On this, the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, we commemorate the Venerable Isaac, Dalmatus and Faustus, of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople (4th - 5th c.); the Holy Myrrh-bearer Salome; Venerable Anthony the Roman, abbot of Novgorod (1147), the First-Martyr Rajden of Persia (457), Venerable Cosmas, Eunuch and Hermit, of Palestine (6th c.); and the nine Kherkheulidze brothers, their mother and sister, and 9,000 others who suffered on the field of Marabde, Georgia (1625).
Through the intercessions of Thy Saints, O Christ God, have mercy on us and save us!
We can find the whole event of Christ?s Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-9, Luke 9:28-35 and 2 Peter 1:16-21. Jesus leads His disciples to a high mountain and shows them His divine Glory. Like Theophany, Transfiguration is a feast of Light. Today on Tabor we have seen the Father as Light, and the Holy Spirit as Light guiding with Light the whole creation, we sing on that day.
The Transfiguration is a revelation of the Holy Trinity. On Mount Tabor, as at the baptism in Jordan, the Father speaks from heaven, testifying to the divine Sonship of Christ; and the Spirit is also present, on this occasion not in the likeness of a dove, but under the form of dazzling light, surrounding Christ's person and overshadowing the whole mountain. This dazzling light is the light of the Spirit.
In the Matins for the Feast we sing: The pillar of fire plainly showed to Moses Christ transfigured, and the cloud pointed clearly to the grace of the Spirit that overshadowed Mount Tabor.
The Transfiguration took place 40 days before Christ's passion. He chose this particular moment to reveal to His disciples something of His divine glory in order for them to be ready to bear His suffering on the Cross. But our Church celebrates this great event on 6 August which is also 40 days before the Elevation of the Holy Cross (September 14 ), a feast of crucifixion.
What has happened to human nature in Christ can happen also to the humanity of Christ's followers. The Transfiguration, then, reveals to us the full potentiality of human nature. It shows us the glory which our humanity once possessed and the glory which, by God's grace, it will again recover.
The three disciples, Peter, James and John become witnesses of Christ's glory. They saw the face of Christ shine as the sun. According to St. Gregory of Nazianzus, this light was the divinity manifested to the disciples. The Evangelists compare the divinity with the light of the sun, but this comparison is quite inadequate, because uncreated reality cannot be expressed by a created image.
The Church Fathers tried to formulate the Orthodox definition of grace founded on the dogmatic distinction between the inaccessible essence and the communicable energy of God. So the Light is not God's essence but His energy. The Light of the Lord's Transfiguration had no beginning and no end; it remained uncircumscribed and imperceptible to the senses, although it was contemplated with bodily eyes.
Christ appeared to the disciples on mount Tabor, not as a servant, but in the form of God, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The incarnate Christ remained inseparable from His Divine nature, which is in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So the manifestation of the Divinity of Christ is then, at the same time, a Theophany of the Trinity: The Father. . . by His voice bore witness to His Beloved Son, the Holy Spirit, shining with Him in the bright cloud.
Christ showed the glory of His Divinity to the extent that the Apostles could receive the grace of this vision. They saw Christ's glory "according to their capacity," so that later, when they would see their Master crucified, they would understand that His Passion could only be voluntary. He encouraged them -- and all of us -- to look beyond the suffering of the Cross to the glory of the Resurrection. The glory which shone from Jesus on Tabor is a glory in which all mankind is called to share.
Kontakion
On the Mount Thou wast transfigured, and Thy disciples, as much as they could bear, beheld Thy glory, O Christ our God; that when they should see Thee crucified, they would know Thy passion to be willing, and would preach to the world that Thou, in truth, art the Effulgence of the Father.
The attitudes of the Apostles in the icon vary. St. Peter (on left) is always represented kneeling, supported on his left hand and raising his right hand to protect himself from the light (or, in other icons, to make a gesture accompanying the words that he addresses to Christ). St. John (always in the center) falls, turning his back to the light. St. James flees before the light or falls backwards still looking at Christ. These different attitudes of the Apostles show their own characteristic differences and their own individuality. They saw God's glory according to their personal potentialities.
Christ, in His Transfiguration, is represented standing on the top of the mountain, speaking with Moses and Elias. His clothes are shining white. The geometrical figures within the circle represent the bright cloud, which revealed the supernatural source of the divine energies. Moses (on the right) is holding a book--generally it is the tables of the Ten Commandments. Elias (on the left) is an old man with long hair.
St. John Chrysostom gives several reasons to explain the presence of Moses and Elias at the moment of the Transfiguration:
These details in the icon underline the eschatological character of the Transfiguration. Christ appears as the Lord of the living and dead, coming in the glory of the future age. The Troparion (Hymn) we sing that day is:
Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God,
showing to Thy disciples Thy glory as each one could endure.
Shine forth Thou on us, who are sinners all, Thy light ever-unending,
through the prayers of the Theotokos.
O Light-bestower, glory to Thee!
Repulse evil thoughts and do not let them penetrate the heart and settle there; for when passion imbued thoughts persist they bring the passions themselves to life and are the death of the intellect. As soon as you sense they are attacking you, try to destroy them with the arrow of prayer. If they go on importuning you to be let in, confusing your mind, now withdrawing, now assailing you again, you may be sure that a previous desire for them on your part is giving them strength. Because the soul's free will has been overcome in this way, they now have al lawful claim against it, and so they perturb and pester it. Hence you should expose them through confession, for evil thoughts take flight as soon as they are denounced. Just as darkness recedes when light shines, so the light of confession dispels the darkness of impassioned thoughts.
- Theoliptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia (+1322),
who was the spiritual father of St. Gregory Palamas.