Gaudete Sunday. Rose vestments may be worn as we rejoice with the prophet Zephaniah who cries out:
"Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
a victorious warrior.
He will exult with joy over you,
he will renew you by his love;
he will dance with shouts of joy for you
as on a day of festival." (Zephaniah 3:14-18)
The Transfiguration, apse mosaic at the Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, Egypt.
This mosaic icon is set in the conch of the apse of the basilica of St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, and though richly decorated with gilded tesserae, is stark in its iconography. It is most likely to date from (565/566AD) and is the earliest surviving major iconographic type for the Transfiguration and possibly, together with the Sinai Christ (First Sunday of Advent), the most influential in portraying the mystery of the Incarnation and the Glory of Christ.
The theophany at Tabor is a celebration of the Divine Light and a prefiguration of the Second Coming of Christ. It was described as such by the early Church Fathers who saw a divine pathway through the theophanies of Sinai and Tabor to the Resurrection and so the final fulfillment of the Second Coming. John Chrysostom (the "golden-mouthed") wrote the following in a homily on the Transfiguration:
"But if we will, we shall also behold Christ, not as they then on the mount, but in far greater brightness. For whereas then, to spare his disciples, he disclosed only so much of his brightness as they were able to bear; hereafter he shall come in the glory of the Father, not with Moses and Elias only, but with the infinite hosts of the Angels . .".
And, in beholding the Uncreated Light of Mt Tabor, now as then, we begin to be transformed into the likeness we see (1 John 3:2). The spiritual brightness or Glory (kabod) overwhelms in its attractiveness and leads us to trust that the fullness of the Word (Logos) present in his Incarnation was further glimpsed in the radiant light of the Transfiguration, and what has happened in the past on Mt Tabor will happen again. The icon is framed by twelve apostles, seventeen major and minor prophets and two of the monastic community from the time of the dedication of the church. The inclusion of the living in this divine longing is found in the dedication inscription: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this entire work was made for the salvation of those who have endowed it . . . ".
St Luke, Chapter 9, recounts that Jesus takes his closest friends, Peter, James and John with him to the summit of the mountain and there he appears in his Glory and so the inner life of God is revealed. A bright cloud, blinding light and whiteness of energy burn but do not consume the disciples, recalling the consuming fire at Sinai and Carmel. Elijah and Moses appear to the right and left of Christ and point towards him with the blessing of two fingers suggestive of his human and divine nature. Peter lying below Christ awakens more slowly than James and John who fall back surprised by the power of this divine revelation. Enfolded by the eternal light the disciples are both passive and receptive as Moses was when he encountered God in the Burning Bush. Their defenses are broken open through this experience of the divine and the invisible mystery of life made visible. It will no longer be possible for them to hide from the depths of their unconscious. Nothing can hide from the Divine light and now their life's task will be to journey in the pathway of the prophets and saints towards the fullness of this experience of the holiness of God. They will become humble vehicles for God's transformative energy in the world and transmitters of the divine communion.
Looking closer we see that perspective and history are manipulated in the mosaic icon through the ambiguity of pictorial space and time. Timelessness is effected by the lack of perspective in the scene and the almost frozen expressions and movements of the figures who are all held in an eternity of golden space. The figures are huge, heavy and powerful, and speak directly to the viewer as metaphors for an eternal solidity that is reached once all understanding has been stripped away. The three lines of abstracted earth are no "high mountain" (Matt 17:1) but rather a color device to tell the viewer that the mystery of the Transfiguration on the mountain has no particular historical place as it will most likely be a stage on all our journeys towards finding our true selves in God.
Brilliant Uncreated Light radiates from Christ in the sanctuary mosaic, almost literally blinding both apostles and viewers, and it seems a visual expression of John the Baptist's words:
"I baptize you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out" (Luke 3:10-18).
This is not a meek and mild Jesus but Christ in blinding Glory who meets Elijah in the fire of Mt Carmel; leads Moses through fire and light into the divine darkness on Mt Sinai; and who on Mt Tabor awakens and transforms consciousness for ever for Peter, James and John through the energies of this Uncreated Light flowing from God the Father above. As the monastic community celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation in the Eucharist, literally below this mosaic icon, the immediate presence of Christ is immediate and present to their viewing gaze.
For the Sinai viewer, the rich textured space of apse mosaic, lit by the changing morning and evening light, real and depicted, forcefully radiates the glory and hope of Christ coming again for his people. The sharp white beams of morning rays develop during the day into a strong deep searing heat of a desert light that, tempered by thick granite-stone walls, saturates the sanctuary (bema). It is then reflected from the surfaces of liturgical vessels and marble to illumine areas of the mosaic icon. The desert light, reflected and holding all together, becomes an image of Christ enlightening and enfolding all our journeys.
I begin Advent with the fresh enthusiasm of morning and gradually, as the reality of change and conversion that Christ's coming really means takes shape in my heart, well, then the grace and light reflected from the seasoned experience of others on the Advent journey gives me hope. First among which are the litany of saints whose feast days we celebrate and remember during this season: St Andrew, St Francis Xavier, St John Damascene, St Ambrose, The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St Juan Diego Cusuhtlatoatzin, St Damasus, St John of the Cross . . .
The transformative message of Christ's life and Second Coming reaches out to me through the experience of meeting the Sinai Christ on the first Sunday of Advent and my encounter with the radical challenge and call of John the Baptist on the second Sunday of Advent. Now I am faced with Christ's call for my conversion. Like Peter, I am slow to awaken, to turn and to gaze into Christ's well-loved face and follow him. C G Jung wrote that the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are and this third Sunday of Advent is a good moment for me to reflect upon this. To find the voice of Christ, a voice that has an inner authority within myself and a voice that I can trust is also my voice. Mostly, my gratefulness beyond my so limited understanding that this mystery desires in some extraordinary way to make a home in me. Now is the time to take the risk of awakening to the burning of Christ's Divine light.
God desires to know me and be known by me as the fully-lit image of the theophany in the conch of the Sinai apse clearly proclaims. And I know that my longing this Advent is to awaken more clearly to the discernment choices of my every day. Whilst the tension between the responsibilities and desires of my heart so often leaves me unable to move and as stunned as the weighty figures in the Sinai apse mosaic. And yet I know that the Christ revealed there fully understands my struggles and I must learn to trust his inner, instinctive voice within me and so find my true identity and my own will in him. This mosaic icon gives us the visual space to make a choice: to stay asleep or wake up and rejoice at the gift of a transfigured life offered to us this Advent.
