Transfiguration: The Feast Of Light and Glory

In every liturgy of the Orthodox Church, we address our prayers and thanksgiving to God who is described as "ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same." This kind of language - which tries to describe God by saying what he is not - is called apophatic or "negative" language. Apophatic language is the language of prayer; it points to God's majesty and transcendence while, at the same time, it conveys His presence. God is absolutely transcendent - beyond anything that we can know and experience - yet He is also present (immanent) and acts on behalf of us for our salvation.
The feasts of the Church celebrate those acts of salvation. They not only remember certain special events, but make Christ present to us in those events through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the feast of the Nativity of Christ, we see revealed to us the mystery of God's incarnation in the flesh. God manifests Himself to us, reveals Himself to us as man while yet remaining God. The feast of the Nativity of Christ is the celebration of that act of God revealing Himself to us ,in His Coming to earth as a man. In the feast of Theophany, we see Christ revealed as the "Beloved Son" of God the Father.
At Christ's baptism in the Jordan, God makes it clear that this man Jesus is truly the "Son of God." And now, as we prepare to celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, we see Christ being revealed in all His divine glory. In each feast Christ comes to us now, manifests or makes Himself present to us so that we can come to truly know Him.
The feast of Christ's transfiguration - metamorphosis - celebrated on August 6 was introduced as a separate feast with all its major characteristics some time between the sixth and eighth centuries. It was more widely known in the East than in the West and takes on a greater significance for Eastern Christians.
The Fathers of the Church stress in their sermons that Jesus, when He was transfigured before His disciples, did not add anything to His nature that He did not possess before, but revealed what He already was. Jesus' humanity was not changed into divinity at the Transfiguration; He was divine, but in this event, His divine glory was revealed.
Several details appear in the event which express also the unity of the Old and New Testaments. The appearance of Jesus with Moses and Elijah indicates that Jesus is not a violator of the law, nor a blasphemer,but the one whom the law and the prophets had looked toward. The past (Moses and Elijah), the present (the kingdom of God already here) and the future (crucifixion, resurrection and the world to come) make up the content of the event.
The early Fathers regarded the Transfiguration, like Epiphany, as a sign of the transformation of human nature and of the reality of salvation. For salvation, they stressed, cannot be accomplished without the transfiguration of human nature by the power of God. Therefore the feast of the Transfiguration is also the day of the celebration of the deification (theosis) of human nature. On this day all human nature was illuminated by the divine transfiguration. In this event, humanity reveals divinity. Finally, the Trinity is revealed in the Trans-figuration, as it was in the Epiphany.
All of these themes appear in the service of the feast of Transfiguration. The themes of light and glory are among the most predominant:
Mount Tabor was covered with light. Thy disciples, O Word, cast themselves down upon the ground, unable to gaze upon the Form that none may see. The angels ministered in fear and trembling, the heavens shook and the earth quaked, as they beheld upon earth the Lord of glory.

Christ, the light that shone before the sun ... having fulfilled before His Crucifixion, as befits His divine majesty, all things pertaining to His fearful dispensation, this day has mystically made known upon Mount Tabor the image of Trinity.
With His transfiguration, Christ showed in His own person "the nature of man, arrayed in the original beauty of the Image, and He made His disciples "sharers in His joy," while at the same time foretelling His death (Lk. 9:31) "through the Cross and His saving Resurrection."
(On Mount Tabor) Thou wast transfigured, and hast made the nature that had grown dark in Adam to shine again as lightning, transforming it into the glory and splendor of Thine own divinity.
In the principal hymns of the day the themes of light and glory appear repeatedly.
PRAYER AND TRANSFIGURATION
For the Orthodox Church the Transfiguration of Christ is more than a distinct event. It is morethan a celebration of a past happening. The transfiguration premeates the worship and spirituality of the church. For example, it is indispensable for understanding the place and the importance of the prayer of Jesus in the spiritual life of Orthodox Christians. This prayer runs: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." As Jesus was praying on the mountain, according to the evangelist Luke, "the appearance of his contenance was altered and his raiment became dazzling white" (9:28-29); so also the transfiguring effect of this prayer has been attested in the life of the saints. The experience of the divine light of the Transfiguration has been made possible through the Jesus prayer for others. Father John of Kronstadt, who constantly used the Jesus prayer, wrote that "as long as we are praying diligently we are at peace and there is light in our souls, because then we are with God." The mystics of the Orthodox tradition spoke of finding the "Taborite light" within themselves. This prayer, for which a particular posture and controlled breathing are suggested by spiritual teachers, has been inseparably bound with sacramental mysticism. Those participating experienced an intensified interest in the sacramental life, which excluded an individualistic, subjective piety. Thus the spirituality inspired by the Transfiguration is both personal and corporate. The worshipper is constantly reminded of the presence of Jesus with himself by repetition of his name, but his presence is fully realized only in the sacraments of the church.
TRANSFIGURATION OF THE COSMOS
The saving and cosmic effects are spelled out in the church's celebration of the feast. The Transfiguration reveals that even before the coming of the Kingdom a human body was open to the Divine light: "His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light" (Matt. 17:2). The transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor has been extended in the life of his saints. Both he and they foreshadow the future resurrection of the dead, but here and now manifest already the capacity of humanity and the potential spirituality of the human body.
A characteristic feature of the Transfiguration service is the blessing of fruits, especially grapes. If there are no grapes, apples may be substituted. The prayer of blessing stresses the goodness of God, who allowed this new fruit of the vine to come to maturity, to be "unto joy forthose of us who shall partake of the offering of the vine; and may we offer it as a gift to thee unto the purification of our sins, through the sacred and holy body of thy Christ." As in the Eucharist, what God gives to us we offer to him. The fruits, like Jesus's garments, become ''spiritual" without becoming "immaterial"; they are transfigured and reveal their true "nature" and "destiny," and point to the eventual transfiguration of the whole cosmos. The human body and the cosmos are waiting for their final redemption. Yet the glory and the light of the Transfiguration is already present and is extended to the world. In the light of the feast the entire cosmos is potentially Christified.
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Come, let us ascend the mountain of the Lord, even unto the house of our God,
Let us behold the glory of His Transfiguration, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.
Let us receive light from His Light, and with uplifted spirits, Let us forever sing the praises of the consubstantial Trinity.