Feast of the Transfiguration

The Dark Church, Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey

Well, our  feasting began last night at Vespers. Beautiful antiphons, tones for the Psalms and the readings are always some of my favourites anyway, so that's not really fair. Well, the whole Feast is basically my favorite, too. And basically all the antiphons are from Scripture as well.

Christ Jesus, the brightness of the Father and the express image of his being, who upholds all things by the word of his power, while at the same time purging away our sins, deigned on this day to show himself in glory upon a high mountain. (Antiphon on the Magnificat)

I love this hymn we sang, the first stanza of which is in the photo above:

Caelestis formam gloriae

O wondrous type! O vision fair

of glory that the Church may share,

which Christ upon the mountain shows,

where brighter than the sun he glows!

With Moses and Elijah nigh

Th' incarnate Lord holds converse high;

And from the cloud, the Holy One

Bears witness to the only Son.

With shining face and bright array,

Christ deigns to manifest today

what glory shall be theirs above

who joy in God with perfect love.

And faithful hearts are raised on high

by this great vision's mystery;

for which in joyful strains we raise

the voice of prayer, the hymns of praise.

O Father, with the eternal Son,

and Holy Spirit, ever One,

vouchsafe to bring us by thy grace

to see thy glory face to face.

Our homilist made mention of Hiroshima also occurring on this day, which seems such a horrendous thing to me that it would happen simultaneously with this Feast. I pray that God would forgive us, things known and unknown, that disfigure His glory in any of His creatures, whom with one degree to another, He is changing into His likeness. Forgive us, Father; we don't know what we do. Enfold your kingdom of peace and beauty on the earth.

Collect for the Day

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

To be a Jewel of His Crown...

 

On that day the LORD their God will save them,
        as the flock of his people;
    for like the jewels of a crown
        they shall shine on his land.
    For how great is his goodness,
and how great his beauty!
  (Zechariah 9:16-17)

  For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
  and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
    until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.
  The nations shall see your righteousness,
   and all the kings your glory,
     and you shall be called by a new name
     that the mouth of the LORD will give.


      
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. (Isaiah 62)

The first time that I read Zechariah, I remember chapter 9 stuck out to me, in part because it has the passage about the King riding in on a donkey and that of course, was a familiar narrative to me.  I have always thought God so interesting for using seemingly innocuous descriptions in the middle of books-particularly in the prophets-to then blow everyone away.  Because a few centuries later, God Incarnate asks for a donkey to ride, effectually saying, "Y'all, your King is here! Remember all that I promised to Zechariah? Yeah, I'm ushering that in right here, right now."  Whoa.  Of course, Zech 9 is also awesome for all of the descriptions of the coming of the King, and trumpets and lightning and the way that somehow all the cacophony leads to peace, the eternal reign of peace.

But, the real reason why this chapter lodged in my memory is  because of the verse I highlighted above.  I was probably 16 when I first read this, depressed, ugly, lonely due to an innate mistrust of people, perfectionist.  Like I said it was an awesome reading, the King will do this and that and it's going to be crazy and we'll rejoice and then verse 16, God spoke straight to me.  I thought, oh! I'm so blessed to belong to those people in the flock that God has and will save.  "Therefore", God said, "the next line is also yours.  You are a jewel of my Crown and you are to shine."  The fact that we are to be jewels of His Crown because of His own goodness and beauty, as the next verse says, was not lost on my little neo-Platonist self, either.  I knew I could trust Him because my goodness and beauty (and that of everyone) derives from His own regal beauty.  In my darkest moments, when the assaults of the enemy manifest as a multitude of voices, sometimes in my own head and sometimes from others' lips and which I would then play over and over, the first combative phrase I ever used was "I am a jewel of His Crown."  It might be time to dust that sword off and bring it back out into the melee.

So, this was the daily lectionary reading for last Monday, I think, the 2nd day of Advent and I had determined to pray for beauty and light all Advent long and to ask my friends to do the same, as I mentioned before, feeling the gravitas of a black hole in my heart.  I also know that God is faithful to work on me in penitential seasons so I could feel that Advent was coming.  So, of course, when I read this on the first day of Advent, I thought, Oy, so that's how you're going to play this, Holy Spirit?  Way to really start things off with a bang.  Alright, let's do this, Thy will be done.  Verse 12 reads, "Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double."  I would love to check the grammar to be sure, but I think the phrase, "prisoners of hope" is a really funny one; of course, it may simply mean, prisoners who still have hope, verses those imprisoned by hope, but I'm going to take the latter interpretation for now.  That basically summed up how I felt after this reading, at the very outset of this season of Advent, of waiting and expectantly hoping but God having shown me that He's going to be at His purging kind of work in me.  Sometimes it would be way easier to let that go and to lie down with the lies, vices and escapism, to refuse to live and shine, having been placed as one of the jewels of the Crown of the Most High.  But, at the end of the day, I give thanks to my good and beautiful King who has made me a prisoner of hope!