ACC ~ Matthew 17 v2

THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

ORIGEN: But some may ask, when he was transfigured before those who were led up by him into the lofty mountain, did he appear to them in the form of God or in the preincarnate form that he earlier had? Did he appear to those left below in the form of a servant, but to those who had followed him after the six days to the lofty mountain, did he have not the form of a servant but the form of God? Listen carefully, if you can, and at the same time be attentive spiritually. It is not simply said that he was transfigured, but with a certain necessary addition. Both Matthew and Mark have recorded this: he was transfigured before them. Is it therefore possible for Jesus to be transfigured before some but not before others? [1]

Do you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus? Behold with me the Jesus of the Gospels. Let him be simply apprehended. There he is beheld both “according to the flesh” and at the same time in his true divinity. He is beheld in the form of God according to our capacity for knowledge. This is how he was beheld by those who went up upon the lofty mountain to be apart with him. Meanwhile those who do not go up the mountain can still behold his works and hear his words, which are uplifting. It is before those who go up that Jesus is transfigured, and not to those below. When he is transfigured, his face shines as the sun, that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. [2] They are no longer the children of darkness or night but have become the children of day. They walk honestly as in the day. Being manifested, he will shine to them not simply as the sun but as he is demonstrated to be, the sun of righteousness. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.37. [3]

[1] Origen holds that the Logos has an individual relation to every rational being, which varies according to the moral progress or regress of each being. Thus the Logos always presents itself to each being in a new way, so that the being can derive from this ever differing contact the maximum spiritual benefit.

[2] Rom 13:12.

[3] GCS 40:152-53; ANF 9:470.

HIS GARMENTS BECAME WHITE AS LIGHT

JEROME: Certainly the Lord was transformed into that glory with which he would afterwards come in his own kingdom. The change accentuated in splendor. It did not diminish his outward appearance. Let it be that his body had become spiritual. Even his garments were changed, which were white to such a high degree that as another Evangelist would say, “And his clothes became dazzling white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” [1] What the mortal bleacher on earth is able to make is material and subject to touch, not supernatural and heavenly, which mocks the eyes and is only seen in a vision. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3.17.2. [2]

[1] Mk 9.3

[2] CCL 77:147.

HIS FACE SHONE LIKE THE SUN

AUGUSTINE: Indeed, Jesus himself shone as the sun, indicating that he is the light which illuminates every one who comes into this world. [1] And this is the sun to the eyes of the flesh, that is the sun to the eyes of the heart. His garments are a type of his church. For garments, unless held up by the one having donned them, fall. Paul was like the lowest hem of these garments. For he himself says, “For I am the least of the apostles,” [2] and in another passage, “I am the last of the apostles.” On a garment, the hem is the last thing and the least. Just as that woman who touched the Lord’s hem was made well, so the church which came out of the Gentiles was saved by means of Paul’s preaching. SERMON 78.2. [3]

[1] Jn 1:9.

[2] 1 Cor 15:9.

[3] PL 38:490-91; NPNF 1 6:347 (Sermon 28).