Christ is true Man and true God, One Person in whom the threads are unbroken, unchangeable, and undivided. His divinity is hidden in infinite humility behind the human nature, so that Christ humanly works the divine, and the divines is human.
His Divine Nature cannot be looked upon by man, for man would die of fear, of majesty and of the joy with which his heart would break his chest with longing. It is hidden out of love in the frail nature of the Savior, Who tiredly hungers, thirsts, dares, and works all of them like us and for us, apart from sin, loving us infinitely. People who saw only God, like Moses who saw His back, or like Elijah who felt Him in the gentle breeze, could no longer be the same. Their being changed trembling with love, and they lived afterwards only to remember that supreme moment of light.
Christ is transfigured, showing the three Disciples His divine glory. Their hearts break into tears and their lives change forever, like all the Saints who saw the Divine light praying in their hearts. Their every breath becomes a sigh, like a scent of uncontainable longing for the face of God. The saints who saw God burned like a fire in their hearts. All the riches of this sinful world they considered unnecessary, and left wealth, and race, and positions, and family, wanting to die out of longing for one more moment in the light of the Face of Christ. For them everything has become nothing. They fell in love with God and every breath they breathed was a whisper of divine desire. They became burning embers on which His Grace burned, not consuming them.
Christ shows Himself as the Sun of justice and His face becomes like light, so that the Disciples do not see His tears of infinite love. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, Sinai and Horeb, the holy mountains of humanity worship the endless Mountain: the Son of God.
The Transfiguration is the benchmark, the proof, the model, through which we must look at and desire God. We must seek His face of light, fall in love with His pierced heart for us, miss His presence.
The people who saw Him in prayer were reflected in His eyes, and there was nothing in heaven and on earth more precious than His love. And that’s how they became saints.
An ascetic monk sank into a forest near the monastery, and there a bird from Heaven, incomparably beautiful, sang to him so wonderfully, that he melted with the admiration of her sublime. And after an hour, he returned to the Hermitage, and saw a great tower before him, and the walls changed. And he asked and no one knew him anymore. On investigation by the abbot, they saw that 200 years had passed since a Venerable of his name had left, disappearing into the forest. For 200 years he had sat listening to the bird of Paradise and it had seemed to him only an hour. And becoming an boundless wind, the monks saw how the old man turned into dust. And he fell asleep in the hands of God.
This light, this fragrance, this immense longing are what shine through history through prayer. The Transfiguration of Christ is actually the Truth of His being and glory, the proof of His Divinity, the prophecy of His Sacrifice and the beginning of our becoming in the light, through the Grace of God.
Rev Ioan Istrati
