Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica
First of all, we might start by asking
when the Evangelist Matthew began his six-day count? What kind of day was it?
What does the preceding statement 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: “Again 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 is 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 simple 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 occurred 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?
Source: https://oca.org/fs/sermons/sermon-on-the-transfiguration
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