Transfiguration Tradition -- Macarian Homiletics for Feast of August 6

typical icon of
The Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor
Read More on the Feast:

Transfiguration and Liturgy

The feast "shows us how we see" the Holy Mysteries of our salvation in the sacraments, in the liturgy, in the icons, and in our journey of conversion.
The Transfiguration Feast has everything to do with the Parousia, the Coming of the Kingdom and the Victory of the Cross.
By the light of the transfiguration miracle and with the eyes of faith we see the Glory of the Lord TODAY -- cf Jn 1.14.

August 6 brings a "plethora in blessings" for all students and witnesses to the beauty of the Holy Icons, all chapels devoted to their service, all churches illumined in their light, the Divine Light of "The 8th Day."

Our Lord preached to tens of thousands,
but took only three with Him to ascend the Holy Mount of Tabor.
And so those three, lifted into the Mysteries of Glory,
became vessels of light to illumine the Kingdom.

TODAY each of us partakes of that very journey
up the Mount when we gather into "the chapel light"
of the very same Mysteries of the Kingdom,
singing "By Thy Light we see the Light, Jesus full of Light."

May your journey in Christ,
be radiant in the Light of Tabor.
Fr. Michael Durka +

On Transfiguration and "The Sacrament of the Assembly":
cf, Schmemann,pp 11-26 of The Eucharist:
The living Word of the Gospel
is liturgically incarnated as an epiphany of the Kingdom
[A]
in the sacraments of the Assembly, the Temple, the Liturgy with the Icons and
[B]
among the faithful in their conversion of life --
i.e., an orthodox ear to Benedicit's conversatio morum in light of the catholic anthropology of Irenaeus: gloria Dei vivens homo;
yet a catholic ear to an orthodox anthropology,
autem vita hominis visio Dei.

Icon of St. Benedict written by the hand of Khouria Heather Durka NB: The scroll script is the first line from Benedict's Rule "Listen, my son... and incline the ear of your heart~"

Further Catechesis on the Feast and Salvation:

"A Testimony to Christianity as Transfiguration:
The Macarian Homilies and Orthodox Spirituality"
by Monk Alexander Golitzin

In its temporal sequence and spatial ordering, the order (kosmos) of the Church's liturgy therefore reflects both the order of the Spirit's activity within and cooperation with the soul, and the latter's rise to share in the ministry of the angels in the heavenly temple, that is, with those who serve (leitourgoi) and who stand beside (paredroi) the throne of Christ.

But visible realities, as we have seen, are for Macarius always subordinate to the invisible, to the unseen and secret work within, thus:

"Because visible things are the type and shadow of the hidden ones, and the visible temple [a type] of the temple of the heart, and the priest [a type] of the grace of Christ, and all the rest of the sequence of the visible arrangement [a type] of the rational and hidden matters according to the inner man,we receive the manifest arrangement and administration of the Church as an illustration [hypodeigma] of what is at work in the soul by grace."

In the concluding section of the homily he develops this statement
by taking up the sequence, akolouthia, of the eucharistic liturgy and the physical arrangement, oikonomia, of the assembled believers, by which he means, respectively, the two halves of the service:
(1) the liturgies of the word ... and of the eucharist proper, ... and
(2) the progression from the catechumens in the church porch to the baptized believers in the nave to the presbyters on either side of the bishop's throne in the sanctuary apse.
(cf. marquette.edu/maqom/Macmetho.html)

Another comment by Hiermonk Alexander Golitzin on the Macarian Homiletic Tradition:

In the Macarian homilies (1) Moses' shining countenance and (2) the luminosity of Adam's prelapsarian tselem serve as metaphors for major paradigms of the transformational vision. In the Macarian writings, one can also encounter (3) a third paradigm of luminous transformation which is radically different from the previous two traditions.

In ... Macarian understanding of Christ's transfiguration on Mt. Tabor,
the duality of inner and outer in visio Dei is attempted through in a new metaphor of the transformational vision-- Christ's Body of Light.

Macarius makes an important theological statement when he observes
that in His Transfiguration Christ was not just covered by the Glory
but "was transfigured into divine glory and into infinite light."

The homilist elaborates this ingenious understanding of Christ's transfiguration in which the internal and external aspects of transformational mystical experience are absolutely resolved:

"For as the body of the Lord was glorified when he climbed the mount and was transfigured into the divine glory and into infinite light, so also the bodies of the saints are glorified and shine like lightning.
Just as the interior glory of Christ covered his body and shone completely, in the same way also in the saints the interior power of Christ in them in the day will be poured out exteriorly upon their bodies."

The language of the passage further reinforces the totality of this transformational vision -- Christ's internal glory serves as the teleological source of his complete, luminous metamorphosis.

In the articulation of the newness of Christ's condition, Macarius thus offers a completely new paradigm of the beatific vision --the bodies of visionaries are now not simply covered externally with the divine light but are "lightened" in the way as many lamps are lightened from the one:

"Similarly, as many lamps are lighted from the one, same fire, so also it is necessary that the bodies of the saints, which are members of Christ, become the same which Christ himself is."

In this new concept of the transformational vision, Macarius, however, sets a significant distinction between Christ's Transfiguration and human luminous transformation. In contrast to the Lord's metamorphosis, the bodies of mortals cannot be completely "transfigured into the divine glory" but rather simply become "glorified."

The hypostatic quality of Christ's luminous form is what differentiates Him from transformed Christians who are only predestined to participate in the light of His Glory and "have put on the raiment of ineffable light."
(cf. marquette.edu/maqom/hesychasm)