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| The Transfiguration |
Transfiguration of Our Lord
From a sermon by Anastasius of Sinai, bishop
It is good for us to be here
Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly
mystery. While living among them he had
spoken of the kingdom and of His second coming in glory, but to banish from their
heart any possible doubt concerning the kingdom and to confirm their faith in
what lay in the future by its prefiguration in the present, He gave them on
Mount Tabor a wonderful vision of His glory, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of
heaven. It was as if He said to them: “As
time goes by you may be in danger of losing your faith. To save you from this I tell you now that some standing here listening to me will not taste death until they have seen
the Son of Man coming in the glory of His Father.”
Moreover, in order to assure us that
Christ could command such power when He wished, the evangelist continues: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter,
James and John, and led them up a high mountain where they were alone. There, before their eyes, He was
transfigured. His face shone like the
sun, and His clothes became as white as light.
Then the disciples saw Moses and Elijah appear, and they were talking to
Jesus.
These are the divine wonders we celebrate today (Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6);
this is the saving revelation given us upon the mountain; this is the festival
of Christ that has drawn us here. Let us
listen, then, to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on
high, from the summit of the mountain, so that with the Lord’s chosen disciples
we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our
capacity to express.
Jesus goes before
us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven, and—I speak boldly—it
is for us now to follow Him with all speed, yearning for the heavenly vision
that will give us a share in His radiance, renew our spiritual nature and
transform us into His own likeness, making us for ever sharers in His Godhead
and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.
Let us run with confidence and joy to enter
the cloud like
Moses and Elijah,
or like James and John.
Let us be caught up like Peter
to behold the divine vision
and to be
transfigured by
that glorious transfiguration.
Let us retire from the world,
stand aloof from the earth,
rise above the
body,
detach ourselves from creatures
and turn to the Creator,
to whom Peter in
ecstasy exclaimed:
Lord, it is good for
us to be here.
It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter. It is
good to be with Jesus and to remain here for ever. What greater happiness or higher honor could
we have than to be with God, to be made like Him and to live in His light?
Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and
is being transformed into His divine image, we also should cry out with joy: It is good for us to be here—here where
all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and
exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and
stillness; where God is seen.
For here,
in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as He
enters: Today salvation has come to this
house. With Christ, our hearts
receive all the wealth of His eternal blessings, and there where they are
stored up for us in Him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the firstfruits
and the whole of the world to come.
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Anastasius of Sinai, bishop
d. around 700 AD
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Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours
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