Feast of the Transfiguration

Today we celebrate a feast of the Master Christ, the God-Man made manifest in glory. As it is written, our Savior ascended Mount Tabor with His closest disciples – Peter, James and John – and was Transfigured before them.

There was a controversy during the days of Saint Gregory Palamas concerning exactly what that Light of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor was. There were teachers from the west who insisted that the light was created and, furthermore, that grace itself was created. These men held these views because they were trained first in Greek philosophy and had attempted to fit the doctrines of Christianity into the framework Greek philosophical systems. According to their false notions, God cannot truly commune with men.

Saint Gregory Palamas refuted these men and clearly expounded the Orthodox Christian teaching that God is completely transcendent and unapproachable in His essence, but that He communes with us by His grace. When we hear of the grace of God or the glory of God or the light of God, this refers to what the Holy Fathers also call the uncreated energies of God. Essence is cause and energy is effect. The God bearing Fathers explained for us that only non-being is without operation. If one were to say that the operation or energy of the Holy Trinity was created then the logical conclusion is that the Holy Trinity is created (which is blasphemy). The Holy Fathers teach that Uncreated Nature has an Uncreated Energy.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was made manifest as the New Adam, One Person in two natures, perfect God and perfect man. We are called to be like unto Him, retaining our human nature, but being brought to a new mode of existence by participating in His uncreated energies, His grace.

As Christians our Transfigured life begins at Holy Baptism and it is sustained by our partaking of Divine Grace, especially through the Eucharist. In other words, it is through becoming members of the Body of Christ, the Church, that we are Transfigured.

We ascend the Mount of Tabor in order to participate in the Transfiguration through repentance. In his Gospel Saint Matthew made reference to the word of the Holy Spirit by the Prophet Esaias, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations; The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the land and shadow of death a light is risen." (Matt 4:14-17); and then the very next verse, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of the Heavens is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)

This repentance is a rejection of the darkness of sin and a return to the light and grace of God. At the Transfiguration, the Apostles experienced a super-abundance of grace that was visible even to their eyes. This happens from time to time with the saints; but in our daily life, we perceive the struggle between the light of God and the darkness of sin within our hearts. The heart is the battleground, and prayer and remembrance of God is our weapon. We use our minds in order to guard our hearts. As Metropolitan Anthony once commented:

"If we had taken thought, we would not have been condemned," writes the Apostle. Three quarters or, perhaps, nine tenths of our sins, mistakes and even of our crimes occur because people do not want to stop and think before speaking or acting. Anyone who does not work on himself does not know what enormous significance for the soul and for living sensibly lies in cutting oneself off, if only for a moment, from the surrounding vanities, and concentrating one's thoughts and conscience on what the Lord requires of one in given circumstances or at a given time.

This inner attention is the key to the Transfigured life.

There is another important lesson from the Gospel for the feast of the Transfiguration that is lost on some and I am constrained to "speak the truth in love" concerning this. A bright cloud overshadowed those present and the voice of the Father bear witness unto our Lord Jesus saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." (Matt 17:5)

Today we have many modern writers that have commented on the Transfiguration and have diligently found illuminating quotes from the Holy Fathers on the saving therapy that is offered by the Church for the cure of the soul. There are even those who quote Holy Fathers on the Jesus prayer as an effective means to strive to participate in the Grace of God. Yet, during these difficult times they ignore the words of our Savior and choose not to hear Him when He says, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such that so worship Him. God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)

One participates in the Transfiguration only through worshipping God in spirit and in truth. The great lie that separates one from the truth in our day is the heresy of Ecumenism. This heresy rejects the Apostolic teachings concerning the singleness of truth and it embraces all heresies, all false teachings from the past and therefore it is called a Pan-heresy.

Saint Paul taught us that there is, "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism." (Eph 4:5) The Holy Fathers taught us that there is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and one Baptism for the remission of sins.

One cannot participate in the light of the Transfiguration and at the same time embrace the darkness of heresy. Alas, modern false elders and false spiritual writers ignore the significance of our Savior's words concerning worshipping Him in spirit and in truth. Because these men have abandoned the important teachings of the Holy Fathers regarding the confession of the faith, they have abandoned the true witness of the Church and the way of the Cross. The Church was founded on the preaching of the Apostles and the witness of the martyrs and these modernist elders speak and live as if the spiritual life can somehow be separated from witnessing to the truth. This is spiritual deception.

Many well-meaning believers are dazzled by the personality of these false elders and because of this they are deceived into remaining in communion with a heresy that they do not agree with. They read the lives of the saints and are so confused that they do not see that their own life of communion with heresy is in conflict with the way the saints lived. Anyone familiar with the life of Saint Basil the Great knows that he would die rather than enter into communion with the heresy of Arius or the heresy of Macedonius. Any one familiar with the life of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified knows that he would rather suffer death than be in communion with the Monophysites. A Christian, no matter how well meaning they are, cannot hope to be in the choir of the Holy Fathers if in this life they do not embrace the teachings of the Holy Fathers and imitate them in their confession of the faith.

Verbally these false elders condemn the heresy of ecumenism, but they worship with and commemorate heretical bishops. Their liturgies are defiled by commemorating heretical bishops, according to the teachings of Saint Theodore the Studite. This is not worshipping in spirit and in truth, but worshipping in duplicity and communing with falsehood.

These false elders understand and believe concerning certain things about the spiritual life, but because of the Pharisees they do not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they love the glory of men more than the glory of God. (John 12: 42-43) Make no mistake about this: membership in the World Council of Churches is apostasy. Membership in a jurisdiction that has signed the false union of Balamand or the false union of Chambesy is a betrayal of Orthodoxy and a rejection of spiritual truth.

Alas for ambition. Alas for the indifference to spiritual truth that pervades the world today. We all should pray for the conversion and repentance of these false teachers, but we should all the more especially pray for the enlightenment and deliverance of those who are being deceived by them.

Let us seek in our own lives to hear and obediently respond to the teachings of our Savior concerning how we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let us turn away from the darkness of heresy and unto the Transfigured light of truth. "Let us earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 1:3)

May the light and grace of the Transfiguration overshadow your families and bless and protect you unto the ages. Amen.