"I, the Light, have come into the world, that whoever believes in Me not remain in darkness."

"I, the Light, have come into the world, that whoever believes in Me not remain in darkness."

For the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ

IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE LOVE

At the foot of the God-trodden Mountain of Sinai, Emperor Justinian built the great basilica of St. Catherine's Monastery to the Transfiguration of Christ - the 'Feast of monastic feasts'.

‘Let us be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration,’ exhorted St. Anastasios of Sinai in his sermon on the Feast, for ‘Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven … making us sharers in His divinity and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.’

Archbishop Damianos of Sinai has pointed out that the manifestation of the Holy Trinity at the Transfiguration was foreshadowed by the earlier theophany on Mount Sinai, where the voice of God, the light of the Sun of Righteousness, and the cloud of the Holy Spirit were all similarly present.

There is a difference though: While the eyes of the apostles were enabled to see ‘a dim ray’ of the divine radiance of Christ at His Transfiguration, the Uncreated Light appears to Moses on Sinai as ‘luminous darkness’. It is invisible - except to eyes that have been transformed by the Holy Spirit.

As His Eminence also noted, the full revelation of the Trinity is reserved for the New Testament. Thus the wishes of both Moses and Elias to see God clearly on Sinai are fulfilled at the Transfiguration of Christ. ...

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... A significant characteristic of Orthodox Christianity is its understanding of the distinction between the essence of God and His uncreated energies; Orthodox saints understand creation as the voluntary will of the divine energies, an outpouring of love - reflected in the words of the Holy Trinity, 'Let us make man.'

What does this mean? That man is destined not for contemplation of God, but for union with Him. Receiving the divine energies within himself, he is created 'to become by grace what God is by nature'.

It also means that salvation is not reserved for a chosen few, but the free gift of grace offered to all. One need only reach out to take the gift, striving to follow Christ through the mysteries of the historic Orthodox Church founded by Christ through His apostles.

Thus, St. Gregory of Sinai says that Peter, James, and John were not randomly selected to participate in the Transfiguration, for each was distinguished by some individual combination of 'faith, effort, and love for Christ – even though the same grace of the Spirit had been given to all.'

Enamored of the divine radiance, Peter exclaims, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here!' His next thought is to remain in the divine glory.

At this point - validating the faith of Peter who had replied 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' to Jesus' question six days earlier, 'Who do you say I am?' - the voice of the Father comes from the cloud: 'This is my beloved Son - listen to him.'

This is the exact moment portrayed in the icon of the Transfiguration - as illustrated in the Sinai icon above with the words of the Father inscribed across the top - portraying not just the divine energies of God's unapproachable glory - but how one may remain within it:

Geronta Pavlos of Sinai explains that the New Testament verb for 'listen' implies 'doing'. Those who seek union with God by fulfilling His commandments will be transfigured by the light of Christ into the abode of the Holy Spirit, and through them, all creation.

According to the patristic Saints of the Orthodox Church, this is the radiant message of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, whose week-long celebration will draw to its close on August 13th, but which never dims in the hearts of the faithful.

'I, the Light, have come into the world,' said the Lord, 'that whoever believes in Me not remain in darkness.'

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Sinai's Codex Theodosianus is one of the most splendid manuscripts to survive from Byzantine times. It is a copy of the Gospels, written in Constantinople in the tenth century. It was written in one of the imperial scriptoria, and every letter on every page is executed in gold leaf. The beautiful letters gleam and flash as they catch the light.

This image [below right] shows the beginning of the Gospel passage for the Feast of the Transfiguration. One can see here the abbreviation for the Name 'Jesus' formed by its first and last letters, with a decorative line above to indicate the contraction. Names such as ‘Jesus Christ’ and ‘Lord'  were always written as abbreviations, in that they are nomina sacra, 'sacred names.'

From Article "Who do you say I am?" by Sr. Joanna at FMSM's News Blog http://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/transfiguration2017