The Byzantine liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration reveals to us the connection between Christ and humanity in three aspects: the event on Tabor as a reflection of the Resurrection, as the beginning of the deification of man, and as a harbinger of the transfiguration of the world.

      The Eastern Church, calling the transfiguration of Jesus "the brightness of the resurrection," says that it proclaims the "saving resurrection" (Great Vespers). [62] The deepest meaning of these definitions is contained in the fact that Christ, transfigured on Tabor, is Christ as He will be after His resurrection: His face, shining like the sun, is permeated with the Divine power hidden in the very nature of the Logos. Transfiguration is a manifestation of the uncreated Divine power. And if the manifestation of this Divine power on Tabor is an image of the resurrection of Christ, then the resurrection is nothing but the breakthrough of this Divine power. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is essentially related to His divinity. Jesus had to be resurrected, for already in this life His Humanity was so full of Divinity that the laws and rules of this life became powerless and were subordinated to the Divine life. The law of death, to which all men are subject, did not operate in Christ by virtue of its natural necessity, as in any other man, but only because the Logos, by His self-abasement, allowed him to act, accepting it as His fate. In the light of the Transfiguration, the death of Christ is an absolutely free action: it is a sacrifice in the salvation of mankind. Therefore, at Matins of the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Eastern Church sings that on Tabor the disciples saw the Divine glory of Christ and understood that His suffering on Golgotha was voluntary. [63] But Christ, permeated with the Divine light, could not die. And if He did die, it was only because He allowed death to work. It was as if He was showing her mercy by exposing His human nature to destruction.

      This aspect is characterized by the fact that the Byzantine liturgy considers the transfiguration of Jesus to be a response to the conversation between Moses and Elijah "about His exodus, which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem" (Luke 9:30). True, the necessity of this outcome was defended by Jesus Himself, who rejected Peter's words and called him Satan when the latter tried to convince the Savior that there was no need for Him to go to Jerusalem and be killed (cf. Matt. 16:21-23). Jesus' mission on earth was to end in death. On the other hand, however, the disciples had to understand that Jesus' death was not the natural end of His earthly journey. That is why He allowed them to see His transfiguration, during which His human nature shone with divine light. Thus Jesus proclaimed to His disciples and to all mankind that His death was not the natural result of His humanity, for His humanity was already filled with Divinity in the very process of life, but was a voluntary decision of the Lover of mankind, taken for the salvation of mankind (cf. Great Vespers, Litiya). [64] The Transfiguration on Tabor is indisputable proof that death on Golgotha is a completely free sacrifice of Christ for the good of man.

      However, Christ's human nature is inextricably linked to His divine nature. The acceptance of humanity at the moment of incarnation was not the temporary clothe of the Logos in humanity as in garments, but was the union of the Creator with His creation for permanent co-existence. Christ as Man never had to cease to be Man and return to His purely triune state as the Word of the Father. Therefore, death could only be a transitory state for Christ, but not a permanent state. After all, death destroys human nature, dividing it into carnal and spiritual principles. True, the spiritual principle lives on after death, but not in the fullness of the image. In view of the fact that man as such is not only a spirit, then his posthumous life outside of his carnal nature is not fully human. Therefore, Christianity, calling the afterlife a perfect existence, proclaims the resurrection of the flesh and its union with the soul, for only in this way does man regain his nature as it was originally created by the Lord. Having become man, Christ took on human nature in all its fullness. Therefore He could not allow death to destroy the carnal nature of this nature, and that the Logos should bear only the human soul, not clothed with flesh. In the existence of Christ, death could only be a sacrificial act. He performed this act on the cross, prepared a sacrifice for His Heavenly Father for people, and thereby fulfilled His mission on earth – and rose again in order to return to the Father in the fullness of His being. The Resurrection is the indispensable result of the unity of the two natures of Christ in one Person of the Divine Logos.

      Therefore, it is understandable why Christ forbade the Apostles to tell people about the transfiguration, "until the Son of Man rises from the dead" (Mark 9:9). For it was only after the resurrection that the apostles and all others could understand that the transfiguration of Christ was not an accidental event that took place by command from above, but that it was a manifestation of His Divine Nature as well as His resurrection. On Mount Tabor, the Divine Nature broke through with a transient radiance, which after the resurrection was to become the permanent state of Christ. By forbidding His disciples to tell about what they had seen on Tabor, Christ Himself pointed to the essential connection of the Transfiguration with the Resurrection as the final affirmation of Divinity in the human principle. That the Apostles understood this thought of Christ is evidenced by their conversation among themselves about "what it means to rise from the dead" (Mark 9:10). The disciples felt that the light of Tabor was something more than just an ordinary reflection of Divinity, that it indicated what was to happen to Christ. That is why they spoke of the resurrection, although they did not know how this could happen. However, in any case, the transfiguration of Jesus on Tabor is an introduction to the resurrection, and the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning is a fully realized transfiguration.

      But the human nature in Christ, united with the Divine Logos, is exactly the same as that of all of us. Jesus of Nazareth is the True Man, possessing soul and body, bearing all the content of His people. As a human being, He is no different from others. However, this universal human nature in Christ is not for Himself. The saying is quite vague, but true. Christ is a man, but not in the sense of a human person, but only in the sense of nature. There is no human person in Christ, as in any other of us – Jonas, Petras, Povilas, Antanas. This is the greatest mystery of the confession, the depths of which our reason cannot comprehend, but which is one of the fundamental Christian dogmas. Christ took on human nature, but did not turn into a human person. As a person, Christ is only a Divine Person: the Divine Logos is the Second Person of the Holy Spirit. Trinity. He carries human nature and unites it with the Divine. Christ is one Person (Divine), having two natures (Divine and human). And precisely because there is no human person in Christ, His human nature did not become His private property. We, as self-aware individuals, make human nature our personal property: our personality makes our human nature its belonging, which is separate from others and contained only in our personality. Therefore, the actions of our personality, concentrated on our own Self, concern only our nature, not extend to the entire space of the humanity of this nature. We live and act in ourselves and for ourselves.

      This is what we do, but not Christ. Not being a human person, Christ does not separate His human nature from the same nature of other people. Human nature in Christ was not incarnated in a human person. It is personified in the Person of the Divine Logos. However, the Logos as God is so universal that there can be no separation. The Divine Person of the Logos, who bears human nature, does not make this nature exclusively His own, which could belong only to Him and serve Him alone. By taking on human nature and personifying it not in a human person, but only in a divine person, Christ did not become a personal man, but became a universal man, a universal man, as vast as human nature itself. And this is something that needs to be paid special attention if we are to understand Christ's relationship with humanity. This connection is not only legal, not only moral, but iontological. This connection is based on the same universal human nature. The universal and complete humanity, which our personality individualizes and thereby limits, does not live in Christ individually or in a limited way. Consequently, all of Christ's activity is not limited to the expanse of nature that we see in Jesus of Nazareth. The activity of Christ extends to the whole of human nature in all its universality.

      That is why the Eastern Church in the Liturgy of the Transfiguration notes that the breakthrough of Divinity on Tabor is not only the individual illumination of the humanity of Jesus, but also the deification of the entire human nature. Christianity proclaims that deification is the ultimate goal of man and his happiness, and that people in this state, as stated in the catechism approved by the Council of Trent, will resemble gods more than men ("potius dii quam homines viderentur"). [65] The transfiguration of Jesus on Tabor was precisely the beginning of such deification. The Byzantine liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration often repeats that Christ "on Mount Tabor, having changed Adam's blackened nature, enlightened and made God" (Little Vespers)[66], for sin had blackened and darkened human nature. "In all Adam, O Christ, Thou didst clothe the blackened, having changed, Thou didst enlighten the nature of old, and by the change of Thy form Thou didst make God" (Matins, Ode 3). [67]

      According to the Eastern Church, the deification of human nature occurs when the Divine prototype violated and crippled by sin is restored in man. At Great Vespers, the Eastern Church sings that Christ was transfigured before the Apostles, "manifesting the splendor of the principle of goodness" (litiya). [68] However, the prototype of man is none other than Christ Himself (more on this later). After all, in Him and by Him everything and everything was created, which means that man is also created. The prototype of man shines in Christ in its primordial power and becomes the pledge of universal deification ("pignus futurae gloriae"). At the moment of the transfiguration, the Divine power deified the human nature of Christ, and this same power will deify our nature, for our nature is the same as it is in Christ. The divine prototype of humanity in Christ is manifested quite clearly, and it will also be manifested in us. The event on Tabor is the appearance of the prototype of man in Christ and thereby an indication that this prototype will be finally restored in all mankind. Without a doubt, the path of the deification of mankind is the path that Christ walked. And this path leads through death and resurrection. In fact, our hope of being deified begins with Tabor, for it was the Transfiguration that showed and confirmed that human nature, as the Byzantine liturgy says, is worthy of Divine glory (cf. Great Vespers, troparion). And since human nature in Christ is the same as in all people, the deification of humanity in Christ indicates that our nature is also worthy of divine glory.

      But it is not only the deification of man that is indicated by the transfiguration of Jesus on Tabor. In the event on Tabor, the Eastern Church also sees the beginning of the transfiguration of the cosmos. Western Christians have long been accustomed to perceive the Grace of the Lord in a moral and psychological sense, and to limit the sphere of its influence to the life and being of man. Little is said in the West about the transformation of nature as a whole, about the transformation of the universe. And in theology this idea has not been developed either. It is usually mentioned only in connection with the bodily resurrection at the end of time. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Church, the transfiguration of the cosmos is one of the main Christian truths. The Eastern Church sees confirmation of this truth in the Transfiguration of Christ on Tabor. The Byzantine liturgy has created a multitude of images with which it attempts to express and make this truth understandable and emotionally effective.

      According to the teaching of the Eastern Church, the light of Tabor is not some purely psychological thing that affects only emotionally. It is not an inner illumination, but an ontological event that affects the whole of being, embracing the whole of nature. The divine power manifested in the humanity of Christ transformed not only His humanity, but also the entire world connected with man. "For the sun, clarifying the earth, sets, but Christ, having shone with glory on the mountain, enlightened the world,"[69] – prays the Eastern Church at Little Vespers on the feast of the Transfiguration. The rays of the Divinity of Christ spread to the cosmos, so it is also renewed. At Great Vespers, during the exit to the litiya, the Eastern Church sings that Christ sanctified the entire universe with His light (cf. the litiya). [70] It was the creative Light of the Father and the Light of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, "Who instructs all creation with Light" (Matins, Luminary)[71]. In the presence of the transfigured Christ, not only man rejoices – "All joy is fulfilled today: Christ is transfigured before the disciples" (According to the 50th Psalm). [72]

      Thus, Christ's connection with the world is not only anthropological, but also cosmological. The Logos, by assuming human nature, thereby also accepted the content of the cosmos, which is hidden in the structure of man and is united with the Personality of the Logos. The divine power that shone on Tabor changes not only man, but also the natural world. Characteristically, in folk spiritual poems, Mount Tabor is called the mother of all mountains, for it is here that the birth of the new world begins, the new land of which the New Testament speaks (cf. 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). On Tabor, the overcoming of the dark "crust of things" begins, which hides from us the Light of existence – God; here begins the appearance of the Logos as the radiant basis of being. Christ, by announcing His connection with the earth, showed that He holds the fate not only of mankind, but also of the entire cosmos and leads them to the fullness of being.

4. THE PRIMACY OF DIVINITY IN CHRIST

Christ is the incarnate Word of the Father, He was sent into humanity for the redemption of the world. He lives not only as a man, but through human nature is united with the entire created world, which He frees "from slavery to corruption" and leads "into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:21). Christ's sojourn in the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, His relationship to humanity and the cosmos, are all familiar to the West, although perhaps not all of these aspects are equally emphasized. Thus, in the dogmatic sense, the liturgy of the feast of the Transfiguration does not reveal to us any special truths that are not known to us.