The Feast in Christ the Saviour parish, Tagaytay
St. Gregory Palamas writes that it were the apostles who were actually transformed – because the Lord always possesses uncreated light, and on Mount Tabor it became possible for the apostles to see it “as much as they could”. The spiritual way of doing things is often the exact opposite of the usual. One of the most striking examples is given by Christ Himself in the Gospel: “But Jesus, calling them, said: you know that the princes of the nations rule over them, and the nobles rule over them; but let it not be so among you: but whoever wants to be great among you, let him be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you, let him be your servant…” (Matthew 20:25-27). Spiritual knowledge is also different from worldly knowledge. An experimenter in the natural sciences is constantly changing the world around him in order to learn about it. Previously, for example, they threw balls off towers to study gravity, now they collide protons to try to understand elementary particles. At the same time, as a result of the experiment, the source material is often destroyed. It is obvious that God cannot be known in this way. You can’t change Him, you can’t catch Him in a microscope or telescope. Yes, even a human cannot be known like that. You’re not going to experiment with friendship or love. So how can you know God? “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8) That is, to see God, you don’t need to change the world around you, but yourself! We need to transform ourselves, purify ourselves from sin and unrighteousness. It is necessary to make yourself “as much as we can” to be worthy of God. And then you can not only see His light, but also say, like Peter, “it’s good for us to be here.”
