Transfiguration

It is worth considering that of the three prophets assumed by God in the Old Testament, two of them appeared with the glorified Christ on Mount Tabor: Moses, giver of the Law, and Elias, who slew false prophets on Mount Carmel. The message God entrusted to both of them was that God demanded due reverence in worship and deportment from His people. The message of Christ, more difficultly, was that God asked something proactive of mankind, to love God with all one's heart and one's neighbor as one's self. 

Christ's Transfiguration displayed His albescent divinity, what St. Gregory Palamas called the "uncreated divine energies" (today that phraseology would be dangerously New Age). Perhaps we should recall that His divine also illuminated our humanity....

"For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. For he received from God the Father, honour and glory: this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." (2Peter 1:16-17, first nocturne of Mattins)

"Of this metamorphosis the chief work was to remove from the hearts of the disciples the stumbling at the Cross. Before their eyes was unveiled the splendour of His hidden majesty, that the lowliness of His freely-chosen suffering might not confound their faith. But none the less was there here laid by the Providence of God a solid foundation for the hope of the Holy Church, whereby the whole body of Christ should know with what a change it is yet to be honoured. The members of that body whose Head hath already been transfigured in light may promise themselves a share in His glory." (Pope St. Leo the Great, second nocturne of Mattins) 

Transfiguration: Paving the Way of the Cross

source: toledofavs.com

The modern trend with regards to the Transfiguration of our Redeemer is to emphasize His glory and divinity, which he revealed to Elias, Moses, Peter, James, and John. The Hesychast theology following the tradition of Palamas even extends this to include the manifestation of the uncreated, uncaused Divine energy of God. The ancient view is both simpler and more intuitive than either of these when we read the Gospel as a whole. From the Fathers in today's Mattins:

"The Lord takes chosen witnesses, and in their presence, reveals His glory. That form of body which He had in common with other men, He so transfigured with light, that His Face did shine as the sun, and His raiment became exceeding white as snow. Of this metamorphosis the chief work was to remove from the hearts of the disciples the stumbling at the Cross. Before their eyes was unveiled the splendour of His hidden majesty, that the lowliness of His freely-chosen suffering might not confound their faith. But none the less was there here laid by the Providence of God a solid foundation for the hope of the Holy Church, whereby the whole body of Christ should know with what a change it is yet to be honoured. The members of that body whose Head hath already been transfigured in light may promise themselves a share in His glory." Sermon of St. Leo the Great on the Transfiguration, taken from the second nocturne

"Since the Lord had spoken much concerning dangers, much concerning His Own sufferings, much concerning death, and the killing of His disciples, and had laid upon them many hard and grievous things, and since all these were in this present life, and already hanging over them, whereas the good things were matter for hope and waiting as, for example, that whosoever should lose his life for His sake should find it, for that the Son of Man should come in the glory of His Father, and reward every man according to his works. Therefore, to assure them by their own eyes, and show them what the glory is wherein He will come, He manifested and unveiled it to them, as far as in this life they were able to grasp it, lest they and especially Peter should grieve over their own deaths, or the death of their Lord." 57th Sermon on Matthew by St. John Chrysostom, taken from the third nocturne

As an addendum, I would like to point out one of my favorite features of the icon of the Transfiguration. something that has always amused me. The three Apostles are blinded by the light and unable to see. John and James are looking away, overpowered by the radiance of the Lord's illuminated majesty. Peter, however, has to say something. Indeed, Peter always has to say something. Throughout the four Gospels he relentlessly speaks up at inopportune times and gets himself in trouble. After receiving the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven he passes on his chance to be quiet and earns the Lord's sharp condemnation "Get behind Me, Satan." There may be some theological significance to Peter's orientation toward the Lord in the icon—he did suggest the erection of three tabernacles—yet I cannot help but think there was an element of humor on the iconographers' part in having Peter attempt to get the Lord's attention while more important things transpire.

Feast Day Ranks

Today, tomorrow, and the day after give us some insight into how feasts have been celebrated and ranked throughout the history of the Roman Church. The Roman rite generally has four categories for days:

• Ferial
• Simple
• Semi-Double
• Double

Semi-Double is a compromise between Simple and Double. A Ferial day uses the psalter of the day (including the 12 Mattins psalms), the full preces and suffrages during the major and minor hours (intercessory prayers), and celebrates the Mass proscribed for that day. For most of the year this is a repetition of Sunday's Mass. During Lent it is a unique Mass daily. Mass uses an odd number of orations, usually three, but enough commemorations can boost it to five or seven.

A Simple usually celebrates a lesser known saint of local interest and has much the same character as a Ferial day, except the psalms at Lauds are festive and the Mass is of the saint rather than of the previous Sunday. Mass is sung after Sext on Ferial and Simple days, except when the Ferial or Simple day has a penitential character or is a vigil—like next week's vigil for St. Lawrence—in which case the Mass is after None. During Lent the Ferial days enjoy privilege and supersede the Simple feasts. On Simples the full preces are sung, but the Commemoration of the Cross is omitted during the suffrages. A Simple begins with Vespers the previous night and ends at None in the afternoon, as is still the Eastern practice for feasts.

A Double begins with first Vespers the previous night and ends with Compline the night of the feast. Mattins uses 9 psalms and 9 lessons in three nocturnes as Mattins, using either psalms proper to the feast or from the Commons. Lauds are of course festive and there are no suffrages or preces during any of the hours of the Office. Mass, sung after Terce, has no votive orations, although it can admit commemorations of impeded feasts or Ferial days.

Semi-Double is, again, a blend of Double and Simple. It retains all the psalms and the arrangement or the hours of a Double, but with the suffrage, preces, and commemoration rules of a Simple. The Rad Trad always fancied Semi-Double to be an arrangement invented by monks who thought a saint was important, but not important enough to impede Sunday. Sundays are Semi-Double, but take priority over any Semi-Double saint's feast.

What does this have to do with the period from August 4-6th? Every day of that period is a Double feast. Today's feast of St. Dominic began last night, overtaking Sunday's Vespers. Tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of the Snows (St. Mary Major in Rome). Finally, on Wednesday, is the Transfiguration of the Lord. Despite their similar celebration in the Mass and Office they are not observed as having the same status.

Many will have heard of the ranks "Double I Class," "Double II Class," "Great Double" etc. These days illustrate the significance of these ranks. They are means of classifying the prominence of feasts that are celebrated the same way in the Office. It seems that when these classifications were given to Double feasts in the mid-second millennium—complete when Clement VIII instituted "Greater Double" rank—those in charge of the process began with the understanding that the feast of the Transfiguration would be the most significant day in the sequence. From there they also understood that while not as important, Our Lady of Snows was both a Marian feast and a major feast within the city of Rome. St. Dominic was an important enough saint to impede the Sunday Mass and Office, as he would have until 1911, but not enough to impede the other feasts. So St. Dominic retained a regular Double rank, while Our Lady of the Snows became Greater Double, and the Transfiguration was kept as a Double II Class. Hence second Vespers of St. Dominic is replaced by first Vespers of Our Lady of the Snows, which in turn loses its second Vespers to the first Vespers of the Transfiguration (which enjoys first and second Vespers). 

All this becomes apparent when one sees no Greater Double feast in the kalendar is surrounded by Ferial or Simple days!

A picture of St. Mary Major from the Rad Trad's personal collection.

From the Baptistry.