Sermon for the Day of the Transfiguration of the Lord

He (Jesus) was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light (Mt 17:2).

Today we remember and celebrate the glorious Transfiguration of the most pure flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transfiguration took place before three earthly witnesses—the apostles Peter, James, and John. Jesus Christ, according to His custom, went up a mountain to pray, as man, to the heavenly Father. While He was praying, His Godhead suddenly shone forth through His body: His face became bright as the sun, and His garments, from the inward light of His Godhead and from the light of His body, became white as light—so white that no bleacher could ever make them so white. Moses and Elijah appeared, the ancient great prophets; they spoke with the Lord. And of what did they speak? They spoke of the sufferings which the Savior of the human race was to endure for our salvation in Jerusalem. They spoke of His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Lk 9:31). The apostle Peter, seeing the Lord and the prophets in such glory, said to the Lord: Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, we will make here three tabernacles (tents): one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He was still speaking when a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice was heard from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to Him (Mt 17:5). The voice was from God the Father. Hearing the divine voice, the Lord’s disciples fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. The Lord came to them, touched them, and told them: rise, and do not be afraid. They lifted up their eyes: there was no one there but Jesus Christ. As they began to come down from the mountain, the Lord told them to tell no one of the vision until He should rise from the dead. And so, beloved brothers, picture to yourselves the glorified appearance of the Lord’s most pure flesh, shining like the sun on Tabor, and dwell longer, longer still, on this heavenly spectacle; picturing it, exult in your spirit and rejoice: it is our own human countenance that shone in such glory, in its closest union with the very being of God the Word. Exult and rejoice in the hope that, if you are obedient in this temporal life to your Lord, and follow His divine commandments, then He will one day transfigure your bodies too with that same glory, so that they will be conformed to His glorious body; the Lord Himself assures us of this when He says that the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the heavenly Father (Mt 13:43); and the holy Apostle Paul, who says that the Lord will transfigure our lowly body so that it will be conformed to His glorious body (Phil 3:21). But why did the Lord become transfigured in glory on Mount Tabor, and only before three of His disciples?

Brothers! It was necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer for us and to be so reviled and humiliated that, if His disciples had not, before His sufferings, been strengthened by various signs or miracles in their faith in Him as the Son of God, they might have been scandalized concerning His person, might have fallen away from Him, and scattered, each in his own direction. It was necessary, by some striking miracle, to assure them that He is truly the radiance of the Father, light of light, the Son of God, come of His own will to suffer for us. Such a miracle the Lord chose, among other things, in the transfiguration of His body on the mountain, and behold, His face shone like the sun, and His garments flashed like light, and God the Father Himself spoke from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to Him (Mt 17:5). And so the disciples of Christ were, by the Lord’s transfiguration, prepared beforehand not to be scandalized by the sufferings and death of their beloved Teacher and Lord. As for why the Lord was transfigured before only three of His disciples, this is because, by the law, three witnesses were sufficient to confirm any truth.

Brothers! The Lord bequeathed to all His followers sorrows and sufferings also, in this world: in the world you will have sorrows (Jn 16:33), He said to His disciples before His sufferings; whoever wishes to come after Me, let him renounce himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mt 16:24). And so bear without murmuring all the sorrows that God sends you. But do not be afraid of suffering and sorrow, for they will bring you to eternal joys in the heavens; just as the Lord Himself, after His sufferings and death on the cross and His resurrection, entered into the eternal joy of the Kingdom of Heaven, according to His humanity too. As gold is refined and made bright in the furnace, so too the human soul is purified and made bright in the furnace of sorrow and suffering. And this is why the Lord left, as a portion for His followers in this adulterous and sinful world, sorrows of many kinds; they serve as a great good for the sufferers themselves, and as a pledge of their future eternal blessedness. Your sorrow will become joy (Jn 16:20), says the Lord. Who among the saints, from the most blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ herself down to the least of the righteous, did not sorrow in this life, and did not enter the Kingdom of Heaven through sorrow? No one. All entered the Kingdom of Glory through many sorrows. And so spiritual sorrows transfigure us, purify and brighten our souls. And this is one more reason why the Lord, going forth to His voluntary passion for our salvation, was transfigured in glory: He wished to show all His followers, who were to suffer for Him, that their sufferings would bring them to heavenly glory, that they themselves would be illumined, like the sun, in the Kingdom of the heavenly Father (Mt 13:43).

To what else does the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord bind each and every one of us? It binds all of us to be transfigured inwardly. There is no need to speak of how necessary it is for each one to transform, to change himself for the better—only look impartially, each of you, into his own heart, look at your own thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, words, and deeds—and it will at once be plain how necessary it is to set about the transfiguration of one’s own heart without delay. With what are our hearts filled, almost every day and every hour? The Lord Jesus Christ, who knows all the secrets of human hearts, says that out of the human heart come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, extortions, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an envious eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness (Mk 7:21-22). And indeed, every one of us, if attentive to himself, cannot but confess that his heart almost constantly gives birth to the abominations of sin: little faith, doubts, self-love, coldness toward God and neighbor, malice, condemnation, malicious joy and ill-will, envy, pride, arrogance, disobedience, false shame, contempt, attachment to earthly life and an insatiable greed for earthly goods, not seldom joined with wrong to a neighbor (namely, greed for money, for food and drink, especially for wine and for various delicacies, also for shameful deeds, an attachment to finery and glittering ornaments); laziness, especially in the great work of salvation, and idleness with all its idle pursuits, such as cards, tobacco-smoking, the utterly useless-for-the-soul playing of musical instruments, elevated into a scientific art, dancing, and the reading of books filled with idle talk, spoken idle talk and foul language, and so on. Until now almost every one of us has thought very, very little, and some not at all, on things above, but has thought only of things on earth, and has had in himself not the spirit of Christ but the spirit of this world, has cared for the body and despised the needs of the soul; has prized the earthly and corruptible dearly and disdained the heavenly and eternal, has been full of self-love and has had little, very little, love for God and for the brethren. Who, after this, will deny that every one of us must without delay set about the transfiguration of his own heart and his own life, which have until now been contrary to the Gospel?

And so, brothers and sisters, to the glory of the Lord who was transfigured on Tabor, calling His grace to our aid, let us set about, from this very day, the transfiguration of our heart’s dispositions and of our vain life. Let no one be dismayed by the difficulty of this transfiguration; the grace of God is almighty—let us ask it unceasingly of God; let us say: Lord! Without You we can do nothing (Jn 15:5); do You Yourself direct our steps to the doing of Your commandments. Let us not forget that the kingdom of heaven is gained by effort, and only those who strive earnestly gain it (Mt 11:12), in the words of the Lord Himself. Let the man of little faith labor to acquire faith, reading diligently the word of God and the lives of the saints; let the man cold in love for God and neighbor ask love of God: for every perfect gift, still more the most perfect gift of love, comes down from above, from the Father of lights (Jac 1:17)—and let him exercise himself in love; let the proud and arrogant man lay aside his pride and arrogance, and cling with his whole heart to humility; let the malicious and contemptuous man lay aside his malice and contempt, and look upon everyone with respect and love; let the envious man leave off his envy; the miser, his avarice; the lazy and careless man, his laziness and carelessness; the idle man, his idle pursuits; the money-lover, his love of money; the drunkard, his drunkenness; the glutton, his gluttony; the thief, his thievery; the fornicator, his fornication; the vain man, his vanity—everyone, every evil.

When we conduct ourselves in this way, then, as true followers of Christ, we shall worthily celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. Then, transfigured and enlightened in soul on earth, we shall shine like the sun in the Kingdom of the heavenly Father (Mt 13:43). Amen.