Fr. Yanni’s Reflection: July/August 2019

With summer here, school out, and vacation season well on its way, it is very much a time of relaxation. It is a time for enjoying the heat, nice weather, and additional time with loved ones. It is a time for camps (MBC, Panagia’s Garden, Ionian Village, Sports and all the rest) and adventures, and transformations of all sorts. It is often a time where we find ourselves glowing with joy and excitement for the endless opportunities to work on our tans through yard work, hiking, or sitting on the beach. With all of these external transformations taking place it may be easy to lose touch with or not notice the internal transfigurations that may be at work within us.

With the feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration around the corner waiting for us on August 6th, we celebrate the day that Christ took three disciples with him to Mt. Tabor. There St. Matthew tells us “He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” St. Luke writes that the “appearance of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became dazzling white.” St. Mark explains that “He was transfigured before them, and His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no launderer on earth could bleach them.”

All three Gospel accounts tell us of the event in their own way, through their own lens, and in short teach us about what the Church has affirmed for centuries, the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Transfiguration reveals to us that in Christ both human and divine exist and work in perfect harmony. It both confirms that Jesus is God’s Son in His full glory, and encourages us to unite ourselves, who were made in God’s full image and likeness, to Him in all that we do and say. This feast is a confirmation of God’s presence in Christ, as well as confirmation of His promise to be with us.

This feast is a reminder that while our outer transformation takes place in the summer months along with all of creations, our inner self has the ability to be transfigured by God’s presence. It is a reminder of what is possible for us, not as an out of body experience, but as one that exists and takes place in and through the body. Such a transfiguration can most easily be measured by how we relate to others and to ourselves, as we become less angry, hateful, and fearful, then we are truly experiencing our own transfiguration.

When we do so, the Transfiguration is no longer something of the past but something living and current, a transformative dynamic power that brings the presence of the Lord into not only our own lives, but to all those who we come into contact with, and through them the world.

 + Fr. Yanni Michaelidis, Assistant Priest