Therefore, the light on Tabor is something completely different from the flames and lightning on Sinai. The apostles do not flee from Tabor, as the Israelites did from Sinai. On the contrary, they "feel good... be here" (Luke 9:33); they even want to settle down here and stay, making tabernacles for those who converse in the Divine light. The Theophany in Christ is transformed into a most beautiful and extraordinarily attractive force. True, Christ shines like the sun; He is completely different, unlike the one the apostles were accustomed to seeing in everyday life. God's transcendence or His absolute otherness is not annihilated. But it is not fearful, for it comes from the loving being of Christ. Jesus' radiant face and snow-white robes evoke boundless joy: they attract and awaken love. The area where the shining Christ speaks to the representatives of the ancient covenant is not the place where the apostles have to take off their shoes, as Moses did when approaching the burning bush (cf. Exodus 3:5), although Mount Tabor is just as much "holy land" (Exodus 3:5) as any other on which the Epiphany takes place. But man's attitude to this place essentially changes: on Mount Tabor, man straightens up. The fall of the apostles on their faces, which was caused by the voice of God from the cloud, was the last such action of man of the Ancient Covenant-Union before the face of the Lord: henceforth man will no longer fall before God on his face, for for Christ and in Christ he is no longer a servant, but a friend (cf. John 15:14-15). The "Lord and Teacher" Himself will bend down to wash man's feet (cf. John 13:14). True, even in the times of the New Covenant, man will bow down before the Lord, but led not by fear, but by anguish and regret that he has sinned before his Divine Friend and Father. [33]

      Thus, the event that took place on Tabor has a special significance in the history of salvation: it completes the ancient relationship of man to God built on fear and gives rise to a new relationship, the essence of which is love. In this new respect, God appears not as a spontaneous – frightening and destroying – force, but as a loving and protective Personality. The space of the new Theophany is no longer nature – a bush, smoke, lightning, flames, but the human nature of Christ. From now on, Jesus of Nazareth is the only true Theophany. The light that formerly accompanied and announced the approach of the Lord is now concentrated in the Humanity of Christ, this light transforms His humanity, penetrates it and reveals the Divinity. Therefore, the Transfiguration on Tabor in the life of Christ is not an accidental or secondary event, but a threshold that divides the story of salvation into two parts. With His words – "arise and do not be afraid" (Matt. 17:7) Christ begins a new stage of religion, in which man's communion with God becomes striving, friendship, faithfulness and love to the point of mortal sacrifice.

      It is Christ who stands at the very center of this great division, moreover, He brings a new relationship of man to God and brings it about. Therefore, the Transfiguration on Tabor, as the beginning of a new relationship, reveals to us Christ Himself. In the light of Tabor, Christ becomes visible to us. "Illumine us also with the light of Thy understanding," says the Byzantine liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration[34] (Great Vespers, Litiya). [35] And if this happens, then all the most significant periods of His life and the essential principles of His being will become for us not only spiritually comprehensible, but also spiritually visible: the Divinity and Humanity, the coming glory and the imminent torment, the pre-eternal existence in the Holy Spirit. The Trinity and His mission in the history of mankind, the transcendent distance of God as the basis of our being, and at the same time the loving nearness of God as our Savior. "For the most eternal hidden mystery was finally revealed to Peter, and to John, and to James," they sing during Great Vespers. The Eastern Church perfectly understood the significance of the manifestation of the sacrament, and therefore made the event on Tabor the starting point in her Christology. This is exactly what Vl. Lossky when he said that the feast of the Transfiguration could become the key to such an understanding of Christ as the Eastern Church experiences Him. This feast, which commemorates the event on Tabor, becomes a figurative Christology of the Eastern Church and thus gives us the opportunity to penetrate deeper into this Christology and understand its meaning. This is especially true of the Byzantine liturgy, for it is precisely this liturgy that is extraordinarily rich both in its thoughts and in its images. It contains theology, mysticism, and history. Vl. Solovyov calls a liturgical work a liturgical work, therefore, one in which Divine grace is combined with the human capacity for creativity, transforming the cult into genuine faith.

2. CHRIST IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. TRINITY

     The Western Church comprehends and experiences the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity as a more or less abstract subject: it is not given special importance either in the accepted cult or in private prayer. And this is despite the fact that all our prayers begin and end with giving glory to the Three Divine Persons, but this is most likely not of a vital nature, but of a dogmatic nature. St. We, Western Christians, hardly perceive the Trinity as a vital principle. Most often, St. The Trinity is presented to us as three separate Persons, less often as an inseparable unity of these Persons. Meanwhile, for the Eastern Church of St. The Trinity, as L. Ouspensky asserts, is the basis of all communal Christian life, it is the prototype of love, which still gives life to every Christian community, be it a monastery, a parish or another gathering. [37] In the East, the emphasis is not so much placed on the isolated Divine Persons – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit as Their indivisibility in love, which must also be manifested in the relations between Christians. The universal or conciliar[38] experience of religion, which is very characteristic of the Eastern Church, is especially manifested in the concept of the Holy Scriptures. Trinity.

     Therefore, for Eastern Christians, St. The Trinity is something more than just a mystery inaccessible to the human mind. It is also a mystery, but at the same time it is a source from which a special state in prayer and in creativity flows. And isn't this the peculiarity of Orthodoxy? After all, no other Christian denomination has created so many hymns to the glory of the Holy Trinity. Trinity, as the Eastern Church in its liturgy. Special attention should be paid to the hymns of the Bishop of Smyrna Mitrophan (IX century), in which one senses an attempt to pave the path of man to God through creation and to represent the Holy Spirit. The Trinity as it is pre-eternal in Its unapproachable light – one with the barren kingdom of non-existence. This is the "three-solar All-Godhead", Whose rays are incarnated in the created; this is the "Temple of Ineffable Beauty", in which the threefold cherubic – "holy, holy, holy" is heard. All nature sings hymns to this "one, three-solar All-Godhead" and begs Him to deliver Him from errors, dangers, sorrows and evil. [39] The Eastern Church does not have such purely philosophical interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity, which are found in the West in the works of Bl. St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas. An attempt by Vl. Solovyov (1853-1900) to bring out St. Trinity from the concept of being, or S. Bulgakov's attempts to derive the Triune Trinity of God from the concept of personality, did not find support in the Orthodox Church, remaining only the point of view of themselves. However, in its poetry, the Eastern Church assigns the Holy Scriptures to the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity has a very significant place. What the Western Christian tries to comprehend with his mind, the Eastern Christian tries to comprehend through creative feeling. Therefore, the truth of the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Trinity, although it seems to be very abstract from the reality of life, in the experience of the East acquires an amazing vividness and becomes extraordinarily close to our hearts, despite the fact that the Byzantine liturgy constantly calls it an incomprehensible, inexpressible, inaccessible, boundless infinity, etc. The Trinity appears as an irresistible beauty, which fascinates man so much that he even dares to ask the Trinitarian God to allow him to "see His glory" and "sing His majesty in hymns." [40]

      Christ is one of those "Three Lights of the Godhead," one of the "Three Suns of the Godhead," which proceeds without beginning "from the beginningless Light." [41] This sun is as divine, as eternal, as powerful as the other two Divine Suns, the Father and the Holy Spirit. According to the conviction of the Eastern Church, only in connection with the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity reveals the deep being of Christ, for the light by which He came into the world and which shone so wonderfully on Mount Tabor is none other than the primordial light of the Holy Spirit. Trinity. The essential inseparability of Christ from the Holy Spirit. The Transfiguration of Christ is the main thing that the Transfiguration of Christ reveals to us. The Byzantine liturgy perceives the voice from the bright cloud saying: "This is My Beloved Son" (Matt. 17:5) as an irrefutable indication of the place of Christ in the Holy Scriptures. Trinity. At Great Vespers on the feast of the Transfiguration, Christ is called "the true radiance of the Father's Being" (litiya),[42] and the Light of the Son is identified with the Light of the Father and the Holy Spirit (cf. Svetilen – Matins). [43] And the glory of Christ on Tabor is also nothing but the radiance of the glory of the Father; it is the glory which the only-begotten Son receives from the Father (cf. Great Vespers, Glory, tone 5). [44]

      This inseparability of Christ from the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Church especially reveres the Holy Trinity, which was so vividly manifested on Tabor, for "the voice of the Mother of God has heard, announcing the mystery of Thy incarnation" (On the verses of the sticheron are self-voiced, tone 1). [45] He revealed the identity of the eternal Logos and the historical Jesus of Nazareth. After the event on Tabor, this identity became an immutable truth, indisputable and inviolable forever, for it was witnessed by God Himself. The descent of the Spirit of God upon Jesus at His baptism and "a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son" (Matt. 3:16-17; cf. Mk. 1:10-11; Lk. 3:22) was also a testimony to heaven itself. However, it was not yet connected with the appearance of the Divinity of Christ in His transfigured form, so it could only be understood as a sign of Christ's mission: Jesus of Nazareth was called by the Lord to be the Messiah. However, in order to understand that He is also God, the sign that occurred on the banks of the Jordan was not enough. Meanwhile, on Tabor, not only a voice from heaven is heard, but Jesus himself shines with Divine light. And all this is seen and heard by the people present at the time. This means that Christ is the beloved Son of His Father, not only in the sense of the mission entrusted to Him, but also in the sense of the Essence itself. After all, the Nature of the Father and the Son is one, so He shares His power with the Father. [46] Thus, S. Bulgakov rightly notes that the name of Jesus, which belongs to the Second Hypostasis of the Holy Spirit. Through Her He also names the whole Godhead, for it is the name of the Word (Logos). This Word is the word of the Father, which contains the Divinity as such. On the one hand, the name Jesus is a proper name, on the other hand, it belongs to God Himself, being a sub-designation of the name Yahweh. [47] That is why this name has such great power that "every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" bows before Him (Phil. 2:10).

      The divinity of Christ is the main thing that the event on Tabor indicates, which is why the Byzantine liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration tirelessly sings of it. At Matins of this feast, a beautiful parallel is drawn between Moses' experiences on Mount Sinai and what he experienced on Tabor. In both cases, the Divine Logos appeared to him: on Sinai as the Lawgiver, on Tabor as the Saviour. The light in which Christ appeared did not descend from above: it was the radiance of His nature. The light came from within. "Thou didst show the hidden lightning under the flesh of Thy being, O Christ, and the Divine splendor on the holy mountain, the Benefactor" (Glory, and now, tone 8),[48] sings the Eastern Church. "Hide thyself by the dawn of the Divinity, O sensual sun, as on Mount Tabor having seen Thee being transformed, O my Jesus." [49] Moses saw Christ "in the Light, but now we are unapproachable to the Godhead" (Another Canon, Tone 8, Ode 1). [50] In these images of the Byzantine liturgy is expressed the profound dogmatic thought that the Divinity is the hidden principle of Christ. According to the deep conviction of the Eastern Church, Christ, as it has been said, has always been and will always be the light of being, for He is the prototype of this being, according to which all and everything is created. Therefore, the transfiguration that took place on Tabor was a new state for Christ the Man, if we talk about the human condition, but it was not new for Christ God. Christ, as the Divine Logos, lives eternally in the ineffable light of the Holy Spirit. Trinity. The heated polemics that broke out in the 14th century between Barlaam and Palamas revolve around the nature of the light of Tabor. The Byzantine Councils of Constantinople (1341 and 1351) resolved this polemic in such a way that, after condemning Barlaam and agreeing with the teaching of Palamas, they advised to distinguish in God between essence (ousia) and power (energeia). Both of them are not created and therefore divine. However, the Divine Essence is not communicable or comprehensible, while the Divine Power can be manifested and transmitted, it can even be experienced in sensations. [51] The light of Tabor was a manifestation of Divine power. This power lives in Christ as in God, always. But on Tabor it became accessible, visible. It was revealed to us as a sign of the Divinity of Christ. It bore witness to us of Christ as the pre-eternal Logos, who is Light in His Very Being. Thus, the light of Tabor is a vision of the Divinity of Christ – "now the Apostle has seen the invisible Divinity in the flesh, having shone on Mount Tabor"[52] or "Thou didst show Thy kindness in creation, not as in an image, but as He Himself in essence"[53], i.e. the Divinity of Christ was seen in reality, as the Liturgy says.

      In the Liturgy, the Divinity of Christ is especially emphasized in the aspect of Egoslava. The most beautiful images that are used in the hymns of the feast of the Transfiguration are aimed at making this glory of Christ understandable and tangible to us: "The sun, clarifying the earth, sets, but Christ, having shone with glory on the mountain, enlightened the world" (Little Vespers). [54] He appeared in the radiance of glory, "gloriously covered with food, showing that by the height of virtues they would be vouchsafed Divine glory" (At Great Vespers)[55]; the Apostles saw "the beginnings of goodness and splendor" (At Great Vespers, Litiya). [56] The event on Tabor is the glory of His Divinity, and therefore Tabor itself is higher than any place on earth, for this mountain has seen the radiance of the glory of Christ. In the Liturgy of the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Eastern Church, addressing the faithful, exhorts: "Arise, ye slothful people, who have always lowered your thoughts to the ground of my soul, lift up and ascend to the height of the Divine ascent. By coming to Peter and Zebedee, and together with them we will reach Mount Tabor, that we may see with them the glory of our God" (Ikos). [57]

      The power of Christ is also connected with glory. In the Byzantine liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration, this aspect was also noted and expressed in indescribably beautiful images. Before Christ was raised to the cross, He ascended Mount Tabor together with the Apostles, and there "Thou wast transfigured before them, illuminating them with a ray of power" (At Great Vespers). [58] This He did, guided by love for mankind and by the authority given to Him. During the procession of the cross, the Eastern Church sings the power of Christ revealed to the disciples, calling Him Lord of the living and the dead (cf. Litiya). The Eastern experience of Christ as the Lord, the Almighty of the universe, which will be discussed a little later, is manifested unusually vividly in the liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration. And indeed, as the Russian monk Silouan (1866-1938), who died on Mount Athos, said, "When God appears in a great light, then there can be no doubt that it is the Lord, the Creator and the Almighty." [60] For the whole environment, all the circumstances of Jesus' transfiguration, speak of His lordship: He appears illuminated by light, accompanied by the prophets of old, and the Heavenly Father Himself presents Him as the Lawgiver to be obeyed. The event on Mount Tabor reveals to us Christ God in the radiance of glory and power.

3. CHRIST IN HUMANITY

     However, Christ is not only the true God and the Light of Light, but at the same time He is the True Man. At the moment of His incarnation, He descended from His Divine Throne and entered human history. The existence of Christ is contained not only in the incomprehensible depths of the Holy Scriptures. But also in the historical fate of mankind, and through humanity in the fate of the whole world. This second or human side of Christ's existence was also revealed on Mount Tabor. The remark of the Gospels that Christ spoke to Moses and Elijah "about His exodus, which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31), shows that the Transfiguration was not only a testimony to the Divinity of Christ, but at the same time an indication of His human fate. Christ came into the world to redeem mankind not by His divine power, but by sacrificing His life on the cross. Therefore, when Peter proposed to make three tabernacles on Tabor, which means to strengthen this event by turning it into a permanent state, the Gospels note that at that moment he "did not know what he was saying" (Luke 9:33), for this proposal was precisely a desire to remain in the radiance of Divine power, a desire to get out of the darkness that Christ came to overcome without withdrawing from it, but accepting this darkness and suffering for it. Thus, Peter's desire was caused by his human weakness.

      Earlier, when Jesus had told His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem, suffer much, and be killed, "Peter began to rebuke Him, 'Be merciful to Yourself, Lord! let it not be so with Thee" (Matt. 16:22). However, Christ answered Peter quite clearly: "Get thee behind me, Satan! you are a stumbling block to Me! for thou thinkest not of the things of God, but of the things of men" (Matt. 16:23). In Peter's words we hear the hope of human nature to see the salvation of the world, which will be realized not by historical means, but only by the action of the Divine power, the power that remains on the other side of earthly fate, but by the wave of which everything can be transformed without suffering and death. Christ does not abandon such hope, for Tabor without the Way of the Cross is only a deceptive dream. Tabor is the manifestation of the Godhead, but the Divinity alone is not the fullness of Christ, therefore Tabor alone is not the fullness of salvation. The path to Tabor, as to the permanent state of man, goes through Golgotha. To make tabernacles on Tabor, avoiding events on the way to Golgotha, means to be deceived by a dream and thereby refute the reality of salvation. That is why Christ chose Peter rather sharply to try to keep Him from suffering, and that is why Cardinal E. Suhard of Paris spoke in his time of the temptation of Tabor, which threatens not only Peter, but all Christians, if only they make an attempt to remain in the radiance of the grace of Baptism, forgetting about the world drowned in darkness. [61] Therefore, to separate Tabor from the Way of the Cross means to exclude Christ and the Church from history and thereby to refute the reality of the Incarnation. The radiance of Christ's divine power should never so blind us that in this blindness we will not only fail to understand Christ's mission in earthly history, but even, which is quite likely, we will refute it. Christ's relationship with humanity is as genuine and true as His relationship in the Holy Scriptures. Trinity.