Dormition Fast reflection - Afterfeast of the Transfiguration

 

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Christianity is not reconciliation with death. It is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of Life. Christ is this Life. And only if Christ is Life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be; namely, the enemy to be destroyed, and not a “mystery” to be explained.

Religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a “status,” a rationale, make it “normal.” Only Christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible. In the light of Christ, this world, this life are lost and beyond mere “help,” not because there is fear of death in them, but because they have accepted and normalized death.

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World

St. Maximus on the Transfiguration

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August 6, 2025 The Holy Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ The Lord does not always appear in glory to all who stand before Him. To beginners He appears in the form of a servant (Phil. 2.7); to those able to follow Him as He climbs the high mountain of His transfiguration He appears in the form of God, the form in which He existed before the world came to be (John 17.5). It is therefore possible for the same Lord not to appear in the same way to all who stand before Him, but to appear to some in one way and to others in another way, according to the measure of each person’s faith. When the Logos of God becomes manifest and radiant in us, and His face shines like the sun, then His clothes will also look white. That is to say, the words of the Gospel will then be clear and distinct, with nothing concealed. And Moses and Elijah—the more spiritual principles of the Law and the Prophets—will also be present with Him. —St. Maximos the Confessor, Second Century on Theology Give Now

Cultivating the Image of Divine Beauty

 

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On August 6, we celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ, with the Leavetaking of the Feast on August 13.

The mysterious presence of Beauty is revealed on Mt. Tabor in an overwhelming manner when Christ is transfigured there resplendent in divine glory. This is the beauty of the first-formed human creatures, created to reflect the beauty of the divine nature, for by grace they - and we - were created in the image and likeness of God. And they were placed in a world that also reflected this divine beauty. That is why God, after completing the creation process, declared that is was all "very good."

Yet, the presence of sin marred that beauty. This lost beauty was restored to humanity when the Son of God assumed our human nature, uniting it to His divine Person and revealing the glory of God in a human being. Thus, on Mt. Tabor, Christ reveals the beauty of His divine nature and the beauty of our created human nature. This is why the Transfiguration is often referred to as a Feast of Beauty.

The Russian novelist Dostoevsky (+1881) famously and somewhat enigmatically once said:  "Beauty will save the world." Yet, Dostoevsky also realized that in a world filled with sin, beauty can evoke responses that fall short of any saving value. In fact, beauty can even degenerate toward sin and sensuality, as one of Dostoevsky's greatest creations, Dmitri Karamazov, acknowledged with great anguish. 

Therefore, for Dostoevsky beauty itself had to be "saved" and linked to Truth and Goodness. Thus, for the Russian novelist, beauty is not simply an aesthetic concept, but one that must have a moral, ethical and spiritual dimension for it to be rightly perceived and experienced. And for Dostoevsky as well as for not only great artists, but the great minds of the Church, beauty is not an abstract concept or Idea. Beauty is a Person, and this Person is Christ. In Christ, Truth, Goodness and Beauty are harmoniously united. This is why Dostoevesky also spoke of the "radiant image of Christ." In another famous passage from his pen, found in a letter of his, Dostoevsky articulated his personal "creed:"

I have constructed for myself a symbol of faith in which everything is clear and holy for me. The symbol is very clear, here it is: to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, profounder, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ and not only is there nothing , but I tell myself with jealous love that never could there be.

It is these qualities that make Christ such an attractive figure that a well-disposed mind and heart not unduly influenced by the marks of a fallen world will almost naturally turn to as an "ideal," but again as a concrete living Person. There is a passage from Fr. Alexander Elchaninov (+1934), taken from his personal diary after his death, that captures that same intuition as found in Dostoevsky:

It is impossible not to love Christ. If we saw Him now, we should not be able to take our eyes off Him, we should "listen to him in rapture;" we should flock round Him as did the multitudes in the Gospels. All this is required of us is not to resist. We have only to yield to Him, to the contemplation of His image - in the Gospels, in the saints, in the Church - and He will take possession of our hearts.

Here, again, there is an inherent moral, ethical and spiritual dimension from that beauty that flows outward from Christ. This is rendered in the form of very practical and concrete advice in the words of Vladimir Solovyov (+1900), for many the greatest Russian philosopher known to us:

Before any important decision, let us evoke in our soul the image of Christ. Let us concentrate our attention upon it and ask ourselves: Would He Himself do this action? Or, in other words: Will He approve of it or not?

To all I propose this rule: it does not deceive. In every dubious case, as soon as the possibility of a choice is offered to you, remember Christ. Picture to yourself His living Person, as it really is, and entrust Him with the burden of your doubts.

Let human beings of good will, as individuals, as social factors, as leaders of men, women and peoples, apply this criterion, and they will really be able, in the name of truth, to show to others the way toward God.

This concreteness is all the more interesting, for Solovyov was often a highly speculative thinker. That what he wrote just over a century ago is hardly a public ideal any longer is to our great loss. It is our role to maintain and cultivate the image of divine beauty in our lives as seen in the face of the incarnate Christ as a sacred obligation.

Coffee With Sister Vassa: TRANSFIGURATION

Coffee With Sister Vassa

TRANSFIGURATION

 

“You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, and Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they were able, so that when they would behold You crucified, they would understand that You did suffer of Your own will, and would proclaim to the world that You are truly the brightness of the Father.” (Kontakion of Transfiguration)

This hymn explains to us the reasons that our Lord let the disciples (Peter, James and John) witness His glorious Transfiguration on the mountain, to the extent that “they were able”: It was so that they would not lose faith in Him, when He was crucified, and would proceed to proclaim to the world that He, truly, is “the brightness of the Father.” 

How is this relevant to our lives? We also have our moments “on the mountain,” that is, when we witness God’s goodness or grace, “as far as we are able.” These “high” moments are meant to strengthen our faith at those “low” moments of our cross-carrying journey, when we might feel God has abandoned us.  

And this is how the hymn that immediately follows the above-quoted Kontakion, called the “Ikos,” urges us to turn our thoughts around, at those low moments: “Awake, you sluggards, and lie not forever on the ground, you thoughts that draw my soul to the earth! Arise and go up to the high mountain of the divine ascent! Let us run to join Peter and the sons of Zebedee, and go with them to Mount Tabor, that with them we may see the glory of our God and hear the voice they heard from heaven, and with them proclaim that this is the brightness of the Father.” Let’s look up today, my friends, if we are feeling down, because our Lord’s “brightness” sustains our world and transfigures us, even when we might not see it because of the clouds.

A Feast of Theology: The Transfiguration, the Heart of the Orthodox Faith

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

On August 6 we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The Leave-taking of the Feast is on August 13. A time to think deeply on this wonderful and unique event from Lord's earthly ministry.

This feast is thus embedded in the time of the Dormition Fast, but still retains all of its festal splendor. What a truly blessed Feast! 

The Transfiguration is particularly rich in essential theological themes that reveal the very heart of our Orthodox Christian Faith. These dogmatic/doctrinal themes are expressed poetically throughout the services - Vespers, Matins, Liturgy - of the Feast in an abundant variety of hymnographical forms. The troparion and kontakion of any given Feast offer a "summary" of the Feast's over-all meaning and place in God's oikonomia (divine dispensation):

Thou wast transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as far as they could bear it. LetThine everlasting light shine upon us sinners! Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee! (Troparion) 

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father! (Kontakion)

Over the years and through repeated use, many of the faithful know these hymns by heart. If we listen carefully, or even study it outside of the services, the hymnography reveals very profound truths in the realm of Christology (the Person of Christ, both God and man); anthropology (the human person created in the image and likeness of God); triadology (the dogma of the Trinity); and eschatology (the Kingdom of God coming in power at the end of time).

Christology

On Mt. Tabor, when transfigured before His disciples, our Lord reveals to His disciples - and to all of us - His divine nature "hidden" in humility beneath the human nature of His flesh:

Enlightening the disciples that were with Thee, O Christ our Benefactor, Thou hast shown them upon the holy mountain the hidden and blinding light of Thy nature and of Thy divine beauty beneath the flesh. 

The nature that knows no change, being mingled with the mortal nature, shone forth ineffably, unveiling in some small measure to the apostles the light of the immaterial Godhead. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Five)

As St. John of Damascus has written: 

"He was transfigured, then: not taking on what he was not, nor being changed to what he was not, but making what he was visible to his own disciples, opening their eyes and enabling them, who had been blind, to see. This is what the phrase means, "He was transfigured before their faces" (Matt 17:2); he remained exactly the same as he was, but appeared in a way beyond the way he had appeared before, and in that appearance seemed different to his disciples." (Oration on the Transfiguration)

Anthropology

Christ is fully and truly human. He is without sin. Thus, He is the "perfect" human being, by revealing to us the glory of human nature when fully united to God - something that we lost in the Fall. To be filled with the glory of God in communion with God is the true destiny of human beings and thus the true revelation of our human nature. By assuming our human nature, Christ has restored that relationship:

For having gone up, O Christ, with Thy disciples into Mount Tabor, Thou wast transfigured, and hast made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning, transforming it into the glory and splendor of Thine own divinity. (Aposticha, Great Vespers) 

Thou hast put Adam on entire, O Christ, and changing the nature grown dark in past times, Thou hast filled it with glory and made it godlike by the alteration of Thy form. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Three)

In the words of Archbishop Kallistos Ware:  

"In the light of Christ's face that was so strangely and so strikingly altered upon the mountaintop, in his garments that became dazzling white, all human faces have acquired a new brightness, all common things have been transformed. For those who believe in Christ's Transfiguration, no one is despicable, nothing is trivial or mean."

Triadology

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity were revealed on Mount Tabor, as they were revealed in the Jordan at the time of the Lord's Baptism. On Tabor it is again the voice of the Father, and the Spirit now appears in the form of a luminous cloud. Every revelation and action of God's is trinitarian, for the Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit act in perfect harmony revealing thus the unity of the one divine nature:

Today on Tabor in the manifestation of Thy Light, O Word, Thou unaltered Light from the Light of the unbegotten Father, we have seen the Father as Light and the Spirit as Light, guiding with light the whole creation. (Exapostilarion, Matins)

Again, in the words of St. John of Damascus: 

"For God is recognized as one, in three hypostases(Persons). There is one substance of Godhead: the Father who bears witness, and the Son to whom he witnesses, and the Spirit who overshadows him." (Oration on the Transfiguration)

Eschatology

The Lord reveals by anticipation in His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, both his approaching Resurrection and the glorious appearance that we await at His Second Coming. He also reveals the transfiguration of our own lowly human nature in the Kingdom of God, where the righteous will shine like the stars of heaven. Thus, this is a Feast of Hope, as well as a Feast of Divine Beauty, as we anticipate His eternal and unfading presence and our transformation in Him, also eternal and unending:

Thou wast transfigured upon Mount Tabor, showing the exchange mortal men will make with Thy glory at Thy second and fearful coming, O Savior. (Sessional Hymn, Matins) 

To show plainly how, at Thy mysterious second coming, Thou wilt appear as the Most High God standing in the midst of gods, on Mount Tabor Thou hast shone in fashion past words upon the apostles and upon Moses and Elijah. (Second Canon of Matins, Canticle Nine)

We bless fruit on this Feast because all of creation awaits transfiguration at the end of time. Even the garments of Christ were shining forth with a radiance brighter than the sun. The blessed fruit represents this awaited transfiguration when the creation will be freed from bondage. In earlier times, the grapes themselves would be used for the eucharistic offering of wine.

The importance of the Transfiguration is shown by the fact that it is recorded in three of the Gospels: MATT. 17:1-13; MK. 9:2-8; LK. 28-36. It is also clearly alluded to in II PET. 1:16-18.

To appeal one final time to St. John of Damascus:

"Let us observe these divine commandments with total concentration, so that we too may feast upon his divine beauty; and be filled with the taste of his sweetness: now, insofar as this is attainable for those weighed down by this earthly tent of the body; but in the next life more clearly and purely, when the 'just shall shine like the sun,' when they shall be released from the body's necessities, and shall be imperishable, like angels with the Lord, at the time of the great and radiant appearance of our Lord and God and Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ: with whom may glory be given to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, now and to the endless ages of ages. Amen." (Oration on the Transfiguration)

The Awesome God and the Transfigured Life

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, 

“Look down from heaven, O Master, upon those who have bowed their heads unto Thee, the awesome God.” (From the Divine Liturgy) 

The Church is calling us to the "awesome" Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6). Having ascended Mt. Tabor with the disciples of the Lord, we will then descend back into the world in order to hopefully witness to the glorious vision that has been vouchsafed to us of Christ shining resplendently in His divine glory (MK. 9:1-8; MATT. 17:1-13; LK. 9:28-36). Biblically, the “glory of God,” refers to a palpable “shining forth” of the presence of God that overwhelms the recipient of such a vision. With their spiritual senses purified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were able to “see” the glory of God revealed in Christ on Mt. Tabor, and they, too, were overwhelmed. Truly, therefore, the Transfiguration is an “awesome” Feast! 

Yet, today, everything is described as “awesome:” the loud, the superficial, the mundane. Are we witnessing a kind of experiential egalitarianism, where nothing is allowed to stand apart from or above anything else? Is even the awesomeness of God succumbing to this leveling effect? How discouraging that would be, for we refer to God liturgically as “the awesome Judge,” the “awesome God;” and the Eucharist as the “Awesome Mysteries of Christ.” This is as it should be, for the word awesome is based on the noun “awe” which remains defined today as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.” It is God Who is truly awesome! Anything else that can be genuinely described as awesome derives that quality from God. 

More specifically, is the awesomeness of the Transfiguration somehow reduced to just one more passing “church event” that comes and goes with an alarmingly insignificant amount of impact on our Christian minds and hearts? Can the awesome Feast of the Transfiguration even “compete” any longer with a new blockbuster film for our attention and capacity as human beings to be “awed” by the sacred and sublime? I am convinced that when everything is “awesome,” then nothing is really awesome. Inevitably, we will find ourselves calling the most boring of occurrences “awesome,” but with no real enthusiasm or conviction. (Perhaps we can excuse our younger children who are now using the term “awesome,” for the “little things” in life can still fill them with a sense of wonder that we adults have lost). 

Be that as it may, the disciples were awed by Christ on Mt. Tabor when “He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (MATT. 17:2). This metamorphosis – the Greek word behind our transfiguration - was a direct revelation of Christ’s divine nature or, more precisely, of the uncreated energies of His divinity which now shone through the flesh He assumed in the Incarnation. Jesus did not become something He previously was not, but revealed His true identity as both God and man. To the glory of God, Jesus Christ is a human being fully alive. Such a revelation is unique to the Gospels and clearly prefigures the Lord’s resurrection and the glory of the Age to Come. Moses and Elijah appeared flanking the Lord, “talking with Him” (v. 3). Peter wanted to build three booths: one for Christ, one for Moses and one for Elijah. In other words Peter wanted to prolong the vision and the experience. But this was not to be. Interestingly enough, in an apocryphal account of the transfiguration, Peter is openly rebuked for his mistaken desire. Peter and other disciples – James and John – must come down from the mount and witness to Christ through the remainder of their lives and through their deaths ultimately. 

The same is true of us. If we have not lost our capacity to be awed in the presence of God, perhaps primarily in the Liturgy, but also when reading the Scriptures, praying alone, looking into the face of another and seeing the “image and likeness of God;” then we must take that awesome experience with us into the everyday flow of events and encounters that mark our lives. We must come down from those metaphorical mountains that we climb, seeing only Jesus after the vision vouchsafed to us by God; and bear witness to that presence and experience by the quality of our Christian lives: 

O Christ our God, who was transfigured in glory on Mount Tabor showing to Thy disciples the splendor of Thy Godhead, do Thou enlighten us also with the light of Thy knowledge and guide us in the path of Thy commandments, for Thou alone art good and lovest mankind. (Litiya verse of the Feast)

 

The fact that it is in the Orthodox Church that the Transfiguration is considered a great Feast is meaningless if the experience of the Feast does not have an impact on us. The goodness, truth and beauty that shine forth from Christ are the uncreated energies that free us from apathy and cynicism; and free us further to pursue the virtue of Christ that “has covered the heavens.” (Liturgy of Preparation) 

Now. all we need to do is heed the call of the Church and "come and see" the transfigured Lord through the eyes of faith!

Great Vespers with Blessing of Loaves and Anointing: This evening at 7:00 p.m.

Divine Liturgy: Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. Fruit baskets blessed following the Liturgy.

Cultivating the Image of Divine Beauty

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

We continue to celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ, with the Leavetaking of the Feast on Friday of this week. Just a few last thoughts before we get there.

 

The mysterious presence of Beauty is revealed on Mt. Tabor in an overwhelming manner when Christ is transfigured there resplendent in divine glory. This is the beauty of the first-formed human creatures, created to reflect the beauty of the divine nature, for by grace they - and we - were created in the image and likeness of God. And they were placed in a world that also reflected this divine beauty. That is why God, after completing the creation process, declared that is was all "very good."

Yet, the presence of sin marred that beauty. This lost beauty was restored to humanity when the Son of God assumed our human nature, uniting it to His divine Person and revealing the glory of God in a human being. Thus, on Mt. Tabor, Christ reveals the beauty of His divine nature and the beauty of our created human nature. This is why the Transfiguration is often referred to as a Feast of Beauty.
The Russian novelist Dostoevsky (+1881) famously and somewhat enigmatically once said:  "Beauty will save the world." Yet, Dostoevsky also realized that in a world filled with sin, beauty can evoke responses that fall short of any saving value. In fact, beauty can even degenerate toward sin and sensuality, as one of Dostoevsky's greatest creations, Dmitri Karamazov, acknowledged with great anguish. 

Therefore, for Dostoevsky beauty itself had to be "saved" and linked to Truth and Goodness. Thus, for the Russian novelist, beauty is not simply an aesthetic concept, but one that must have a moral, ethical and spiritual dimension for it to be rightly perceived and experienced. And for Dostoevsky as well as for not only great artists, but the great minds of the Church, beauty is not an abstract concept or Idea. Beauty is a Person, and this Person is Christ. In Christ, Truth, Goodness and Beauty are harmoniously united. This is why Dostoevesky also spoke of the "radiant image of Christ." In another famous passage from his pen, found in a letter of his, Dostoevsky articulated his personal "creed:"

I have constructed for myself a symbol of faith in which everything is clear and holy for me. The symbol is very clear, here it is: to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, profounder, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ and not only is there nothing , but I tell myself with jealous love that never could there be.

 

It is these qualities that make Christ such an attractive figure that a well-disposed mind and heart not unduly influenced by the marks of a fallen world will almost naturally turn to as an "ideal," but again as a concrete living Person. There is a passage from Fr. Alexander Elchaninov (+1934), taken from his personal diary after his death, that captures that same intuition as found in Dostoevsky:

It is impossible not to love Christ. If we saw Him now, we should not be able to take our eyes off Him, we should "listen to him in rapture;" we should flock round Him as did the multitudes in the Gospels. All this is required of us is not to resist. We have only to yield to Him, to the contemplation of His image - in the Gospels, in the saints, in the Church - and He will take possession of our hearts.

 

Here, again, there is an inherent moral, ethical and spiritual dimension from that beauty that flows outward from Christ. This is rendered in the form of very practical and concrete advice in the words of Vladimir Solovyov (+1900), for many the greatest Russian philosopher known to us:

Before any important decision, let us evoke in our soul the image of Christ. Let us concentrate our attention upon it and ask ourselves: Would He Himself do this action? Or, in other words: Will He approve of it or not?

To all I propose this rule: it does not deceive. In every dubious case, as soon as the possibility of a choice is offered to you, remember Christ. Picture to yourself His living Person, as it really is, and entrust Him with the burden of your doubts.

Let human beings of good will, as individuals, as social factors, as leaders of men, women and peoples, apply this criterion, and they will really be able, in the name of truth, to show to others the way toward God.

 

This concreteness is all the more interesting, for Solovyov was often a highly speculative thinker. That what he wrote just over a century ago is hardly a public ideal any longer is to our great loss. It is our role to maintain and cultivate the image of divine beauty in our lives as seen in the face of the incarnate Christ as a sacred obligation. 

 

The Transfiguration: A Feast of Theology & Beauty

Dear Parish Faithful,

On August 6 we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This feast is thus embedded in the time of the Dormition Fast, but still retains all of its festal splendor.

We celebrated the Feast this year with the Liturgy followed by the blessing of our fruit-baskets. Considering our ongoing restrictions, the service was very well-attended as we reached our capacity, and hence we experienced a festal atmosphere for the splendid commemoration of our Lord's Transfiguration. We read in the Festal Menaion:


The Transfiguration is particularly rich in essential theological themes that reveal the very heart of our Orthodox Christian Faith. These dogmatic/doctrinal themes are expressed poetically throughout the services - Vespers, Matins, Liturgy - of the Feast in an abundant variety of hymnographical forms. The troparion and kontakion of any given Feast offer a "summary" of the Feast's over-all meaning and place in God's oikonomia (divine dispensation):

Thou wast transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as far as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners! Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee! (Troparion)

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father! (Kontakion)

 

Over the years and through repeated use, many of the faithful know these hymns by heart. If we listen carefully, or even study it outside of the services, the hymnography reveals very profound truths in the realm of Christology (the Person of Christ, both God and man); anthropology (the human person created in the image and likeness of God); triadology (the dogma of the Trinity); and eschatology (the Kingdom of God coming in power at the end of time).

Christology

On Mt. Tabor, when transfigured before His disciples, our Lord reveals to His disciples - and to all of us - His divine nature "hidden" in humility beneath the human nature of His flesh:

Enlightening the disciples that were with Thee, O Christ our Benefactor, Thou hast shown them upon the holy mountain the hidden and blinding light of Thy nature and of Thy divine beauty beneath the flesh.

The nature that knows no change, being mingled with the mortal nature, shone forth ineffably, unveiling in some small measure to the apostles the light of the immaterial Godhead.
(First Canon of Matins, Canticle Five)

Anthropology

Christ is fully and truly human. He is without sin. Thus, He is the "perfect" human being, by revealing to us the glory of human nature when fully united to God - something that we lost in the Fall. To be filled with the glory of God in communion with God is the true destiny of human beings and thus the true revelation of our human nature. By assuming our human nature, Christ has restored that relationship:

For having gone up, O Christ, with Thy disciples into Mount Tabor, Thou wast transfigured, and hast made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning, transforming it into the glory and splendor of Thine own divinity. (Aposticha, Great Vespers)

Thou hast put Adam on entire, O Christ, and changing the nature grown dark in past times, Thou hast filled it with glory and made it godlike by the alteration of Thy form. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Three)

Triadology

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity were revealed on Mount Tabor, as they were revealed in the Jordan at the time of the Lord's Baptism. On Tabor it is again the voice of the Father, and the Spirit now appears in the form of a luminous cloud. Every revelation and action of God's is trinitarian, for the Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit act in perfect harmony revealing thus the unity of the one divine nature:

Today on Tabor in the manifestation of Thy Light, O Word, Thou unaltered Light from the Light of the unbegotten Father, we have seen the Father as Light and the Spirit as Light, guiding with light the whole creation. (Exapostilarion, Matins)

Eschatology

The Lord reveals by anticipation in His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the glorious appearance that we await at His Second Coming. He also reveals the transfiguration of our own lowly human nature in the Kingdom of God, where the righteous will shine like the stars of heaven. Thus, this is a Feast of Hope, as well as a Feast of Divine Beauty, as we anticipate His eternal and unfading presence and our transformation in Him, also eternal and unending:

Thou wast transfigured upon Mount Tabor, showing the exchange mortal men will make with Thy glory at Thy second and fearful coming, O Savior. (Sessional Hymn, Matins)

To show plainly how, at Thy mysterious second coming, Thou wilt appear as the Most High God standing in the midst of gods, on Mount Tabor Thou hast shone in fashion past words upon the apostles and upon Moses and Elijah. (Second Canon of Matins, Canticle Nine)

We bless fruit on this Feast because all of creation awaits transfiguration at the end of time. Even the garments of Christ were shining forth with a radiance brighter than the sun. The blessed fruit represents this awaited transfiguration when the creation will be freed from bondage. The grapes themselves would be used for the eucharistic offering of wine.

The importance of the Transfiguration is shown by the fact that it is recorded in three of the Gospels: MATT. 17:1-13;MK. 9:2-8; LK. 28-36. It is also clearly alluded to in II PET. 1:16-18.
 

According to the Festal Menaion:

"On the day of the Feast, fish, wine, and oil are allowed, but meat and animal products are not eaten, because it is within the fast before the Dormition of the Theotokos."

 

Truly a splendid Feast in the life of the Church!

The Process of Personal Transfiguration

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Today is the "Leavetaking" of the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This is not only a beautiful Feast, but a "feast of beauty." And as Dostoevsky once enigmatically said: "Beauty will save the world." 

The transfigured Christ is an image of humanity restored to the beauty of the original image as intended by God. We see this beauty in the shining face of Christ, which is the human face of God. Human beings are meant to reflect the glory/beauty of God - something terribly lost through sin and corruption. 

On Mt. Tabor, Christ also revealed a foretaste of the beauty of the Kingdom of God which is yet to come in its full splendor, when "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (MATT. 11:43). But now we must descend from Mt. Tabor as did the disciples Peter, James and John. Then, through the manner of our lives, we are asked to witness to that vision of divine glory that we were allowed to glimpse, "as far as we could bear it," in the radiant face of Christ. 

The daily bearing of the Cross is the only "road" back to Mt. Tabor and the glory of transfiguration. The disciples learned this the hard way, and this is a truth that we must always bear in mind as we bear our daily cross(es).

For certain of the great saints of the Church throughout the centuries, this process of transfiguration began in this life in a very tangible and even overwhelming manner. These saints witness to our claim and belief that by the grace of God, a human person is capable of shining with the identical uncreated divine light that shone in the face of Christ on Mt. Tabor. This experience is not only reserved for the Kingdom of God, but can begin in this life. This comes after a prolonged period of preparation through prayer and fasting, but ultimately it is a gift from God reserved for certain of the saints to demonstrate the human capacity to participate directly in divine life. What our Lord is by nature, a human being created in the image and likeness of God may become by grace.

A fairly recent, and all-together spectacular instance of this was revealed in the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov (+1833), a Russian monk, ascetic and mystic whose life has become very popular and well-studied for the last few decades at least. His disciple, the landowner Nicholas Motovilov, has left an extraordinary account of the saint's transfiguration based upon a personal experience that God allowed him to have while together with St. Seraphim one winter day in the woods. These notes of his were discovered after his death in about 1903, and have since been widely-translated, read and studied as an unique eyewitness testimony of being in the presence of a transfigured human being. The context for this event was a discussion between the saint and his disciple over the meaning of the saint's famous statement: "The purpose of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God." Motovilov's awe is evident throughout as St. Seraphim does his best to explain to him what is happening based upon the Transfiguration of Christ. I am including the following excerpts for you to marvel at:

"The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light which lightens man. [...] And indeed, the Lord has often demonstrated before many witnesses how the grace of the Holy Spirit operates with regard to those people whom He has sanctified and illumined by His great visitation. Remember Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. He shone with such an extraordinary light that people could not look at him, and he had to cover his face. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. A great light surrounded Him and 'His garments became shining, exceedingly white like snow' and His apostles fell on their faces from fear. In the same way the grace of the Holy Spirit of God manifests itself in an ineffable light to all to whom God reveals its activity."

"But how," I asked Father Seraphim, "can I know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit? [...] I need to understand completely."

Father Seraphim then took me firmly by the shoulders and said, "We are both, you and I, in the Spirit of God this moment, my son. Why do you not look at me?"

"I cannot look, Father," I replied, "because great flashes of lightning are springing from your eyes. Your face shines with more light than the sun and my eyes ache from the pain."

"Don't be frightened, friend of God," Father Seraphim said. "You yourself have now become as bright as I am. You are now yourself in the fullness of the Spirit of God: otherwise you would not be able to see me like this. [...] Why don't you look at me, my son? Just look, don't be afraid! The Lord is with us!"

At these words, I looked at his face and was seized with an even greater sense of trembling awe.

Imagine in the center of the sun, in the most dazzling brilliance of his noontime rays, the face of a man talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you feel that someone is holding his hands on your shoulders. Yet you do not see his hands or his body, but only a blinding light spreading around for several yards, illuminating with its brilliant sheen both the bank of snow covering the glade and the snowflakes that fall on me and the great Starets (elder) ...

[Seraphim continued:]

"Concerning this condition the Lord said: "There are some of them that stand here, who shall not taste death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power.' Behold, my son, you who love God, what ineffable joy the Lord God is now granting unto us! This is what is meant being in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, what is meant by St. Makarios of Egypt when he writes: "I myself was in the fullness of His Holy Spirit' ..." ( translation by Mary-Barbara Zeldin from St. Seraphim of Sarov, 93-102)

As everyone likes to say these days: "Awesome!" But truly awesome, as in awe-inspiring. For God is glorified in His saints. 

But perhaps we only need to be inspired enough to transform/transfigure our lives on the most modest of scales: to change for the better on a daily basis by putting aside sinful inclinations, petty behavior and feeding of the passions. And further, as Archbishop Kallistos Ware writes: "To renew our relationship with others through imaginative sympathy, through acts of compassion, and through cutting off of our own self-will." This would be a transfiguring experience, indeed, not only for ourselves, but for others around us. 

This comes back to the point of denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily (LK. 9:23). Then something of the glory, light, and beauty of God would enter the world - perhaps unspectacularly, but truly convincingly.

The Transfiguration: A Feast of Theology

Dear Parish Faithful,

On August 6 we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This feast is thus embedded in the time of the Dormition Fast, but still retains all of its festal splendor. 

We celebrated the Feast this year with the Vesperal Liturgy followed by the blessing of our fruit-baskets. The service was very well-attended, and hence we experienced a festal atmosphere for the splendid commemoration of our Lord's Transfiguration. We read in the Festal Menaion:

The Transfiguration is particularly rich in essential theological themes that reveal the very heart of our Orthodox Christian Faith. These dogmatic/doctrinal themes are expressed poetically throughout the services - Vespers, Matins, Liturgy - of the Feast in an abundant variety of hymnographical forms. The troparion and kontakion of any given Feast offer a "summary" of the Feast's over-all meaning and place in God's oikonomia (divine dispensation):

Thou wast transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as far as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners! Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee! (Troparion)

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father! (Kontakion)

Over the years and through repeated use, many of the faithful know these hymns by heart. If we listen carefully, or even study it outside of the services, the hymnography reveals very profound truths in the realm of Christology (the Person of Christ, both God and man); anthropology (the human person created in the image and likeness of God); triadology (the dogma of the Trinity); and eschatology (the Kingdom of God coming in power at the end of time).

Christology

On Mt. Tabor, when transfigured before His disciples, our Lord reveals to His disciples - and to all of us - His divine nature "hidden" in humility beneath the human nature of His flesh:

Enlightening the disciples that were with Thee, O Christ our Benefactor, Thou hast shown them upon the holy mountain the hidden and blinding light of Thy nature and of Thy divine beauty beneath the flesh.

The nature that knows no change, being mingled with the mortal nature, shone forth ineffably, unveiling in some small measure to the apostles the light of the immaterial Godhead.

(First Canon of Matins, Canticle Five)

Anthropology

Christ is fully and truly human. He is without sin. Thus, He is the "perfect" human being, by revealing to us the glory of human nature when fully united to God - something that we lost in the Fall. To be filled with the glory of God in communion with God is the true destiny of human beings and thus the true revelation of our human nature. By assuming our human nature, Christ has restored that relationship:

For having gone us, O Christ, with Thy disciples into Mount Tabor, Thou wast transfigured, and hast made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning, transforming it into the glory and splendor of Thine own divinity. (Aposticha, Great Vespers)

Thou hast put Adam on entire, O Christ, and changing the nature grown dark in past times, Thou hast filled it with glory and made it godlike by the alteration of Thy form. (First Canon of Matins, Canticle Three)

Triadology

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity were revealed on Mount Tabor, as they were revealed in the Jordan at the time of the Lord's Baptism. On Tabor it is again the voice of the Father, and the Spirit now appears in the form of a luminous cloud. Every revelation and action of God's is trinitarian, for the Father, Son/Word and Holy Spirit act in perfect harmony revealing thus the unity of the one divine nature:

Today on Tabor in the manifestation of Thy Light, O Word, Thou unaltered Light from the Light of the unbegotten Father, we have seen the Father as Light and the Spirit as Light, guiding with light the whole creation. (Exapostilarion, Matins)

Eschatology

The Lord reveals by anticipation in His transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the glorious appearance that we await at His Second Coming. He also reveals the transfiguration of our own lowly human nature in the Kingdom of God, where the righteous will shine like the stars of heaven. Thus, this is a Feast of Hope, as well as a Feast of Divine Beauty, as we anticipate His eternal and unfading presence and our transformation in Him, also eternal and unending:

Thou wast transfigured upon Mount Tabor, showing the exchange mortal men will make with Thy glory at Thy second and fearful coming, O Savior. (Sessional Hymn, Matins)

To show plainly how, at Thy mysterious second coming, Thou wilt appear as the Most High God standing in the midst of gods, on Mount Tabor Thou hast shone in fashion past words upon the apostles and upon Moses and Elijah. (Second Canon of Matins, Canticle Nine)

We bless fruit on this Feast because all of creation awaits transfiguration at the end of time. Even the garments of Christ were shining forth with a radiance brighter than the sun. The blessed fruit represents this awaited transfiguration when the creation will be freed from bondage. The grapes themselves would be used for the eucharistic offering of wine.

The importance of the Transfiguration is shown by the fact that it is recorded in three of the Gospels: MATT. 17:1-13;MK. 9:2-8; LK. 28-36. It is also clearly alluded to in II PET. 1:16-18.

According to the Festal Menaion:

"On the day of the Feast, fish, wine, and oil are allowed, but meat and animal products are not eaten, because it is within the fast before the Dormition of the Theotokos."

Truly a splendid Feast in the life of the Church!

How is it Possible?

Dear Parish Faithful,

This evening we will celebrate the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord with a Vesperal Liturgy (6:00 p.m.). Following the Liturgy, we will bless the traditional fruit baskets. So please remember to bring them along.

The Feast is on August 6, but as we often do, we will serve the Vesperal Liturgy to allow for more parish participation. Hopefully, many of you will be here for this remarkable Feast, a Feast that reveals divine Beauty, as it reveals Truth and Goodness. Christ ascends Mt. Tabor, is transfigured in "unapproachable light," and reveals His true nature as the Son of God incarnate to His overwhelmed disciples. Christ anticipates His own resurrection and the beauty of the "world to come" that will be bathed in the eternal and uncreated light of the Triune God.

This is a Feast to look forward to. As Orthodox Christians, we are blessed with the inclusion of the Transfiguration in the annual liturgical cycle of the Twelve Great Feast Days. This is not the case in other churches, where it tends to be neglected.

But that brings to mind an interesting personal reminiscence I once heard from a parishioner. Someone once told me of how devoted her mother was to Christ, and how much she enjoyed the feast of the Transfiguration as celebrated in her church for the very reasons we make so much of it as Orthodox, even though she herself was not Orthodox. What stayed in my mind were her words - spoken with a definite sadness, I was told - when the day of the Transfiguration's celebration came around: "Today is the Transfiguration and no one cares!" How is it possible "not to care" when we can actually celebrate Jesus shining with light brighter than the sun on the mount? How is it possible "not to care" when we can carry our fruit to church to be blessed as a sign of the transfiguration of the material world in "the life of the world to come?" How is it possible "not to care" when all will be prepared for the celebration of the Feast and we simply have to bring our tired and over-heated bodies to the church for the spiritual renewal that awaits us there?

In a world brutalized by violence on a daily basis, we need to keep our vision of God and world "intact" so as not to succumb to indifference or despair. It is the vision of God and life given to us in the Church that is the source of spiritual renewal. How is it possible not to see this?

Bearing such rhetorical questions in mind, I look forward to a church full of "caring" parishioners who anticipate this "Feast of Divine Beauty" as an event not to be missed if at all possible.

The Transfiguration: Cultivating the Image of Divine Beauty

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

We will reach the Leavetaking of the Transfiguration of Christ on Monday. Just a few more thoughts before we get there.

The mysterious presence of Beauty is revealed on Mt. Tabor in an overwhelming manner when Christ is transfigured there resplendent in divine glory. This is the beauty of the first-formed human creatures, created to reflect the beauty of the divine nature, for by grace they - and we - were created in the image and likeness of God.  And they were placed in a world that also reflected this divine beauty.  That is why God, after completing the creation process, declared that is was all "very good."

Yet, the presence of sin marred that beauty. This lost beauty was restored to humanity when the Son of God assumed our human nature, uniting it to His divine Person and revealing the glory of God in a human being. Thus, on Mt. Tabor, Christ reveals the beauty of His divine nature and the beauty of our created human nature. This is why the Transfiguration is often referred to as a Feast of Beauty.

The Russian novelist Dostoevsky (+1881) famously and somewhat enigmatically once said:  "Beauty will save the world." Yet, Dostoevsky also realized that in a world filled with sin, beauty can evoke responses that fall short of any saving value. In fact, beauty can even degenerate toward sin and sensuality, as one of Dostoevsky's greatest creations, Dmitri Karamazov, acknowledged with great anguish.

Therefore, for Dostoevsky beauty itself had to be "saved" and linked to Truth and Goodness. Thus, for the Russian novelist, beauty is not simply an aesthetic concept, but one that must have a moral, ethical and spiritual dimension for it to be rightly perceived and experienced. And for Dostoevsky as well as for not only great artists, but the great minds of the Church, beauty is not an abstract concept or Idea. Beauty is a Person, and this Person is Christ.  In Christ, Truth, Goodness and Beauty are harmoniously united.  This is why Dostoevesky also spoke of the "radiant image of Christ."  In another famous passage from his pen, found in a letter of his, Dostoevsky articulated his personal "creed:"

I have constructed for myself a symbol of faith in which everything is clear and holy for me.  The symbol is very clear, here it is:  to believe that there is nothing more beautiful, profounder, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ and not only is there nothing , but I tell myself with jealous love that never could there be.

It is these qualities that make Christ such an attractive figure that a well-disposed mind and heart not unduly influenced by the marks of a fallen world will almost naturally turn to as an "ideal," but again as a concrete living Person. There is a passage from Fr. Alexander Elchaninov (+1934), taken from his personal diary after his death, that captures that same intuition as found in Dostoevsky:

It is impossible not to love Christ. If we saw Him now, we should not be able to take our eyes off Him, we should "listen to him in rapture;" we should flock round Him as did the multitudes in the Gospels.  All that is required of us is not to resist. We have only to yield to Him, to the contemplation of His image - in the Gospels, in the saints, in the Church - and He will take possession of our hearts.

Here, again, there is an inherent moral, ethical and spiritual dimension from that beauty that flows outward from Christ. This is rendered in the form of very practical and concrete advice in the words of Vladimir Solovyov (+1900), for many the greatest Russian philosopher known to us:

Before any important decision, let us evoke in our soul the image of Christ. Let us concentrate our attention upon it and ask ourselves:  Would He Himself do this action? Or, in other words: Will He approve of it or not?

To all I propose this rule: it does not deceive. In every dubious case, as soon as the possibility of a choice is offered to you, remember Christ.  Picture to yourself His living Person, as it really is, and entrust Him with the burden of your doubts.

Let men of good will, as individuals, as social factors, as leaders of men and peoples, apply this criterion, and they will really be able, in the name of truth, to show to others the way toward God.

This concreteness is all the more interesting, for Solovyov was often a highly speculative thinker. That what he wrote just over a century ago is hardly a public ideal any longer is to our great loss.  It is our role to maintain and cultivate the image of divine beauty in our lives as seen in the face of the incarnate and transfigured Christ as a  sacred obligation.