Homily on the Transfiguration of Christ by St. Gregory Palamas
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 be 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” (Lk 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 (Chrysostomos).
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.
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
