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Homilia in transfigurationem domini

1. Of our Father among the saints and most blessed monk and presbyter John of Damascus, a discourse on the most glorious transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ.

96.545 1. Come, let us celebrate today, O God-loving assembly. Come, let us celebrate today with the feast-loving powers above; for they have come here to celebrate with us. Come, let us shout aloud with our lips as with well-sounding cymbals. Come, let us leap in spirit. For to whom is there a feast and a festival? To whom is there delight and exultation, but to those who fear the Lord, to those who worship the Trinity, to those who venerate the Son and the Spirit as co-eternal with the Father, to those who with soul, and mind, and mouth confess the Godhead known undividedly in three hypostases, to those who know and say that Christ is the Son of God, and God, one hypostasis, known in two indivisible and unconfused natures, and in their own natural properties? To us belongs all festal gladness and joy. For us Christ has accomplished the feasts; for there is no joy for the impious. Let us put away every cloud of sorrow that darkens our mind, and does not allow it to be lifted on high. Let us despise all earthly things; for our citizenship is not on earth. Let us stretch our mind toward heaven, from where we also await a Savior, Christ the Lord. 2. Today an abyss of unapproachable light; today an unlimited effusion of divine radiance shines upon the apostles on Mount Tabor. Today the Lord of the old and 96.548 new covenant is made known, Jesus Christ, the thing and name dear to me, truly the sweetest and most longed for, and surpassing every concept of sweetness. Today the chief of the old, Moses, the divine lawgiver, on Mount Tabor stands before the lawgiver Christ in a servile manner as before a Master, and is illuminated by his economy, into which he was long ago initiated in a typical manner; for I would say that this indeed signifies the back parts of God; and he clearly sees the glory of the Godhead, being sheltered by the cleft of the rock, as the Scripture says; But the rock is Christ, the incarnate God, Word and Lord, as the divine Paul has plainly taught us; And the rock was Christ, who opened, as it were, a very small aperture of his own flesh, and with measureless light, and stronger than any sight, dazzled those present. Today the chief of the new covenant, who most clearly proclaimed Christ the Son of God, by saying: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, sees the chief of the old standing by the lawgiver of both, and loudly proclaiming: This is the one who is, whom I foretold would be raised up as a prophet like me; like me, indeed, as a man, and the chief of the new people; but above me, and ruling over me, and over all creation; the one who established for me and for you both covenants, old and new. Today to the virgin of the new, the virgin of the old, proclaims the good news of the virgin Lord from the virgin. Come, therefore, obeying the prophet David. Let us sing psalms to our God, let us sing psalms to our king, let us sing psalms. For God is the king of all the earth, let us sing psalms with understanding; let us sing psalms with lips of exultation; let us sing psalms with the understanding of the mind, perceiving the taste of the words.

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Homilia in transfigurationem domini

Αʹ. Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ μακαριωτάτου μοναχοῦ καὶ

πρεσβυτέρου Ἰωάννου τοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ λόγος εἰς τὴν ὑπερένδοξον μεταμόρφωσιν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

96.545 αʹ. ∆εῦτε, πανηγυρίσωμεν σήμερον, ὦ φιλόθεον σύστημα. ∆εῦτε, συνεορτάσωμεν σήμερον ταῖς φιλεόρτοις ἄνω δυνάμεσι· ἥκασι γὰρ ἐνθάδε σὺν ἡμῖν ἑορτάσοντες. ∆εῦτε, ὡς ἐν κυμβάλοις εὐήχοις τοῖς χείλεσιν ἀλαλάξωμεν. ∆εῦτε, σκιρτήσωμεν πνεύματι. Τίνι γὰρ ἑορτὴ καὶ πανήγυρις; τίνι θυμηδία καὶ ἀγαλλίασις, ἀλλ' ἢ τοῖς φοβουμένοις τὸν Κύριον, τοῖς Τριάδι λατρεύουσι, τοῖς τῷ Πατρὶ τὸν Υἱὸν καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα συναΐδιον σέβουσι, τοῖς ψυχῇ, καὶ ἐννοίᾳ, καὶ στόματι καθομολογοῦσι θεότητα ἐν τρισὶν ἀδιαιρέτως γνωριζομένην ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι, τοῖς εἰδόσι καὶ λέγουσι τὸν Χριστὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ Θεὸν μίαν ὑπόστασιν, ἐν δυσὶν ἀδιαιρέτοις καὶ ἀσυγχύτοις ταῖς φύσεσι γνωριζόμενον, καὶ τοῖς αὐτῶν φυσικοῖς ἰδιώμασιν; Ἡμῖν εὐφροσύνη καὶ χαρὰ πᾶσα ἑόρτιος. Ἡμῖν ὁ Χριστὸς τὰς ἑορτὰς ἐκτετέλεκεν· οὐ γὰρ ἔστι χαίρειν τοῖς ἀσεβέσιν. Ἀποθώμεθα λύπης ἁπάσης νέφος ἐπισκοτούσης ἡμῖν τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τοῦτον οὐκ ἐώσης πρὸς ὕψος ἐπαίρεσθαι. Πάντων τῶν γηΐνων περιφρονήσωμεν· οὐκ ἐν γῇ γὰρ ἡμῶν τὸ πολίτευμα. Πρὸς οὐρανὸν τὸν νοῦν ἐναποτείνωμεν, ὅθεν καὶ Σωτῆρα Χριστὸν ἀπεκδεχόμεθα Κύριον. βʹ. Σήμερον φωτὸς ἀπροσίτου ἄβυσσος· σήμερον αἴγλης θείας χύσις ἀπεριόριστος ἐν Θαβὼρ τῷ ὄρει τοῖς ἀποστόλοις αὐγάζεται. Σήμερον παλαιᾶς καὶ 96.548 νέας διαθήκης ∆εσπότης γνωρίζεται Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, τὸ φίλον ἐμοὶ πρᾶγμα καὶ ὄνομα, τὸ γλυκύτατον ὄντως καὶ ποθεινότατον, καὶ πάσης γλυκύτητος ὑπερβαῖνον ἔννοιαν. Σήμερον ὁ τῆς παλαιᾶς ἔξαρχος Μωσῆς, ὁ θεῖος νομοθέτης, ἐν ὄρει Θαβὼρ τῷ νομοδότῃ Χριστῷ δουλοπρεπῶς ὡς ∆εσπότῃ παρίσταται, καὶ τούτου τὴν οἰκονομίαν αὐγάζεται, ἣν τυπικῶς πάλαι μεμυσταγώγητο· τοῦτο γὰρ φαίην ἂν ἐγώ γε δηλοῦν Θεοῦ τὰ ὀπίσθια· καὶ τρανῶς ὁρᾷ τὴν δόξαν τῆς θεότητος, σκεπασθεὶς ὑπὸ τὴν τῆς πέτρας ὀπὴν, ᾗ φησιν ἡ Γραφή· Πέτρα δέ ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, ὁ σαρκωθεὶς Θεὸς, Λόγος καὶ Κύριος, καθὰ Παῦλος ὁ θεῖος διαῤῥήδην ἡμᾶς ἐξεπαίδευσεν· Ἡ δὲ πέτρα ἦν ὁ Χριστὸς, ὃς τῆς ἑαυτοῦ σαρκὸς ὥσπερ τινὰ σμικροτάτην ὀπὴν παρηνέῳξε, καὶ φωτὶ ἀπλέτῳ, καὶ πάσης στεῤῥοτέρῳ ὄψεως τοὺς παρόντας κατήστραψε. Σήμερον ὁ τῆς νέας διαθήκης κορυφαιότατος, ὁ τὸν Χριστὸν Υἱὸν Θεοῦ ἀναγορεύσας τρανότατα, ἐν τῷ φάναι· Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος, τὸν τῆς παλαιᾶς ἔξαρχον τῷ τῶν ἀμφοτέρων νομοδότῃ ὁρᾷ παριστάμενον, καὶ διαπρυσίως φθεγγόμενον· Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ὢν, ὃν ὡς ἐμὲ προφήτην ἀναστήσεσθαι προηγόρευσα· ὡς ἐμὲ μὲν, ὡς ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τοῦ νέου λαοῦ ἔξαρχον· ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ δὲ, καὶ ἐμοῦ, καὶ πάσης κυριεύοντα κτίσεως· τὸν ἐμοί τε καὶ σοὶ τὰς διαθήκας ἄμφω, παλαιάν τε καὶ καινὴν, διαθέμενον. Σήμερον τῷ παρθένῳ τῆς νέας, ὁ παρθένος τῆς παλαιᾶς, τὸν ἐκ παρθένου παρθένον εὐαγγελίζεται Κύριον. ∆εῦτε οὖν, ∆αβὶδ τῷ προφήτῃ πειθόμενοι. Ψάλλωμεν τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν, ψάλλωμεν τῷ βασιλεῖ ἡμῶν, ψάλλωμεν. Ὅτι βασιλεὺς πάσης τῆς γῆς ὁ Θεὸς, ψάλλωμεν συνετῶς· ψάλλωμεν ἀγαλλιάσεως χείλεσι· ψάλλωμεν συνέσει νοὸς, τῆς τῶν λόγων αἰσθανόμενοι γεύσεως.