The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the twelve major feasts of our Church, is truly the feast that reveals the meaning and purpose of human life, which is, of course, personal transformation. God gave us earthy existence in order to become more like Jesus. The event that this feast celebrates is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark and Luke).

The observance of this feast goes back to the fourth century. At that time, St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, built a church on Mt. Tabor in honor of the Lord’s Transfiguration. At the end of the eleventh century, the Crusaders found several churches and monasteries on Mt. Tabor. In the thirteenth century, however, the adherents of Islam, came and destroyed them. Cyrill II, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, built a new church over the ruins of the ancient church in 1860. In 1923, a magnificent basilica in honor of the Transfiguration was built.

The feast has been observed in the Eastern Church since the sixth century. It was originally in February. However, since this joyful feast fell during the Great Fast, its celebration was transferred to August 6th. Why this day? The historian Eusebius and St. John Damascene are of the opinion that this event took place forty days before the death of Christ. Thus the Church transferred it to August 6th, which is forty days before the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, celebrated on September 14th.

The custom of blessing the first-fruits in church was prescribed in the Canons of the Holy Apostles at the end of the third century. The Apostolic Constitutions of the fourth century have a prayer for the blessing of first fruits. The local Synod of Carthage (318), offered directions for the blessing of first fruits. The Sixth Ecumenical Council (691) spoke of the blessing of the first-fruits of grapes and wheat. Grapes were blessed because of the wine that is used in the Divine Liturgy.

Although the first custom in the Church was to bless grapes, other very noble traditions emerged. Because of the symbolism involved in blessing fruit, namely that the “seed/seeds” at the center of all fruit represent God’s live within us, we bless any kind of FRUIT on this day. God is the source of our human lives!