HOMILIES OF ST. JOHN DAMASCENE. ADMONITION ON THE HOMILY CONCERNING THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD.
I send this homily before the others regarding the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, which I found in a Seguerian codex attributed to a certain John, a presbyter of Antioch, though I know not who he was. Other codices in various libraries all prefix the name of John of Damascus. And rightly so, for the style, the diction, and the method of discourse are all those of our Damascene. It was also delivered in Palestine, not in Antioch, on the very feast of the Lord's Transfiguration, in a very famous church which had been built on Mount Tabor in memory and honor of this same Transfiguration. For it was a most ancient tradition that the Lord, on the summit of this mountain, had shown a specimen of His divine glory to His three disciples. A witness to this, sufficiently rich, is Jerome, who in his *Epitaph of Paula*, where he briefly reviews the pilgrimages of this most holy widow, did not omit that she also visited Mount Tabor because of the Lord's Transfiguration: "She ascended Mount Tabor, where the Lord was transfigured." This sermon, as it lies in Greek and Latin in the editions of Jacques Billi, along with the Seguerian and two Royal codices, the one most ancient, and the other numbered 2026, I have added to those by Combefis, to which I have added the Colbertine.
I. Oration of our Holy Father and Most Blessed Monk and Presbyter, John of Damascus, on the Glorious Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A 1. Come, let us celebrate today, O God-loving assembly. Come, let us celebrate the festival today along with the heavenly powers who delight in feasts; for they have come here with us to celebrate. Come, let us shout with our lips as if with well-sounding cymbals. Come, let us leap in spirit. For to whom belong the feast and the solemnity? To whom belong the joy and exultation, if not to those who fear the Lord, who worship the Trinity, who with the Father honor the Son and the co-eternal Holy Spirit; who with soul, and thought, and mouth confess a Godhead indivisibly recognized in three persons; B who know and declare Christ as the Son of God, and God as one person, recognized in two indivisible and unconfused natures, and by their own natural properties? To us belong gladness and all festive joy. Christ has brought to perfection these feasts for us; for there is no rejoicing for the impious. Let us therefore cast off every cloud of sorrow that darkens our mind and does not let it be raised to the heights. Let us hold all earthly things in nothing, for our citizenship is not on earth. Let us stretch our mind toward heaven, from whence we await the Savior, the Lord Christ.
2. Today an abyss of inaccessible light; today an uncircumscribed outpouring of divine radiance shines upon the apostles on Mount Tabor. Today—
A Christ is recognized as the Master of the Old and New Testaments: He who is, I say, dear to me in reality and in name; He who is truly most sweet and most worth seeking, exceeding all thought of sweetness. Today, the leader of the Old Testament and divine lawgiver, Moses, stands upon Mount Tabor before Christ, the founder of the law, as a servant before his Master, and is enlightened by His incarnation, which he had formerly been taught through figures (for this, I would say, is what is signified by the "back parts of God"). He clearly perceives the glory of the deity, protected beneath the cleft of the rock, just as Scripture narrates. But the Rock is Christ, the incarnate Word of God and Lord, just as the divine Paul openly taught us: *And the Rock was Christ*. He opened a sort of tiny cleft in His own flesh, and dazzled those present with a light immense and stronger than any eyesight. Today, the most eminent peak of the New Testament, who most clearly proclaimed Christ the Son of God, saying: *You are the Christ, the Son of the living God*, sees the leader of the Old Testament standing before the founder of both, and crying out with a loud voice: *This is He who is*, whom I foretold would be raised up like me: like me, I say, insofar as I am a man and leader of the people; but above me, insofar as He is Lord over me and all created things; and who established for me and for you both Testaments, that is, the Old and the New. Today, to the virgin of the New Testament, the virgin of the Old B rightfully announces the Lord who is born of a Virgin, and who is himself a Virgin (that is, Elias to John). Come, therefore, acting in the manner of the prophet David. Let us sing to our God, let us sing; let us sing to our King, let us sing. *For God is the King of all the earth*, let us sing wisely; let us sing with lips of exultation; let us sing with the lips of wisdom, perceiving the taste of the words. For the throat tastes food, but the mind discerns words, as the most wise man says. Let us also sing by the Spirit who searches all things, *even the deep things of God*, in that light of the Father, or the Spirit by whom all things are illuminated, seeing the Son of God as the inaccessible light. Now those things which could not be beheld by human eyes have been seen: an earthly body emitting divine splendor, a mortal body pouring forth the glory of the deity. For the Word became flesh, and the flesh became the Word, although neither of these departed from its own nature. O miracle surpassing all understanding! The glory did not come to the body from without, but from within, from the deity of the Word of God, which is super-divine and was united to it according to hypostasis in an ineffable way. How are things that cannot be mixed mingled together, and yet remain unconfused? How do things that cannot come together join into one, and yet not depart from the proper principles of their own nature? This is the effect C of the union according to hypostasis: whereby things that are united become one, and a single hypostasis, in a distinction devoid of division, preserving the unity of the hypostasis and maintaining the duality of the natures, through both the immutable incarnation of the Word and the deification of the mortal flesh, which is beyond mind. And while the things of God...
become human, the things of man become divine, by the manner of the exchange, and the inconfused permeation between them, and the supreme union according to subsistence. For He is one, being that from eternity, even if He became this later. B
3. Today, things unheard of reach the ears of men. For the man who is seen is testified to be the Son of God, as the only-begotten, beloved, and consubstantial. The testimony is not false; the proclamation is true; the Father Himself, who begat Him, utters the proclamation. Let David be present, and let him strike the God-sounding lyre of the Spirit, and let him now melody more clearly and more emphatically the utterance which long ago he prophesied from afar, looking forward with the pure eyes of the Spirit to the coming of the Word of God in the flesh among us, as it was to be: *Thabor and Hermon shall exult in thy name* (Ps. LXXXVIII, 13). Hermon indeed exulted first, when it heard the name of Son, clearly testified to Christ by the Father, when the precursor John, as mediator of the Old and New Testament, recently went forth to the Jordan to baptize—that treasure hidden in the desert as if in darkness, shining for the world, the inaccessible light, hidden from those with dimmed eyes—sent forth to make it public; when in the midst of the Jordan the water of remission stood, cleansing the world, though not cleansed itself. At that time, while a voice of the Father thundered from heaven, He who was being baptized was testified to be the beloved Son; and the Spirit, as it were a dove, pointed out with a finger Him who was testified to. C Now, however, Thabor exults and rejoices, the divine and holy mount, the high one, suffering no less in glory and splendor than in its lofty peak, and now it rightly rejoices. For it vies with heaven in grace. For the One on whom the angels dared not fix an unswerving gaze, Him the chosen apostles behold in this mount, shining with the glory of His kingdom. In this place the resurrection of the dead is confirmed, and Christ is declared to be Lord of both the dead and the living, having brought forward Moses from the dead, and having taken as witness Elijah, still living—he who long ago was carried up in a fiery chariot along the ethereal path. In this place, now also, the leaders of the prophets prophesy, signifying the departure of the Master through the cross. Therefore it leaps and exults, and imitates the leaping of lambs, hearing the same testimony of sonship from the cloud, from the Spirit, for Christ the Life-giver, testified to by the Father. For this is the name that is above every name, in which Thabor and Hermon exult. D *This is my beloved Son* (Matth. III, 17, XVII, 5). This is the exultation of all creation; this is the honor for men, and the inalienable boast. For the One who is testified to is human, even if He is not merely human. O the exultation granted to us beyond mind!
A O beatitude superior to every hope! O gifts of God exceeding desire! O benefits transcending the measure of petition! O liberal and excellent giver, endowed with incredible munificence! O gift, worthy not of the receiver, but rather of the Giver! O new exchange! O power of the Giver and infirmity of the receiver! O the admirable counsel of Him who showed man to be without beginning, when He willed that He who has no beginning should have a beginning, having put on a created body! For if man becomes God in the same way that God becomes man, and the one and same person is shown to be both God and man, then being man, He is without beginning according to His divinity, and being God, He has a beginning according to His humanity.
4. B Indeed, formerly on Mount Sinai, smoke, and storm, and darkness, and fire bringing terror, obscured that supreme condescension, proclaiming the Lawgiver to be inaccessible, revealing His back parts only in shadow, and demonstrating Himself as the most excellent Artificer through His works. But now all things have been filled with light and brilliance. For the Artificer and Lord of the universe has come forth from the paternal bosom: not having moved from His own stability, that is, from His sitting in the paternal bosom, but having inclined Himself toward His servants, and having taken the form of a servant, and having become man in nature and in appearance, so that God, who cannot be contained by men, might be contained, displaying through Himself and in Himself the brilliance of the divine nature. For previously C God established man by adding to him divine grace, when He breathed the spirit of life into the newly formed dust, and bestowed of His own greater nature, and honored him with His own image and likeness, and made him a citizen of Eden and a companion of the angels. But since we obscured and confounded the likeness of the divine image with the mire of vices, He, being compassionate toward us, has initiated a second communion with us, one far safer and more wondrous than the first. For He, remaining in the transcendence of His own divinity, takes on that which is lesser, deifying the human in Himself, and the archetype is mingled with the image, and He displays His own beauty in it today. And His face shines like the sun; for He is identified with the immaterial light according to hypostasis, and hence has become the Sun of righteousness; D and His garments become white as snow; for they are glorified by relation, not by union, and no longer according to hypostasis. And a bright cloud overshadowed Him, representing the brilliance of the Spirit. For in almost this way the divine Apostle said that the sea bears the image of water, and the cloud, the Spirit. All things are bright and exceedingly shining to those who are capable of light, and whose soul is not disturbed by the filth of a defiled conscience.
5. Come then, let us also emulate the disciples...
and with a ready soul follow Christ, who calls us; and having shaken off the crowd of the passions, let us confess the Son of the living God without shame. And having become worthy of the promise, let us ascend to the mount of virtues—to charity, I say—so that we may become spectators of glory and hearers of the mysteries. A For truly blessed, as the Lord said, are those eyes that see, and the ears that hear, which many prophets and kings desired to see and hear, and did not attain their quest. Come, then, having unfolded as far as possible the sayings of the divine oracles, let us set forth a table for those of us who are excellent guests, and who stretch out all their desire toward divine things. Let us set forth a table appropriate to this quest. Let us set forth a table of divine oracles, seasoned with the grace of the Spirit, not one luxuriating in Greek eloquence—for we are not deeply imbued with knowledge of that kind—but one supported by the grace of him who gives a clear tongue to the stammering for the purpose of speaking.
B 6. At Caesarea Philippi (this is Paneas, a city once most renowned among cities, which was called the city of Caesar Philip; and in the divine Scripture it is called Dan: for it says, *David numbered the people from Dan unto Beersheba* (II Reg. xxiv, 21): in this city, when the Lord arrived with his servants, he dried up the blood-fountain of the woman suffering from an issue of blood; and he also raised the daughter of the archisynagogue), in this city, having gathered the first assembly of his own disciples, and having carved a chair out of a certain rock—he, the rock of life—he interrogated his disciples, saying: *Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?* (Matth. xvi, 16, 17). He did not ask this because he was ignorant of the ignorance of men—he who has nothing unexamined—but wishing to dispel this as a certain darkness C lying over their mental eyes, with the light of knowledge. They, however, said that some declared him to be John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. For because they beheld such an abyss of miracles, they guessed that he was one of the prophets of old, risen from the dead; and because of this, he was thought 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 is risen from the dead, and therefore miracles work in him* (Matth. xiv, 1, 2). Wishing to dispel this suspicion, and to bestow true confession—as a gift, D a gift most excellent of all—upon those who were ignorant, what does he do, he to whom all things are possible in his hand? As a man, he puts forward the inquiry; but as God, he secretly instructs him who was first called and first followed, whom in his own foreknowledge he had destined to be a worthy president of the Church. To him...
A as God he breathes, and by him he speaks. And what was the interrogation? *But whom do you say that I am?* Then Peter, kindled with burning zeal and inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: *You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.* O blessed mouth! O truly blessed lips! O theological soul! O mind full of God and worthy of divine instruction! O divine instruments through which the Father spoke! Blessed indeed are you, Simon bar-Jonah (for this is what the Truth-teller himself pronounced), because neither flesh nor blood nor human mind, but my heavenly Father, has revealed to you this divine and arcane theology. For no one knows the Son, save him who is known by him alone, the Father who begat him, and the Holy Spirit, who also knows the depths of God. This is that firm and immovable B faith, upon which, as upon a rock, the Church is founded, of which you rightfully bear the name. Against this, the gates of hell, the mouths of heretics, and the instruments of the demons shall indeed launch an attack, but they shall not prevail; they shall arm themselves, but they shall not take it by storm. The arrows of children have become, and shall be, their wounds; their tongues shall be enfeebled, and shall be upon themselves. For he who resists the truth fashions evils against himself. This faith he purchased with his own blood, and entrusted it to you as his most faithful servant. Preserve it by your prayers immune from all perturbation and storm. For that it should never be overthrown or shaken or conquered, we clearly confess, since Christ has affirmed it, through whom the heavens were established and the earth was made firm and remains unshaken. *For by the word of the Lord the heavens were established,* says the Holy Spirit. But we pray that the C tempest may be stilled, the turmoil broken, and a calm, waveless peace be granted to us. Contend for this as a suppliant to Christ, the immaculate spouse of this [Church], the one who appointed you keys-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, who granted you the power of binding and loosing sins, whom you proclaimed with divine mouth to be the Son of the living God. O divine and ineffable things! He himself proclaimed himself to be the Son of man: whom Peter, or rather—to speak more truly—the One who spoke within him, proclaimed to be the Son of God. For he is truly God and man; he did not exist as the son of Peter, nor of Paul, nor of Joseph, nor of any other father, but of man; for he who had no mother in heaven had no father on earth.
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 whom are hidden all the treasures of knowledge, said: D *There are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.* If, then, he had spoken as if of one, [saying] "There is someone of those standing here,"
we might have conjectured that it signified the same thing as what was said concerning John the Theologian, A *If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to thee?* as if he were to remain without tasting death until the second coming of Christ; for some men of great learning have already interpreted that passage in this way. But since the divine Word signified that "some" would see it, and indeed the event followed, no room is given to those who wish to interpret the passage in that way.
"There are some of those standing here," he says. What is the reason that some, and not all, were called to this vision? Were they not all disciples and apostles? Did they not all follow him equally when they were called? Did they not all receive the same gift of healing? And how is it that they were not all B deemed worthy of this vision beyond sight? Is the Lord not without respect of persons? They were all disciples, but not all were blinded by the sickness of avarice. All were disciples, but not all were deprived of the sharpness of their eyes by the film of envy. All were disciples, but not all were traitors. All were apostles, but not all were caught in the noose of despair and correcting evil with evil. All were lovers of Christ, but one was a lover of money, this Judas Iscariot; he alone was unworthy to behold the glory of the Godhead. "Let the ungodly be taken away," he says, "that he may not see the glory of the Lord."* Being set apart alone from the rest, he, both envious and malicious, would have been incited to greater madness. But it was necessary that they who were to be witnesses of the sufferings later, should be beholders of the glory.
Thence he takes the foremost of the apostles C as witnesses of his own glory and brilliance; three in number, indicating the venerable mystery of the Trinity; and "at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."* In this way he shuts out from the traitor the charges of betrayal, yet reveals his own Godhead to the apostles. For seeing Andrew remaining below with the rest, this [traitor] could not have used as a pretext for his defense—that he had been driven to the selling of the Master—the fact that he had missed that vision. For this reason Andrew and the rest of the choir of the apostles remained below, separated from that place bodily, but united by the bond of love; dwelling below in body, but following the Teacher to the heights by desire and by the movements of the soul.
D 8. And after six days, Matthew and Mark, the divine evangelists, write; but Luke, the most wise, [says]: *And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings.* Properly and truly, eight and six days are proclaimed by the heralds of the truth. For there is no disagreement in what is said, but the highest harmony [exists] between—
* Joan. XXI, 22. * Isa. XXVI, 10. * Deut. XIX, 15. * Matth. XVII, 1; Marc. IX, 1; Luc. IX, 28.
them, as it is produced by the same Spirit. For they themselves are not the ones speaking, but the Spirit of God speaking within them. “For when He comes,” He says, “the Paraclete, He will teach you everything, and will bring everything to your remembrance.” Those, then, who say “after six days,” by removing the extremes—I mean the first and the last—have counted only the middle ones; but he who counts eight days has reckoned both these and those. For it is customary for men to count in this way as much as that way. And indeed, six is accepted as the first and perfect number. For it is completed by its own parts. For its half is three, the third part is two, and the sixth part is one, which, when brought together, make it perfect. Hence, those who are skilled in these matters have termed the number six perfect. A And, in fact, in six days God by His Word brought about the system of all things that fall under our eyes. And it is fitting that those who are to behold the divine glory be perfect—that glory, I say, which is more excellent than any spectacle, and more sublime and superior than any perfection. For He says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” But the number eight is employed because it bears a symbol of the future age. For the present life is concluded in seven ages, but the eighth signifies the future life, just as the great Gregory, among the theologians, said when interpreting the Solomonic passage: “Give a portion to seven,” that is, to the present life, he says, “and indeed to eight,” that is, to the future. And it was meet that in the eighth, those things which pertained to the eighth should be revealed to the perfect. For just as the truly divine and God-inspired Dionysius said, thus will the Lord be seen by His perfect servants, in the same way as He was seen by the apostles on Mount Tabor. You have the enumeration of the days.
9. But why did He take Peter, and James, and John? Peter, wishing to show that the testimony which he had truly borne was testified [to him] by the Father, and to confirm his own decision, that the heavenly Father had revealed this testimony to him, and also as one who was to receive the steering-oars of the entire Church as its leader; James, because he was to die for Christ before all the apostles, and to drink His cup, and to be baptized with the baptism for which He was to be baptized; John, finally, as a virgin and most pure instrument of theology, so that, having seen the eternal glory of the Son of God, he might afterward thunder forth: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” whence he is also called the son of thunder.
10. Why does He lead the disciples up to a high mountain? Scripture figuratively calls the virtues mountains. And the apex and as it were the citadel of all virtues is charity. For in this is perfection defined. For if anyone among men and angels speaks with tongues, even if he should have faith so as to move mountains, and all knowledge, and should know all the
mysteries, and should deliver his body to be burned, but have not love, he has become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, and shall be reckoned as nothing. Therefore, it is necessary to leave behind the things of the earth for the earth, and to have risen above the body of humiliation, and to have ascended to the highest and divine watchtower of love, in order to behold the things that are invisible. For he who has arrived at the summit of love, departing from himself in a manner, discerns Him who cannot be seen, and flying past the darkness of the bodily cloud that obscures the mind, and becoming in the serenity of the soul, he gazes more clearly upon the Sun of Righteousness, even if he cannot be entirely filled with the sight. He says to pray "by himself." For quiet is the mother of prayer, and prayer is the manifestation of divine glory. For when we close our senses and dwell with ourselves and with God, and having been freed from the external circular motion of the world, we become within ourselves, then we shall clearly see the kingdom of God within ourselves. For the kingdom of heaven, or rather what is the kingdom of God, is within you, Jesus our God declared. B But the servants prayed in one way, and the Master in another. For servants approach the Master through prayer with fear and desire, and prayer becomes the agent of the departure to and union with God, nourishing and strengthening the soul through itself. But the holy mind, which is united to the Word of God according to hypostasis, how will it pray? And how will the Master stand having need of anything? Is it not clear that He did so by adopting our person, guiding us, and making a path for our ascent to God through prayer, and teaching that prayer becomes the agent of divine glory, and showing that He is not an adversary of God, and that He honors the Begetter as His own beginning and cause, and allows the flesh to proceed through its own nature, so that through itself it might be strengthened, and instructed, and become accustomed to the habit of better things? Moreover, He was also baiting the tyrant, who was carefully observing whether He was God. For this the power of the miracles proclaimed. For this reason, He everywhere mingles human things with divine, as if hiding a hook under some bait. For thus He who had deceived man with the hope of deity, will deservedly be caught by the assumed flesh. For seeing Him C shining during prayer, immediately he recalls the glorified face of Moses. But Moses was glorified by glory coming upon him from without; but the Lord Jesus did not have an acquired ornament of glory, but one flowing from the innate brightness of the divine glory.
11. But what is this invocation? Let the prophet David teach you, thus clearly speaking: *He shall call upon me: Thou art my Father, my God, and the supporter of my salvation* (Ps. LXXXVIII, 27). Father, indeed, as of God and Son before the ages, and of Him who shone forth from the substance of the Begetter; but God and supporter of my salvation, as of Him who became incarnate, and the restorer in Himself of our D nature. Who com-
[the] common nature of humanity within himself. Whence he added: *And I will make him my firstborn*. For he proved to be the firstborn among many brethren, he who in like manner participated with us in flesh and blood. For as God the Word, being the eternal Son, he was not made afterward; but as man, he is said to have been made also afterward, so that the property of sonship might remain in him unchanged. For he himself having become flesh, with the flesh of the Son of God coming into being from the first moment of origin on account of the hypostatic union, he himself is said to have been made this, as he existed in a divine manner, becoming as man.
12. B Being at the mountain of Tabor, therefore, having taken those who were preeminent in the height of the virtues, he was transfigured before them. He is transfigured before the disciples, he who is always adorned with equal glory and shines with the radiance of the divinity. For having been begotten C of the Father without beginning, he possesses the natural, beginningless ray of the divinity, neither later obtaining existence, nor again receiving glory. For although he is from the Father, yet he is without beginning and without time, possessing his own brightness of glory; and having been incarnate, the same is he, remaining in the same light of divine manifestation. And the flesh is glorified D at the same time with its production from non-being into being, and the glory of the divinity is called also the glory of the body. For this and that is one Christ, consubstantial with the Father, and connatural and of the same race with us. If, therefore, that holy body never existed devoid of divine glory, but from the first moment of the hypostatic union was perfectly enriched with the glory of the invisible divinity, so that there was one and the same glory of the Word and the flesh, yet, since that glory was invisible and obscured by the body, it could not be perceived by those who were bound to the flesh, nor was the flesh able to contain what even escaped the gaze of the angels. He is transfigured, therefore, not assuming what he was not, nor passing into what he was not; but manifesting to his disciples what he was, opening their eyes and making those who were blind become clearly seeing. And this is the meaning of these words: *He was transfigured before them*. For remaining himself in identity, he appeared now to the disciples as something other than what he had previously seemed.
13. And his face shone as the sun: he who with his own vast power flooded this sun with light; he who created the light that was before the sun, and afterward fashioned the sun as a lamp, so that it might be a receptacle of light. For he himself is the true light, he who is from the true and immaterial
light eternally begotten; the substantial Word of the Father, that splendor of glory, that natural character of the substance of God and the Father A: *His face shone as the sun* (Matt. xvii, 2). What do you say, O Evangelist? Why do you compare things that are truly incomparable? Why do you set beside and hold up for comparison things that are truly beyond comparison? Did the Master shine like a servant? Did that light, which cannot be borne nor approached, shine forth like this sun which is seen by all? "But I am not comparing," he says, "nor am I setting the only-begotten, the splendor of divine glory, to which nothing can be likened, in comparison; but because my discourse is with those who are bound in the fetters of the flesh, I take as an example that which is most excellent and brilliant among bodies; not because it is most similar to him (for it is impossible for the uncreated to be depicted in a created thing without omission); but just as the sun is one, yet has two substances—that of the light which was born first, and that of the body which was subsequently fashioned for the light, and through the whole body the light is united indivisibly, and while the body remains in itself, the light is spread out to the ends of the whole earth—so too Christ, being light from light, B beginningless and unapproachable, becoming in a temporal and created body, is one sun of righteousness, one Christ, recognized in two indivisible natures. The holy body, indeed, was circumscribed; for while standing on Tabor, it did not reach beyond the mountain; but the divinity is uncircumscribed, existing in all things and beyond all things. And the body shines as the sun; for the radiance of the body became light. For all things of the one incarnate God Word have become common, both those of the flesh and those of the uncircumscribed divinity; but it is one thing from which the common gifts of glory are known, and another from which the common sufferings are recognized. And the divine [nature] prevails, and imparts its own brilliance and glory to the body, while itself remaining, even in sufferings, exempt from suffering. Thus his face shone as the sun; not because it was not more brilliant than the sun, but insofar as those who were looking were able to behold it. For if he had shown all the radiance of his glory, would they not have been consumed? *His face shone as the sun.* For what the sun is among sensible things, that God is among things perceived by the intellect. *And his garments became white as the light* (Matt. xvii, 2). Just as the sun is one thing—for it is a source of light, not being able to be clearly seen—and the light which comes from it toward the earth is another; for it is seen and looked upon by the operation of God's wisdom and philanthropy, so that we might not be entirely destitute of such good things; so the face shines most clearly as the sun, and as light the garments turn white, adorned by a communication of divine light C.
14. These things being thus accomplished, so that he might be demonstrated as the Lord of the Old and New Testament, and that the mouths of the heretics—whose throats are like an opened grave—might be stopped, and that the resurrection of the dead might be believed D
A as the Lord of the living and the dead, to whom testimony was borne. Moses and Elias stand by Him in glory as servants to their Master, and are seen conversing with Him by their fellow servants. For it was fitting that they, having witnessed the glory and boldness of those who were fellow servants—yet servants of God—should marvel at the Master’s merciful condescension, and be filled with zeal and emboldened for the struggles. For he who knows the fruits of labor easily dares to undertake the struggles. For the desire for profit knows how to lead men to spare not their own bodies. For just as soldiers, and boxers, and farmers, and merchants undertake labors with great enthusiasm and daringly endure the surging waves, and take no account of beasts or robbers, so that they may obtain the desired profit; and by how much more they see those who have labored before them rejoicing in the earnings, by so much the more are they sharpened to endure similar things: in the same way, the spiritual attendants of the Master, the boxers, the farmers, and the merchants, not burning with a desire for earthly gains, nor craving B fleeting goods, when they behold with their very eyes those things which are laid up in hope, and see those who have labored before them enjoying the luxury of the hoped-for goods, are carried with greater spirit into the struggles, not arrayed against men, nor beating the air, nor bringing oxen to the plow under the yoke, by whose work they furrow the earth, nor finally sailing the turbulence of the sea; but contending against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of the darkness; and rejoicing in being struck C and gathering wealth when they are despoiled, and by opposing the rudder of the cross D to the tempests of the world and the spirits of wickedness that stir them up, and by driving away as if roaring and rapacious beasts—by the power of the Spirit—and sowing the word of piety into the hearts of men as into certain furrows, they reap a most abundant harvest for the Master. But let us return to the matter at hand.
15. Then indeed Moses, as is to be expected, spoke. Hear, O spiritual Israel, what the sensible Israel could not hear: The Lord thy God, the Lord is one. For there is one God recognized in three persons. For there is one essence of the Godhead of the Father who gives testimony, and of the Son to whom testimony is given, and of the Spirit who overshadows. This is He to whom testimony is now borne by the Father, He who is the life of men. This life, hanging upon the wood, the ungrateful will see, and will not believe in their own life. Then in turn Elias spoke. This is He whom I long ago beheld as incorporeal in a thin breeze, in the Spirit. For God...
A no one has ever seen, as He is by nature. And what he did see, he beheld 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 ascended into the heart of man. Thus in the world to come we shall always be with the Lord, beholding Christ shining with the light of His divinity.
16. But what of Peter, having become a spectator of this divine revelation? As if inspired by the Spirit, he said to the Lord: “It is good for us to be here.” For who would exchange darkness for light? Do you see how beautiful, how graceful, how sweet, how desirable, how brilliant, and how radiant this sun here is, and how sweet and lovely is this life to which all cling, and all strive in every way not to be deprived of it? By how much more, do you think, is that light—from which all light is illuminated—more desirable and sweeter; the self-life from which all life is enlivened B and imparted, in which we all live, and move, and have our being? How much more lovable and sweeter is it? There is absolutely no desire, no conception that calculates the measure of its excellence. It overcomes all comparison, and is not surpassed by measures. For how could the uncircumscribed be measured, or the incomprehensible be grasped by thoughts? This light holds the victory over all of nature. This is the life that has conquered the world; how, then, is it not good not to be separated from the Good? Peter therefore did not speak absurdly; but since all things are good in their own time, and Solomon proclaimed that there is a "time for every thing," it was necessary that the Good should not be confined only to those who were there, but should be diffused and spread to all, namely to those who were to believe, so that more C would be the ones to share in the benefit (which was to be accomplished by the Cross, and the Passion, and Death); therefore, it was by no means a good thing for Him to remain there, He who was about to redeem with His own blood the creature whose sake He had taken on flesh. If you had remained on Mount Tabor, O Peter, the promise made to you would not have had fulfillment. For you would not have become the key-bearer of the kingdom; the paradise would not have been opened to the thief; the arrogant tyranny of death would not have been destroyed; the kingdoms of hell would not have been given up as spoil; the patriarchs, and prophets, and the just would not have been delivered from the D depths of Hades; human nature would not have been clothed in incorruption. If Adam had not sought for becoming divine before the proper time, he would have attained his desire. Do not seek good things before the time, O Peter. The time will come when you will partake of this sight without end. The Master has appointed you not as a keeper of tents, but as an adorner of the universal Church. Your disciples, your sheep, which the good Chief Shepherd entrusted to you, have led your words into action, having built a tent for Christ, for Moses and
A Elias, those ministers of His, in whose honor we hold this festival. Peter did not speak these things out of human reasoning, but by the inspiration of the Spirit, who foretells things to come. For, as the most divine Luke says, he did not know what he was saying. And Mark also adds the reason: for they were, he says, terrified. As Simon was saying these things: "Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them," and the disciples were seized with greater fear when they saw the Lord within the cloud with Moses and Elias.
17. Long ago, the God-seer entered into the divine mist, which signified the obscurity of the Law. For the Law, as one may hear from Paul, had a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very image of the things itself. And at that time, indeed, the Israelite people could not gaze upon the glory of the face of Moses, which was being brought to naught; but we, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, being transformed from glory into greater glory, just as by the Lord the Spirit. Hence, a cloud—not of mist (for it did not threaten), but B a bright one—overshadowed them. For the mystery hidden from ages and from generations has been revealed, and a perpetual and everlasting glory is displayed. For this reason, Moses and Elias stood by, fulfilling the character of the Law and the prophets. For the Life-giver Jesus is found to be He whom the Law and the prophets preach. And Moses figures the order of the saints of old who have fallen asleep, and Elias that of the living. For the Lord who is transfigured is Lord of both the living and the dead. Moses entered into the land of promise; for Jesus, the Distributor of the fields, brought him in, and what he had once seen only in figures, he now clearly beholds. For this is what the bright splendor of the cloud tacitly signifies.
18. And a voice came from the cloud saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear him." The voice of the Father came from the cloud, that is, of the Spirit: "This C is my beloved Son." This is He who is and is seen as man, who recently became man, who lives humbly among us, whose face has shone forth today; this is my beloved Son, who is older than all ages, the only-begotten from the Only, who came forth timelessly and eternally from Me, the Begetter; who is from Me, and in Me, and with Me, always existing, and not later in existence. From Me, as from the Fatherly cause, begotten of My substance and hypostasis (whence He is also consubstantial with Me); in Me, as being begotten without any separation or departure; with Me, as existing as a perfect Person in Himself, and not a prolatitious word poured out into the air; for this reason He is beloved. For who is so beloved a Son as the Only-begotten? "In him I have been well pleased." For by the benign will of the Father, His Only-begotten and Word has become incarnate; for by the good pleasure of the Father D
the union of all things has been brought together in the Only-begotten Son. For if man, A by his nature, is a microcosm, bearing in himself the bond of every substance, both visible and invisible, the Lord, Creator, and Governor of all things has truly willed, 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 may be all in all. This is my Son, the radiance of my glory, the character and image of my substance, through whom I have also made the angels, through whom the heaven has been established and the earth founded; who bears all things by the word of His power, and by the Spirit of His mouth—the life-giving, and clearly, the sovereign Spirit. Hear Him. For he who receives Him, receives Me, who sent Him, not with the authority of a master, but as a Father. 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 what has been accomplished; this is the power of the mystery.
B 19. What then? He sent Moses and Elias back to their own places, and appears to the apostles alone, and thus they descend from the mountain, speaking to no one of the things they had seen or heard. For this is what the Lord commands. I shall say for what reason and for whose sake. Knowing, I think, that the disciples were imperfect (for they had not yet attained to the perfect participation of the Spirit), He did this so that sorrow might not fill their hearts, and so that the madness of envy might not drive the betrayer to fury. Let us, therefore, C make an end of our discourse here.
20. But may you always remember the things that have been said, carrying in your hearts the beauty of that divine spectacle, and ever resounding with that paternal voice: "This is not a servant, or a messenger, or an angel, but my beloved Son; hear Him." Let us, therefore, hear Him saying: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." You shall not kill; nay, you shall not even be angry with your brother without cause; be reconciled with your brother first, and thus coming, offer your gift. You shall not commit adultery; D nay, you shall not even look with curiosity upon another's beauty. You shall not perjure yourself; nay, you shall not swear at all; but let your word be, Yes, yes, and No, no; for whatever is more than this is the invention of the evil one. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not deprive another, but even give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away him who wishes to borrow from you, and do not withhold what is your own from him who takes it. Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.
Do not judge, that you be not judged. Forgive, and it will be forgiven to you, that you may be sons of your Father, perfect and merciful, as your heavenly Father is, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Let us keep these divine commandments with all vigilance, so that we may also delight in His divine beauty, saturating our souls with His most sweet taste: now indeed as much as those who are weighed down by this earthly tabernacle of the body can attain, but afterward more clearly and purely, when the righteous will shine like the sun, and, once delivered from the necessities of the body, they will be immortal like the angels with the Lord, in the great and glorious revelation of the Lord Himself, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
II. Discourse of our holy Father John, monk and presbyter of the holy Resurrection of Christ our God, also called Mansur, on the withered fig tree and on the parable of the vineyard.
AIt was delivered on Holy Monday.
The self-subsistent Word of God and the Father stirs me to speak: He who did not depart from the Father's bosom, and yet was conceived without limitation in the womb of a Virgin; He who became what I am for my sake; who, being impassible in His divinity, clothed Himself in a body subject to like affections and sufferings; He who sits upon the cherubic chariots and yet rode upon a donkey's colt on earth; the King of glory, who with the Father and the Spirit is glorified by the Seraphim, and yet accepts the babbling of children from their innocent and guileless tongues; who, being God, exists also in the form of a servant because of the form of a servant He assumed; who, being immaterial and invisible as God, took on a body that is visible and palpable; who finally came of His own will to suffer, that He might bestow upon me immunity from suffering. For when He who is merciful by His very nature saw the creature of His own hands, the man whom He had fashioned according to His own image and likeness, deceived by the guile of the serpent, guilty of contempt of the commandment, subject to corruption, and liable to death, He could not bear to be deprived of the one whom He loved, but called him in many ways to a change of life and to repentance. He disciplined him as a thankless slave, and as a son acting foolishly in various and manifold ways; He moved everything to ensure that, having shaken off the yoke of servitude, man might return to his Creator. But it was not in the power of man to convert himself, having once enslaved himself to sin and having of his own free choice become commingled with earthly desire.