Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 3, 2022: I continue my pursuit in hope...

I continue my pursuit in hope… 

Where do you find hope? 

    In the chapter 43 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, God offers a people in exile a sense of hope: See, I am doing something new! Rather than focusing on what has been, the people may look forward to their return home, because those who had enslaved them will be no more, snuffed out and quenched like a wick. All of this is extraordinary, but is nothing compared to what they are going to see in the long run, namely, God’s mercy, mercy expressed in all the ways God creates a clear path home for them: In the desert I make a way. The Lord has done great things for them, as Psalm 126 states; God’s promise is that their new home after exile will be prosperous, giving them every reason to hope. 

    God’s promise is most welcome when all hope seems lost. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is in the temple area when the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman who has been caught in adultery, a woman who has surely lost all hope. Rather than accuse her accusers, however, Jesus bends down, demonstrating that he is not a threat, and writes on the ground; when he stands, he invites them to humility: Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. In response, the scribes and Pharisees go away one by one, not daring to meet his challenge, thereby abandoning their accusation against the woman. They who would judge and condemn silently must acknowledge that, when judgment turns its eye to them, they cannot stand; the sheer power of Jesus’ invitation turns them away, and the woman’s hope is restored: Neither do I condemn you, Jesus says, though he alone of the crowd is without sin. 

    In his Letter to the Philippians, Paul acknowledges that he has accepted the loss of all things that he may gain Christ. All he depended upon in the past, all that his identity had been grounded in before, is lost to him, that he might look forward in hope. The cross is God’s greatest act of love; through it, transformation takes place and redemption is brought about. Paul’s righteousness is from God. Christ similarly takes possession of us, filling us; the prize of our upward calling is that of transcendance, as we are consumed by his love. May we, like St. Paul, let go of our successes as well as our failures, continuing our pursuit in hope that we too might one day gain redemption and the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, as we are transformed daily by the cross of Christ. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Experiences of reconciliation (Nicole M. Perone)

   As with every encounter with Christ in the Gospel –especially in those encounters tinged with shame or stereotype, or with those individuals who are deemed as sinful or unforgivable - every encounter with Christ that we have or facilitate is an opportunity to open the door to grace. We can choose how the story ends. 

   We can draw the same line of connection to the grace of forgiveness. When Jesus breathes on the disciples and entrusts to them, and so to all of us, the ministry of forgiveness; that is, when we forgive the sins of others and facilitate experiences of reconciliation – we open the door to a profound outpouring of grace. 

--Nicole M. Perone 

Image source: Steve Wolff, Woman Washing Jesus’ Feet, https://www.flickr.com/photos/8097644@N04/3560557573

Quotation source

Steeped in forgiveness and mercy (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

    To preach, your faith needs to be steeped in forgiveness and mercy. You need to understand just how much it cost to die for your sake, to give life to you by giving up life. It's necessary to have an ongoing experience of repentance, recognizing what is wrong and growing from it. No one travels through life in perfection; we fall daily -- we lose sight of the power of God's love at work in us, and we need to be forgiven so that we can be forgiving. How can you preach repentance unless you know it from the depth of your being, unless you know how much you are loved, and unless you can live from that love? 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels, Homily, July 11, 2021 

Image source: https://www.gospelherald.com/articles/69256/20170106/the-seven-last-sayings-of-jesus-christ-and-what-they-mean-for-us.htm

We cannot remove the scales of our sin (Haley Stewart)

    The confessional requires our vulnerability. We can have no veils between ourselves and God, and he himself has torn the veil of the temple that might separate us. To examine our conscience with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we can see ourselves with the help of God’s divine mirror. 

    Before becoming Catholic, I might have felt guilty about things I had done, but that guilt never could be truly addressed and overcome. The sacrament of Reconciliation not only makes it possible to accept the reality of my sin; confession offers the gift of leaving the shame in the confessional. Sin has been spoken, it has been faced—and it has been met with mercy and washed away by the blood of Christ. 

    We may try to uncover our faces inch by inch and day by day, but like Eustace Scrubb in one of C.S. Lewis’ stories, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we cannot remove the scales of sin on our own but only through the mercy of God, in order that one day we can truly meet him face to face. No flimsy veil of self-deceit can protect us from the power of that mercy. The grace is there, waiting for us. Thanks be to God. 

--Haley Stewart            

Image source: https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/prayerplainandsimple/2010/12/i-am-eustace-scrubb-undragoned-in-the-voyage-of-the-dawn-treader.html 

Quotation source

A grace too powerful to name (Hamilton)

There are moments that the words don’t reach
There’s a grace too powerful to name 
Forgiveness
Can you imagine? 

--Hamilton, 

"It’s Quiet Uptown"

To hear It’s Quiet Uptown from the musical Hamilton, click here:

Image source: Sir Edward John Poynter, Prodigal’s Return (1869), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27Prodigal%27s_Return%27_by_Sir_Edward_John_Poynter,_1869.jpg
Video source

God wants to find me (Henri Nouwen)

   It might sound strange, but God wants to find me as much as, if not more than, I want to find God. Yes, God needs me as much as I need God. God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn’t move, and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behavior, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running toward them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and brings them to the table richly prepared for them. 

    I am beginning to now see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find him, but, instead, as the One who is looking for me while I am doing the hiding. 

--Henri Nouwen, You Are the Beloved 

Image source: Palma Giovane, Return of the Prodigal Son (ca. 1595-1600), https://www.wga.hu/html_m/p/palma/giovane/2/04prodi2.html

Gabriel gets Mary's attention (Pat McDonogh)

 

   Mary, like any mystic, trusts her own experience of the Divine within, and surrenders to it. Do we? 

    Do we recognize God’s presence in both the miraculous and the mundane? Have we been taught to seek the Mystery and share the Mystery? How can we share the Mystery of Jesus - as parents, as professors, as priests, if we haven’t surrendered to all the stuff that we’re holding on to in order to make room for the Divine to grow in us, as Mary, the great mystic, did? 

    It is all present or it is nothing. God has our attention, or doesn’t. 

    Gabriel gets Mary’s attention. Who has my attention? Who has your attention? 

--Pat McDonogh 

Image source: Sigrid Blomberg, Annunciation (detail, 1899), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detail._The_Annunciation,_1899,_by_Sigrid_Blomberg._Nationalmuseum,_Stockholm,_Sweden.jpg 
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 27, 2022: Let us celebrate with a feast...

Let us celebrate with a feast, 

for this son of mine has come to life again…

How do you celebrate God’s forgiveness? 

 How do you celebrate salvation? 

    To be aware of God’s saving action in our lives is definitely cause for celebration. Led by Joshua, the people of Israel celebrated the Passover while encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho. All that they had suffered in the land of Egypt is behind them, God has reconciled with them, and the promised land lies before them, already tilled, with crops producing all they need to survive, as God had promised. They have already erected twelve stones as a memorial to the fulfillment of God’s promise and can now, as Psalm 34 suggests, Taste and see the goodness of the Lord, rejoicing in the great mercy of the Lord who has saved them from their distress. The people have been reconciled with their God. 

    Jesus does no less for the tax collectors and sinners who gather to listen to him teach. In Luke’s Gospel, the Pharisees and scribes are shocked by the presence of these wayward souls, and so Jesus recounts the parable of the prodigal son, who squandered his inheritance through a dissolute life. Yet when the son returns to the family home, confessing, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, his father forgives him as well as his older son whose resentment of his younger brother is patently evident. The father’s words of acceptance are an invitation: let us celebrate with a feast, he proclaims, seeking reconciliation as he loves past their sins and forgives them both. The Pharisees and scribes would do well to take heed. 

    As Paul tells the Corinthians, God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, through the forgiveness that is ours thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Whoever is in Christ is a new creation, Paul states: now that God has been revealed to us through baptism, our sins are forgiven; reconciliation is at the core of that new creation. This is salvation: that God reconciles the world to himself; Jesus died that we might be reconciled to God, and rejoice in that reconciliation. Our ongoing journey is precisely to be the forgiveness of God, ever entering more and more profoundly into our relationship with our God who makes all things new, that we might reveal his forgiveness to the world. Could there possibly be a better reason to celebrate? 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The God who is always there (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

    By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past (I am the God of your father), as for the future (I will be with you). God, who reveals his name as I AM, reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them. 

--Catechism of the Catholic Church 

Image search: Mark Wiggin, Burning Bush, https://www.conversations.net.nz/burning-bush.html

That I may know that you are God (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   A prayer for today: Still my heart so that I may know that you are God, that I may know that you create and sustain my every breath, that you breathe the whole universe into existence every second. Help me to know that I, no less than everyone else, am your beloved, that you want our lives to flourish, that nothing falls outside your love and care, and that everything and everybody is safe in your gentle, caring hands, in this world and the next. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Facebook, January 5, 2022

Image source: https://markchanski.com/2016/01/07/dear-god-of-creation-could-you-possibly-be-of-some-help/

Standing on holy ground (Knights of Columbus)

   Moses had an important mission that would change the course of history, but before setting out he was called to be humble and pure before God. Our mission may not be to lead the Chosen People, but we are called to be an example for the people God has chosen for us: our families, friends, coworkers and fellow parishioners. Before setting out each day, take a moment to stand on holy ground in the presence of God in prayer. 

    Like Moses, we need to be purified this Lent. There is no better way than to go to sacramental Confession. Bring yourself to the holy ground of the confessional, take off your “shoes” – your pride and self-attachment – and come before the Lord in the person of the priest. God is not out to destroy or condemn, but to save you. 

--Knights of Columbus Blog 

Image source: Moses before the Burning Bush, illumination, Walters Manuscript, https://faithbibleministriesblog.com/2013/10/18/the-preeminence-of-christ-part-8-christophanies-the-ot-appearances-of-jesus-2/ 

Quotation source

Their barren hearts (Denise Levertov)

Literal minds! Embarrassed humans! His friends 

were blushing for Him 

in secret; wouldn't admit they were shocked.

They thought Him

petulant to curse me! -- yet how could the Lord

be unfair? -- so they looked away,

then and now.

But I, I knew that

helplessly barren though I was,

my day had come. I served

Christ the Poet,

who spoke in images: I was at hand,

a metaphor for their failure to bring forth

what is within them (as figs

were not within me). They who had walked 

in His sunlight presence,

they could have ripened,

could have perceived His thirst and hunger,

His innocent appetite;

they could have offered

human fruits--compassion, comprehension--

without being asked,

without being told of need. My absent fruits

stood for their barren hearts.  He cursed

not me, not them, but

(ears that hear not, eyes that see not)

their dullness, that withholds

gifts unimagined. 

--Denise Levertov, What the Figtree Said           

Image source: https://www.pravmir.com/the-barren-fig-tree-as-icon/

Unexpected growth (Jan Warner)

   There is comfort in acceptance. There is unexpected growth of seedlings of life if we take the risk of opening ourselves up. 

--Jan Warner 

Image source: Edward Knippers, Moses and the Burning Bush (2008), https://artandtheology.org/2016/01/24/the-art-of-contemplative-seeing-as-modeled-by-moses/ 

Quotation source

A fig tree that bears no fruit (Bishop Robert Barron)

    A fig tree that bears no fruit: this is a standard trope in the theological literature of Israel. The tree that bears no fruit is evocative of the moral person who bears no spiritual fruit. Every single person has a mission: to be a conduit of the divine grace into the world. Planted in God—think of Jesus’ image of the vine and the branches—they are meant to bring forth the fruits of love, peace, compassion, justice, nonviolence. 

    And notice that this should be effortless. The closer God gets, the more alive we become. But the mystery of sin is that we resist the invasion of God; we prefer to go our own way; we cling to our own prerogatives and our own narrow freedom. And the result is lifelessness. It feels like depression, like your life is going nowhere—in Dante’s language, like being lost in a dark wood.

    In Jesus’ parable, the one caring for the tree begs the owner for one more chance to manure the tree and to hoe around it, hoping to bring it back to life. But if no life comes, the tree will be cut down. This is the note of urgency that is struck over and again in the Bible. We can run out of time. We can become so resistant to God’s grace that our leaves dry up. This is not divine vengeance; it is spiritual physics. 

   

    So don’t be afraid of God! Surrender to him. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, October 25, 2019 

Image source: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit-trees/best-cold-hardy-fig-trees/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 20, 2022: I am who am...

I am who am… 

Where is God active in your life? 

    When God first calls out to Moses from the burning bush in the Book of Exodus, Moses would have immediately understood fire to be a manifestation of divine power, but he might have been confused by the fact that God was appearing in Midian where Moses is living in exile, rather than in the land of the people of Israel, since that people believed that God was tied to their own land and would only work within it. But God has no limitations about where God works: I am who am is God’s way of proclaiming that God is always, that God exists always as an active presence in our lives, reaching into our human difficulty and changing it. Moses thus acquires a new understanding: God is always with him, kind and merciful, as Psalm 103 reminds us, calling us to relationship and showering blessings on God’s people. Moses is thus called to reclaim his identity within the people of Israel, that he might lead them out of the land of Egypt; Moses’ understanding of God’s active presence has grown immeasurably through his encounter with I am who am. 

    God is always with us, yet each encounter with God is different, because we change, because our understanding of our relationship with I am who am grows. During his journey to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus works to remind the people that their relationship with God requires an ongoing transformation of the way they live. But if we hold that relationship at bay, refusing to allow God to work in our lives, death will come: if you do not repent, he says, you will perish as the Galileans slaughtered by Pilate or eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Unlike the fig tree that bears no fruit and is threatened with destruction, we must keep deepening our relationship with God, continuing to bear fruit. Or, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. The Corinthians must be careful not to be like the ancestors whom God struck down in the desert, arrogant about salvation. Christ is a life-giving source to us only if we are open to him, only if we are willing to accept the life he calls us to, and live it. 

    The work of God happens among as we breathe; we must be open to it, cultivating and fertilizing the ground, that we might grow in faith. The Christian life calls us to grow in God’s presence, to live our faith that Christ – I am who am – is alive within us and among us. We are called to openly receive Christ in our lives, ever anew, never the same, and to allow him to work in us, every day, that we might reveal his presence to our world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s 2013 Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The Prayer of St. Patrick

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me;

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's hosts to save me

From snares of the devil,

From temptations of vices,

From every one who desires me ill,

Afar and anear, 

Alone or in a multitude. 

 --The Prayer of St. Patrick, excerpt

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! 

Image source: St. Patrick Catholic Church, Junction City, Ohio, detail, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/668-saint-patrick-prayer
Quotation source

To come down off the mountain (Fr. James Martin)

    On the last day of my first retreat as a Jesuit novice, my spiritual director said, Time to come down from the mountain!  I had no idea what he was talking about. So I said, Huh? 

 

    Smiling, he reminded me of today’s Gospel passage, the story of the Transfiguration, when Jesus is transfigured before three of his closest disciples. (The Greek word used is metemorphōthē: he undergoes a metamorphosis.) It’s a mysterious reading in which Jesus’s identity as the Son of God is again revealed to the disciples. 

    In response, the disciples want to stay. Let us build three tents, says Peter. Who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t want to remain with Jesus there forever, worshiping him and basking in his (literal) glory? Yet this is not what they are called to do. Following Jesus’s lead, they come down from the mountain. They return to the day-to-day work of being a disciple. 

    After a consoling time in prayer, a moving liturgy, a satisfying retreat, an inspiring book, an hour in spiritual conversation, or a walk in the woods in silence with God, we sometimes want to do nothing more than remain. But Jesus asks us to take the fruits of our time with God to others. To come down off the mountain. And to do the hard—and rewarding—work of being an apostle for social justice. 

--Fr. James Martin           

Image source: https://drewdowns.net/2017/08/06/entered-cloud-transfiguration/ 

Quotation source

A glimpse of the glory (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Thomas Aquinas’ treatment [of the Transfiguration] in the Summa theologiae sums up much of the wisdom of the Church Fathers on this matter. 

   Aquinas says that it was fitting for Christ to be manifested in his glory to his select Apostles, because those who walk an arduous path need a clear sense of the goal of their journey. The arduous path is this life, with all of its attendant sufferings, failures, disappointments, and injustices. 

   Beset by all of this negativity, a pilgrim on life’s way can easily succumb to despair unless he is granted a glimpse of the glory that comes at the end of his striving. And this is why, Aquinas argues, Jesus, before journeying to Jerusalem to walk the way of the cross, for a brief moment allows the light to shine through him. 

   Though we live and move within the confines of this world of space and time, we are not meant, finally, for this dimensional system; we are summoned to life on high with God, in a transformed state of existence. The Transfiguration, therefore, awakens our sense of wonder and steels our courage to face the darkness here below. 

--Bishop Robert Barron Gospel Reflection, August 6, 2020 

Image source: Alexandr Ivanov, Transfiguration (1824), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus#/media/File:Alexandr_Ivanov_015.jpg

Shining light (10,000 Maniacs)

Something was pulling me, 

Without knowing what was leading me on
Your shining light, your shining light 

In my darkest hour the only way to bring the dawn 

Was your shining light, your shining light 

But you're unaware your shining light is even on 

Like with a little glance when you take me by surprise 

And I take a chance, and see it all through your eyes 

Free me from my history, show me where to draw the line 

By lighting up the mystery, and you don't even know that it shines 

I'm not worried now, about flyin' too close to the sun 

Your shining light, your shining light 

When December skies are cold 

Well you know I will always run to 

Your shining light, your shining light 

Refrain 

I won't abuse it so please just let it glow behind your smile 

Let me use it, let me feel the warmth like a little child 

Who understands your glance, though it takes me by surprise 

And I take a chance, and I see it all through your eyes 

It's your shining light 

And it moves me out on the mind 

It's your shining light 

You don't even know that it shines 

It's your shining light, ohh 

It's your shining light 

You don't even know that it shines 

It's your shining light, ohh 

To hear 10,000 Maniacs perform Shining Light, click on the video below: 

Image source: https://studyprayserve.com/2018/03/11/4th-sunday-of-lent-love-that-casts-out-darkness-catholic-inspiration/ 

Video source

Shining through our humanity (Fr. Billy Swan)

   The image that the Gospels use to convey the Transfiguration is light. Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. This is appropriate, for light allows us to see what is already there. Jesus was always divine, but people could not always see his divinity. On the top of Mount Tabor, it became clear to Peter, James, and John who Jesus truly was: God from God and Light from Light, as the Nicene Creed tells us. This light shone out from his humanity and concrete existence. God’s light shone through him and not apart from him. This point is crucial as we understand our lives in Christ. God’s grace and light shine through our humanity and make it radiant in transfiguration. Our faith in Christ is not an obstruction to living a fully human life; it is the source of living a fully human life. 

   On the Feast of the Transfiguration, we join in praise of the God who is light and who allowed that light to shine from the humanity of Christ on Mount Tabor. We give thanks for the gift of that light that we have received at Baptism and that we joyfully bear to all. As we navigate experiences of darkness and suffering, may we come to believe that God still loves us in the night as his grace purifies us, changes us, and unites us more deeply to himself. 

--Fr. Billy Swan       

Image source: Vadim Garine, Chapelle de la Transfiguration, https://vadimgarine.com/projects/chapelle/#&gid=2&pid=1 

Quotation source & complete (and wonderful!) article

Seeing (Anne Lamott)

    Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking. Seeing is why we’re here. 

 --Anne Lamott,      

Dusk, Night, Dawn      

Image source: Miguel Adán & Diego Lopez Bueno, The Transfiguration of Christ, wood relief, polychromed and guilded (16th c. Spain), https://matthiesengallery.com/work_of_art/the-transfiguration-of-christ-on-mount-tabor

Behold! (Stephanie Clary)

And behold, two men were conversing 

with him, Moses and Elijah… 

Luke 9:30 

    We humans are gifted with an incredible ability to behold the world around us with contemplation, meaningfulness and intention, to discover Christ — God — in this world of ours and respond appropriately. With the living Christ, Jesus, as example, we are called to recognize goodness, love, life, beauty and sacredness in the created world because it is of God and reflects God’s glory. 

    Behold!  the indwelling of God in a mountain range ablaze with autumn colors. 

    Behold!  the Creator Spirit igniting life in the womb. 

    Behold!  intelligent design in the ecosystem of the forest. 

    Behold!  the loving face of God in the stranger reaching out for a friend. 

    Behold!  the faithful commitment of a family traveling for Mass. 

    Behold!  the example of Christ in the volunteer selflessly serving the people. 

    We disregard the significance and power of this ability to behold when we do not respond appropriately to the presence of God in our lives. Beyond just gazing upon the world and moving through it, beholding requires us to fully be present, appreciative and receptive to God in our midst. 

    Augustine once exhorted his people, You can read what Moses wrote [in scripture]; in order to write it, what did Moses read, a man living in time? Observe heaven and earth in a religious spirit. I think that’s a pretty good definition of what it means to behold. If we observe heaven and earth — which is the biblical way to say everything — in a religious spirit, it is difficult to miss God dwelling in this world of ours, not only in moments of wonder and awe, but also in moments that are seemingly insignificant and trivial: a chaotic family dinner between math team, soccer practice and piano lessons; a restless night of studying for a desired degree; a mundane drive to work along the waterfront. 

    [An] enthusiastic Behold! [echoes] in my mind whenever I experience a vivid scene of God’s presence. In the moments when it feels like God is absent, I look a little harder. Sometimes we forget what we’re doing and get a little lost. It is in precisely those moments that it’s most important to grasp on to Christ’s presence and truly behold. 

--Stephanie Clary           

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Transfiguration of Christ (1971). Photo courtesy of Fr. Patrick Michaels. https://scriptum.com/artwork/14897-transfiguration?artistsid=1505

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 13, 2022: Look up at the sky and count the stars...

Look up at the sky and count the stars…

Do you trust in God’s promise? 

    Can you count the stars? When, in the Book of Genesis, God makes his covenant with Abram, God says, Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so shall your descendants be. Abram has no tangible number he can attach to the stars, but he puts his faith in the Lord’s promise and believes in the impossible: descendants beyond number. The covenant is sealed with the nighttime sacrifice of various animals and birds. In the deep, terrifying darkness that ensues, Abram may feel dread, yet he is not dominated by fear, for he trusts still in God’s promise, and a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch will light the night for him. Abram will not see the Promised Land, but his vision is nonetheless transformed by God’s action in his life. The Lord is Abram’s light and his salvation; Abram’s confidence is in God and in God’s power beyond his comprehension. As in Psalm 27, the Lord does not hide his face from Abram; Abram seeks to be seen by God, opening himself to a kind of vision that can only come from God. 

    The Transfiguration of Jesus similarly transforms the vision of those who are present: Peter, John and James awaken to see Jesus’ glory and the two men standing with him on Mt. Tabor. Luke describes Jesus’ transformation: while he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white, as if lit by a light from within. Peter and his companions have the opportunity to see Jesus as the Father sees him, and they almost do not recognize him. We, too, are called to witness this sight: behold! Faith is meant to shift how we look at our world, that we might see it as God sees it; we must look past the surface, stepping beyond what is visible, transcending it, that we might attain a new depth of understanding in faith. Paul’s message to the Philippians is similar: while on earth they must observe and imitate those who imitate Christ, acknowledging the centrality of the cross of Christ even as those around them deny it, so that God’s glory can be revealed in them as well. 

    We tend to conceive of Lent in negative terms, but, with proper vision, we can see that Lent is in fact uplifting in its focus on transformation. Abram will forever look at the sky differently; Peter, James and John can never look at Jesus in the same way again. A change in vision was required of them, as it is required of us, that we might understand the fundamental purpose of the cross of Christ and the glory of the Lord it reveals, and trust in the promise of God. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Hiding in the human heart (Anthony de Mello SJ)

   The master became a legend in his lifetime. It was said that God once sought his advice: I want to play a game of hide-and-seek with humankind. I’ve asked my angels what the best place is to hide in. Some say the depths of the ocean. Others the top of the highest mountain. Others still the far side of the moon or a distant star. What do you suggest? 

   Said the master, Hide in the human heart. That’s the last place they will think of. 

--Anthony de Mello, SJ, One Minute Wisdom 

Image source: https://www.educatall.com/page/902/Hide-and-seek.html

God with us (Roy Lessin)

   GOD WITH US – not in heaven, not out of touch or out of reach, not a phantom, not a shadow, not a legend or a myth; God with us in grace, in truth, in mercy; God with us in human flesh, touchable, seeable, knowable.

   LOVE breathing, love giving, love caring, love dying. Walking where we walk, crying our tears, knowing our pain, feeling our grief, bearing our sorrows. 

   GOD WITH US – in the manger, in the temple, on the road, in the desert, by the well, in the boat, upon the hillside, in the home, at the table; healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting those who mourn, speaking to the multitude and seeking out the individual; with arms extended, with words that beckom, with a voice that calls, Come unto me. 

   GOD WITH US – to believe in, to follow, to proclaim, to seek, to worship, to love, to cherish forever! 

--Roy Lessin 

Image source 1: Christ’s Temptations in the Desert, mosaic, San Marco, Venice (12th c.), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ#/media/File:Temptations_of_Christ_(San_Marco).jpg 

Image source 2: James Tissot, Jesus Ministered to by Angels (1886-1894), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Jesus_Ministered_to_by_Angels_(J%C3%A9sus_assist%C3%A9_par_les_anges)_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg 

Quotation source

God's address book (Pope Benedict XVI)

   How consoling it is to know the telephone number of a friend, to know good people who love us, who are always available and never aloof: at any time, we can call them and they can call us. This is precisely what the Incarnation of God in Christ says to us: God has written our names and phone numbers in his address book! He is always listening; we do not need money or technology to call him. Thanks to baptism and confirmation, we are privileged to belong to his family. 

—Joseph Ratzinger 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 

Western Culture, Today and Tomorrow 

Image source: Celestial Address Book, www.amazon.com

Sit with God (Vicky McBride)

When I think about my Lenten journey last year, I’m reminded of the first few lines of the Mary Oliver poem Wild Geese: 

You do not have to be good. 

You do not have to walk on your knees 

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. 

You only have to let the soft animal of your body 

love what it loves.

You don’t need to be good. You just need to try your best to be receptive, to recognize that God might be trying to reach out to you right where you are. Settle in. Say to God, Here I am. Sit and BE with God and God will let you glimpse God’s power. 

--Vicky McBride 

Image source & poem by Mary Oliver: http://sacompassion.net/poem-wild-geese-by-mary-oliver/
Quotation source

God is near (St. Francis de Sales)

   Let the waves roar, let the wind blow, let the world turn upside-down. Let everything be in darkness, in smoke, in uproar. Nothing can hurt you. God is near. 

--St. Francis de Sales 

Image source: Ludwig Hans Fischer, The Simoom (1878), http://www.artnet.com/artists/ludwig-hans-fischer/the-simoom-yIVEv6xLZSmQmKEvCDD3qA2
Quotation source