnate state, and, on the other hand, Moses and Elijah as the two representatives of the two lungs by which the living, and thus respiring, Jewish Religion is breathing, the lung on the left being the Law, the commandments, the imperative words of God spoken by God to His people and transmitted by Him to them through Moses, while the lung on the right is the Prophecy, the aggregate of admonitory and promissory words of God spoken by God to His people and transmitted by Him to them through Elijah. This ground-breaking, way-paving, dialogue is the method and process through which, with which and in which the incarnate eternal creative Word of God sent to us humans by God the Father in New Testament corrects and transforms and overtakes ‘the imperative’ and ‘the prophetic as admonitory and promissory’ words spoken by God to His people in the Old Testament through Moses and Elijah respectively;

3b) Peter’s word to Jesus: “Lord it is wonderful for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tens s here: one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah”. In correspondence to this word and religious sentiment of Peter toward the Lord, let us as the posterity of those three disciples that the Lord took along with Him to the peak of Mount Tabor as the scene of the transfiguration, sing to Him thus: “We have seen already diverse types of beauty, but this one here is unique, it has no comparison, everything that is beautiful is here and nowhere else, any beauty that is not here is nowhere else, how wonderful You are, O Lord Our God, it is lovely to dwell here in Your presence. Amen” (Emmanuelite Cantata).

4) Peter was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud signifying a the Holy Spirit covered them with shadow, and from the cloud there came a voice, vox ex nube, the voice of the Father from above the top of the mountain and which said about the transfigured Jesus: “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him”. In correspondence to this witness given by the speaking and thus living God the Father to the disciples of Christ about Christ as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased and to whom they, the disciples, and, by extension, all Christbelievers, have to be obedient, as He, the Son, is to Him, the Father, we the posterity of those three disciples that the Lord took along with Him to the peak of Mount Tabor as the scene of the transfiguration sing to Christ thus:

“Glorificabimus Te semper O Christe qui pertransivit benefaciendo proclamamus Nomen Tuum ‘Emmanuel’, quod est interpretatum ‘Nobiscum Deus’.

// Deus in medio nostri es Tu, Jesu Christe, gaudentes enarremus mirabilia Tua.

// Tu es Filius Dei, Verbum caro factum, magna et mirabilia sunt opera Tua.

// Pater Spiritu Sancto, virtute, unxit Te, facis quod facit Pater, qui est semper cum Te” (Emmanuelite Cantata);

and we conclude thus with the proclamation of the sovereignty of Christ the Lord: “Factum est regnum huius mundi, Domini nostri et Christi eius, et regnabit in saecula saeculorum Amen” (Emmanuelite Canata).

5) The three disciples - Peter James and John - when they heard the Father’s revelation of Jesus as His beloved Son that enjoys His favour and to whom they must listen, fell on their faces, overcome by fear. In correspondence to this event and expressing the religious sentiments of the three frightened but to be yet uplifted and calmed disciples we the posterity of those disciples sing to Jesus our sung of unworthiness to associate with Him: “Venite adoremus eum quia ipse est Dominus Deus noster // Venite exsultemus Domino jubilemus Deo salutari nostro.

// Quia in manu eius sunt profunda terrae et altitudines montium ipsius sunt” (Emmanuelite Cantata), and our hymn of hope on Him for our salvation: “Ecce Deus noster Iste, expectavimus Eum ut salvaret nos iste Dominus sustinuimus Eum. Exultabimus et laetabimus in salutari eius quia requiescet manus Domini in Monte. Amen”.

But Jesus came up and touched them and told them to stand up and not to be afraid. In correspondence to this act of the compassionate and merciful God that Christ the Godman and Mediator between God and man is we sing to Him a grateful hymn: “Redemisti nos Domine Deus in sanguine Tuo, et ex omni tribu et lingua et populo et natione et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnum”.