The Transfiguration and Orthodoxy

The feast of the Transfiguration was this past Monday for those who follow the Old Calendar.  Therefore I am now publishing a short sermon for this feast which I believe is consistent with the abovementioned title.

The event of the Transfiguration in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ is something that has always held great importance in our Orthodox Church.  However it is also a prime factor that separates us from other Christian confessions of faith – not only in those in the West, that is, the Catholics and Protestants – but even the Coptic Christians along with the other non-Chalcedonians. 

How can I make this statement?  What do I mean by this?  Let us look into this matter today, beginning with the Coptic Christians.  It is true that they are closer to the Orthodox Church than those of the West.  There are even some clergy and systematic theologians who say that we really have the same Christology.  However, in truth, they still fall short of the fullness of truth.  The Transfiguration and its significance in the Orthodox understanding of salvation is a vital factor in this difference.  I once asked a long-time spiritual child of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in England what Father Sophrony thought of this issue.  He said that Father Sophrony commented that, “Unless you believe that Christ is fully God and fully man in the Orthodox manner you cannot have the experience of the Uncreated Light. And the non-Chalcedonians do not have this in their ascetic tradition.”  The Uncreated Light is the Light of the Transfiguration.  They do not have this in their ascetic tradition because they separated from the Church after the Ecumenical council of Chalcedon, thus creating a schism.  They are outside of the Church and they share neither our Christology nor our concept of salvation. This can be seen in some of the pamphlets authored by the late Pope Shenouda in which he writes that Holy Communion involves only the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. He also denies the Orthodox concept of deification, which is consistent with their history.  During the medieval period, the Coptic Church actually downplayed the concept of deification; and this – the deification of man- is the message of the Transfiguration.  In being transfigured before His disciples our Lord showed us what we can become.  So, as I said, the understanding of the Transfiguration and the deification of man is a vital factor which separates us from the Coptic Christians. 

The same holds true for the Christians of the West – the Catholic and the Protestant Churches – though in a slightly different way. Nonetheless, the Orthodox understanding of the Transfiguration is one of the things that separates us from them.   One Catholic author, Robert Payne, in his book The Holy Fire, writes about some of the Holy Fathers of the East.  He acknowledges that “the Western Church fixed its eyes on the Atonement.” (The Holy Fire, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, originally published by Harper, New York, p. 294) –  their main focus was the Cross.  In the West, men simply wanted to be saved, meaning that they wanted to escape eternal punishment. This was their prime thought concerning salvation.  The Cross is the deliverance from punishment.  Both the Protestants and the Catholics have actually come up with a guaranteed salvation in their theology: on the one hand the Catholics have their system of works, each bearing their own merit, indulgences and purgatory; and on the other the Protestants are guaranteed salvation through a confession of faith.  

When speaking of the Eastern Fathers, Payne acknowledges that in the East, the main emphasis was on the Incarnation and the Transfiguration.  As St. Basil the Great states in his Liturgy, “He [Christ] was likened to the body of our lowliness so that He might liken us to the image of His glory”.  This is a gift of grace.  Also the Apostle Peter declares: “we have become partakers of the Divine nature.”  We partake of the Divine nature as a gift; it is not ours, it is not natural to us, we do not own it as if it were our own.  Rather we participate in it as a gift.  In The Holy Fire, Payne arrives at the following conclusion: “In the West men wanted to be saved; in the more contemplative East, it was a small thing to be saved if one could meet God face to face”(ibid).  This is the message of the Transfiguration.  And in the matins service one hymn says that in the Transfiguration Christ shows the exchange we will make at His second coming.  However we must be worthy of this gift

So then, “since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2Cor. 7:1).  For, as the Apostle John the Theologian says, “we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn. 3:2).  He then goes on to instruct us, “and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1Jn. 3:3).

               Thus I conclude with the appeal of the Apostle Paul: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).  Amen!