In the name of God the Father, Christ Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ is commemorated each year on August 6 and August 19 (by the Orthodox Churches following the Julian Calendar). It is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church. This is one of the central events recorded in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew (Matt. 17:1-9), Mark (Mark 9:2-8) and Luke (Luke 9:28-36) and is also a central point between the public ministry of Jesus and His preparation and journey to Jerusalem for His crucifixion, death and resurrection. This feast commemorates the transfiguration or metamorphosis of Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor, when our Lord appeared in His divine glory before the Apostles Peter, James and John.
Biblical Account
Jesus took the Apostles Peter, James, and John with Him up upon a mountain, and while they were on the mountain Jesus was transfigured. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became glistening white. The disciples saw Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ, talking to Him. Peter declared how good it was for them to be there and expressed the desire to build three booths for Moses, Elijah, and Christ.
While Peter was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice came from the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” When the disciples heard this they fell on their faces filled with awe. Jesus came to them and told them to not be afraid. When the three looked up they saw only Jesus.
As Jesus and His disciples came down the mountain, He told them not to speak of what they had seen until He had risen from the dead.
Icon of the Feast
Being of the great feasts, there is a rich heritage of iconography surrounding the Transfiguration of Our Lord.
The earliest surviving icon of the Transfiguration is from St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai, a place which, because of its seclusion, is home to many early icons. In the apse of the catholicon there is a mosaic of the Transfiguration, dating from the middle of the sixth century.
In this Icon and in every Icon of the Transfiguration, Christ is the central figure, appearing in a dominant position within a circular mandorla. He is clearly at the visual and theological center of the icon. His right hand is raised in blessing, and his left hand contains a scroll. The mandorla with its brilliant colors of white, gold, and blue represent the divine glory and light. The halo around the head of Christ is inscribed with the Greek words O on, meaning “The One Who is”. From His body, shafts of light are shown striking each of the five others present: to Christ’s right, the Prophet Elijah; to His left Moses; scattered about His feet, the Apostles John, Peter, and James.
Commandments
The mountain on which the Transfiguration took place is identified by St Jerome as Mount Tabor. The mountain plays an important part in divine revelation, as described by Scriptures, and links Moses and Elijah who are miraculously present by Christ’s side. Moses ascended Mt Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and converse with God in a great cloud of divine glory (Ex. 24:12-18; Ex. 33:11-23; 34:4-6,8). Elijah was told to ascend Mt Horeb (probably an alternative name for Sinai) where he heard the voice of God in the “gentle breeze”.
Elijah and Moses are depicted to stand on top of separate mountain peaks to the left and right side of Christ. They are bowing toward Christ with their right hands raised in a gesture of intercession towards Him. Saint John Chrysostom explains the presence of these two fathers of the faith from the Old Testament in three ways. He states that they represent the Law and the Prophets (Moses received the Law from God, and Elijah was a great prophet); they both experienced visions of God (Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel); and they represent the living and the dead (Elijah, the living, because he was taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire, and Moses, the dead, because he did experience death).
Below Christ are the three Apostles, who by their posture in the icon show their response to the transfiguration of Christ. James has fallen over backwards with his hands over his eyes. John in the center has fallen prostrate. Peter is kneeling and raises his right hand toward Christ in a gesture expressing his desire to build the three booths. The garments of the Apostles are in a state of disarray as to indicate the dramatic impact the vision has had on them.
Museum (early 19th Century)
In icons written over the time, although the Apostles are shown in in the same “ordered disarray” of the first Sinai mosaic, but their facial expressions are changed from fearful to sleepy. This follows Luke’s account, where it describes the Apostles being woken from a heavy slumber to witness the Transfiguration; it is this weariness that explains their inability to understand the significance of the event, and the conversation between Christ and the Old Testament saints regarding His future Crucifixion.
The Icon of Theophanes the Greek
Theophanes the Greek (ca 1340 – ca 1410) was one of the greatest iconographers in Muscovite Russia, and was noted as the teacher and mentor of the great Andrei Rublev. He moved from Constantinople to Novgorod in 1370, and from there to Moscow in 1395. Theophanes was described by his contemporaries in Moscow as being “learned in philosophy,” and he was accomplished in bringing the teachings of the Holy Fathers on the Transfiguration into his own icon of the subject. The geometry of the image emphasizes the serenity of Christ compared with the ordered disarray of the Apostles: Peter reaching out a hand as though in the middle of his sentence: “Lord it is good for us to be here…” (Matt 17:4)
Theophanes’ bold icon is divided in two: Christ and the Apostles on Mt Tabor, whilst Moses and Elijah are removed to separate, but adjacent, peaks.
Theophanes was not the first iconographer to do this: the mountains of Tabor and Sinai/Horeb are different and so it was already common to depict Moses and Elijah standing on different peaks, leaning in toward Christ. What Theophanes emphasizes though, is the distinction between the two Old Testament saints on the one hand, and the Apostles of Christ on the other. Through three beams of light, he draws the three Apostles, and us, into the dazzling light that surrounds Jesus. By doing so, Theophanes is presenting us with the already ancient teaching that the Transfiguration was not only an event for us to witness, but a process that we should ourselves partake in.
In the Gospels, the Transfiguration comes just six days after Christ’s long discourse on the the End of the World, the Last Judgment and the Second Coming of Christ. Christ finishes His words with the promise: “there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom”. The Transfiguration, then, is the realization of Jesus’ promise, and so what the Apostles experience is a foretaste of the future life – “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, according to St Peter.
In the icon of the Transfiguration written by Theophanes, for perhaps the first time in an icon, the ascent and descent of Mt Tabor is shown. This is an important part of the event: Christ did not suddenly transfigure Himself amid His disciples while preaching in Galilee. Instead, Christ chose three of His disciples, He led them up the mountain “to pray”, and there they beheld the future glory of God in the present.
Yet after the ascent came the descent. No one could experience such divine glory for a sustained time in this life: it is the promise of the Future Life. What is shown in the icon is that such an experience is for all of us. The geometry of Theophanes’ icon, which draws us into the scene, does not do so that we may observe it, but as an exhortation for us to experience it too.
We too must ascend the spiritual mountain – and there are enough writings from the Desert Fathers on what this spiritual ascent consists of. And at the summit, in prayer, those shafts of divine light can penetrate us too.
You were transfigured on the Mount, Christ God revealing Your glory to Your disciples, insofar as they could comprehend. Illuminate us sinners also with Your everlasting light, through the intercessions of the Theotokos.
O Giver of light, glory to You.
Source:
- https://orthodoxwiki.org/Transfiguration
- https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/transfiguration-icon-the-event-and-the-process/
- https://www.goarch.org/transfiguration
- https://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=1003&lang=en&action=show
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
