Father Andrew's July / August Lamplighter message

Dekapentavgousto and The Transfiguration of our Lord

Each August we concentrate on the season of prayer and fasting devoted to the Theotokos.  This is the time of the Dekapentavgousto, the fifteen days from August 1 to 15, when we honor the Virgin Mary.  Each evening we gather for prayer at the Small and Great Paraklesis services.  These services give us the opportunity to pray health and salvation for all our loved ones.
         
Often times we fail to take proper note and to celebrate one of the major Feastdays of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  That is His Transfiguration.  This event is very prominent in the gospels and is a great celebration for our Church.  The beautiful words of Fr. Thomas Hopko describe this very special Feast Day:
               
The Transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by his apostles as "the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Living God" he  told them that "he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things... and be killed and on the third day be raised." (Matthew 16) The announcement of Christ's approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. And then, after rebuking them, the Lord took Peter, James and John "up to a high mountain," by tradition Mount Tabor, and was "transfigured before them."
           
. . . and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow and behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."  He was still speaking when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Beloved
Son, with whom I am well please; listen to him".

 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces  with awe. But Jesus came and touched them saying, "Rise, and have no fear." And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them,"Tell no one of the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." (Matthew 17:1-9, see also Mark 9:1-9; Luke 9:28-36; II Peter 1:16-18)
     
The Jewish Festival of Booths was a feast of the dwelling of God with men, and the transfiguration of Christ reveals how this dwelling takes place in and through the Messiah, the Son of God in human flesh. There is little doubt that Christ's transfiguration took place at the time of the Festival of Booths, and that the celebration of the event in the Christian Church became the New Testamental fulfillment of the Old Testament feast in a way similar to the feasts of Passover and Pentecost.
  
In the Transfiguration, the apostles see the glory of the Kingdom of God present in majesty in the person of Christ. They see that in him, indeed, "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell," that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." (Colossians 1:19,2:9) They see this before the crucifixion so that in the resurrection they might know who it is who has suffered for them, and what it is that this one, who is God, has prepared for those who love him. This is what the Church celebrates in the Feast of the Transfiguration.
       
“You were transfigured upon the mountain, O Christ our God, showing to Your disciples Your glory as much as they could bear.  Do also in us, sinners though we be, shine Your everlasting light, through the intercessions of the Theotokos, O Giver of light. Glory to You.”   (Apolytikion hymn)