Transfiguration of the Lord

Once in the whole earthly life of Christ three disciples saw him as he is. And they could not bear it — they fell to the ground.

Shortly before his passion Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain to pray. There he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared beside him — the lawgiver and the prophet, long dead — speaking with him of what awaited him in Jerusalem. Peter, not knowing what he said, offered to stay there for good and build three tabernacles. Then a bright cloud covered them and a voice said: This is my beloved Son, listen to him.

Coming down, Christ forbade them to speak of it until the Resurrection. The disciples would see him beaten, spat upon and crucified, and in that hour they would need to remember that what they had seen on Tabor was the truth.

The light of Tabor

The light of the Transfiguration is not an external radiance or an optical event. The Church teaches that it is the divine glory always present in him, made visible for a moment. This light was at the centre of the great theological debates of the fourteenth century, and Saint Gregory Palamas set out then what the feast exists for: this light is open to human beings; it is not locked away on a mountaintop.

How it is kept

August 19 (August 6 on the old calendar), in the middle of the Dormition Fast, with fish permitted. After the liturgy grapes are blessed, and where grapes do not grow, apples and other fruit. The blessing of the harvest is not the heart of the day, nor a superstition: it is thanksgiving offered on the feast that speaks of the whole creation transfigured.

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, revealing Your glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it. Let Your everlasting light shine also upon us sinners, through the prayers of the Theotokos. O Giver of light, glory to You.