131

Christ neither is nor will he ever be such. But that Christ will be forever such, both Dionysius of the Areopagus and Gregory the Theologian and all who expect Him to come from heaven with glory, as has been shown a little above, effectively demonstrate: therefore that light was not merely an unsubstantial phantasm.

And indeed not only will He be such for endless ages to come, but even before the ascent of the mountain Christ was such. Listen to the wise in divine things, Damascene: ‘Christ is transfigured, not by taking on what He was not, nor by changing into what He was not, but by revealing to His own disciples what He was, opening their eyes and causing them to see from being blind; for remaining Himself in the same state as before, He was seen by the disciples appearing; for He is the true light, the beauty of glory’. (p. 596) This Basil the Great also shows: ‘For’, he says, ‘His divine power shone through, like a light through glass membranes, that is, through the flesh of the Lord which is from us, illuminating those who have the eyes of their heart purified’. But also the hymns sung annually in the Church, ‘for what was hidden under the flesh is now revealed’ and ‘the archetypal and super-luminous beauty now laid bare’, what else do they show than that it pre-existed? And what of the trans-elementation of our human nature and the deification in it and the divine reshaping? Was it not accomplished immediately from the beginning with the assumption? Therefore He was indeed such even before, but then, by imparting a divine power to the eyes of the apostles, He caused them to look up and see. Therefore that light was not a phantasm, for it will be forever and was from the beginning.

But if He was and will be forever, then He is also such now. For it would be most absurd for Him to be such until that most divine vision on Tabor and forever in the age to come, but in the time between to have changed, having laid aside this glory. But that even now He sits thus shining ‘at the right hand of the Majesty on high’, all must follow and be persuaded by the one who says, ‘Come, let us ascend the holy mountain, the heavenly, we shall see the immaterial divinity of the Father and the Spirit shining forth in the only-begotten Son’. But if anyone thinks he ought not yield to one, let him obey two, or rather all the saints. For the blessed Andrew, who served Crete in place of a lamp, like a rational and sacred lamp, hymning the light that shone on Tabor, says, ‘This intellectual adornment, immaterially feasted upon, is set as a proof of the Word’s love for us’. Almost this very thing (p. 598) the great Dionysius also says, hymning the highest orders of the super-cosmic minds: for they become, he says, partakers and beholders not only of the Triadic glory, but also of the light-manifestation of Jesus; for they are initiated, being deemed worthy of this vision, He Himself being a deifying light, ‘as truly approaching Him and becoming partakers in the first place of the knowledge of His deifying lights’. And the great Macarius, as if using the wise Symeon as a tongue, or rather using him together with his own, so that with two tongues he might more clearly proclaim the truth, says, ‘The leaven of human nature, which the Lord assumed, He set at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, full of glory, no longer in His face alone, like Moses, but in His whole body’. Therefore Christ has that light unalterably; or rather, He always had it, and always has it, and always will have it with Himself. But if it was and is and will be, then the light in which the Lord shone on the mountain was not a phantasm, nor merely this unsubstantial symbol.

131

οὔτε ἔστιν οὔτε ἔσται ἐσαεί τοιοῦτος ὁ Χριστός. Ὅτι δ᾿ ἔσται ἐσαεί τοιοῦτος ὁ Χριστός, καί ὁ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου ∆ιονύσιος καί Γρηγόριος ὁ θεολόγος καί πάντες ὅσοι τοῦτον ἐξ οὐρανοῦ μετά τῆς δόξης ἥξοντα προσδέχονται, καθάπερ καί μικρόν ἀνωτέρω δέδεικται, παριστᾶσιν ἐνεργῶς˙ οὐκ ἄρα φάσμα μόνον ἀνυπόστατον τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο ἦν.

Καί μήν οὐ μόνον ἐπί τοῦ μέλλοντος ἐς ἄπειρον τοιοῦτος ἔσται, ἀλλά καί πρό τῆς ἐπί τό ὄρος ἀναβάσεως τοιοῦτος ὑπῆρχεν ὁ Χριστός. Ἄκουσον τοῦ τά θεῖα σοφοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ˙ «μεταμορφοῦται Χριστός, οὐχ ὅ οὐκ ἦν προσλαβόμενος, οὐδέ εἰς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν μεταβαλλόμενος, ἀλλ᾿ ὅπερ ἦν τοῖς οἰκείοις μαθηταῖς ἐκφαινόμενος, διανοίγων τούτων τά ὄμματα καί ἐκ τυφλῶν ἐργαζόμενος βλέποντας˙ μένων γάρ αὐτός ἐν ταὐτότητι παρ᾿ ὅ τό πρίν, τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἑωρᾶτο φαινόμενος αὐτός γάρ ἐστι τό φῶς τό ἀληθινόν, τό τῆς δόξης ὡράϊσμα». (σελ. 596) Τοῦτο δείκνυσι καί ὁ μέγας Βασίλειος˙ «διεφαίνετο» γάρ, φησίν, «οἷόν τι φῶς διά ὑελίνων ὑμένων, τουτέστι διά τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν σαρκός τοῦ Κυρίου, ἡ θεία δύναμις αὐτοῦ διαυγάζουσα τοῖς ἔχουσι τούς ὀφθαλμούς τῆς καρδίας κεκαθαρμένους». Ἀλλά καί τά ἐτησίως ἐπ᾿ Ἐκκλησίας ᾀδόμενα, «τό γάρ ὑπό τήν σάρκα κεκρύφθαι τό νῦν παραδεικνυόμενον» καί «τό ἀρχέτυπον καί ὑπέρφωτον κάλλος τό νῦν παραγυμνούμενον», τί ἄλλο παρίστησιν ἤ ὅτι προϋπῆρχε; Τί δἐ καί ἡ μεταστοιχείωσις τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος καί ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτό θεουργία καί ἡ θεϊκή ἀναμόρφωσις; Ἆρ᾿ οὐχ ἅμα τῇ προσλήψει τήν ἀρχήν εὐθύς ἐτελεσιουργήθη; Τοιγαροῦν ἐκεῖνος μέν τοιοῦτος ἦν καί πρότερον, τοῖς δέ τῶν ἀποστόλων ὄμμασι τότε θείαν δύναμις ἐνθείς, ἀναβλέψαι καί ἰδεῖν αὐτούς πεποίηκεν. Οὐκ ἄρα φάσμα ἦν τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο, καί γάρ ἐσαεί τε ἔσται καί ἦν ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς.

Εἰ δέ ἦν καί ἔσται ἐσαεί, καί νῦν ἐστι τοιοῦτος ἄρα. Τῶν γάρ ἀτοπώτατον μέχρι μέν τῆς θειοτάτης ἐν Θαβώρ ἐκείνης θέας καί ἐσαεί τοιῦτον εἶναι κατά τόν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα, τόν δέ μεταξύ χρόνον ἠλλοιῶσθαι τήν δόξαν ταύτην ἀποθέμενον. Ὅτι δέ καί νῦν «ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν ὑψηλοῖς» οὕτω λάμπων κάθηται, δεῖ μέν πάντας ἕπεσθαί τε καί πείθεσθαι τῷ λέγοντι, «δεῦτ᾿ ἐπί τό ὄρος ἀναβάντες τό ἅγιον, τό ἐπουράνιον, ὀψόμεθα θεότητα ἄϋλον Πατρός καί Πνεύματος ἐν Υἱῷ μονογενεῖ ἀπαστράπτουσαν». Εἰ δέ τις ἑνί μή δεῖν εἴκειν οἴεται, πειθαρχείτω τοῖς δυσί, μᾶλλον δέ πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις. Ὁ γάρ ἀντί λυχνίας τῇ Κρήτῃ χρησάμενος, οἷα λύχνος λογικός καί ἱερός, Ἀνδρέας ὁ Μακάριος, ἐξυμνῶν τό ἐν Θαβωρίῳ λάμψαν φῶς, «τοῦτο», φησίν, «ἡ νοητή διακόσμησις ἀΰλως ἑστιωμένη τεκμήριον τίθεται τῆς περί ἡμᾶς τοῦ λόγου φιλανθρωπίας». Τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό σχεδόν καί ὁ (σελ. 598) μέγας ∆ιονύσιος λέγει, τάς ἀνωτάτω τάξεις τῶν ὑπερκοσμίων νόων ἐξυμνῶν˙ οὐ γάρ τῆς τριαδικῆς, φησί, δόξης μόνης μέτοχοι γίνονται καί θεωροί, ἀλλά καί τῆς Ἰησοῦ φωτοφανείας˙ μυοῦνται γάρ τῆς θεωρίας κατηξιωμέναι ταύτης, θεουργόν φῶς ὄντα καί αὐτόν, «ὡς ἀληθῶς αὐτῷ πλησιάζουσαι καί τῆς γνώσεως τῶν θεουργῶν αὐτοῦ φώτων ἐν πρώτῃ μετουσίᾳ γινόμενοι». Ὁ δέ μέγας Μακάριος, οἷα γλώττῃ χρώμενος τῷ σοφῷ Συμεώνῃ, μᾶλλον δέ συγχρώμενος, ὡς ἄρα δυσί γλώτταις τρανότερον ἀνακηρύξῃ τήν ἀλήθειαν, «τό φύραμα», φησί, «τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, ὅπερ ὁ Κύριος ἀνέλαβεν, ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν οὐρανοῖς, πλῆρες δόξης, οὐκέτι μόνῳ τῷ προσώπῳ, ὡς ὁ Μωϋσῆς, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλῳ τῷ σώματι». Τοιγαροῦν ἀναλλοίωτον ἔχει τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο ὁ Χριστός, μᾶλλον δέ καί ἀεί εἶχε καί ἀεί ἔχει καί ἀεί ἕξει τοῦτο σύν αὑτῷ. Εἰ δ᾿ ἦν καί ἔστι καί ἔσται, οὐκ ἦν ἄρα φάσμα τό φῶς καθ᾿ ὅ ἔλαμψεν ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους ὁ Κύριος, οὐδ᾿ αὐτό τοῦτο μόνον ἀνυπόστατον σύμβολον.