My dear sons in Christ, and all the friends, relatives and parents, and the members of the community, we are well aware of the reason why we celebrate this feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ as the titular feast of our monastery, the transfiguration of our Lord gives us a glimpse, as it were, of that glory for which we are longing, which is our goal, that is the heartbeat of our monastic life and longing for the glory of the risen Savior.

[01:09]

And in this feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, we realize the newness and the power of the new covenant. And our Lord Jesus Christ is not like Moses and like Elias, who come today to recognize in Him their head. Because Moses saw the glory of God, and Elias saw the glory of God, but none of them was the glory of God. And that is the difference between the old and the new, that here on this Mount Sinai of the New Testament, on Mount Tabor, the One appears to us who is God's Globe, the only begotten Son. And he appears to us in the context of this his earthly life.

[02:19]

He does not deny the humility of His human nature, nor does He in any way shrink away from that mission that His Heavenly Father has given Him when He sent Him here upon this earth. I mean, His exodus, His departure, of which Moses and Elias speak to him in this glorious scene of his transfiguration. He shows his glory, but that his glory is not in any way opposed to our human bodily infinity and nothingness. This glory is, and that is why he speaks about his departure from Jerusalem, his glory is the overcoming and the victory, not only over the weakness of our human nature, our bodily and material existence,

[03:40]

but it is also the remedy for human sin, for that wrong-globing that man has presumed to take upon himself against the will of his Creator. And so in this scene of the Transfiguration, the whole of our salvation and God's ways with us, they seem to crystallize. They seem to become manifest on the top of this mountain of the Transfiguration. We look back on human failure and human sin. We look forward into the glory that is promised to us. and receive this glory already present at this present moment.

[04:50]

That is the beauty of this feast, and that is also the special lesson which this feast gives to us as monks. And that is the reason why you, my dear sons of Christ, stand here before the altar today, in order to be taken into this mystery of the transfiguration in the special way of becoming monks. The gospel that we have just read, that shows to us your way. And let me interpret this, which is known already to you, in a few words, so that at this moment when you take upon yourself the yoke of the monastic life, that you may be clear what you are doing and what you have to expect. Our Lord Jesus Christ called out of the total group of the apostles three

[05:58]

with Him whom He wanted to share this glorious mystery of His inner true personality. Peter, James, and John, it was an election, an election out of that true sovereign will of the Savior. And that also is the foundation of your life. and make it clear to yourself at this moment that you always may give glory to the one who called you. Because you cannot make yourself known, you have to be called by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. This loving call you have heard, give the depth of your soul That is the reason why you stand here before us at this moment.

[07:00]

You also know very well that this calling is not wise out of the longings of the natural and old man. This calling is truly a miracle of God's grace. You know it, and you know it well. on the background of your past. There suddenly like a lightning, that call comes into your life. It makes you lose the taste of this world, and you long for the glory of the One who calls you. And not only calls you, then He sets you apart. the three apostles left the others and followed the Lord, who was leading them to the mountain Sikphos, apart.

[08:06]

You see, just as the work of creation started with the divine fall that night we made, and that fall has echoed in your soul, You heard it, that light be made. It was the call that invited you to leave the darkness of the world, the darkness of sin, and to enter into light. But then, upon this call, follows division, separation. and necessary failures of God's creation and also of redemption, separation, division. There is no communion between darkness and light.

[09:09]

We cannot stay halfway. We have to go the whole way. And that has become clear to you when you left the world and entered into the monastery. The monastery is a district set apart. We speak of enclosure. That enclosure means division. It means division from the world. Not in an external sense, but in an internal sense. The enclosure is to you. The constant admonition that you should not be conformed to this world, but that you should in the very being be transformed in your mind in the likeness of the King of Glory.

[10:13]

The enclosure means to you in your monastic life and willingness and an eagerness to leave any conformity with this world, to enter into that silence where human voices, human respect, the flatterings of human glory cease, where you are dead to the world. and to Satan's office. Therefore, this being set apart, and this leaving the world in silence, necessarily also is followed up in your entire life by constant, always repeated conversion. You are at this moment before God and his saints, before all of us, the conversion of your moments.

[11:26]

And that conversion means repentance. That means not only to flee the world, but that means to start a life which is the exact opposite of the standards and form of this world. Conversion means being turned upside down, and that is the meaning of your monastic life. You do not only withdraw, but you fight, fight against the palms of the devil through the glorious weapons of humility. Humility is the heart of your conversion. Just as pride is the heart of the tower, the Babylonian tower of this world, so is humility the foundation of the new tabernacle that you want to build in the sight of Christ's glory upon this mountain, in this monastery, in this enclosure.

[12:40]

It is to ascend the mountain with our Lord Jesus Christ, but on the ladder of humility, descending, recognizing that you are yourself the least of all human beings, that you are a worthy, not worthy to be called men. That is the heart of your conversion. then is your ascent upon the mountain, where then the glory of Christ will be manifest to you. With this, leaving the world, entering into the silence of God, living the hidden life of conversion of mortals, In this way Christ your Lord leads you up to Mount Tabor, and there then you see His glory.

[13:47]

You see His face shining like the sun. That means you realize that now, as those who have left the world, as those who have resigned their self-loathing, and have entered into the nothingness of humility, there you see that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of life and of life. He is your servant. He is your devil. You enter then into that glory of the monastic life, which is unfolded in the divine office, in the participation, and in the delivery of the sacramental life of the Church. Here this altar is Mount Tabor.

[14:53]

Upon this altar you see the glory of Christ becoming present. Here He takes you into this His glory. He makes you a part of it. Holy Communion is the visible sign that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only divine glory for Himself, But He shares this glory with all those who are sent with Him upon the mountain of the Transfiguration. That glory that is revealed to you in the Holy Eucharist, that you receive in Holy Communion, that is the law of your being. That is the power in which you live. You enter into the cloud, into that cloud which is the living congregation around you, your brethren in Christ, the Church.

[16:03]

She is the cloud. This community is the cloud of God's glory. And out of this cloud of God's glory you hear that voice of the Father. This is my Beloved Son. And when this voice continues and says, Yir Yir Yir, that means a doctor for you, into that same sanctuary, into that same glory, in the cloud, in the monastery, you hear the voice of the Father. You become adopted children of God. But you also realize, my dear sons in Christ, that there was the voice of Saint Peter, who spoke for all the other two apostles too. And he had been called by our Lord, Simon, and he had followed this call.

[17:11]

And he had ascended with the Lord to Mount Tabor. and in store of the glory. But then he said, O let us build a tabernacle here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elias. And there is in these words is expressed a decisive, important danger of the monastic life. You will find that in your life as monks which is before you, you will find that. You will have already realized it in yourself. We hear the call, we follow upon the mountain, we see the glory, and still we come with our own human reaction.

[18:17]

We are not yet on the line of God's thought. We do not yet move in the full light of His will. We come at our own hasty, precipitous decisions and desires and longings. And maybe the danger is even greater for a man, because he may think in his heart He has done so much, healing the world. He is doing, let us say, a good job in ascending the mountain. And all that may build up a confidence in Him, that confidence which St. Peter blurted out with these words, let us build tabernacles here. would it not realize that up on this mountain it was not a matter for Him to build something for the Lord Jesus Christ, to prepare a dwelling place for Him, but that the cloud of night would descend from heaven, the Shekinah, the dwelling

[19:41]

and in this dwelling place and out of it he would hear the voice of the Father. This is my beloved son, him you shall hear. Saint Peter, you see, in his rocked zeal, in that hastiness of his impetuous nature, was too eager to look for his own contribution and what he could do, and it really was not wise, and really it even was stupid. His curse, that is not what would be adequate to the glory of Christ, but that lucid love, that shaking up, that divinely prepared wedding, That cloud of the Holy Spirit, a gift to those who are with Christ on the mountain of the Transfiguration, that was the dwelling that the Lord himself wanted to and was and is building for Peter and John and James.

[20:58]

And so it will be also in your life as well. You will always have your own plans how the tabernacle of the Lord should be built for others as well as for yourself. You will always find yourself hasty to decide, what do I have to do? What do I want to do? What is my contribution? My dear sons in Christ, in the presence of God's glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are nothing. You receive the dwelling place. He will give it to you. And that dwelling place is the place where you listen in obedience to the Father's word. That is what makes you at home on the mountain of the Transfiguration.

[22:04]

And that, my dear sons in Christ, this will of the Father is that you should follow the Lord to Golgotha. The mountain of the Transfiguration is the preparation for the victory on Golgotha. The way your way as monks goes to Golgotha, and there at the cross, there is where your house is built. There is where you are really transformed in your inner being. My dear sons, don't forget it. Don't move in a false world, in a world of your own personal dreams. In a world of hastily anticipated spiritual comfort, don't consider the monastery as the paradise that you own as a garden of delight.

[23:13]

but realize that the will of your Father, the voice that you will hear in the cloud, is the voice which calls the Lord Jesus Christ and you with Him to the cross. That glory that you find at Monte, and that glory that dwells in the monastery, is a glory which is built upon which radiates from the cross from death. That you should never forget, because that is the price of sin that you all have to pay. There we are guilty in Adam, we hastily want to have the crown before listening in obedience to the will of the Father. And from that fact we have to suffer, everyone, individually, in our own deepest heart.

[24:17]

And that is the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Glory, stands before us, not only in His transfigured glory on Mount Tabor, but He stands also before us in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion, with a purple garland and a crown of thorns on his head. The purple garland, that is the sign of his divinity. The crown of thorns on his head, that shows that he is the son of the first Adam, that he has taken upon himself what is the extreme opposite of glory, the thorns. The thoughts are not only nothing, but they are something which goes opposed to everything, and which only can be destroyed, because it is of no use for anything else.

[25:25]

And that is what happens to you today, too, my dear sons in Christ. You come here, you have followed the invitation of Christ. During your novitiate and during the three years of your temporary house, you have followed Christ, tried to ascend the mountain, following and learning the law of humility, the ladder of humility. And now you are here, you see the power of Christ before you. But you also hear him talk about his exodus, about his departure, about his death. And here you are, and you receive there the monastic garment, and this monastic garment at the same time, it is a garment of glory, it is a garment of fullness. that solemn garment of the cowl which you wear here in choir at the feasts of Christ's glory.

[26:35]

But you also take upon yourself the hood, and that hood, that is the crown of thorns, that is your burial, that is your dying with Christ. These two things you take, and never forget that are the two poles between which your life is moving. And if you want to sit with Christ at his right hand, then you also have to forget what is below, and you have to extend your heart to the things that are above. And you have to sacrifice your own self that you may receive the crown and the garment of glory. My dear sons in Christ, I say this not only for yourself, but I say it also for your parents, who are present here, and for your relatives, and for your friends, and for all of us.

[27:42]

This piece of the Transfiguration shows us that the King of the New Testament is the glory of God. He not only sees, He is the glory of God. But He is this glory of God not for Himself, but He is it for us, that we may share this glory. That is the reason why He died. He died for us. He gave His human life that we may receive his heavenly divine love. And that is also the meaning of this hour for you. You die with Christ, that you may feel his glory. But, my dear sons in Christ, and for all of us who are here present as monks, not for ourselves,

[28:46]

But it is for all those who are in contact with us, whom God has brought together here, so that we may for them be also a mediator of glory. And that is what I wish your parents and your relatives and you all would understand. If you see here at this moment your sons vested in the hat and with the cup over their head, and you realize that this means entering into Christ's death, then say to your guests and amen, because this death of your children in Christ That is for you, glory, sharing in glory. By entering into their sacrifice with a triumphant yes and amen, you yourself also will be sharers of the glory, which is the cause and the inheritance

[30:11]

of those who surrender completely to Christ the Lord. You will be crowned in your children. They will be your crop. They will be your eternal joy. You will sing them again. And you will live with them for all eternity. And you will think back at this solemn hour, all of us, those to my sons in Christ will. And you, dear parents and relatives and friends, you all will think back when we all meet in the presence of the Lord, enthroned in His glory, when we have passed through this life from glory to glory, When we have ended and the aches of this life has passed, and the loneliness of death has passed, then we enter into that eternal glory which finds us all together truly of one mind and of one heart.

[31:33]

Then all the barriers that then there is no enclosure anymore which separates you, the parents and relatives, from the monks, their children and their friends. The enclosure will be all around us. It will be an all-embracing enclosure. There will be nothing outside of this enclosure. our entire life will be in this enclosure. And that enclosure is the garden of the eternal life. And that enclosure is the cloud of glory into which we have entered. And in this glory we constantly hear the voice of the Heavenly Father telling us and pointing to Him who is His Son. and He will say, listen to Him.

[32:34]

And with great joy we shall listen, because what is He telling us? Blessed are you who are in spirit. Blessed are you that answer. Blessed are you the peacemakers. Blessed are the weak, for there is the land, the land of eternity. So a great joy We enter into this pact, all of us who are here present, into this living pact which these two dear sons of Christ are entering upon at this moment. We don't regret that they leave us because they enter into the cloud of glory. My sons, consider well the contract you are about to make with the Lord. Angels are here visibly present, waiting to record your profession, of which you must give account at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[33:44]

Therefore I present to you the perfect life, which is expressed by imitating the Lord's manner of life. What you must embrace and what you must reject I shall make clear to you. Therefore, my sons, speak. Will you renounce this world and its powers? I will. Before God and His saints, do you promise stability, the conversion of your life, and obedience? I do promise. My dear brother Mark, will you announce this word and this promise? I will. Before God and his saints do you promise stability, the conversion of your life and obedience? I do promise. May the Lord help you to carry out successfully in your deeds what you have promised by you. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

[37:21]

In the year of our Lord, 1959, on the sixth day of August, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Andrew Charles Leach, of the Archdiocese of New York, do solemnly promise stability, the conversion of my life, and obedience according to the rule of our Holy Father Benedict, in this venerable monastery of Mount Savior, before God and His saints, whose relics repose in this monastery, in the presence of the very Reverend Domicius Winson, Prior of the aforesaid monastery, and of the monks of the same, in testimony whereof I have written this chart with my own hand on the date indicated above. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. In the year of our Lord, 1959, on the sixth day of August, the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, I, Martin Thomas Boper, of the Archdiocese of Omaha, do solemnly promise stability, the conversion of my wife and my children, according to the rule of our Holy Father Benedict.

[38:40]

in this venerable monastery of God's Saviour, before God and his saints, whose relics we pose in this monastery. In the presence of the very Reverend Nemesis Williamson, prior to the aforesaid monastery, and among us all the same. In testimony whereof I have written this chart, with my own hand, on the days indicated

[39:02]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ