There is a complete sequence of proper prayers for the Divine Liturgy of the Transfiguration. These include: special Antiphons, a special Entrance Hymn, a Tropar and Kondak, a special Prokimen, Alleluia Verses, Hymn to the Mother of God, and Communion hymn. You will note that for all major feasts of Our Lord, these same parts are special. We do well to listen closely to the Tropar and Kondak since they give us the substance of the feast.
TROPAR
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, revealing as much of Your glory to Your Disciples as they could behold. Through the prayers of the Mother of God, let Your everlasting light also shine upon us sinners. O Giver of Light, glory be to You.
KONDAK
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, and Your Disciples beheld as much as they could of Your glory, so that when they would see You crucified, they would understand that You suffered willingly; and they would preach to the world that You are truly the reflection of the Father.
In both of these special prayers, we hear that the “Disciples beheld as much as they could” of Christ’s glory and that the experience was meant to help the disciples later preach the glory of Jesus, the Crucified One. This experience was meant to give the Disciples “insight” into the Person of Jesus.
What insight does our celebration of this major feast give to us? Obviously we have the luxury of the Church’s dogmas to help us focus our understanding. This feast, indeed, reveals that the life-force within each human is, in some mysterious way, a participation in the life-force of God Himself. By infusing His life into all created things, God brings and sustains all things in existence and, of course, tells us that human life IS ETERNAL.
This feast, if we properly observe it, also reveals something about us. It is by Divine Guidance that we bless fruit on this day because at the core of every kind of fruit is a SEED which allows the fruit to grow and mature. God’s LIFE SEED is planted in all living things.
Another thought comes to mind. The Kondak states that the experience of the Lord’s Transfiguration allowed the disciples to understand that Jesus willingly suffered – that Jesus embraced the challenges of His life with an openness to the lesson that each challenge presented. This definitely has a message for us. Life’s challenges are meant to help us spiritually grow – Jesus, the man, grew from His willingness to face His life’s challenges with hope and trust in God. I wonder if this makes any sense to you who are reading this article?