About the power of the Divine Spirit, through Whom the
Kingdom of God is to be revealed, the Lord predicted:
“There are some standing here who shall not taste
death, until they have seen the Son of Man coming in His
Kingdom” (Mt 16:28). Everywhere and in every
way the King will be present, and everywhere will be His
Kingdom, since the advent of His Kingdom does not signify
the passing over from one place to another, but rather the
revelation of its power of the Divine Spirit. That is why
it is said: “come in power.” And this power is
not manifest to simply ordinary people, but to those
standing with the Lord, that is to say, those who have
affirmed their faith in Him like Peter, James and John,
and especially those who are free of our natural
abasement. Therefore, and precisely because of this, God
manifests Himself upon the Mount, on the one hand coming
down from His heights, and on the other, raising us up
from the depths of abasement, since the Transcendent One
takes on mortal nature. Certainly, such a manifest
appearance by far transcends the utmost limits of the
mind’s grasp, as effectualized by the power of the
Divine Spirit.
Thus, the Light of the Transfiguration of the Lord is not
something that comes to be and then vanishes, nor is it
subject to the sensory faculties, although it was
contemplated by corporeal eyes for a short while upon an
inconsequential mountaintop. But the initiates of the
Mystery, (the disciples) of the Lord at this time passed
beyond mere flesh into spirit through a transformation of
their senses, effectualized within them by the Spirit, and
in such a way that they beheld what, and to what extent,
the Divine Spirit had wrought blessedness in them to
behold the Ineffable Light.
Those not grasping this point have conjectured that the
chosen from among the Apostles beheld the Light of the
Transfiguration of the Lord by a sensual and creaturely
faculty, and through this they attempt to reduce to a
creaturely level (i.e., as something
“created”) not only this Light, the Kingdom
and the Glory of God, but also the Power of the Divine
Spirit, through Whom it is meet for Divine Mysteries to be
revealed. In all likelihood, such persons have not heeded
the words of the Apostle Paul: “Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man,
what things God has prepared for those who love Him. But
to us God has revealed them through His Spirit. For the
Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of
God” (1 Cor 2:9-10).
So, with the onset of the Eighth Day, the Lord, taking
Peter, James and John, went up on the Mount to pray. He
always prayed alone, withdrawing from everyone, even from
the Apostles themselves, as for example when with five
loaves and two fish He fed the five thousand men, besides
women and children (Mt 14:19-23). Or, taking with
Him those who excelled others, as at the approach of His
Saving Passion, when He said to the other disciples:
“Sit here while I go over there and pray”
(Mt 26:36). Then He took with Him Peter, James and
John. But in our instance right here and now, having taken
only these same three, the Lord led them up onto a high
mountain by themselves and was transfigured before them,
that is to say, before their very eyes.
“What does it mean to say: He was
transfigured?” asks the Golden-Mouthed Theologian
(Chrysostom). He answers this by saying: “It
revealed something of His Divinity to them, as much and
insofar as they were able to apprehend it, and it showed
the indwelling of God within Him.” The Evangelist
Luke says: “And as He prayed, His countenance was
altered” (Lk 9:29); and from the Evangelist
Matthew we read: “And His face shone as the
sun” (Mt 17:2). But the Evangelist said this,
not in the context that this Light be thought of as
subsistent for the senses (let us put aside the blindness
of mind of those who can conceive of nothing higher than
what is known through the senses). Rather, it is to show
that Christ God, for those living and contemplating by the
Spirit, is the same as the sun is for those living in the
flesh and contemplating by the senses. Therefore, some
other Light for the knowing the Divinity is not necessary
for those who are enriched by Divine gifts.
That same Inscrutable Light shone and was mysteriously
manifest to the Apostles and the foremost of the Prophets
at that moment, when (the Lord) was praying. This shows
that what brought forth this blessed sight was prayer, and
that the radiance occured and was manifest by uniting the
mind with God, and that it is granted to all who, with
constant exercise in efforts of virtue and prayer, strive
with their mind towards God. True beauty, essentially, can
be contemplated only with a purified mind. To gaze upon
its luminance assumes a sort of participation in it, as
though some bright ray etches itself upon the face.
Even the face of Moses was illumined by his association
with God. Do you not know that Moses was transfigured when
he went up the mountain, and there beheld the Glory of
God? But he (Moses) did not effect this, but rather he
underwent a transfiguration. However, our Lord Jesus
Christ possessed that Light Himself. In this regard,
actually, He did not need prayer for His flesh to radiate
with the Divine Light; it was but to show from whence that
Light descends upon the saints of God, and how to
contemplate it. For it is written that even the saints
“will shine forth like the sun” (Mt
13:43), which is to say, entirely permeated by Divine
Light as they gaze upon Christ, divinely and inexpressibly
shining forth His Radiance, issuing from His Divine
Nature. On Mount Tabor it was manifest also in His Flesh,
by reason of the Hypostatic Union (i.e., the union of the
two perfect natures, divine and human, within the divine
Person [Hypostasis] of Christ, the Second Person of the
Most Holy Trinity). The Fourth Ecumenical Council at
Chalcedon defined this Hypostatic union of Christ’s
two natures, divine and human, as “without mingling,
without change, without division, without
separation.”
We believe that at the Transfiguration He manifested not
some other sort of light, but only that which was
concealed beneath His fleshly exterior. This Light was the
Light of the Divine Nature, and as such, it was Uncreated
and Divine. So also, in the teachings of the Fathers,
Jesus Christ was transfigured on the Mount, not taking
upon Himself something new nor being changed into
something new, nor something which formerly He did not
possess. Rather, it was to show His disciples that which
He already was, opening their eyes and bringing them from
blindness to sight. For do you not see that eyes that can
perceive natural things would be blind to this Light?
Thus, this Light is not a light of the senses, and those
contemplating it do not simply see with sensual eyes, but
rather they are changed by the power of the Divine Spirit.
They were transformed, and only in this way did they see
the transformation taking place amidst the very assumption
of our perishability, with the deification through union
with the Word of God in place of this.
So also she who miraculously conceived and gave birth
recognized that the One born of her is God Incarnate. So
it was also for Simeon, who only received this Infant into
his arms, and the aged Anna, coming out [from the
Jerusalem Temple] for the Meeting, since the Divine Power
illumined, as through a glass windowpane, giving light for
those having pure eyes of heart.
And why did the Lord, before the beginning of the
Transfiguration, choose the foremost of the Apostles and
lead them up onto the Mount with Him? Certainly, it was to
show them something great and mysterious. What is
particularly great or mysterious in showing a sensory
light, which not only the foremost, but all the other
Apostles already abundantly possessed? Why would they need
a transforming of their eyes by the power of the Holy
Spirit for a contemplation of this Light, if it were
merely sensory and created? How could the Glory and the
Kingdom of the Father and the Holy Spirit project forth in
some sort of sensory light? Indeed, in what sort of Glory
and Kingdom would Christ the Lord come at the end of the
ages, when there would not be necessary anything in the
air, nor in expanse, nor anything similar, but when, in
the words of the Apostle, “God will be all in
all” (1 Cor 15: 28)? That is to say, will He
alter everything for all? If so, then it follows that
light is included.
Hence it is clear that the Light of Tabor was a Divine
Light. And the Evangelist John, inspired by Divine
Revelation, says clearly that the future eternal and
enduring city “has no need of the sun or moon to
shine upon it. For the Glory of God lights it up, and the
Lamb will be its lamp” (Rev 21:23). Is it not
clear, that he points out here that this [Lamb] is Jesus,
Who is divinely transfigured now upon Tabor, and the flesh
of Whom shines, is the lamp manifesting the Glory of
divinity for those ascending the mountain with Him?
John the Theologian also says about the inhabitants of
this city: “they will not need light from lamps, nor
the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shed light
upon them, and night shall be no more” (Rev
22:5). But how, we might ask, is there this other
light, in which “there is no change, nor shadow of
alteration” (Jas 1:17)? What light is there
that is constant and unsetting, unless it be the Light of
God? Moreover, could Moses and Elias (and particularly the
former, who clearly was present only in spirit, and not in
flesh [Elias having ascended bodily to Heaven on the fiery
chariot]) be shining with any sort of sensory light, and
be seen and known? Especially since it was written of
them: “they appeared in glory, and spoke of his
death, which he was about to fulfill at Jerusalem”
(Lk 9:30-31). And how otherwise could the Apostles
recognize those whom they had never seen before, unless
through the mysterious power of the Divine Light, opening
their mental eyes?
But
let us not tire our attention with the furthermost
interpretations of the words of the Gospel. We shall
believe thus, as those same ones have taught us, who
themselves were enlightened by the Lord Himself,
insofar as they alone know this well: the Mysteries of
God, in the words of a prophet, are known to God alone
and His perpetual proximity. Let us, considering the
Mystery of the Transfiguration of the Lord in accord
with their teaching, strive to be illumined by this
Light ourselves and encourage in ourselves love and
striving towards the Unfading Glory and Beauty,
purifying our spiritual eyes of worldly thoughts and
refraining from perishable and quickly passing delights
and beauty which darken the garb of the soul and lead
to the fire of Gehenna and everlasting darkness. Let us
be freed from these by the illumination and knowledge
of the incorporeal and ever-existing Light of our
Savior transfigured on Tabor, in His Glory, and of His
Father from all eternity, and His Life-Creating Spirit,
Whom are One Radiance, One Godhead, and Glory, and
Kingdom, and Power now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
Adapted from http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/38767.htm
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