The Feast Of Transfiguration of Christ



A year ago around this time, we arrived early Sunday morning to Armenia and soon after my son Hovsep and I attended Badarak at Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan. As soon as we got out of the church we saw the festivities of celebrating Vartavar on the streets of the Armenian capital. Water splashes everywhere. Such a joyous day with a tradition that comes to us from the pre-Christian era of Armenia honoring the goddess Asdghig, some say while others claim that this tradition goes further back to the days of Noah and a remembrance of the flood. It is a beautiful tradition which unfortunately I won’t be able to celebrate this year in Armenia due to the pandemic. But what makes me sadder is that our country Armenia is under attack by the Azeris with the support of Turkey. We stand in solidarity with our soldiers and armed forces and we pray for the safety of our Armenian brothers and sister in the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh.

This Sunday the Armenian Church celebrates the feast of transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the five major -Tabernacle- feasts of our church and we read about the events of the transfiguration in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). I invite you to focus on one tiny detail from the Transfiguration narrative according to the Gospel of Matthew where the divinity of Jesus is revealed through a detailed sequence of events and actions that includes His face shining like the sun, his clothes became dazzling white, Moses’ and Elijah’s appearance, a bright cloud overshadowing the scene and the voice of God testifying: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him, I am well pleased; listen to him!”(17:5). 

I would like you to focus on the dazzling white garment of Jesus. White garments are an expression of heavenly beings. In the book of Revelation John speaks of white garments that are worn by those who have been saved (7:9, 19:14). We find the practical inclusion of this notion in the life of the church as we clothe the newly baptized child with white garments. Think about it, everyone who is baptized in the church, that means you and I, just like Jesus and the angels, we also have put on white dazzling garments of our salvation. Our garments remain white and unstained because they have been washed in the blood of the lamb (Rev 7:14). In other words, it is through baptism that we are united to the Glory of Christ, and His glory is revealed to us through his passion and the crucifixion. The self-sacrifice of Christ is the purification that restores to us the original garment lost through sin. Through baptism, we are clothed with Jesus in light and we ourselves become light.  

After all, the splashing of water and the popular mode of celebrating Vartavar, the feast of the transfiguration may not be fragments of pagan Armenia. Maybe it’s a powerful and practical way of reminding us that we are baptized and garmented with the dazzling white clothing of angels and the elect. And it is through our active participation in the life of the church that God continues to administer His grace to us that restores our old, dirty and torn garments into dazzling white garments, and make us ready to participate in the divine banquet.

Happy feast of transfiguration. May God bless you all.

Fr. Nareg Terterian, MA, MS.Ed, LMHC

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