The Transfiguration is the moment when Christ revealed His divine glory to three of His apostles on a mountain. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became white as light. And the disciples got a glimpse of who He really was.
It happened like this: Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain (tradition says Mount Tabor, though some think it was Mount Hermon). While He was praying, His appearance changed. Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, talking about His coming death in Jerusalem. A bright cloud overshadowed them, and God the Father’s voice spoke: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.” The three apostles fell on their faces, terrified and amazed.
We celebrate this feast on August 6 every year. It’s one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church.
Why It Matters
The Transfiguration isn’t just a cool miracle story. It’s central to how we understand salvation itself.
What the apostles saw on that mountain was the uncreated light of God’s divine energies shining through Christ’s human body. Not a created light like the sun or a lamp. This was the light that always belonged to Him as God, the same light that will fill all creation when He returns. For a few moments, He let it show through.
This is what we’re being saved for. Not just forgiveness of sins, though that’s part of it. Not just going to heaven when we die. We’re being saved to participate in this same divine light, to be transformed by it, to become by grace what Christ is by nature. That’s theosis. That’s what the Transfiguration shows us is possible.
Moses and Elijah showed up for a reason. Moses represented the Law, Elijah the Prophets. The whole Old Testament pointed to this moment, to this Person. And now here they were, talking with Him about His approaching Passion. The Law and the Prophets bore witness, but Christ fulfilled and surpassed them both.
Peter wanted to build three tents, one for each of them. He didn’t know what he was saying. You can’t put Christ on the same level as Moses and Elijah, no matter how great they were. The Father’s voice made that clear: “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.”
What We Do on the Feast
On August 6, we serve the full festal liturgy. Many parishes also serve Vigil the night before. At St. Michael’s, like at Orthodox churches across Southeast Texas and everywhere else, we bring grapes or other fruit to be blessed during the service. It’s a tradition that goes back centuries. The fruit represents the firstfruits of creation being transformed, just as Christ’s human nature was revealed in glory on the mountain.
The hymns of the feast are stunning. The Troparion says Christ was “transfigured on the Mount” and “showed Thy glory to Thy disciples as far as they could bear it.” That last phrase matters. They saw what they could handle. The full glory would’ve destroyed them. Even what they saw left them flat on their faces.
This wasn’t Jesus putting on a light show. This was Him briefly lifting the veil that normally hid His divinity during His earthly ministry. He looked like this all along, if you had eyes to see it. The Transfiguration was a gift to the apostles before the horror of the Cross. When they saw Him beaten, mocked, and crucified a few months later, they’d remember this mountain. They’d remember that the man dying on the Cross was the same one who shone brighter than the sun.
What It Means for Us
We’re not just commemorating something that happened two thousand years ago. The Transfiguration shows us our own destiny. Christ took on human nature so that human nature could be filled with divine light. What happened to His body on Mount Tabor can happen to us, not because we stop being human but because we become fully human, the way God always intended.
The saints have experienced this. There are accounts of saints whose faces shone during prayer, whose bodies gave off light. St. Seraphim of Sarov had a conversation with a disciple where his face became so bright the man could barely look at him. That’s not magic. That’s what happens when someone’s been transformed by grace, when the light of the Transfiguration starts shining through a human life.
You can come to Liturgy on August 6 and bring some grapes if you’ve got them. Stand there and listen to the hymns. Let the feast sink in. This is what we’re being saved for. This light, this glory, this transformation. Not someday in some abstract heaven, but starting now, in this body, in this life, by grace.
