A Meditation for Transfiguration

O Lord, in the light of Thy face shall we walk… Psalm 89
(Transfiguration communion Hymn)

Can the face of Christ again “radiate in the faces of those who belong to him,” as an ancient liturgical text puts it? The only message which is powerful any longer is not the one which simply repeats the words of Christ, the Word, but the one which makes Him present. Only His presence will make the message, as the Gospel says, light and salt for the world.

The Gospel is an explosive seed. It is revolutionary. It overturns not the structures of the world but those of the human spirit. What is important here is the manifestation of God in us, the coming of Christ in humanity. In the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, “Acquire peace within and multitudes of people around you will find their salvation with you.”

The man and woman of our post-modern era has already been transformed by the magic spell of the conviction that “all is permitted.” Yet we are unhappy in the very depths of our souls. Our misery is echoed in our hunger for freedom. It is possible for us, once more, if just for a moment, to put all else aside and to see Christ, to enter into conversation with Him. But in order for this to happen it is necessary that the Christian message no longer simply be the repetition of a catechism lesson. It is necessary rather that we become persons who speak of God and allow ourselves to be ones in whom God himself speaks. If we find Christ again in the Gospel, it will be because each word there already contains His presence. The one who then becomes the messenger must identify with Christ who is speaking, so that His presence may shine. And the messenger must always still his own voice.

—Paul Evdokimov