Беседа на Преображение Господа Бога и Спаса нашего Иисуса Христа. Святого Кирилла, архиепископа Александрийского 142

Those who are skilled in competitions are delighted by the applause of the spectators, and are encouraged by the hope of rewards to achieve the victory that befits them; Those who strive to achieve Divine gifts and thirst for participation in the hope prepared for the saints willingly compete in piety in Christ. For those who arrange their lives virtuously are not those who prefer idleness that does not receive any reward, nor those who love cowardly timidity; but those who actively and courageously approach every trial, counting the attacks of persecutors as nothing at all, consider it a great gain to suffer for the Lord Himself, remembering the words of blessed Paul that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ said for the instruction and benefit of the holy apostles: if anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it: and whoever wants to destroy his soul for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24–25). This instruction is salutary and befitting of saints, since it brings heavenly glory and prepares participation in spiritual pleasure and joy: for choosing to suffer for Christ in no way deprives one of reward, on the contrary, it makes them partakers of eternal life and glory. Meanwhile, for the disciples who had not yet received power from above, it was, of course, natural to share human weaknesses and, as it were, to ask themselves: “How can one deny oneself? or how will he who loses his soul find it again? and what will be the reward for the one who endures this? What will be rewarded to such a person? What gifts will he be partakers of? So, in order to divert the disciples from such thoughts and words and direct them to greatness of spirit, instilling in them a passionate desire for the glory that awaits them, the Lord says: I say to you, there are none of them who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the kingdom of God (Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). So what? Was it really possible that this answer predicted an extension of their lives until the time when, after the completion of centuries, the Lord, having descended from heaven, would establish the kingdom prepared for the saints? Of course, He could have granted them this too: for He is omnipotent, and there is nothing that His omnipotent wave could not accomplish; but the Lord called the kingdom the very spectacle of glory in which He will appear when He shines on earth, since He will come in the glory of God the Father, and not in humiliation, which belongs to our properties. Thus, He makes those who have received the promise spectators of the miracle: He takes with Him up the mountain (Matthew 17:1) the three most chosen among them - then He changes into an extraordinary and Divine radiance until His clothes seem to shine like light. Then Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, talking with each other about His exodus, which He wanted to die in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31), that is, about the mystery of His economy in the flesh and about the saving sufferings that were to take place on the glorious cross. Truly, the law given through Moses and the word of the holy prophets foreshadowed the mystery of Christ: the first, depicting it in types and shadows on the tablet, and the latter in many places and in many different ways, predicting that Christ would appear in our time in our form, and that, for the sake of the salvation and life of all, he would not refuse to endure on the tree. And the fact that Moses and Elijah were present and talked with each other - this happened with the intention of showing that the one taught by the law and the prophets is our Lord Jesus Christ, foretold by them as the Lord of the law and the prophets, which they preached in agreement. This, I believe, was the conversation between the most sacred Moses and the all-honorable prophet Elijah. But one can also understand something else, since the people said: some that He is Elijah, others that He is Jeremiah, and others that He is generally one of the prophets, therefore the Savior calls the most important of them, so that from this they can see what is the distance between the Lord and the servant. In addition to this, another consideration can be expressed, since they persistently accused the Lord of breaking the law, and blasphemed that He delighted Himself with the glory of the Father that is unbecoming to Him, and said: this man is not of God, for He does not keep the Sabbath (John 9:16), or again: we do not lay stones against You for a good deed, but for the blasphemy: for You are a man, making God for Yourself. (In. 10:33), then, in order to show that both accusations are brought against Him out of envy, and that He is not guilty of any of them, and that what He does on His own is not a violation of the law, and that confessing Himself equal to the Father is not the admiration of glory that does not belong to Him - for this He brings to the center the most famous persons in the Law and the Prophets. Namely, since the law was given by Moses, the Jews could count that Moses would not look indifferently at the law that was trampled, as it seemed to them, and even more so would not pay respect to the one who violated it, but would treat the one who abolished it as an enemy. Elijah was also inspired by zeal for the glory of God; and if Christ had been opposed to God, if He had called Himself equal to the Father, not being the One for whom He claimed to be, if, finally, He had not done what was appropriate in this case, then Elijah himself would not have appeared and would not have listened to Him. Further, one more reason can be added to what is said, namely, so that they know that the Lord has power over life and death, and rules over the highest and the underworld. For this reason, both the living and the dead are brought to the middle; and those who appeared were not silent, but talked about the glory that He was about to receive in Jerusalem, that is, about the suffering, about the cross, and also about the resurrection after them. The blessed disciples seemed to doze off, since Christ did not entertain them with conversation (for a certain purpose and according to a certain economy, they submitted to human needs). Then, when they awakened, they became spectators of such an extraordinary and such a miraculous change that blessed Peter, probably thinking that the time of the kingdom of God was already coming, preferred to stay on the mountain, and proposed to build three tabernacles, not knowing what he was saying (Luke 9:33). And in fact, the time of the end of the age has not yet come and in this life the saints do not become participants in the hope promised to them, as Paul says: who will transform the body of our humility, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, that is, Christ (Phil. 3:21). And would it have been fitting for Christ, who came into the world out of goodness, to abandon the desire to suffer for it, when the dispensation was not yet completed (for He saved nature under heaven by accepting death in the body, and destroyed it by His resurrection from the dead)? Therefore, Peter did not know what he was saying. However, during the extraordinary and unspeakable spectacle of the glory of Christ, something very important happened to strengthen faith in Him not only in the disciples, but also in ourselves.. From the cloud came the voice of God the Father, saying: This is My beloved Son, listen to Him. And when there was a voice, one Jesus was found (Luke 9:35–36). What will a stiff-necked, stubborn, unbelieving Jew with an unbridled heart say to this? Now, in the presence of Moses, the Father commands the holy apostles to obey Him - the Lord: for if He wanted them to follow the commandments of Moses, then God would then say: “since you believe Moses, then fulfill the law.” But now that is not what God the Father says; on the contrary, when Moses and the prophet Elijah were present, God commanded them to obey Him - Christ. And lest anyone distort the truth by saying that the Father commanded the apostles to obey Moses, and not the Savior of us all, Christ, - for this, the Evangelist necessarily noted, saying that when that voice was heard, Jesus was found alone. So, when God the Father from above, as if from a cloud, instructed the holy apostles, saying: Hear him, Moses was absent, and Elijah was also not there, but Christ alone was; therefore, He (God the Father) commanded to obey Him, since He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Therefore, He (the Savior) denounced the Jewish people, saying: although Moses had quickly failed, they quickly believed Me: for that is written about Me (John 5:46). And since they stubbornly continued to violate the law given through the wise Moses and not pay any attention to what was spoken through the holy prophets, they were rightly rejected and deprived of the benefits promised to their fathers, for obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than the fat of a ram (1 Samuel 15:22), as it is written. This is the situation of the Jews! To us, who have known His coming, all blessings will belong to us through and in Christ Himself, through Whom and with Whom be glory and power to God the Father with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen 143. See Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, series graeca, vol. LXXVVII, p.p. 1009–1016; cp. A. Mirolyubova. Sermons of St. Cyril of Alexandria. Kyiv. 1889, pp. 249–252; Great Fourth Menaion, under August 6, l.l.95–96. 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