On the Transfiguration

Dearly beloved, the Gospel reading, which has reached the inner hearing of our minds through our bodily ears, calls us to understand a great mystery. By the help of God’s grace we will reach it the better if we turn our attention to what is told just before it. [a] The Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, in founding that faith which calls the wicked back to righteousness and the dead to life, used to instruct his disciples by teaching that warned them and by miraculous acts, so that he, the Christ, might be believed to be at once the only Son of God and the Son of Man. For the one without the other was of no use for salvation, and it was equally dangerous to have believed the Lord Jesus Christ to be either only God without manhood or only man without Godhead. Both had equally to be confessed, because just as true manhood existed in his Godhead, so true Godhead existed in his manhood. So, to strengthen their most wholesome knowledge of this belief, the Lord had asked his disciples, among the various opinions of others, what they themselves believed or thought about him. At this the apostle Peter, by the revelation of the most high Father, passed beyond bodily things and rose above human things with the eyes of his mind, and saw him to be the Son of the living God. He acknowledged the glory of the Godhead, because he did not look at the substance of his flesh and blood alone. And Christ was so well pleased with this lofty faith that Peter received the fullness of blessing and was given the holy firmness of the unbreakable Rock on which the church would be built and would conquer the gates of hell and the laws of death. So, in loosing or binding the petitions of anyone at all, only what had been settled by Peter’s judgment would be ratified in heaven. [b]

But this lofty and highly praised understanding, dearly beloved, also had to be taught the mystery of Christ’s lower substance. Otherwise the apostle’s faith, raised to the glory of confessing the deity in Christ, might think it unworthy and unfitting for the God who cannot suffer to take on our weakness, and might believe the human nature in him to be so glorified that it could neither suffer punishment nor be dissolved in death. And so, when the Lord said that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and scribes and chief priests, and on the third day rise again, blessed Peter, lit with light from above and burning with the heat of his confession, rejected their mocking insults and the disgrace of a most cruel death with what he thought was a loyal and outspoken contempt. But he was checked by a kindly rebuke from Jesus and filled with the desire to share his suffering. For the Savior’s exhortation that followed instilled and taught this: that those who wished to follow him should deny themselves and count the loss of temporal things as light in the hope of eternal ones, because only he could save his soul who did not fear to lose it for Christ. So, in order that the apostles might hold this happy and constant courage with their whole heart, and not tremble at the harshness of taking up the cross, and that they might not be ashamed of Christ’s punishment or think what he endured disgraceful for themselves (for the bitterness of his suffering was to be displayed without slighting his glorious power), Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John, went up a very high mountain with them apart, and showed them the brightness of his glory. For although they had recognized the majesty of God in him, they did not know the power of his body, in which his deity was contained. And so it was rightly and meaningfully that he had promised that some of the disciples standing there would not taste death until they saw “the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” that is, in the kingly brilliance which, as belonging especially to the nature of the manhood he had taken on, he wished to be plain to these three men. For the unspeakable and unapproachable vision of the Godhead itself, which is kept until eternal life for the pure in heart, they could in no way look upon and see while still surrounded by mortal flesh. So the Lord displays his glory before chosen witnesses, and clothes that bodily shape which he shared with others in such splendor that his face was like the brightness of the sun and his clothes matched the whiteness of snow. [d]

In this transfiguration the first aim was to remove the offense of the cross from the disciples’ hearts, and to keep their faith from being shaken by the humiliation of his voluntary passion, by revealing to them the excellence of his hidden dignity. But with no less foresight the foundation was laid for the hope of the holy church, so that the whole body of Christ might understand what kind of change it would receive, and the members might promise themselves a share in that honor which had already shone out in their Head. Of this the Lord himself had said, when he spoke of the majesty of his coming, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom.” And the blessed apostle Paul bears witness to the very same thing, saying, “For I consider that the sufferings of this time are not worth comparing with the future glory that will be revealed in us,” and again, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” But to strengthen the apostles and lead them on to all knowledge, still further teaching was given by that miracle. [f]

For Moses and Elijah, that is, the Law and the Prophets, appeared talking with the Lord, so that in the presence of those five men what was said might be most truly fulfilled: “In two or three witnesses every word stands.” What is more stable, what more steadfast, than this word, in whose proclamation the trumpet of the Old and of the New Testament joins, and the written evidence of the ancient witnesses agrees with the teaching of the Gospel? For the pages of both covenants support each other, and he whom the types that went before had promised under the veil of mysteries is shown clearly and plainly by the splendor of the present glory. For, as blessed John says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In him both the promise of the prophetic figures and the purpose of the law’s ordinances are fulfilled; for by his presence he teaches the truth of prophecy, and by grace he makes the commands possible to keep. [i]

So the apostle Peter, stirred by the revelation of these mysteries, despising worldly things and scorning earthly ones, was seized with a kind of frenzied craving for eternal things. Filled with rapture at the whole vision, he wanted to make his home with Jesus in the place where he had been blessed with the showing of his glory. That is why he says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But the Lord gave no answer to this proposal, showing that what Peter wanted was not wicked, indeed, but was contrary to God’s order. For the world could not be saved except by Christ’s death, and by the Lord’s example the faithful were called to believe that, although there ought to be no doubt about the promises of happiness, we should understand that amid the trials of this life we must ask for the power to endure rather than for the glory, because the joy of reigning cannot come before the times of suffering. [l]

And so, while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.” The Father was indeed present in the Son, and in the Lord’s brightness, which he had tempered to the disciples’ sight, the Father’s essence was not separated from the only Son. But to emphasize that there are two persons, just as the radiance of the Son’s body showed the Son to their sight, so the Father’s voice from the cloud announced the Father to their hearing. And when this voice was heard, “the disciples fell on their faces and were terrified,” trembling at the majesty not only of the Father but also of the Son. For they now had a deeper insight into the undivided deity of both, and in their fear they did not separate the one from the other, because they did not waver in their faith. So that was a wide and many-sided testimony, and it held a fuller meaning than met the ear. For when the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” was it not clearly meant: “This is my Son, to whom it belongs to be eternally from me and with me”? For the Begetter is not earlier than the Begotten, nor the Begotten later than the Begetter. “This is my Son,” who is separated from me neither by Godhead, nor by power, nor by eternity. “This is my Son,” not adopted but true-born; not created from another source but begotten of me; not made like me from another nature but born equal to me from my nature. “This is my Son,” “through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made,” because all that I do he does in the same way, and whatever I perform he performs with me inseparably and without difference. For the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, and our unity is never divided; and though I am the one who begot and he is the other whom I begot, it is wrong for you to think anything of him that is not possible of me. “This is my Son,” who did not seek by grasping, and did not seize in greed, the equality with me that he has. Rather, remaining in the form of my glory, in order to carry out our common plan for the restoring of mankind, he lowered the unchangeable Godhead even to the form of a slave. [m]

“Hear him,” then, without hesitation, him in whom I am well pleased in all things, by whose preaching I am made known, by whose humiliation I am glorified; for he is “the truth and the life,” he is my “power and wisdom.” “Hear him,” whom the mysteries of the Law foretold, whom the mouths of the prophets sang. “Hear him,” who redeems the world by his blood, who binds the devil and carries off his goods, who destroys the bond of sin and the contract of the transgression. Hear him, who opens the way to heaven, and by the punishment of the cross prepares for you the steps that go up to the kingdom. Why do you tremble at being redeemed? Why are you afraid to be healed of your wounds? Let that happen which Christ wills and I will. Cast away all fleshly fear and arm yourselves with faithful constancy. For it is unworthy of you to fear, in the Savior’s passion, what by his good gift you will not have to fear even at your own end. [p]

These things, dearly beloved, were said not only for the benefit of those who heard them with their own ears; in these three apostles the whole church has learned all that their eyes saw and their ears heard. So let everyone’s faith be made firm, according to the preaching of the most holy Gospel, and let no one be ashamed of Christ’s cross, through which the world was redeemed. And let no one be afraid to suffer for righteousness’ sake, or doubt that the promises will be fulfilled, for this reason, that through toil we pass to rest and through death to life. For he took on himself all the weakness of our lowliness, and in him, if we abide in acknowledging and loving him, we conquer as he conquered and receive what he promised. For whether we are carrying out his commands or enduring hardships, the Father’s voice that announced it beforehand should always be sounding in our ears, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him,” who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.