Commemorated on August 6
Discourse on the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ of Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica
For
an explanation of the present Feast and understanding of its truth, it
is necessary for us to turn to the very start of today’s reading from
the Gospel: “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James and John his
brother, and led them up onto a high mountain by themselves” (Mt.17:1).
First
of all we must ask, from whence does the Evangelist Matthew begin to
reckon with six days? From what sort of day is it? What does the
preceding turn of speech indicate, where the Savior, in teaching His
disciples, said to them: “For the Son of Man shall come with his angels
in the glory of His Father,” and further: “Amen I say to you, there are
some standing here who shall not taste death, until they have seen the
Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” (Mt.16:27-28)? That is to say, it is
the Light of His own forthcoming Transfiguration which He terms the
Glory of His Father and of His Kingdom.
The Evangelist Luke
points this out and reveals this more clearly saying: “Now it came to
pass about eight days after these words, that He took Peter and John and
James, and went up the mountain to pray. And as He prayed, His
countenance was altered, and His raiment became a radiant white” (Luke
9:28-29). But how can the two be reconciled, when one of them speaks
definitively about the interval of time as being eight days between the
sayings and the manifestation, whereas the other (says): “after six
days?”
There were eight on the mountain, but only six were
visible. Three, Peter, James and John, had come up with Jesus, and they
saw Moses and Elias standing there and conversing with Him, so
altogether there were six of them. However, the Father and the Holy
Spirit were invisibly with the Lord: the Father, with His Voice
testifying that this was His Beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit shining
forth with Him in the radiant cloud. Thus, the six are actually eight,
and there is no contradiction regarding the eight. Similarly, there is
no contradiction with the Evangelists when one says “after six days,”
and the other says “eight days after these words.”
But these
twofold sayings as it were present us a certain format set in mystery,
and together with it that of those actually present upon the Mount. It
stands to reason, and everyone rationally studying in accordance with
Scripture knows that the Evangelists are in agreement one with another.
Luke spoke of eight days without contradicting Matthew, who declared
“after six days.” There is not another day added on to represent the day
on which these sayings were uttered, nor is the day on which the Lord
was transfigured added on (which a rational person might reasonably
imagine to be added to the days of Matthew).
The Evangelist Luke does not say “after eight days” (like the
Evangelist Matthew says “after six days”), but rather “it came to pass
eight days after these words.” But where the Evangelists seem to
contradict one another, they actually point out to us something great
and mysterious. In actual fact, why did the one say “after six days,”
but the other, in ignoring the seventh day, have in mind the eighth day?
It is because the great vision of the Light of the Transfiguration of
the Lord is the mystery of the Eighth Day, i.e., of the future age,
coming to be revealed after the passing away of the world created in six
days.
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” (Luke 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” (Luke 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.
TROPARION - TONE 7
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, / revealing Your
glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it. / Let Your
everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners, / through the prayers of
the Theotokos. / O Giver of Light, glory to You!
KONTAKION - TONE 7
On
the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God, / And Your disciples
beheld Your glory as far as they could see it; / So that when they would
behold You crucified, / They would understand that Your suffering was
voluntary, / And would proclaim to the world, / That You are truly the
Radiance of the Father!
SOURCE:
SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2014(with 2013's link here also and further:, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 , 2008and even 2007!):
Commemorated on August 31
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