khazarzar-john-of-damascus-homilia-in-transfigurationem-domini

Of our Father among the Saints, the most blessed monk and presbyter John of Damascus, a homily on the most glorious Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. Come, let us celebrate today, O God-loving assembly. Come, let us feast together today with the feast-loving powers above; for they have come here to celebrate with us. Come, let us raise the cry of joy with our lips as with clear-sounding cymbals. Come, let us leap in spirit. For whom is the feast and festival? For whom is the merriment and exultation, if not for those who fear the Lord, who serve the Trinity, who venerate the Son and the Spirit as coeternal with the Father, who confess with soul, mind, and mouth a divinity known indivisibly in three hypostases, who know and declare Christ to be Son of God and God, one hypostasis known in two natures, indivisible and unconfused, with their natural properties? For us is all festal joy and gladness. For us Christ has accomplished the feasts; for it is not possible for the impious to rejoice. Let us put aside every cloud of grief that darkens our mind and does not allow it to be raised to the heights. Let us despise all earthly things; for our citizenship is not on earth. Let us stretch our mind toward heaven, whence we await Christ the Lord as Savior.

2. Today, an abyss of unapproachable light; today, an unbounded outpouring of divine radiance shines forth on Mount Tabor to the apostles. Today, the Lord of the Old and New Covenants is made known—Jesus Christ, the thing and name dear to me, the sweetest and most longed-for, surpassing every conception of sweetness. Today, Moses, the leader of the Old Covenant, the divine lawgiver, stands on Mount Tabor as a servant before the lawgiver Christ, his master, and beholds the economy of which he was formerly mystagogically initiated in type; for this, I would say, is what is signified by the back parts of God. And he clearly sees the glory of the divinity, sheltered in the hollow of the rock, as Scripture says; but the rock is Christ, the incarnate God, Word, and Lord, as the divine Paul has plainly taught us: “The rock was Christ,” who opened a tiny hollow, as it were, of his own flesh and dazzled those present with immense light, more solid than any vision. Today, the foremost of the New Covenant, who most clearly proclaimed Christ as Son of God by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” sees the leader of the Old Covenant standing before the lawgiver of both, and speaking distinctly: “This is the one who is, whom I foretold would arise as a prophet like me—like me, as a man and leader of the new people, but above me, and ruling over me and all creation, who established both covenants, the Old and the New, for me and for you.” Today, the virgin of the Old Covenant announces to the virgin of the New Covenant the virgin Lord born of a virgin.

Come then, let us obey the prophet David. Let us sing to our God, let us sing to our king, let us sing. For God is king of the whole earth; let us sing with understanding; let us sing with lips of exultation; let us sing with the discernment of the mind, perceiving the savor of the words. The throat tastes food, but the mind discerns words, says the most wise one. Let us sing also to the Spirit that searches all things, even the ineffable depths of God, in the light of the Father, to the Spirit that illumines all things, seeing the light, the Son of God, the unapproachable. Now what was invisible to human eyes has been seen: an earthly body radiating divine splendor, a mortal body pouring forth the glory of divinity. For the Word became flesh, and the flesh became Word, even though it did not depart from divine nature. O wonder surpassing every mind! The glory did not accrue to the body from without, but from within, from the super-divine divinity of the Word of God, hypostatically united to it by an ineffable principle. How are the unmixed mixed, and remain unconfused? How do the incompatible come together into one, and not depart from the proper principles of their nature? This is the work of the hypostatic union. The united are one, and produce one hypostasis, in undivided difference and unconfused union, with the unity of the hypostasis preserved and the duality of the natures maintained, both through the unchanged incarnation of the Word and through the unchangeable deification of the mortal flesh beyond mind. And the human things become God's, and the divine things become man's, by the manner of exchange, and by the unconfused interpenetration in each other, and by the extreme hypostatic union.

He is one, being that eternally, even if he became this later. 3. Today unheard things are heard by human ears. For the visible man, the Son of God, is witnessed as beloved only-begotten and consubstantial. The testimony is unerring; the declaration is true; the Father who begot him himself utters the declaration. Let David stand by and let him pluck the divinely sounding lyre of the Spirit, and let him now sing more clearly and more distinctly the utterance which long ago, with far-seeing and pure eyes, he prophetically foresaw the incarnate coming of the Word of God to us as about to happen: "Tabor and Hermon will rejoice in your name." Hermon rejoiced earlier, when it heard the name of sonship clearly witnessed to Christ by the Father, when the Forerunner, as mediator of the old and new, was just going out to baptize at the Jordan, to make public the hidden treasure in the desert, the light shining in the darkness to the world, the inaccessible light, escaping those who are dim-sighted, when in the middle of the Jordan the water of remission stood cleansing the world, not itself being cleansed; when by the Father's voice thundering from heaven, the one being baptized is witnessed as beloved Son; and a dove, as it were, points out by the Spirit the one witnessed. But now Tabor rejoices and delights, the divine and holy mountain, the high one, no less in glory and splendor than in its aerial elevation, now fittingly exults. For it rivals heaven in grace.

For in that one the angels are unable to fix their gaze unwaveringly, in this one the foremost of the apostles see him shining with the glory of his kingdom; in this one the resurrection of the dead is confirmed, and he is revealed as Lord of the dead and the living, having brought forth Moses from the dead and presenting Elijah as a living witness, who long ago drove a fire-breathing chariot from the earth to the heavenly path. In this one even now the chief prophets prophesy, announcing through the cross the departure of the Master. Hence he leaps, and rejoices, and imitates the bounds of lambs, hearing from the cloud, of the Spirit, the life-giving Christ testified by the Father as the same testimony of sonship. For this is the name above every name, at which Tabor and Hermon rejoice. This is my beloved Son. This is the delight of all creation; this is a gift to men, and an inalienable boast. For a man, even if not a mere man, is the one testified. O the joy granted to us beyond understanding! O the blessedness beyond hope! O gifts of God surpassing desire! O graces not yielding to the measures of petition! O giver ungrudging and supernatural, possessing supernatural magnificence! O gift worthy not of the receiver, but especially of the giver! O strange transactions! O giver giving power, and receiver receiving weakness! O one showing a man without beginning, in that the one without beginning, being created bodily, begins! For if man is deified in the humanization of God, then the one God and man is shown.

Therefore the same one, being man, is without beginning in divinity, and being God, has a beginning in humanity. 4. Formerly, then, on Mount Sinai, smoke, storm, darkness, and fire, terrifying that extreme condescension, covered the lawgiver, proclaiming him unapproachable and shadowily displaying his back parts, and making the master craftsman known through his own creations. But now everything is filled with light and radiance. For the craftsman and Lord of all has come forth from the paternal bosoms, not having departed from his own seat, that is, his abiding in the paternal bosoms, but having descended to his servants, and having taken on the form of a servant, and having become man both in nature and in form, so that God, uncontainable by men, might be contained, showing through himself and in himself the splendor of the divine nature. For previously, in the union of his own grace, he made man God, when he breathed the spirit of life into the newly formed clay, and imparted the better part, and honored him with his own image and likeness, and made him a citizen of Eden, and made him a companion of angels. But since we have darkened and confused the likeness of the divine image with the filth of the passions, the compassionate one has shared a second communion with us, much more secure and more marvelous than the former. For he himself, remaining in the supremacy of his own divinity, partakes of the inferior, deifying the human in himself, and mingles the archetype with the image, and displays his own beauty in it today. And his face shines like the sun.

for it is identified with immaterial light in hypostasis, and from this it has become the sun of righteousness; and as snow, the garments are whitened—for they are glorified by covering, not by union, by relation, and no longer in hypostasis. A cloud of light overshadowed, depicting the radiance of the Spirit. For somewhere the divine Apostle said that the sea bears the image of water, and the cloud that of the Spirit. All things are luminous and superluminous to those receptive of light, and whose soul is not befouled by the filth of conscience. 5. Come then, let us also emulate the obedience of the disciples, and eagerly follow Christ when he calls, and shake off the crowd of passions, and unashamedly confess the living Son of God, and having become worthy of the promise, let us ascend the mountain of virtues in love, and become spectators of the glory and hearers of the mysteries. For truly blessed, as the Lord said, are the eyes of those who see, because they see, and the ears, because they hear, what many prophets and kings desired to see and hear, and did not attain their desire. Come then, let us unfold the sayings of the divine oracles as far as possible, and set a table for us, the good banqueters, who direct all desire toward the divine. Let us set a table suitable to the desire. Let us set a table of divine oracles seasoned with the grace of the Spirit, not exulting in the wisdom of Greek words—since we have not been initiated into the knowledge of these—but of the giver.

a clear tongue to the speechless, resting upon grace. 6. In Caesarea Philippi (this is Paneas, once a city renowned among cities, which was called the city of Philip Caesar; and Dan, as it is called in divine Scripture: for it says, David numbered the people from Dan to Beersheba); in this place, the Master, being with his servants, dried up the fountain of the hemorrhaging woman's blood. In this place, having gathered the first council of his own disciples, and having set the seat of life upon a certain rock, the rock of life, he asked his disciples, saying: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" Not being ignorant of men's ignorance, the all-knowing one inquired, but wishing to dissolve this ignorance with the light of knowledge, as if some darkness lay upon their mental eyes. And they said that some proclaimed him to be John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. For since they saw such an abyss of miracles, they supposed that he was one of the prophets of old, raised from the dead, and hence deemed worthy of such grace. And this is clear: for it says, Herod the tetrarch heard the report of Jesus, and said to his servants: "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and therefore the powers are active in him." Seeking to dissolve this suspicion, and to bestow the true confession, as a gift, the most surpassing gift of all, upon the ignorant, what does he do, to whom all things are possible in his hand? As a man, he puts forward the inquiry.

But as God, he secretly instructs the one first called and first to follow, whom he predestined by his own foreknowledge to be a worthy president of the Church. As God, he breathes into him, and speaks through him. And what is the question? "But you, what do you say I am?" And Peter, burning with fiery zeal and inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." O blessed mouth! O all-happy lips! O God-bearing mind, worthy of divine initiation! O instruments through which the Father spoke! Truly blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah (for the truthful one declared this), because it is not flesh, not blood, not human thought, but my heavenly Father who revealed this divine and ineffable theology to you. For no one knows the Son except the one known by him alone, the Father who begot him, and the Holy Spirit, who also knows the depths of God. This is the unwavering and unshakable faith upon which, as upon a rock, the Church is founded, of which you have become the namesake worthily. Against this, the gates of Hades, the mouths of heretics, the instruments of demons will rush, but they will not prevail; they will arm themselves, but they will not destroy. Their blows have become and will be like the arrows of infants. Their tongues will grow weak, and they will turn against themselves. For he who opposes the truth fashions evil against himself. This faith he himself acquired with his own blood, and he entrusts it to you as his most faithful servant. Preserve it unshaken and untroubled by your prayers; for that it will never be overturned, never shaken, never destroyed—this is a sure confidence.

Christ said, through whom the heaven is made firm and the earth is established and remains unshaken. For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, said the Holy Spirit. But we ask that the storm be calmed, the disturbance be shattered, and that calm and waveless peace be awarded to us. Beseech Christ for this, the immaculate bridegroom of her, who ordained you as key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, who granted you the authority to bind and loose, whom with a divinely inspired mouth you proclaimed without falsehood as the Son of the living God. O divine and ineffable things! He himself proclaimed himself the Son of Man, and Peter proclaimed him the Son of God, and the one speaking through him rather proclaimed this. For he is truly God and man; he was not the son of Peter, nor of Paul, nor of Joseph, nor of any father, but of man; for he had no father on earth, he who had no mother in heaven. 7. Wishing therefore to confirm the word by deed, and knowing what he was about to do, the all-working wisdom and power of God, in which all the treasures of knowledge are hidden. There are some, he said, among those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. If, then, as he said concerning one, "There is one among those standing here," we supposed it to signify the same as the saying, "If I wish him to remain until I come," what is that to you?—spoken concerning John the Theologian, that he remains without tasting death until the coming of Christ; for thus some of the very wise have already interpreted that.

But since the word indicated that more would see, and indeed the deed followed, it will not give room to those who wish to understand the word's publication here. There are, then, some of those standing here, he says; why were some, and not all, called to this spectacle? Are not all disciples and apostles? Did not all follow when called equally? Did not all receive the equal gift of healings? And how were not all deemed worthy of this vision beyond sight? Is the Master not impartial? All are disciples, but not all are blinded by the disease of avarice. All are disciples, but not all have had the keenness of their eye taken away by the rheum of envy. All are disciples, but not all are traitors. All are apostles, but not all are pierced by a noose of despair, correcting evil with evil. All are lovers of Christ, but one is a lover of money; this is Judas Iscariot, the only one unworthy of the vision of the divinity. For let the impious be removed, he says, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. Alone, then, left behind by the rest, both the envious and the spiteful were inflamed into greater madness. But it was necessary that all become spectators of the glory, those who would later be witnesses of the sufferings. From this, he takes the foremost of the apostles as witnesses of his own glory and brightness; three in number, subtly indicating the venerable mystery of the Trinity; and on two or three witnesses every word will be established. Thus he closes off the charges of betrayal to the traitor. And he reveals his own divinity to the apostles.

For seeing Andrew remaining below with the rest, he could not, under the pretext of an excuse—that he had not obtained the vision—be induced to betray the Master. For this reason Andrew remained below, and the entire remaining chorus of the apostles, while physically separated in place, were united by the bond of love, dwelling below in body but following the teacher above in desire and in the movements of the soul. 8. And after six days, the divine evangelists Matthew and Mark write; but Luke, the most wise, says: It happened after these words, about eight days. Both eight and six days are proclaimed by the heralds of truth in a proper and true sense. For what is said is not a discrepancy, but a harmony expressed by the same Spirit. For it is not they themselves who speak, but the Spirit of God speaking in them. For when the Paraclete comes, he says, he himself will teach you and remind you of everything. Those, then, who said "after six days," having excluded the extremes—I mean the first and the last—counted the middle ones; but he who numbers the days as eight has made both these and those countable. For it is customary for men to count both in this way and in that. And six is taken as both a first and a perfect number. For it is completed from its own parts: for of this, three is the half, two the third, and the

Six is a number which, when its parts are added together, completes it perfectly. Hence those skilled in such matters have called the number six perfect. And in six days God by his word fashioned the system of all visible things. It is fitting that those who have beheld the divine glory—which is beyond all things, the only super-perfect and pre-perfect—are perfect. For he says, "Become perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." And eight: for it bears the type of the future age. For the present life is completed in seven ages, and the eighth has been proclaimed as the future life, as the great Gregory the Theologian said, interpreting the saying of Solomon, "Give a portion to the seven," speaking of the present life, "and also to the eight," of the future. And it was necessary that in the eighth the things of the eighth be revealed to the perfect. For as the truly divine and God-inspired Dionysius said, the Master will appear to his perfect servants in the same manner as he was seen on Mount Tabor by the apostles. You have the numbering of the days. Nine. But why did he take Peter, James, and John? Peter, because he wished to show that the testimony which he truly bore was testified by the Father, and to confirm his own declaration, that the heavenly Father revealed this testimony to him, and that he was to be the president and to receive the helm of the whole Church; James, as the one who would die for Christ before all the disciples, and would drink his cup, and receive the baptism for his sake.

John, as a virgin of theology and a most pure instrument, so that having beheld the timeless glory of the Son of God, he might thunder, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; whence he is also called Son of Thunder. 10. Why does he lead the disciples up a high mountain? The divine Scripture figuratively calls the virtues mountains. And the summit and acropolis of all virtues is love. For in this perfection is defined. For if one speaks with the tongues of men and of angels, and has faith so as to move mountains, and all knowledge, and knows all mysteries, and delivers the body to be burned, but does not have love, he has become a resounding brass or a clashing cymbal of inarticulate sounds, and will be accounted as nothing. Therefore, leaving behind the things of dust to dust and having risen above the body of humility, and having been led up to the highest and divine lookout of love, we must thus behold the unseeable. For he who has come to the peak of love, in a way standing outside himself, perceives the invisible, and flying above the obstructing darkness of the bodily cloud, and coming into the clear air of the soul, gazes more distinctly at the sun of righteousness, even if he is not able to be fully filled with the sight. And to pray in private. For stillness is the mother of prayer, and prayer is the manifestation of divine glory. For when we close the senses and commune with ourselves and with God, and freed from the external revolution of the world, come within ourselves, then we shall clearly see within ourselves the kingdom of God.

For the kingdom of heaven, which is the kingdom of God, is within you," our God Jesus declared. Now slaves pray in one way, and the Master in another. For slaves approach the Master with fear and longing through petition, and prayer becomes the mediator of departure to and union with God for the mind, nourishing and strengthening it through itself. But the holy mind, hypostatically united to the God Word, how will it pray? And how will the Master present himself as a supplicant? Is it not clear that he appropriates our person, and guides us, and paves the way for the ascent to God through prayer, and teaches that prayer becomes the mediator of divine glory, and shows that he is not opposed to God, and honors the begetter as his own beginning and cause, and yields to the flesh to go through its own nature, so that through itself it may be strengthened, and educated, and come into initiation and habit of better things? Moreover, he also entices the tyrant who carefully watches whether he is God. For the power of the miracles proclaimed this. For this reason he everywhere mixes the human with the divine, like hiding the hook in some food. For just as he who enticed man with the hope of divinity will be fittingly enticed by the assumption of flesh. For seeing him flashing with prayer, he also remembered Moses, whose face was glorified. But Moses was glorified by glory coming from outside, while the Lord Jesus did not have the adornment of glory as something acquired, but from the innate radiance of divine glory. 11.

But what is the invocation? Let the prophet David teach you, addressing him so clearly: "He will call upon me: You are my Father, my God, and the supporter of my salvation." Father, as of God and Son before the ages, and of the offspring shining forth from the essence of the begetter; God and supporter of salvation, as having become incarnate, and renewing our nature in himself, and raising it to the ancient beauty of the image, and bearing in himself the common person of humanity. Therefore he also added: "And I will set him as firstborn." For he became firstborn among many brothers, having partaken of flesh and blood similarly to us. As God, he is Word; being always Son, he did not become so later; but as man, he is said to have become so later, so that the property of sonship might remain unchangeable in him. For he himself, having become flesh, with the flesh having become Son of God from the very beginning through the hypostatic union, he himself is said to have become this, being divinely, and having become as man. 12. On Mount Tabor, then, having taken with him those who excel in the height of virtues, he was transfigured before them. He is transfigured before the disciples, he who is always equally glorified and shining with the lightning of divinity. For, having been born from the Father without beginning, he possesses the natural ray of divinity without beginning, not acquiring being later, nor glory later. For he is from the Father, but without beginning and timelessly, possessing his own brightness of glory; and having become incarnate, he is the same, remaining in the same divine radiance.

And the flesh is glorified together with its production from non-being into being, and the glory of the divinity and the glory of the body are spoken of as one. For this and that are one Christ, consubstantial with the Father, and of the same nature and kindred with us. Therefore, even if the holy body has never subsisted without a share of the divine glory, but from the extreme union according to hypostasis has fully acquired the glory of the invisible divinity, so that the glory of the Word and of the flesh is one and the same, yet the glory, being invisible to the visible body, was unseen by those who are prisoners of the flesh and cannot perceive even what is invisible to angels. He is transfigured, then, not by taking on what he was not, but by revealing what he was to his own disciples, opening their eyes and making them see from being blind. And this is what is meant by, "He was transfigured before them." For while remaining the same in identity, he now appeared to the disciples as other than what he previously seemed. 17. And his face shone like the sun, he who with great authority kindled the sun; he who created the light before the sun, and later fashioned the sun as a luminary, a receptacle of light. For he himself is the true light, eternally begotten from true and immaterial light, the Word hypostatic from the Father, the radiance of glory, the natural character of the hypostasis of God and Father, of this

The face shone. What are you saying, O Evangelist? Why do you compare things that are truly incomparable? Why do you set side by side and juxtapose things that are truly beyond comparison? Did the Master shine as a servant? The unbearable and unapproachable light, as this sun that is seen flashing forth by all? But I am not comparing, he says, nor am I likening the only-begotten and in no way to be likened radiance of the divine glory, but speaking to those bound by flesh, I bring as an example whatever is most beautiful and brightest among bodies, not entirely similar; for it is impossible for the uncreated to be imaged without omission in creation; but just as the sun is one, yet has two substances, that of the light which is prior, and that of the body which is posterior to creation, and the light is indivisibly united throughout the whole body, and while the body remains in itself, the light extends to all the ends of the earth, so also Christ, being unoriginate and unapproachable light from light, having come to be in a temporal and created body, is one sun of righteousness, one Christ, known indivisibly in two natures. Now the holy body is circumscribed. For it did not, while standing on Tabor, reach beyond the mountain; but the divinity is uncontained, being in all things and beyond all things. And the body shines like the sun; for the radiance of the light has become that of the body. For all things have become common to the one incarnate God the Word, both those of the flesh and of the uncircumscribed divinity; but it is one thing from which the common glories of glory derive, and another from which the common sufferings are known.

The divine element prevails, and imparts its own radiance and glory to the body, while the body itself remains untouched by passion even in the midst of passions. Thus his face shone like the sun; not that it was not brighter than the sun, but as far as the beholders could bear to look. For if he had displayed the full brilliance of his glory, would they not have been consumed? His face shone like the sun. For what the sun is among perceptible things, that God is among intelligible things. And his garments became white as light. Just as the sun is one thing—for it is a source of light, unable to be clearly seen—and the light that reaches the earth from it is another, for it is seen and beheld by the operation of God’s wisdom and love for humanity, so that we might not be entirely deprived of good things; thus the face shines most clearly like the sun, while the garments are whitened like light, being adorned by the transmission of the divine light. 14. While these things were thus taking place, so that he might be shown as Lord of the Old and New Covenants, and the mouths of the heretics, whose throats are like an open grave, might be stopped, and the resurrection of the dead might be believed, and he might be believed as Master of the living and the dead, who is witnessed by the Father, Moses and Elijah stand as servants before the Master in glory, and appear conversing with him to their fellow servants. For it was necessary that they, having seen the glory and confidence of their fellow servants, who are servants of God, should be amazed at the Master’s philanthropic condescension, and be more zealous and strengthened for their struggles. For he who knows the fruits of his labors would most readily dare to undertake the struggles.

For the desire of gain knows how to lead to disregard for the body. Just as soldiers, boxers, farmers, and merchants take up their labors with great eagerness, and dare to face the swell of the sea, and heed neither wild beasts nor pirates, in order to obtain the desired profit, and the more they see those who have labored before them enjoying their gains, the more they are sharpened to endure hardships; so also the spiritual shield-bearers, boxers, farmers, and merchants of the Lord, not desiring earthly gains nor longing for fleeting goods, when they behold with their own eyes the things that lie in hope, and see those who have previously toiled enjoying the luxury of the hoped-for goods, they will somehow be more eagerly steeled for the contests, not arrayed against men, nor beating the air, nor leading oxen under the yoke and cutting furrows in the earth with them, nor sailing the swell of the sea, but contending against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of darkness, and rejoicing in being struck, and gathering wealth by being stripped, and setting the rudder of the cross against the triple waves of the world and the spirits of wickedness that stir them up, and driving away beasts that howl and snatch by the power of the Spirit, and sowing the word of piety in the hearts of men as in furrows, and reaping a bountiful ear for the Lord. But let us return to the matter at hand.

15. Then Moses, as was fitting, spoke out: Hear, O Israel, you who have understanding, what Israel according to the senses could not hear: The Lord your God, the Lord is one. For there is one God, known in three hypostases. For there is one essence of the Godhead—of the Father who bears witness, of the Son who is borne witness to, and of the Spirit who overshadows. This is he who is now borne witness to by the Father, the life of men. This life, hung upon a tree, the ignorant will see, and they will not believe in their own life. From this, Elijah also answered: This is he whom I once beheld as bodiless in the spirit, as in a gentle breeze. For no one has ever seen God, insofar as pertains to his nature. And what he has seen, he has seen in the spirit. This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. These are the things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have never entered into the heart of man. Thus in the age to come we shall always be with the Lord, beholding Christ flashing with the light of his Godhead. 16. But what of Peter, when he became a beholder of this divine revelation? As though inspired in the spirit, he said to the Lord: It is good for us to be here. For who would exchange light for darkness? Look at this sun—how beautiful, how lovely, how sweet, how desirable, how radiant and bright—and at life, how sweet and lovely, which all cling to, and do everything so as not to miss it. How much more do you think that very light, from which all light is illumined, is more desirable and sweeter—the very Life, from which all life is given life and imparted, in which we all live and move and have our being? How much more lovely and sweet?

Desire is not wholly [sufficient], nor is thought, which merely conjectures the measure of that excellence. It surpasses every comparison and is not exceeded by measures. For how could the uncircumscribable be measured, or the incomprehensible be grasped even by minds? This light holds the victory over all nature. This life, which has conquered the world—how then is it not good not to be separated from the Good? Not unreasonably, then, did Peter speak; but since all things are good in their own season, and there is a season for every matter, as Solomon declared; it was necessary that the good not be confined only to those there, but be poured out and travel to all, namely those who believe, so that those who would partake of the beneficence might be more numerous. But this cross, and suffering, and death were going to accomplish—it was not good for him who would redeem his own creation with his own blood, for which he had also become incarnate, to remain there. If you had remained on Mount Tabor, the promise made to you would not have come to fulfillment. For you had not become the key-bearer of the kingdom; paradise would not have been opened to the thief; the insolent tyranny of death would not have been abolished; the kingdoms of Hades would not have been given over as spoil; patriarchs, prophets, and righteous men would not have been released from the recesses of Hades; nature would not have [received] incorruption

had been wrapped around him. If Adam had not sought divinization before the proper time, he would have obtained his desire. Do not seek good things before the proper time, O Peter. It will come to pass, when you receive that vision unceasing. The Master made you not an adorner of tents, but of the worldwide Church. Your disciples, your sheep, which the good Chief Shepherd entrusted to you, brought your words to fulfillment, having built a tent for Christ, and for Moses and Elijah his servants, in whom we celebrate. Peter did not speak these things by reasoning, but by the inspiration of the Spirit who foretells things to come. For he did not know what he was saying, says the most divine Luke. And Mark adds the reason: For they were, he says, terrified. While Simon was saying these things, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and the disciples were seized with greater fear, seeing Jesus the Savior, together with Moses and Elijah, within the cloud. 17. Long ago, then, the God-seer entered the divine darkness, hinting at the shadowy nature of the Law. For the Law had a shadow of things to come, not the truth itself—hear Paul writing. And then Israel was not able to look intently at the glory of Moses' face, which was being done away with; but we, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed from glory into greater glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit. Hence also a cloud, not of darkness—for it did not threaten—but of light overshadowed them. For the mystery hidden from the ages and generations has been revealed, and a glory everlasting and enduring is shown forth.

Therefore Moses also stood present with Elijah, fulfilling the face of the law and the prophets. For the one whom the law and the prophets proclaim, this Jesus, the giver of life, has been found. And Moses represents the company of the holy ones who have long since fallen asleep, and Elijah that of the living. For the Lord who is transfigured is Lord of the living and the dead. Moses entered into the land of promise; for Jesus the heir led him in; and what he once beheld in figure, he now sees clearly shining today. For this the light-radiant cloud intimates. 18. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him. The voice of the Father has come out of the cloud of the Spirit: This is my beloved Son; this is the one who is, and is seen as man, who yesterday became man, the lowly one who walked among us, whose face has now shone; this is my beloved Son, the one before the ages, the only-begotten from the only one, who proceeded timelessly and eternally from me his begetter, who is from me, and in me, and with me, always existing, and not taking his existence later. From me, as from a paternal cause, begotten from my own essence and substance; therefore also consubstantial; in me, as begotten inseparably and without departure; with me, as existing as a self-complete substance, not a spoken word poured out into the air; therefore also beloved. For who is a beloved son, as the only-begotten? In this one I am well pleased. For by the good pleasure of the Father his only-begotten Word has been made flesh; for by the good pleasure of the Father, in his only-begotten Son, he accomplished the salvation of the whole world.

The good pleasure of the Father in the only-begotten Son brought together the union of all things. For if man is by nature a little world, bearing within himself the bond of every essence, both visible and invisible, being both this and that, truly the Master of all things, both Creator and Governor, was well pleased in his only-begotten and consubstantial Son that there should be a union of divinity and humanity, and through this, of all creation, so that God might be all things in all things. This is my Son, the radiance of my glory, the express image of my person, through whom I have also made the angels, through whom the heaven has been established and the earth founded; he who bears all things by the word of his power, and by the spirit of his mouth—that is, the life-originating and governing Spirit. Hear him. For he who receives this one receives me, the one who sent him—not in a lordly way, but in a fatherly way. For as man he is sent, but as God he remains in me, and I in him. He who does not honor my only-begotten and beloved Son does not honor the Father, me, who sent him. Hear him, for he has the words of eternal life. This is the conclusion of those who are being perfected, this is the power of the mystery. 19. Then what? He sent Moses and Elijah back to their own places, and he appears to the apostles alone, and so they descend from the mountain, speaking to no one anything of what had been seen or heard. For the Master commands this. For what reason, and for what purpose, I will say. He knew, I think, that the disciples were imperfect; for they had not yet obtained the perfect participation of the Spirit.

so that grief might not fill their hearts; so that the frenzy of envy might not drive the traitor mad. Come then, let us too bring our words to a close in accordance with the subject. 20. But do you always remember what has been said, bearing in your heart the beauty of that divine [vision], always hearing the Father's voice resounding: This is not a servant, not an elder, not an angel, but my beloved Son; listen to him. Let us therefore listen to him as he says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. You shall not murder; but you shall not even be angry with your brother without cause, and be reconciled to your brother first, and then come and offer your gift. You shall not commit adultery; but you shall not even gaze curiously upon another's beauty. You shall not swear falsely; but you shall not swear at all; but let your Yes be yes, and your No, no; and what is more than this is of the evil one. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud; but even to the one who asks of you, give, and do not turn away the one who wishes to borrow from you, and do not hinder the one who takes your goods. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. Do not judge, that you may not be judged. Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you, that you may become sons of your Father, perfect and merciful, as your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Let us keep these divine commandments with all diligence, so that we too may delight in his divine beauty, filled with his most sweet taste—now, as far as is attainable for those burdened with this earthly tabernacle of the body, but then more clearly and more purely, when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, when, released from the constraints of the body, they shall be incorruptible with the Lord as angels, in the great and manifest revelation from heaven of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ himself, to whom be the glory and the dominion now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.