The Transfiguration of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ is one of the great feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated each year by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on August 19.
On Mount Tabor, Christ revealed His divine glory to three of His disciples: Peter, James, and John. For a brief moment, they were permitted to behold what had been hidden from their ordinary sight.
The Transfiguration reveals Who Jesus Christ truly is. But the feast does not ask us simply to remember what the Apostles witnessed. It points toward what the Christian life itself is meant to become: a life transformed by Christ and illumined by His grace.
The official website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, in an explanation of the feast by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), teaches that every event of the Church calendar has an application to our individual spiritual lives. The Transfiguration points toward the transformed state to which Christians themselves are called.
What Happened on Mount Tabor?
According to Church Tradition, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended Mount Tabor with three of His Apostles: Peter, James, and John.
There, Christ was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, His garments became white as light, and the disciples were surrounded by Divine light.
Moses and Elijah appeared with Him.
The voice of the Heavenly Father testified concerning Christ, declaring Him to be His beloved Son. The Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR identifies this testimony of the Father as central to the event commemorated by the feast.
The Transfiguration was not Christ becoming something He had not been before.
Rather, the disciples were permitted to behold His divine glory.
Why Were Moses and Elijah There?
Moses and Elijah were among the great God-seers of the Old Testament. At the Transfiguration, they are present at the glorification of the Lord in the New Testament.
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) explains this encounter beautifully: Moses and Elijah behold Christ's humanity, while the disciples are permitted to behold His Divinity in a way they had not seen before.
The mountain therefore brings together the Old and New Testaments around Christ Himself. Everything directs our attention toward Him.
Why Did Christ Reveal His Glory Before His Passion?
The timing of the Transfiguration carries profound spiritual meaning.
The disciples who saw Christ shining with glory would soon see Him betrayed, mocked, suffering, and crucified.
Metropolitan Hilarion of blessed memory, former First Hierarch of ROCOR, taught that Christ revealed His glory to Peter, James, and John before His Passion in order to strengthen them. They needed to understand that what they would witness at Golgotha was not Christ being overcome by forces greater than Himself.
His suffering would be voluntary.
Metropolitan Hilarion explained that Christ strengthened His disciples in the knowledge that He was voluntarily taking upon Himself the sins of the world and voluntarily suffering out of His love for mankind.
Before the darkness of Golgotha, they were given a glimpse of the glory of the Kingdom.
The Cross Is Not the End
The Transfiguration therefore looks forward. An official explanation of the feast teaches that it is a prefiguration of Christ's Resurrection and His Second Coming.
This gives the feast extraordinary spiritual depth.
The Apostles would see suffering.
They would see the Cross.
They would see the tomb.
But on Tabor, Christ had already shown them that suffering and death do not have the final word.
Metropolitan Hilarion described the Transfiguration as revealing the Heavenly spiritual glory that follows temporal suffering. He taught that Christ showed His disciples both His divine glory and the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom awaiting those who faithfully follow Him and are spiritually reborn.
The light of Tabor therefore points beyond the sorrows of this present life toward the Kingdom of God.
What Does the Transfiguration Reveal About Christ?
At the heart of the feast stands Jesus Christ Himself.
Metropolitan Nicholas, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, teaches that in His Transfiguration the Lord showed His glory to His disciples so that we might firmly believe that Christ is the Son of God-Who came to earth to save us, died upon the Cross, rose from the dead, and gives us eternal life.
The feast therefore asks us a fundamental question: Who is Christ to us?
The Apostles were permitted to behold His glory. We are called to confess Him as the Son of God and Savior of the world and to order our lives accordingly.
The Light of Tabor and the Christian Life
The Transfiguration is not only about something the Apostles saw long ago. It reveals something about what man is called to become in Christ.
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) explains that the transformed state revealed by this feast concerns the future state of Christians, but can also be experienced in some measure even in this life.
He points specifically to St. Seraphim of Sarov, who was seen shining with the same uncreated Light of God's glory during his conversation with Nicholas Motovilov.
This is why the Transfiguration cannot be reduced to a beautiful miracle. It reveals the astonishing height of the Christian calling.
We are called to communion with God.
We are called to holiness.
We are called to be transformed.
“To Ascend Mount Tabor”
Metropolitan Nicholas frequently brings the feast directly into the spiritual life of the faithful. He calls us to ascend Tabor spiritually.
This does not mean physically climbing a mountain. It means turning away from the darkness and distractions surrounding us and drawing nearer to Christ through the life of His Church.
Metropolitan Nicholas teaches that we must labor, pray, and confess Christ as the Son of God if we desire to become participants in His divine glory.
The Transfiguration therefore presents us with an ascent.
From distraction toward prayer.
From sin toward repentance.
From spiritual darkness toward Christ.
We Are Called to Be Transfigured
This is where the feast becomes deeply personal. ROCOR's teaching does not allow us simply to stand at a distance and admire the light of Mount Tabor.
We ourselves are called to change.
Metropolitan Nicholas teaches: “Every one of us is given an opportunity to transfigure our lives.”
He connects that transformation directly with repentance and Holy Communion, teaching that when we repent and commune, we can leave the church transformed and make a new beginning.
Metropolitan Hilarion likewise connected the Transfiguration with the teaching of St. Seraphim of Sarov concerning the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, Who sanctifies man, gives him new life, and makes him a participant in the Kingdom of God.
The feast therefore asks something very concrete of us: Is my life actually being transformed by Christ?
Spiritual Transfiguration Requires a Struggle
Transformation does not mean simply experiencing a feeling of inspiration on the feast. It involves repentance and struggle against sin.
The teaching on the feast repeatedly calls Christians toward a new beginning. Metropolitan Nicholas reminds the faithful that although we live amid temptations, suffering, and difficulties, Christ remains on Tabor, and we can become participants in His divine glory—but we must labor.
The Christian life is therefore an ascent that requires our participation.
We pray.
We repent.
We confess Christ.
We receive the Holy Mysteries.
We struggle against our passions.
And through the grace of God, our lives begin to change.
Why Do We Bless Fruit on Transfiguration?
One of the beautiful traditions associated with the feast is the blessing of fruit.
This is not simply a Russian cultural custom. The official liturgical resources of ROCOR's Eastern American Diocese include appointed prayers for the Blessing of Fruits on Transfiguration of the Lord and the Prayer for the Offerings of Firstfruits.
The faithful traditionally bring grapes, apples, and other fruits of the harvest to church. The firstfruits are offered in thanksgiving to God, acknowledging that the fruits of the earth—and everything that sustains us—are gifts from Him. We explicitly connects this ancient practice with gratitude to God.
Following the festal Divine Liturgy, the fruits are blessed according to the tradition of the Church. But even here, the Church turns our attention from the physical fruit toward the spiritual life.
The Fruit Is Also an Image of Our Transformation
The spiritual connection between the fruit and the Transfiguration - Just as fruit ripens and is transformed by the light of the sun, man is called to spiritual transfiguration through the light of God's word and through the Holy Mysteries.
At ROCOR's New Kursk Root Hermitage, this same tradition has been explained in connection with the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life: the Holy Spirit brings the seeds of the earth to maturity and also transforms us into Christians.
Suddenly, the blessing of fruit becomes much more than a beautiful custom.
We bring before God something that has ripened and been transformed.
And the feast asks: What is ripening within us? What fruit is our Christian life producing?
What Do We Give Back to God?
Metropolitan Nicholas draws another lesson from the blessed fruit. Everything we possess ultimately comes from God—even the fruit we place in our baskets and bring to church. But the Metropolitan turns this around and asks what we give to God.
His answer brings us to the heart of Christian life: “Let us strive to give our lives and our hearts to God.”
This is perhaps one of the most beautiful ways to understand the offering of firstfruits. We bring fruit in thanksgiving. But God desires something far greater than our baskets. He desires our hearts.
How Do We Celebrate the Transfiguration?
The center of the feast is not the fruit. It is Christ and the divine services of His Church.
We celebrates the Transfiguration with the festal All-Night Vigil and Divine Liturgy. The blessing of grapes and other fruits traditionally follows the Liturgy.
Metropolitan Nicholas reminds the faithful that we should not merely acknowledge the feast outwardly. We are called to pray, to confess Christ as the Son of God, and to seek our own spiritual transformation. The customs surrounding the feast are beautiful because they point us back toward this reality.
How Should We Approach the Feast?
Come to the divine services.
Pray.
Confess Christ as the Son of God.
Repent.
Participate in the Holy Mysteries according to the guidance and practice of the Church.
Bring fruit for blessing according to your parish's custom.
Give thanks to God for His gifts.
But above all, ask what the Transfiguration means for your own soul.
The Apostles ascended Tabor with Christ.
They saw His glory.
They descended from the mountain and continued toward everything that was still to come: the Passion, the Cross, and ultimately the Resurrection.
We too must return from the feast to our everyday lives.
The question is whether we return unchanged.
The Meaning of the Transfiguration
The Transfiguration reveals the divine glory of Jesus Christ.
Before His disciples would witness the suffering of Golgotha, Christ strengthened them by revealing the glory of His Kingdom. The feast points toward His Resurrection and His Second Coming, and it also reveals the transformed life to which Christians themselves are called.
This is why the Transfiguration carries such spiritual weight.
It is not simply: What happened on Mount Tabor?
It also asks: What is happening within me?
Am I drawing nearer to Christ? Am I repenting? Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to change me? Am I receiving the life of the Church as something capable of transforming me? Is my life beginning to bear spiritual fruit?
The light of Tabor reveals the glory of Christ—but it also reveals the height of our own calling in Him. We are called to move from darkness toward light, from sin toward repentance, from spiritual death toward life in Christ. And ultimately, in the words of Metropolitan Nicholas, we are called to give “our lives and our hearts to God.”
That is the spiritual call of the Transfiguration.
