Some Thoughts on the 15 Days in August

His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos of Australia

For the Orthodox, and particularly for the Greek people, the first 15 days of August is a time in the Church calendar with a very distinct character and spirituality: Daily Services of Supplication to the holy Mother of God. A time of gentle and lenient fasting, as it is a period abundant in fruit and vegetables. And above all confession, contemplation and preparation for the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

However, this period of 15 days leading to the feast would not be authentically Orthodox if it did not have a further feature, which dignifies and fills it with a reverence worthy of the Mother of God. This extra feature is given by a feast day of the Lord which is found, almost silently we could say, within the sacred setting of the first 15 days in August. We refer to the feast of the holy Transfiguration. For just as in our iconography we shall never see the holy Mother Mary without Christ, so it is in our worship and theology that there is no Mariology separate from Christology. This is the substantial reason for which the Transfiguration of the Lord is celebrated almost in the middle of the 15 days leading to the Dormition.

Yet which other deeper relationship could connect these two radiant peaks, that provide orientation to our spiritual journey in August? What has the Transfiguration to do with the Dormition? In answering this reasonable question, we could summaries with the following:
the common denominator of both sacred occurrences in our religious history is the assurance of the dynamism of love which leaves nothing static or lifeless. To be more precise, this relates not only to God's love for the human person, but also to the human person's love for God. A love which testifies in infinite ways with continually new surprises that God is the God of the living and not of the dead (Mat. 22:32).

Let us explain this more clearly and analytically: What is the meaning of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mt Tabor? Is Christ not God, and moreover the Son of the living God? (Mat.16:16). And is God not unchanging, being the same yesterday and today and unto the ages? (Heb.13:8). So given that the essence of God neither changes nor fluctuates – unlike His corruptible creations – what then does the Transfiguration mean in the case of Christ? Before offering an answer to these very natural questions of every religious and thinking person, we should affirm that it would literally be blasphemous to think, even for a moment, that Christ performed a 'magic act' before His astonished Disciples. And we should add that His Birth and Crucifixion and all major events of His earthly life were not less wondrous and supernatural than His Resurrection and Transfiguration.

But let us return to our initial question: What was transfigured by Christ upon Mt Tabor? The passage of the holy Gospel tells us clearly: And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light (Mat. 17:2-3).

Thus we have His "face" on the one hand, and His "clothes" on the other, which changed, shone and were transfigured, such that the Disciples present were dazzled and frightened by the blinding and uncreated light, that revealed the divine glory in one striking moment.

Therefore it was not the divine essence of Christ which was transfigured. Rather only the human aspect (His face and clothes) became like light and totally transparent. If one should ask, Why all of this?, we respond: It was to remind us of the dynamism of divine love, which does not allow us to be weak in faith even before the most bitter impasses of life. This at any rate is especially underlined by the hymnographer of the relevant feast: "so that in seeing Your wonders, the Disciples would not be timid at Your sufferings".

By transfiguring Himself, then, it was as if He was saying to man: "just as I the invisible became visible, the uncontainable became containable, God became human, to approach you as much as possible and save you, in the same way I shall never cease to be vigilant over you until your final redemption, so long as you never forget that my love is always ready to do anything for you."

The message of the Dormition of the Theotokos is similar. And her passing from this life to eternity was also another transfiguration, showing that beyond the limits of what is naturally possible there lies the omnipotence of love which ties the Creator with the created.

Here also, the dynamism of divine love is in full flight, allowing the hymnographer to state epigrammatically in admiration once again: "Nature's boundaries were overcome in you, spotless Virgin…"

But is it not also true that, in the lives of each of us, in every common person, the same dynamism of God's love causes a host of transfigurations? Our transition from nonexistence to existence, our development from an embryo into a baby, our growth from an infant into a fulfilled adult who speaks, thinks, sins, repents and is renewed while returning to mother earth from where we were fashioned – are not all these daily and great things countless transfigurations made possible by the love of God alone? Who gives the strength to the thief, the tax collector, the prodigal and the desperate to return into the embrace of God, if not the dynamism of divine love?

The Transfiguration of Christ is therefore a leading and unapproachable milestone in our life. Also sacred and unapproachable for us who are unworthy is the Dormition of the Theotokos, a similarly sacred transfiguration. Yet both these sacred events are a guarantee and consolation that the same God of love will transfigure into incorruption anything from each of us that is entrusted to Him with unshakeable faith and complete humility. For we certainly do not forget His fundamental promise, which is at the same time a command and annunciation: behold I make all things new (Rev. 21:5).

Translation by DK

This article first appeared in the Greek Australian Vema in August 2007