My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
What does the word ‘Transfiguration’ mean?
By Metropolitan of Nafpaktos HIEROTHEOS
The word ‘transfiguration’ means CHANGE OF FORM. in other words, at a certain moment Christ revealed what He has been concealing, He manifested the glory of the DIVINITY with which His human nature WAS UNITED FROM THE MOMENT OF HIS CONCEPTION IN THE WOMB OF THE THEOTOKOS. Through His great love for mankind Christ concealed what He always had, in order that the Disciples should not "be burned" by reason of their unitness, because they had not yet been prepared.
At that moment Christ was transfigured, "NOT ASSUMING SOMETHING THAT HE WAS NOT, NOR CHANGING INTO SOMETHING WHICH HE WAS NOT, BUT MANIFESTING WHAT HE WAS TO HIS OWN DISCIPLES" (Saint John of Damaskos). Essentially, when we speak of the Transfiguration we mean THAT HE MANIFESTED THE GLORY OF HIS DIVINITY, which He kept unseen in the visible body, because men were not able to face it.
Saint John Chrysostom says that Christ DID NOT SHOW HIS WHOLE DIVINITY, BUT A SMALL ENERGY OF IT. And He did this, on the one hand, to give information about what the Divine glory of the Kingdom is like, and on the other hand, out of love for mankind, lest they even lose their life on seeing the FULL GLORY OF THE GODHEAD. Therefore, the mystery of the Transfiguration is both A REVELATION OF THE KINGDOM and an EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LOVE AND HIS PHILANTHROPY.
It is said in the liturgical texts that during the Transfiguration Christ DEIFIED THE HUMAN NATURE which He assumed. But this is said with a definite meaning and does not mean that it was only then that human nature was deified. According to Saint John of Damaskos, human nature was deified BY THE HYPOSTATIC UNION AND COMMUNION WITH GOD THE LOGOS/WORD WHICH CAME ABOUT FROM THE MOMENT OF HIS CONCEPTION IN THE WOMB OF THE THEOTOKOS ON THE DAY OF THE ANNUNCIATION. At that moment the Divinity deified the human nature, while the human nature was deified (Saint Gregory the Theologian). During the Transfiguration of Christ this human nature, deified by its assumption by God the Logos/Word, was made manifest to the Disciples. Previously it was UNKNOWN, now it became MANIFEST. It is in this sense that several troparia (hymns) speak about the deification (theosis) of human nature during the Transfiguration.
This very fact leads us to the view that on Mt. Tabor we do not have only a Transfiguration, a revelation of Christ, because He really showed some rays of His Divinity then, but WE ALSO HAVE HAVE A TRANSFORMATION OF THE DISCIPLES. The Disciples were granted to see the theosis (edification) of the human nature of Christ, precisely because THEY THEMSELVES WERE TRANSFIGURED. The Holy Fathers speak of a change in the Disciples. "They were changed, and so they saw the change" (Saint Gregory Palamas). This means that there was a change, a Transfiguration of Christ, but his became known because there was also, a change, a transfiguration of the Disciples.
The transfiguration of the Disciples took place in their whole psychosomatic (soul and body) being. The Disciples did not see the Divine Light only with their nous, WHICH IS THE EYE OF THE SOUL, but also with those bodily senses which had previously been empowered by he Uncreated energy of God and transfigured in order to see it. the bodily eyes are blind to God’s Light, since man’s eyes are created and cannot see the UNCREATED LIGHT. This is why they were changed by God’s action and granted to see the glory of God (Saint Gregory Palamas).
Christ went up to Mt. Tabor in order to show the glory of His Divinity. This could also have taken place on a plain in a remote place. But why did He prefer the mountain?
In early times all the great events usually took place on a higher place, on high and low mountains, just as the pagans also used to do, who performed their sacrifices on the mountains. Christ showed the magnitude of His glory on Mt. Tabor, FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE THEOSIS (DEIFICATION) OF HUMAN NATURE IS THE GREATEST EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.
Then, as Christ said, He came to seek the sheep that had gone astray, which was lost on the mountain. So Christ went up on the mountain to show that He had found the sheep that had gone astray and freed it from sin and the devil, that HE WAS THE TRUE SHEPHERD OF MEN (Saint Gregory the Theologian).
Again, His going up on the mountain shows that lal who want to see the glory of the Divinity in the human nature of the Logos/Word must come out of lowness, leave the low things and go up high, that is to say they must be PURIFIED OF ALL THE EARTHLY THINGS THAT KEEP THEM BOUND TO THE EARTH. [Resources: The Feasts of the Lord. An Introduction to the Twelve Feasts and Orthodox Christology].
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chyrsostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 