Troparion in Tone 4
Let us celebrate in advance the joy of Christ's
Transfiguration,
O faithful!
Let us rejoice and cry out in the prefeast:
The day of heavenly joy is approaching,
For the Lord is ascending Mount Tabor
Where He shines with the Light of His Divinity!
Kontakion in Tone 4
Today mankind prepares to reflect the radiance of divine
splendor
Wrought in the Transfiguration of Christ,
Crying joyfully: Christ is transfigured to save us all!
For an explanation of the
present Feast and understanding of its truth, it is necessary for us to
turn to the very start of today's reading from the Gospel: "Now after
six days Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up
onto a high mountain by themselves" (Matthew 17:01).
First of all we must ask,
from whence does the Evangelist Matthew begin to reckon with six days?
From what sort of day is it? What does the preceding turn of speech
indicate, where the Savior, in teaching His disciples, said to them:
"For the
Son of Man shall come with his angels in the glory of His Father,"
and further: "Amen I say to you, there are some standing here who
shall not taste death, until they have seen the Son of Man coming in
His Kingdom" (Matthew 16:27-28).
That is to say, it is the
Light of His own forthcoming Transfiguration which He terms the Glory of
His Father and of His Kingdom.
The Evangelist Luke points
this out and reveals this more clearly saying:
"Now it came to pass about
eight days after these words, that He took Peter and John and James, and
went up the mountain to pray. And as He prayed, His countenance was
altered, and His raiment became a radiant white" (Luke 9:28-29).
But how
can the two be reconciled, when one of them speaks definitively about
the interval of time as being eight days between the sayings and the
manifestation, whereas the other (says): "after six days?"
