Homily Two on the Transfiguration of the Lord
By St. John of Kronstadt
"He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17:2).
By St. John of Kronstadt
"He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" (Matthew 17:2).
Today we remember and celebrate the glorious Transfiguration of the Most Pure Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transfiguration took place in the presence of three earthly witnesses – the Apostles Peter, James and John. Jesus Christ, according to custom, ascended the mountain to pray, as a man, to the Heavenly Father. While He was praying, His Divinity suddenly shone through His body: His face became as bright as the sun, and His garments, from the inner light of the Divinity and from the light of the body, became white as light – so white that no bleacher is able to make them so white. Moses and Elijah, the great prophets of old, appeared; they spoke to the Lord. What were they talking about?
They spoke of the sufferings which the Savior of the human race had to endure for the sake of our salvation in Jerusalem. "And He spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 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 will, we will make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' As he was talking 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" (Matt. 17:5). The voice was from God the Father. Hearing the divine voice, the disciples of the Lord fell down on their faces and were greatly afraid. The Lord came to them, touched them, and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid." They lifted up their gaze: there was no one else but Jesus Christ. When they began to come down from the mountain, the Lord told them not to tell anyone about the vision until He rose from the dead. And so imagine, beloved brethren, the glorious appearance of the Lord's most pure flesh, shining like the sun on Tabor, and enjoy this heavenly spectacle longer, longer; imagining it, be exalted in your spirit and rejoice: it is our human face that shone forth in such glory, in its closest unity with the essence of God the Word Himself. Rejoice and be glad in the hope that if you are obedient to your Lord in this temporal life, if you follow His divine commandments, then He will transform your bodies with the 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" (Matt. 13:43); and the Holy Apostle Paul, who says that the Lord "will transform our lowly body so that it will be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). But why was the Lord transfigured in glory on Mount Tabor, and only before His three disciples?
Brethren! The Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer for us and be so mocked and humiliated that if His disciples had not been strengthened by various signs or wonders in their faith in Him as the Son of God before His sufferings, they could have been offended by His face, fall away from Him and scatter, each in his own direction. It was necessary by some astounding miracle to assure them that He is truly the radiance of the Father, the light of light, the Son of God, Who willingly comes to suffer for us. By such a miracle, among other things, the Lord chose the transfiguration of His body on the mountain, and behold, His face shone like the sun, and His garments shone like light, and God the Father Himself said from the cloud: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: Listen to Him" (Matt. 17:5). And so the disciples of Christ, by the transfiguration of the Lord, were prepared in advance not to be tempted by the sufferings and death of their beloved Teacher and Lord. As for why the Lord was transfigured only before the three disciples, it was for the reason that, according to the law, three witnesses were sufficient to verify any truth.
Brethren! The Lord also bequeathed to all His followers sorrow and suffering in this world: "In the world you will suffer" ( John 16:33 ), He told His disciples before His suffering. "If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24). And so endure without complaint all the sorrows God sends to you. But do not be afraid of suffering and sorrow, for they will lead you to eternal joys in heaven, just as the Lord, after His suffering and death on the Cross and His Resurrection, entered into the eternal joy of the Kingdom of Heaven according to His humanity. Just as gold in a furnace is purified and illuminated, so the human soul in the furnace of sorrow and suffering is also purified and illuminated. And this is why the Lord left many different sorrows for His followers in this adulterous and sinful world; they serve as a great benefit for the sufferers themselves and as a deposit of their future eternal blessedness. "Your sorrow will be turned into joy" (John 16:20), says the Lord. Which of the saints, beginning with the Most Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ to the last righteous man, did not grieve in this life and did not enter the Kingdom of Heaven through sorrow? Nobody. All entered the Kingdom of Glory through many sorrows. Therefore, spiritual sorrows transform us, cleanse and illuminate our souls. And this is also why the Lord, coming to His voluntary passion for the sake of salvation, was transformed in glory: He wanted to show all His followers who had to suffer for Him that their suffering would lead them to heavenly glory, that they themselves "will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).
What else does the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord oblige each and every one of us to do? It obliges all of us to be transformed internally. There is no need to talk about how necessary it is for everyone to transform, to change himself for the better, only look impartially into your heart, look at your thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, words and deeds – and it will immediately be obvious how necessary it is to immediately begin the transformation of your heart. What are our hearts filled with almost every day and hour? Knowing all the secrets of human hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ says that "out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness" (Mark 7:21-22).
And each of us, attentive to himself, cannot but admit that his heart almost constantly gives rise to sinful abominations: lack of faith, doubts, self-love, coldness towards God and neighbor, malice, condemnation, malevolence and ill-will, envy, pride, arrogance, disobedience, false shame, contempt, addiction to earthly life and insatiable greed for earthly goods, often combined with resentment for one's neighbor (namely, greed for money, food and drinks, especially to wine and to various sweets, as well as to shameful deeds, addiction to dresses and shiny jewelry); laziness, especially in the important matter of salvation, and idleness with all idle activities, such as: cards, smoking, playing musical instruments that is completely useless for the soul, elevated to a scientific art, dancing and reading books filled with idle talk, oral idle talk and foul language, etc. Until now, almost every one of us has thought very, very little, and some have not thought at all about heavenly things, but have thought everything about earthly things, and had in themselves not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of this world, cared about the body and despised spiritual needs. He values earthly, perishable things dearly and neglects heavenly and eternal things; he is filled with self-love and has little, little love of God and brotherly love. Who, after this, will deny that each of us needs to immediately begin to transform our hearts and our lives, which were hitherto contrary to the Gospel?
And so, brothers and sisters, to the glory of the Lord transfigured on Tabor, calling upon His grace for help, let us begin today to transform our hearts and our vain lives. Let no one be frightened by the difficulty of this transformation; the grace of God is all-powerful, let us constantly ask God for it; let us say: Lord! without Thee we can do nothing (John 15:5); Straighten our steps to do Thy commandments. Let us not forget that "the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12), according to the words of the Lord Himself. Let him of little faith labor at the acquisition of faith, earnestly reading the word of God and the lives of the saints. He who is cold in love for God and neighbor, let him ask God for love: for "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1:17). And let him exercise himself in love; those who are proud and arrogant, let them put aside their pride and arrogance, and with all his heart let him be attached to humility. Let him who is wicked and contemptuous, put aside his malice and contempt, and let him look upon each and every one with reverence and love. Let the envious forsake his envy; the miserable his miserableness; the lazy and negligent his laziness and negligence; the idle his idle occupations; the covetous his love of money; the drunkard his drunkenness; the glutton his gluttony; the thief his thievery; the fornicator his fornication; the vain his vanity; everyone – all evil.
When we behave in this way, then we will worthily, like true followers of Christ, celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. Then, having been transformed and spiritually illuminated on earth, we will "shine like the sun in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father" (Matthew 13:43). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
