By St. archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev), Sermon delivered in Sofia (Bulgaria) on the Feast of Transfiguration, sixth of August, in 1947.
Liturgical Holy Gospel: At the moment Jesus took with Himself Peter, James and John, his brother, and led them alone to a excessive mountain; and was transfigured earlier than them: and His face shone just like the solar, and His garments turned white as gentle. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, speaking with Him. Then Peter answered Jesus and mentioned: Lord, it’s good for us to be right here; in order for you, let’s make three canopies right here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Whereas he was but talking, behold, a vibrant cloud overshadowed them; and a voice was heard within the cloud, saying: That is my beloved Son, in whom I’m effectively happy; Take heed to him. And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and had been significantly afraid. However Jesus, coming close to, touched them and mentioned: stand up and don’t be afraid! And once they lifted up their eyes, they noticed nobody however Jesus alone. And once they got here down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them and mentioned: don’t inform anybody about this imaginative and prescient till the Son of Man rises from the lifeless (Mat. 17:1-9).
Let Your everlasting gentle shine for us sinners too…
Within the kondak in honor of at the moment’s nice feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, it’s mentioned: “You had been transfigured on the mountain and Your disciples, so far as it was doable for them, noticed Your glory, Christ God, in order that once they see You crucified, they are going to perceive that Your struggling was voluntary , and to evangelise to the world that You’re really the radiance of the Father”.
Right here the Holy Church tells us the aim of the Lord’s Transfiguration. Christ’s disciples confronted a horrible check of religion. They had been anticipated to witness the horrible humiliation of Christ—His spitting, slapping, scourging, and shameful crucifixion and loss of life on the Cross. It was essential to strengthen their religion within the Son of God, to point out them that He willingly, with His personal free will, surrendered to this shame, to those sufferings.
That is precisely what the Lord did when He was transfigured earlier than His disciples at Tabor and revealed to all of them His divine glory. They may not bear this glory and fell prostrate, however skilled from it of their hearts inexpressible heavenly bliss and felt with their complete being that Christ is the true Son of God, that He’s the supply of everlasting heavenly bliss for believers.
St. Nonetheless, the Church factors to a different goal of the Lord’s Transfiguration. She tells us about her within the following phrases of at the moment’s vacation troparion:
You had been transfigured on the mountain, Christ God, … in order that Your everlasting gentle may additionally shine for us, sinners …
The Lord did all the things for us: he taught, he suffered and died for us, he rose and ascended for us, he was reworked for us, in order that by means of this divine gentle he might rework us too, by means of this gentle we too from sinners to grow to be pure and holy, from weak to robust, from sorrowful to joyful. This gentle, needed for our transformation, is none aside from the grace of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon the apostles and which, from that point to at the present time, pours abundantly upon us by means of the holy Church, by means of her Sacraments.
How gentle transforms us
And the Holy Church exhibits us a large number of examples of how splendidly this divine grace, this divine gentle transforms us, sinners, and makes us new, blessed individuals. Thus, by means of this grace, the prudent thief, crucified with Jesus Christ, was as soon as enlightened. St. evangelists Matthew and Mark narrate that initially each robbers blasphemed the Lord. And ev. Luke specifies that solely one in every of them blasphemed the Lord.
It turns into clear that the Lord has touched the guts of the opposite robber with His grace. The Lord remembered the good mercy which, in response to church custom, He confirmed Him by not inflicting any hurt to the Holy Household when the Toddler God with His Immaculate Mom and the righteous Joseph fled from Herod in Egypt. On the cross, this robber believed in Christ and was the primary of Christ’s followers to enter heaven for everlasting bliss. This gracious gentle as soon as illuminated Saul when he went to Damascus to persecute and put Christians to loss of life. And from a persecutor he reworked into the best apostle of Christ.
By this similar grace, by her divine gentle, Mary of Egypt, Eudocia, and Taisia, from well-known harlots, had been reworked into angels by their purity and love of Christ. From the biography of Reverend Moses Murin, it may be seen that he was a frontrunner of robbers, tainted with murders and all types of great crimes. Later, nonetheless, enlightened by grace and strengthened by its energy, he amazed everybody together with his meekness, together with his angel-like life, which is why the Holy Church positioned him on an equal footing with Rev. Arsenius the Nice and different nice holy fathers.
St. The Church provides us many examples of the hanging impact of grace, when the blasphemers of Christ, torturers and executioners of Christians, abruptly turned believers and accepted martyr’s crowns.
Lord, enlighten my darkness!
The nice father of the Church, St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, used to hope with such a brief prayer: “Lord, enlighten my darkness” (cf. Ps. 17:29). And the Lord so enlightened him with the sunshine of His grace that when St. Gregory carried out the Liturgy, a divine gentle streamed from his face and lots of pious individuals within the temple noticed it.
Allow us to too, my beloved youngsters in Christ, at all times pray to be reworked and grow to be from carnal – non secular, from passionate – passionless by means of the sunshine of grace that lives in us from the second of Baptism and that smolders in us like a divine spark beneath the ashes of our sins and passions. Allow us to, by means of the achievement of God’s commandments, attempt, as the principle purpose of our life, to be gentle, in response to the phrases of the Savior: “You’re the gentle of the world” (Matt. 5:14); “in order that your gentle might shine earlier than males, that they might see your good works and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mat. 5:16). Let the Lord’s phrases be fulfilled upon us after our loss of life: “Then the righteous shall shine because the solar within the kingdom of their Father.”
Due to this fact, allow us to beseech the Immaculate Mom of God, our first Intercessor and Intercessor earlier than God, that the phrases of the troparion in honor of at the moment’s feast be fulfilled with all her energy and over us:
By the prayers of the Mom of God, let Your everlasting gentle shine for us sinners, Giver of sunshine, glory to You!
Amen.