Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            “What a transformation! It’s like he’s a new person! I don’t even recognize him!” These things are said about a person who has experienced dramatic weight loss (or… weight gain!), who has taken up the recreational hobby of body building, who has colored their hair, or gotten a none-too-discreet face tattoo. It is (nearly?) in our human nature to be constantly re-inventing ourselves. We love change. We love novelty. It is a sign that we are rarely content with the status quo. Who orders “the usual” besides your grandmother or grandfather at their local diner? “Meatloaf and mashed potatoes?” … Lame!

            The notion of transformation is familiar to our psychology, perhaps, because it is hard-wired into our biology. Man does change. This is not a consequence of the Fall. Man can grow; man does grow, and it is his divinely given prerogative to grow. Man can also decay and corrupt. This, far from being a divine prerogative, is instead the consequence of sin (cf. Gen 2:17). In man’s rebellion against God, he instituted for himself a “progressive decay,” that is growth in corruption.

            But God’s intent for man and woman in creating them in his image and likeness (Gen 1:27) is that they would grow in godliness. Yes, maybe they would have also continued to mature biologically, a kind of “healthy maturation.” If they had assumed the stature (height or weight) of a fully-grown man or woman at the time of their creation, surely, they were not biologically perfect, that is to say, as strong, as fast, as dexterous, as agile, as intelligent as what their created potential—aided by grace--afforded them. One can be less than perfect without being sinful. Let me say that again: one can be less than perfect without being sinful. If we were perfect… we would be God.

            Growth was always part of God’s plan for humanity. We were created in the image of God, but the Genesis account nowhere assumes that creation in equals perfection in, only, man was created in the likeness of God and was without sin. We were to be “as God” to the creation—stewards, co-workers, fashioners, makers, organizers, lovers. And as we worked out our vocation, we would grow: in knowledge, in strength, in skill, in godliness.

            Of course, we know the story too well. Man fell from grace. He fell out of communion with God (Gen 3:23). He sinned and embittered the creation against himself. His potential for growth was capped on account of death. And man substituted his potential for growth in godliness with growth in lawlessness. Following the sin of our forefather and foremother, man became so corrupt, so perfect in violence, perfect in god-less-ness (Gen 6:11), that God mournfully decided to exterminate the whole lot, save the one righteous, Noah, and his family.

            Man was made for growth in godliness. Alone, apart from the Spirit of God to assist in his perfection, man achieved growth. in. sin. But thank God that we were not forsaken. We were punished, indeed, and condemned to death, but we were not forsaken by God (cf. Deut 31:6-8; Heb 13:5-6). Rather, in the person of Jesus Christ, God has graciously accomplished our salvation. He has become a man; lived as a man and died a man. He has resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven, and in all of this, he has taken humanity with himself, personally, as the incarnate Son of God. And in the midst of all this salvific work—birth, life, ministry, healing, teaching, dying, rising—[in the midst of this] Christ has taken the opportunity to show us what man was created for, the glory of man, the glory of God on display before a select few disciples.

            It is important to note, Christ is transfigured, but the transfiguration itself is an experience, that is, a phenomenon particular to the disciples, not to Christ. What do I mean by this? Christ is who Christ is in his transfiguration. Christ is this glorious. This is Christ’s natural state, not his (**quote**) “divine state,” whatever that may be, but this is his human state perfected in divinity. The radiance, brightness, glory that Ss. Peter, James, and John witness in the Transfiguration account are not only natural, as a consequence of Jesus’ divine nature; rather, they are personal effects. This is the glory of Jesus Christ, God and man. It is true, Christ’s humanity is divinized as a result of the incarnation. Christ is a divine person incarnate. But it is also divinized as a result of Christ’s human and divine wills being perfectly cooperative. This is the theology of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. The person Jesus Christ, as a consequence of the incarnation and a perfect, divine-human synergy of wills, is perfect man, glorious man, gracious man. Obviously, this perfect synergy has spiritual and moral implications: Christ is sinless. But it also has physical implications: Christ is incorrupt; he is visibly radiant, glorious. He appears “as a man” but also more than a man, at least, so far as fallen man has experienced his fellow, fallen man.

            So, is the transfiguration of our Lord simply a parlor trick, something to impress the disciples with, to give them secret insight into the glory and splendor of their Master? The Apostle Paul says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians,

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).

Elsewhere, in Romans, the Apostle says likewise,

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Rom 12:2).

In both of these instances, the Apostle uses the same language—to the word—that St. Matthew uses to describe the transfiguration of our Lord in chapter 17 of his Gospel: metamorphein, “to transform, change.” The transfiguration of our Lord is a phenomenological (sensory) revelation of his true person. This is the glorious, incarnate Son of God. Look at him! Look and see! Also, the transfiguration of our Lord is a spiritual revelation of the true telos, the true “end,” of man. The transformation of man into the likeness of the incarnate and resurrected God will be no less glorious, save what is proper to Christ by virtue of his Divine Essence. Let’s repeat that: the transformation of man into the likeness of the incarnate and resurrected God will be no less glorious, save what is proper to Christ by virtue of his Divine Essence.

            This is the Orthodox dogma of theosis, “deification.” “God became man that man might become God,” says St. Athanasius, in On the Incarnation. When we look at the icon of the transfiguration of our Lord, brethren, we are looking at God’s original intent for man in glory, that man might grow in godliness, grow in holiness, grow in perfection, so as to be fully and completely transfigured into the likeness of the Image of God, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Col 1:15). Do we understand, can we comprehend the weight of the glory to which we aspire in grace? No way. No way. And really… that’s part of the fun, part of the incomprehensible joy of our resurrected life in Christ! Our growth in godliness will be an infinite growth, an eternal growth, and yet, that is our eternal end. The end of man is Christ.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!