Омилия XXXIV 152 .

On the Holy Transfiguration of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ; it proves that the Light that was at the Transfiguration is uncreated 153 Considering this great work of God, I mean - all visible creation, we praise it and admire it; but the Hellenic (pagan) sages also praise him and admire him; but we do this for the glory of the Creator, and they do it contrary to the glory of the Creator. Because in an unfortunate way they “served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). This is how we interpret the prophetic and apostolic and paternal words, but we do this for the benefit of people and for the glory of the Spirit who spoke through the Prophets and Apostles and Fathers. The leaders of heresies that appear in bad times also undertake to interpret them, but they do this to the detriment of those convinced by them and to deviate from the Truth that exists in Piety (Orthodoxy), using the words of the Spirit against the Spirit. And, behold, the word of Gospel grace, which is sublime and responds to old age’s hearing and understanding, our God-bearing Fathers with their lips smooth out the difficulties of understanding it, and make it accessible to us, imperfect ones. Just as child-loving mothers, kneading harder food with their teeth, make it suitable and easily acceptable for infants, since the moisture found in the mouths of mothers in the flesh becomes food for children; so the thoughts that exist in the hearts of the God-bearing Fathers become suitable food for the souls of listening and believing people; the lips of bad and wicked people are filled with deadly poison, which, when mixed with life-giving words (Holy Scripture), makes them deadly for those people who recklessly listen (to heretics). Therefore, let us begin to flee from those who do not accept the patristic interpretations, but try to introduce the opposite on their own, and while pretending to honor the words of Holy Scripture, in fact reject pious understanding; yea, let us flee from them more than anyone flees from a snake; because the snake, having bitten the body, puts to death what is temporary, separating the immortal soul; and these (heretics), having seized the very soul with their teeth, separate it from God, which is the eternal death of the immortal soul. So, with all our might, we will flee from such people, and seek to those who advise that which is pious (Orthodox) and saving, as being in tune with the traditions of the Fathers. Now I said this to your love and presented it as an introduction, since today we celebrate the holy Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain, and we must talk about what happened in this Light, against which a great struggle is being waged by the enemies of this Light. But let us present a little higher what are the words of the Gospel today, in order to clarify the mystery and show the truth. “After six days Jesus gave water to Peter and James and his brother John, and brought them up to a high mountain alone. And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:1). But, firstly, it is necessary to find out the following from the Gospel: after what day does the Apostle of Christ and Evangelist Matthew count the six days after which the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord came? So after what day? - After that day on which, teaching His Disciples, the Lord said that “the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father,” and added, saying: “For there are none of those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matthew 16:27-28), calling “by the glory of the Father” and “by His kingdom” - the Light of His Transfiguration. This is what the Evangelist Luke, revealing and setting out more clearly, says: “According to these words, as these days have come to pass, and I took Peter and John and James and went up to the mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the vision of His face was different, and His robe shone white” (Luke 9:28–29). But how do they agree with each other: one, clearly saying that eight days passed between the announcement and the appearance, and the other, “after six days”? - Listen and you will find out. – There were eight on (Tavorskaya) mountain, but it seemed like there were six; these three: Peter, James, and John, who ascended with Christ, saw Moses and Elijah who were there and talking with Him; so that all together there were six; but, of course, together with the Lord, in an invisible way, the Father and the Holy Spirit were also present; The first is the one who testifies with His voice that He is His beloved Son; The second is shining in a bright cloud and revealing in relation to Himself and the Father the conjugation and unity of Light; because their wealth lies in conjugation and in a single radiation of Radiance. Thus six is ​​eight 154. So, just as then six in relation to eight did not represent any disagreement, so neither the Evangelists, one - saying “after six days”, and the other - “according to these words, they became like eight days”, do not disagree with each other, but as if they gave us a certain image through both of these numbers on the mountain, mysteriously and at the same time clearly expressed. For anyone could thus fairly and looking at the letter, find that the preachers of God are entirely mutually consistent: for “eight days” says Luke, without contradicting what he said (Matthew), “after six days,” but including in this number both the day on which these words were uttered and the day on which the Lord was transfigured; which Matthew also makes clear to those who study the matter wisely; therefore, put the word “after,” which means the next day (after the Lord uttered the above words of Matthew 16:27–28), which is not found in Luke: because he does not say: “after eight days,” as Matthew says, but “it became like the eight days.” Thus, in terms of the narrative there is no difference between the Evangelists. But something else great and mysterious is seen in the fact that they seem to disagree with each other; and, as you are already more prepared to comprehend the meaning, please, focus your attention on what is to be said. - Why, behold, one (of the Evangelists) said: “after six days”; and the other, having remembered the eighth day, missed the seventh? – Because the great vision of the Light of the Lord’s Transfiguration belongs to the mystery of the eighth, i.e. – the future age, which appears after the completion of this world, created in six days, and after the cessation of the senses that operate in us in six ways; for we have five senses, and the word (or “thought”) added to them, expressing what the senses perceive, creates the sixth energy of our sense area. But the kingdom of God, promised to the worthy, is not only above feelings, but it is also above words (thoughts) 155; therefore, after the wonderful cessation of the activity of these six ways of manifesting energies - the honor of which inactivity makes the seventh day rich 156 - on the eighth day, by the power of better action, the kingdom of God comes. And this power of the Divine Spirit, by the action of which the kingdom of God is contemplated by those worthy, the Lord, as the divine Luke 157 reports, prophesied to His Disciples, saying: “There are none of those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1), i.e. - in giving the power to those who see to see what is invisible, when the deadly and soul-destroying defilement has been cleansed, which is sin, the taste of which is the beginning of evil in thoughts, those who have been cleansed from which do not taste spiritual death, by the power of a future appearance, as I think, kept by an undefiled soul and mind. “The essence of grace is from those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the kingdom of God come with power.” The King of the universe is everywhere, and His kingdom is everywhere, therefore, by saying that His kingdom “comes,” He does not mean that it should come in some other way, but says that it will have to be revealed by the power of the Divine Spirit; That’s why He said: “that which came with power,” which power will not be given to anyone as it happens, but to those who stand with the Lord, i.e. confirmed in faith in Him, and: akin in spirit to Peter and James and John, whom the Word first raised to a high mountain, i.e. – above the baseness of our nature; since for this reason God reveals Himself on the mountain, as someone explains, partially Himself descending from His height, and partially raising us from the state of our prostrate state, so that He becomes more easily accessible to created nature and, as far as possible, to comprehend the One Who is incomprehensible. And this phenomenon (of God) is by no means subject to reason, but is much stronger and more sublime than it, as if it occurs through the power of the Divine Spirit. The light of the Lord’s Transfiguration does not appear as it happens and disappears and is not limited and not subject to the power of sensory perception, although it is visible with bodily eyes, and then only for a short time and on a bare mountain top, but, as someone says: “The Lord’s secret places, by the change of feelings that the Spirit produced in them, were then transferred from the state of flesh to the state of spirit”; and thus, in general and as far as the power of the Divine Spirit granted them, they saw that ineffable Light. Without understanding, those who now blaspheme against him attributed the Light of the Lord's Transfiguration, which was seen by those chosen from the Apostles, to the sensual and created power, and thereby try to bring down to the level of creation not only this Light, but also the very power of the Divine Spirit, by which divine phenomena are revealed to those worthy of it. This comes from the fact that they did not hear or did not believe Paul, who said that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, neither has the heart of man breathed the things God has prepared for those who love Him; But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:9-10). When the eighth day arrived, as was said, the Lord, taking Peter and James and John, went up to the mountain to pray; because He always sent everyone away, including even the Apostles themselves, and prayed alone, as was the case when He fed five thousand men with their wives and children with five loaves of bread and two fish: for having immediately released each and all of the Disciples, forcing them to enter the boat, He Himself went up the mountain to pray 158; or, taking with Him a few, and even those who were superior to others, when the time of the saving Passion was approaching, he said to the other Disciples: “Sit down until I’m done praying. And they gave Peter, and James, and John with them to drink” (Mark 14:32–33). And in this case, now, behold, he took them alone, led them to a high mountain alone, and was transformed before them, i.e. before their eyes. What does "transformed" mean? - says Chrysostom the Theologian: “He revealed, as far as He pleased, a little of His Divinity, and showed to the secret places the God who dwells in Him.” Because, as Luke says: “When he prayed, the vision of His face was different”; “Shine like the sun,” as Matthew writes. He says: “like the sun,” not so that anyone can imagine this Light in the concept of sensory light - away with this mental blindness of those who are by no means capable of even understanding natural phenomena more sublimely! - but in order for us to understand that what the sun represents for those who live according to the senses and see according to the senses, Christ represents as God for those who live in the spirit and see spiritually; and in this vision of God there is no need for any other light for the saints. Because from eternity He Himself is Light, and not anyone else; What need is there for those who have the greatest light for another light? During prayer, He thus shone forth and in an ineffable way revealed to the chosen of the Disciples this ineffable Light, while the highest of the Prophets were present, in order to demonstrate that prayer is the giver of this blessed vision, and so that we would know that through approaching God, achieved by virtue, and through the unity of our mind with Him, this Illumination occurs and appears, given and visible to all those who, through diligent good deeds and pure prayer, continually reach out to God. For the True and Most Beautiful Beauty, someone says, can be visible only to one who has purified his mind, since it relates to the Divine and blissful nature, the contemplator of whose radiances and graces himself perceives something from it, absorbing into his vision as if some bright Light; hence Moses’ face was illuminated during a conversation with God 159. Do you see that Moses was transformed when he ascended Mount Sinai, and thus saw the glory of the Lord? However, his transformation occurred from the influence of the power of God on him and was so. passive nature, and not the result of the action of an internal, inherent force, and then, to the extent to which the proper measure of the radiance of Truth allowed him to see and endure the Light of God 160. Our Lord Jesus Christ had this Radiance within Himself; therefore, He had no need for prayer, illuminating the body with divine Light, but by this He showed: on the basis of what the Saints will receive the illumination of God and how it will be contemplated by them; for the righteous also will be enlightened, like the sun, in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43), and thus having become entirely the Divine Light, as the offspring of the divine Light, they will see Christ divinely and ineffably super-shining, the glory of Whose Divinity, inherent in His nature, appeared on Tabor as common to His body, due to the unity of the Hypostasis. Thus, and as a result of this Light, His Face shone like the sun. But those who in our midst boast about the Hellenic 161 science and wisdom of this age and who preferred not to listen to spiritual men regarding the teachings of the Spirit, and even to resist them, hearing about the Light of the Transfiguration of the Lord on the mountain, which was visible to the apostolic eyes, immediately reduce it to a sensory and created light, and degrade this Light, immaterial and non-evening, to this level. ever-present, and exceeding not only the feelings, but also the power of the mind, being themselves base and in no way able to imagine anything higher than the earthly. Although He Himself, who shone with that Light, revealed that it was uncreated, calling it “the kingdom of God”: for the kingdom of God is not slave and created: for it is the only one of all, which is not subject to rulers and is invincible, and is located on the other side of every time and century. “The Kingdom of God,” says someone, “does not tend to begin or depend on any centuries or times.” We believe that this is the inheritance for those who are saved. Since the Lord, having been transfigured, shone forth and showed glory and radiance and light, and will come again in the same way as was seen by the Disciples on the mountain, then did (it was then) He receive some kind of light in the form of an addition and which He will possess forever, but which (before His Transfiguration) He did not possess? - Get rid of such blasphemy! Because someone who speaks like this would recognize three natures in Christ: Divine, human and the nature of this Light. No, it was not any other kind of radiance that He showed, but the one that He had hidden within Himself. He had the radiance of the Divine nature hidden under the flesh; so this Light is the Light of the Divine and is not created. Because, as the Theologians assert, Christ, having been transformed, did not then perceive something that he was not (before), and did not change into something that he was not (before), but did this by revealing to His Disciples What He was, opening their eyes and making them sighted from the blind. – Do you see that physically seeing eyes are blind to seeing this Light? So, that Light is not sensual, and those who saw with sensual eyes could not simply see it, but by the power of the Divine Spirit they were prepared to see it. They were changed, and thus saw a changed form, not which had just appeared, but which He received from the very communion with our nature, deified by union with the Word of God. Hence, She who conceived in virginity and gave birth in a strange way, knew the God born of Her, bearing flesh; also - Simeon, who took Him into his arms as a Baby, and the old woman Anna, who came out to meet Him; because, as if through glass membranes, the divine power manifested itself, shining through for those who have the eyes of their hearts purified. Why does He select the supreme ones from the rest and elevate them, and then strictly in private? – Of course, in order to show something great and mysterious. Could it really be that the vision of the sensory light, which, together with those left below, the chosen ones themselves had before ascending the mountain, would be great and mysterious? What need would they have of the power of the Spirit and, thanks to it, the preparation or change of their eyes in order to see this Light, if this light were sensory and created? Is it possible that the glory and kingdom of the Father and the Spirit are expressed in sensory light? Is it possible that Christ will come in this kind of glory and kingdom in the next century, when, meanwhile, there will be no need for air, or light, or place, or similar things, but instead of all this, as the Apostle says, we will have God? If instead of everything, then, of course, instead of light; on the basis of this it is again discovered that this Light is the Light of the Divine; therefore, the most theological of the Evangelists, John, reveals in Revelation that this future and abiding city “does not require the sun and the moon, let them shine in it: for the glory of God give it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Rev. 21:23). Didn’t he clearly show us here on Tabor the now divinely transformed Jesus, who truly had a body like a lamp; instead of light, the glory of the Divine revealed on the mountain for those who came with Him? But he also says about those living in that city that they “will not require light from a lamp, nor the light of the sun, for the Lord God enlightens (them). And there will be no night there” (Rev. 22:5). What kind of Light is this, “with which there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17)? What kind of unchanging and non-evening Light is this? – Isn’t this the Light of the Divine? - But both Moses and Elijah, and especially Moses, who was a soul not associated with his body, how could they be visible and glorified by sensory light? For they too, “appearing in glory, spoke of His departure, which He wanted to die in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). How did the Apostles recognize them, having never seen them before, if only not by the power of this Light, opening (their mind to knowledge)? But so that we do not tire your attention too much, we will save the rest of the Gospel words until the time of the all-sacred and divine Sacrifice. Believing then as we were taught by those who were enlightened by Christ, i.e. – those who alone possess perfect knowledge; - because “My secret is for Me and Mine” says God through the Prophet; - so, believing perfectly as we were taught, and understanding the mystery of the Lord's Transfiguration, let us go to the radiance of that Light and, thirsting for the beauty of unchanging glory, let us cleanse the eyes of the mind (soul) from earthly defilements: despising everything pleasant and tempting that is not durable; which, although it seems sweet, brings eternal torment; which, although it contributes to the beauty of the body, clothes the soul in the ugly garment of sin, due to which, being bound hand and foot, one who did not have the garment of incorruptible contact (with Christ) is cast out into that fire and outer darkness; from which may we all be delivered by the illumination and knowledge of the immaterial and ever-present Light of the Lord's Transfiguration, to the glory of Him and His Beginning Father and Life-Giving Spirit, Who are one and the same radiance and Divinity and glory and kingdom and power, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:424–436. Homilia XXXIV. In venerabilem Domini et Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi Transformationem; ubi probatur quod in ea est Lumen, increatum esse. The following two conversations of St. Gregory Palamas are an expression of that dogmatic teaching about the Light of Tabor, which resulted in a separate work of his and which he passionately defended at numerous councils, fighting against the heresy on this subject, which found places in the writings and words of the Latinists Barlaam, Akindinus and their followers. Although St. Gregory Palamas expounds the dogmatic teaching in a publicly accessible form, speaking to the people, these two of his omilias are still more difficult than the others. Those. as was said above, six were seen on Tabor: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles Peter, James and John, and the Prophets: Moses and Elijah; but God the Father and the Holy Spirit were invisibly present with the Lord; so there were actually eight on Tabor. Those. it not only surpasses the perceptions obtained through the five senses, but also surpasses the possibility of our ideas and description in words. Those. as an expression of Sabbath rest, because on the 7th day God rested after creating the world for 6 days. Here there is a slip or typo, since the text is taken from the Gospel according to Mark. This is explained in detail in omilia 32. In Ming we find a note here: “So the Massalians boast that with the help of human efforts it is possible to see God Himself” (Col. 429). (The text does not indicate the place to which the link is given, i.e. I put it out of understanding. - A.A.) The entire phrase was translated freely, otherwise it would be difficult to immediately understand its meaning. Those. pagan, humanistic philosophy. You might be interested in: