What is the significance and purpose of the feast of the Transfiguration? Why did God want it to happen? Watch this video to find out.
Enjoy!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and now and ever and unto the ages and ages. Amen
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen
Today we are going to talk a little about the Transfiguration, but not only about the feast itself, but also about the importance of this great spiritual, royal holiday because the Transfiguration shows us who we are actually going to be, or rather, who we actually should be.
Because I’m going to read Scripture, I have in front of the text of Holy Scripture on my tablet and I’m going to comment on it a little bit.
You should know that the Transfiguration occurs in three of the Evangelist Saints, but I’m going to rely on the text from Luke.
What is very important here, first of all, is that Luke and the other evangelists, but mainly the Apostle and Evangelist Luke speaks of the context in which the Transfiguration took place.
First of all, Luke makes a description of a great miracle, that of the multiplication of five loaves and two fish, through which all the people are amazed, was impressed, it was… glory to God that the Savior gave them food, fed 5 000, if not mistaken, men, and they ate and were all fed up and took what it was left — 12 baskets of crumbs.
So you realize, brothers, that the Savior had fed up a very large crowd, and not only that he also gave them a food of patron, that is, fish, that at that time it was the best food. And beyond that there was also left I don’t know how much food, that is, people ate until the point of bloating, yeah.
After the impressionable people wanted to make Him king, the Savior left there and people said that This is God.
And when He prayed alone, he was still with the disciples and says:
Who do the crowds say that I am? And they answered and said, John the Baptist, and some Elijah, and some that a prophet is raised from the old. And He said unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said, Christ of God. And he reproached them, and commanded them that they should tell no man this, saying that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be defamed by the elders, and by the chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and the third day rise again.
Okay, the big problem here is that people, yes, thought he was a great prophet from God, but they did not have the right image of what God means, and that including the Apostle Peter. Because Peter after saying that He is God, at that moment does disobedience and says: Lord, let it not be to You like this! That is, do not go to Jerusalem so that you are killed.
So they didn’t know who God actually was, and they had as an image of a fleshly god, an almighty god in the sense of muscles, in the sense of the power of a superhero in today’s movies which is actually an unworthy image of God, a rather anti-godly, anti-christ image.
Well, for our Lord Jesus Christ to correct this image unworthy of Him, this distorted image that comes from the fall of people, will show them that the Christ of God whom the Apostle Peter confessed without knowing what he is saying, is someone else.
And after that, says the Savior, that you may come, brothers, to realize who this God is whom you, Peter and you, the apostles preach, must “if any man will come after Me, deny himself, take the everyday cross, and follow Me!”
So to find out who God is, is not only needed to read. Or reading is not enough so that we know God. The Orthodox Church does not give first of all the teaching of Christ, but the Orthodox Church offers Christ, offers communion with Christ. So our goal is union with Christ, not his intellectual knowledge.
And that’s why the Savior says here — take the every day cross and follow Me, that is, brothers, asceticism! Feelings are needed, sacrifices are needed.
For whoever will want to save his soul will lose it, the Savior continues. I mean, yes, indeed, if you rely on logic you’re going to screw up, you’re going to lose your soul. But he that shall lose his soul for me, he shall save him. Do you understand?
So we need to get out of that logic and sacrifice ourselves totally to Christ, to enter the realm of faith, to enter the realm of supra-logic.
For what profit a man, if the whole world shall gain, and lose himself, or be harassed?
Obviously because the most important is our soul and our soul wins by denying our fallen logic.
For of him that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of this also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in his glory, and of the Father, and of the holy angels.
Obviously. Ok. And then continues the Savior and says:
But verily I say unto you: There are some who stand here, who will not taste death, until they see the kingdom of God.
That is, brothers, says the Savior, you come to your destination. Of course, not of your worthiness, but because I give you this grace before you die.
And after these words, as at eight days, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
Why Peter, John and James because they were the first of the apostles that is, they were the most clean people, the largest vessels, the most capable of encompassing this experience.
Peter because of his unbridled faith and zeal, John because of his purity, because of his virginity, and Jacob because of his courage, straight character, very very sacrificing.
I don’t know if you know, Saint Apostle James was the first of the apostles to martyr for the Lord.
And as you can see, they went up the mountain to pray. So brethren, in order to reach the target of our spiritual life, to union with Christ we must ascend up the mountain. And this is not what I mean first of all brothers, that we have to climb the Athon, for example, which I have behind me, or, I know…, a physical mountain, but a spiritual mountain that is to separate ourselves from the world. That’s mainly what we need to do. We have to rise to heights, deal with divine things, spiritual things, and this is not intellectually, but as he says here — “to pray.”
That is, the knowledge of God comes through prayer, by good deeds. Do you understand? Because prayer is the talking of the mind with God while intellectual knowledge is the talk of God.
We don’t need to talk so much about God but to speak to God!
And that’s why the services are capital. Brothers, you must go, we must go to church and in church we must pray, not look on the cell or fly our mind, but we must talk to God so that we have the experience of God so that we can reach our goal.
And as he was praying (Christ) the image of His face became another, and His white clothing shone.
So you see during prayer this thing happened, not in the moment of even theological discussion. Do you understand?
So that doesn’t matter. Good deed, prayer, communion with God matters a lot.
And then His clothing became white, and the face of His face became another. White clothing what does it mean? That is, it cleanses the man of sins. In prayer, man clears himself from sins, purifies himself from all that darkens his sight.
Elsewhere it says that His garment became like snow, and His face became like the sun shining. I mean, what happened, brothers?
The moment He prayed, so the moment He joined God, He still became a light, and His whole body was like a million-watt reflector, brothers, and that light was so strong that it passed through His garments. And His clothes from the normal color of the clothes that was at the time — I know…, gray or so on — had also become white, because of the very powerful source of light behind them, which was the body of the Savior.
So the body of the Savior had been spiritualized, that is, it became light, because, as we know, light is in creation the most spiritual thing, the most immaterial, the most immaterial. Yes, it is electromagnetic radiation.
And, behold, two men spoke with him, which were Moses and Elijah.
Why Moses and Elijah? Because these were the Old Testament men who wanted to see God the most. If in the Old Testament, God told them that you cannot see Me, and because of that I will show myself with my back, that is, with the lowest part of me, so that you can see me and you cannot see me face because if you see my face you will die. That is, you will not have the proper capacity of such an experience of God’s face.
And beyond that, as Saint Gregory the Theologian says, the moment man is facing God, so he sees God coming from the front, at that moment man is against God, is on a path contrary to God and of course man dies.
For man to live, he must be behind God, that is, to follow God. Do you understand?
So because of this in the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah and because of their inability and because God showed them that there was a need to follow Him, because of this Moses and Elijah only saw God’s back.
And now God shows them His face and fulfills them after so many thousands of years—when they have reached the fullness of the time, that is, the ability to experience God, face to face. Then he truly experiences God face to face because for the first time God appears incarnate.
Another reason God brings on Holy Mount Tabor Moses and Elijah is that he wants to show His disciples, he wants to show the apostles that he is the God of the Old Testament. That is, he is Yahve. It is not generally as it was believed at that time, a great prophet and so on, and that St. John the Baptist resurrected and so on. Do you understand?
Eh, so because of this were Moses and Elijah. And who showed themselves in glory, that is, they were also in the light, they had also reached the same capacity, of course, not because of them, but because of the glory, that is, the glory, the light, the grace of God, the uncreated energy of God. Because this light you must know to the brethren that it was uncreated because no man can shine like this, and so this light was an attribute of the deity, so the Savior from Himself brought that out.
And since it is an attribute of deity, all the attributes of the deity are uncreated, and so this light is the uncreated light, it is the energy of divine grace, the energy of uncreated grace.
And who, showing himself in glory
So that they may speak to Him, so in the same spiritual level by grace.
Who, appearing in glory, spoke of his end, which he should accomplish in Jerusalem.
His end, that is, the cross. So Moses and Elijah were talking to the Savior about His crucifixion because that is the glory, that is true light, the sacrifice, brothers, total love for others, openness to others. Do you understand?
And that’s why the Holy Fathers say that this event, the Transfiguration took place before His crucifixion, about 40 days before His crucifixion, and because of that the Transfiguration feast was set 40 days before Easter. And it moved over time, why? Because the Feast of the Transfiguration is an extraordinarily great holiday, a huge moment of joy and because of this it has been moved from 40 days before Easter, so at the beginning of Lent when it is a very mourning period has now moved, 40 days before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
And Peter and those who were with Him were hampered by sleep. Yes, that is, they were on a completely different existential plan, they were under the flesh, they were in the body, they were in the straps, in the needs of the body, they were down and because of that if you look into the icon of the Transfiguration, there you will see Peter, John and James are on the ground, they are lying on the ground, they are finished. While Moses and Elijah are standing. They had the spiritual power of such an experience. Do you understand?
And they awake, and saw his glory, and the two men sitting with him.
That is, they were totally overtaken by events and this is seen in the moment when, as he says here:
And when they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and to make three tabernacles: one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, knowing not what he saith.
That is, the Holy Apostle Peter wanted to say something smart and pulled out a Bugaboo… Do you understand? Because he had no idea what was going on. He could not imagine that yes, it is good for us to be here, that is, we are in full, to the extent of the fullness of our spiritual vessel, but their vessel is so small that he could not conceive that yes, ok, to make this state of fullness permanent, He who generated this state of fullness must stop this state and be crucified so that this state of fullness becomes permanent. after that.
That is, it must be sacrificed so that this state is in eternity. Do you understand?
The Apostle Peter could not conceive this and because of this he says: Lord, we do to thee what You want, only to stand here, for me that is fullness. Let’s make three huts. And you see, Peter — so full, fulfilling that he didn’t say to make three huts — to You one, to Moses and Elijah one and to me one. But God said, all for You!
He was completely happy, he needed absolutely nothing, and he did not even know what to offer, what gift to give to the Savior, to the One who had given them this fullness, this perfect happiness on Mount Tabor, this fulfillment of human personality, which is holiness, as Nichifor Crainic said.
Because of this he says we make three huts for you, for you alone, something else I have nothing to offer you. Do you understand?
It is the perfection of sacrifice, the perfection of giving, the need for gift. Orthodoxy is the civilization of gifts. Do you understand?
And you see the perfection of the Apostle Peter can be seen in other places, that it says here — let’s make three huts: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Brothers, from where he knew it was Moses and Elijah that they had no tablets on them to write Moses and Elijah, they had no arrows. And these people had disappeared hundreds of years before. Do you understand? There was no way of knowing the Apostle Peter what Moses and Elijah looked like.
As I said: it was in this perfection of his knowledge, this perfection of the human personality as much as possible as the size of his vessel. Grace informed him: this is Moses, this is Elijah.
That’s the discovery. That is, it is simple, immediate and total knowledge. Suddenly you know, suddenly you know all. That is the discovery, and then the mind really sees and is in this divine light which is not only physical, which it seen with the eye, but is also intelligible light first of all. Do you understand?
A spiritual light, it is a perfect loving knowledge and not a grumble as we have through this rational knowledge — let me see, maybe it’s so, maybe it’s not.
Yes, we honor scientists very much, brothers, but it’s all a grumble. You know very well that the further we move forward in science, the more we realize that we know less and less. While true knowledge (means that) you suddenly know everything. Of course, as much as your dish, as much as you can take. Do you understand?
And as he spoke these things, there became a cloud, and overshadowed them.
This cloud was a bright cloud, and this light cloud is the Holy Spirit, say the Holy Fathers, and it is fragmentation the knowledge of the Holy Spirit that is above of the fragmentation of rational knowledge, brothers.
So you have to know that the moment man comes out of this knowledge of notions comes to contemplation and ends up contemplating everything in a perfect light from which nothing is hidden. He loves everyone, everything is like a cloud, but this cloud is not a dark cloud in the sense that you no longer know anything, but on the contrary you overcome everything and know everything and especially you understand everything and understand as Saint Maximus the Confessor says all the meanings of things, the meanings that God has made. It is an knowledge above the fractioning of logic, a loving knowledge, as I said. Do you understand?
This knowledge is not pressing, bad, quick, but it is something that overshadows very easily and that rests the man. Do you understand?
This is the rest of heaven and this rest of heaven, as you can see at the very Transfiguration is a very active state. So you cannot say that this rest that the apostles had there was like a vegetable. On the contrary, it was a very active state, so it was an experience in the Holy Spirit. As I said, he turned all the apostles upside down. Something extraordinary.
Saint Maximus the Confessor says that it is rest above all movement and movement above all rest. Do you understand? It is something that cannot be explained logically, but that can be lived.
And in this cloud of knowledge we enter the moment we reach perfection. And slowly — slowly, through prayer, we can get there. Do you understand?
And they were frightened when they entered the cloud
Of course: Because the Holy Apostles at that time were still a nation in the flesh, they were still fallen, that is, they were imperfect. And then: Lord, but what about this knowledge? What is it with this experience?
Then:
And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my chosen Son, hear him.
That is the voice of the Father in the Holy Spirit, in the cloud because there God-Father expresses himself, and there we learn that indeed, the one called Jesus Christ is true God and real man. And to This one we have to listen with an knowledge, as I said, greater than any logical demonstration, greater than any rational demonstration. And because of this we have to get there by sacrifice, by obedience, by all virtues. Do you understand?
And when the voice was passed over, Jesus found himself. And they held their peace, and told no man in those days of what they had seen.
Obviously, because you can’t say anything like that, you can’t tell such feelings that until today, brothers, you need to know that God’s people have them. They cannot be told, but they can be lived. And in fact this is the purpose of Orthodoxy: to heal our souls so that we can live these great experiences in the Holy Spirit, of total love, of total union among us above all imagination.
And this is what the Transfiguration teaches us — that we also need to change our face, and we need to unite with Christ, to become like Him.
Let the good God help us!
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen
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