Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.
They appeared in glory and were speaking of his exodus,
which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep;
but since they had stayed awake,
they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him (Lk. 9:30-32).
Someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. (1 Cor 15:35)
[Luke] defines the Old Testament theophany evoked here by means of the expression δόξα (glory). The two men who belong to the divine sphere appear ‘in glory’, and Jesus is not merely lit up by this glory from outside himself, nor introduced into it: it is his own glory (‘when they awoke, they saw his glory’: Lk 9.32). This had been prepared by Matthew, where it is not only the garments of Jesus that are radiant (as at Mk 9.3), but his face that shines like the sun (Mt 17.2); but the Lucan clarification is fundamentally present already in the concept of transfiguration, which he—unlike Mark and Matthew—does not employ. The second clarification in Luke points towards the suffering, which now forms the contents of the ‘conversation’, already mentioned by Mark and Matthew, between Jesus and the heavenly figures….The astonishing thing about the transfiguration is that, in this night on the high mountain,the ever elusivedoxaof the Old Testament becomes present for a moment in all its stages and forms, and attains its immediate fulfilment in its Old Testament form in Jesus and at the heart of his prayer to the Father—not as in John, where the glory as it were goes beyond itself and is dissolved into this relationship so that the entire existence of Jesus is a more or less concealed or open glory; and an individual transfiguration scene becomes superfluous; but in such a way that the intermediary stage becomes visible, the moment in which the Old Testament glory concentrates itself in a single point, so that it may enter and cross over into the glory of the New Testament. But this gathering together of scattered elements from Sinai via Elijah to Daniel is at the same time their concentration to form an arrow that now points straight at the final goal: the unity of the Cross and the parousia. What was said above about the double temporal horizon of Jesus must be kept in view here: the Cross is the end of the world, and what lies beyond it is the parousia. The transfiguration of the earthly Jesus, of his earthly clothes and in some manner of the world upon which he shines, is the promise and first instalment of the eschatological transformation of the world as a whole, and for Paul this truly begins with the living of the Christian life—as a reflection of the glory of Christ—in a way that is both invisible and visible (2 Cor 3). But all this takes place in the deepest concealment—in Luke, in a scenario that is strangely close to that of the temptation on the Mount of Olives far from men, before three witnesses who are half asleep and who must seal up in strict silence what they have seen. (Hans Urs von Balthasar)
In the Gospel of the great apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, we read the words of Christ, which are very closely associated with those written in the Revelation: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).
Do you hear this, do you understand this? I think that this probably strikes you as strange, that all those who are obedient to the word of Christ and believe in the Heavenly Father Who sent Him passes immediately after death to eternal life. There is no reason to judge those who have living faith in God and who follow his commandments.
The Most-Holy Virgin Mary was the spotless temple of the Savior in which dwelt the Holy Spirit, and from her most-holy womb the Son of God received His human body, He Who descended from the Heavens. Because of this, bodily death is not death, but a dormition, in other words, an immediate passage from the Kingdom of God within to the Kingdom of the Heavens and to eternal life.
Let us think, brothers and sisters, about the blessed Dormition of the Most-Holy Virgin Mary and remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). May God also make us sinners worthy to experience this great joy, through the joy and love for man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom belong all glory and dominion, with His beginningless Father and His All-Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.(St. Luke of Simferopol)
Musical Selection
Prayers
The mountain that once was veiled in smoke and terrible,
is now holy and revered,
since your feet, O Lord, have stood there!
For Your dread Transfiguration, the mystery hidden before the ages,
has been made manifest in the last times to Peter, James and John.
Unable to endure the shining of Your face and the brilliance of Your garments,
they fell to the ground upon their faces!
Seized with wonder and amazement, they saw Moses and Elijah
talking with You about the things that would befall You;
and a voice came in testimony from the Father saying:
This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to Him!
it is He Who grants the world great mercy!(Orthodox Vespers of the Transfiguration)
At the sovereign command of God
the God-bearing apostles were caught up from every place,
and when they came to your all-pure body from which life has come,
they kissed it with love.
The heavenly powers also came with their master,
and in awe escorted the body all-pure and well-pleasing to God:
the body which had received God in the flesh!
And with dignity they went before and invisibly cried out to the most high powers:
Behold, the Queen of all and the Maiden of God is coming!
Be lifted up, O gates!
And lift up her who is the mother of the Everlasting Light,
for through her was accomplished the salvation of all!
We cannot gaze upon her,
and we cannot render her the honor which is her due,
for her virtue surpasses all understanding!
Therefore, most-pure Theotokos,
who abide forever with your Son, the Life-bearing King,
pray to Him to preserve the new people of God,
and to save them from every attack of the enemy,
for we have acquired your intercession,//
and we bless you in beauty and light forever! (Orthodox Vespers of the Dormition)