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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

Feast of the Transfiguration 'B'

Sunday August 6, 2006

It is good for us to be here. Pay attention—listen up!

“We possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” [II Peter 1:19]

The Feast of the Transfiguration occurs on just the right day in the right season and for the right reason, I might add. It’s the right day because on this, the 51st Anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, we can never forget the horror that not even 9/11 or even the tsunami of 04 could equal – the direct antithesis of the teaching of Jesus and the meaning of the mountaintop experience of Peter, James and John at the transfiguration of Jesus..

The incessant reminders of meteorologists as they fumbled for new words to describe the recent heat wave competed last week with reports of new incursions into Lebanon and a record number of rockets fired into Israel. Meanwhile, commentators and political pundits engaging in the paralysis of analysis argued about whether or not the conflict in Iraq has erupted into a civil war. Americans watch helplessly as US soldiers die almost daily and the death of civilians multiply exponentially.

Last year on this feast, I viewed a PBS special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I watched as lifeless figures and shadows of those who literally melted or evaporated by the heat of the bomb. I ‘witnessed’ the conferral of honors on those who piloted the Enola Gay that dropped the atom bomb, I felt ill.

No, I do not condemn the pilots. They could not have appreciated the havoc that a bomb equal to 20, 000 times the power of one TNT explosion would reap. However, the bombing of Nagasaki was worse because by August 9th, they, we and the whole world knew what the bomb would do.

We need glimpses of glory to assure us that Jesus will never concede defeat to evil no matter what the case and cause. Under the guise of good, good people quickly and all too easily succumb to evil in order to defeat evil.

Jesus appeared in dazzling white clothes like “the Ancient One” described in the Book of Daniel, conversing with Moses representing the ancient law and Elias representing the ancient prophets. In Jesus we find the summation of the entire law and prophets.

The reference to ‘tents’ connected this event with the Jewish festival of “Booths” in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. The community of faith to whom Mark was writing were reminded that in the midst of confusing times, God is powerfully at work not in the evil perpetrated by humans but in the words and deeds of Jesus, the Ancient One, Son of God and Messiah.

“It cannot be this way with you. If you wish to be my disciples, you must deny your very self, take up your cross and follow me” [Matt 10:38] “He who did not sin became sin for us that we may be free.” [II Cor 5:21]

In his gospel account, Mark identifies Jesus three times: at his baptism near the beginning of his gospel, at his death on the cross near the end, and here at the midpoint or in the words of one commentator, “at a swing point” in the middle. In each case, Jesus is acknowledged as God’s Son. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

The transfiguration is couched between two predictions of Jesus’ passion. In Chapter 8, verses 31 to 33, we read: “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at this disciples, rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.’” This was a pretty strong reprimand.

Following his transfiguration, “They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be handed over to those who will kill him. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.” [Mark 9:30-32]

They didn’t understand until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost after which they were filled with the courage to speak and act in Jesus name no matter what the cost or consequences.

The experience of Peter, James and John on the mountaintop was unreal and we like them do not live on the mountaintop. In fact, we like them are living in confusing times. But in the midst of our own realities—our daily trials, our sometimes tortured lives, God is present and God speaks. Just as what was revealed on the mountaintop in this ancient vision was decisive for Peter, James and John, so it remains decisive for our us as disciples of Christ and for the life of God’s world.

In “Faith and Violence,” Thomas Merton with a touch of sarcasm wrote: “Our idols are by no means dumb and powerless. The sardonic diatribes of the prophets against images of wood and stone do not apply to our images that live, and speak, and smile, and dance, allure us, and lead us off to the kill. Not only are we idolaters, but we are likely to carry out point by point the harlotries of the Apocalypse.”

“And if we do, we will do so innocently, decently, with clean hands, for the blood is always shed somewhere else! The smoke of the victims is always justified by some clean sociological explanation; and, of course, it is not superstition, because we are by definition the most enlightened people that ever happened.” Through the Year with Thomas Merton, Daily Meditations from His Writings, selected and edited by Thomas P. McDonnell, Image Books, Garden City, NY, 1985]

As polls continue about where we stand on battles fought on distant shores, the gospel challenges us to stand with Christ who stands on neither side but whose blood is mixed with the blood innocent victims dying in the streets on all sides.

This is not about whose side God is on but about whether or not we are on God’s side.

The Scriptures are a double-edged-sword. They comfort but they also challenge but we can take heart from the words of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians: “All of us, gazing on the Lord’s glory with unveiled faces are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image by the Lord who is the Spirit.”

“Because we possess this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give in to discouragement. Rather, we repudiate shameful, underhanded practices. We do not resort to trickery or falsify the word of God. We proclaim the truth openly and commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. If our gospel can be called “veiled” in any sense, it is such only for those who are headed toward destruction. It is not ourselves we preach but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts, that we may in turn might make n=known the glory of God shining on the face of Christ.” [II Corinthians 3:7—4:6]

Please check my website “Sidebar Comments” for the moving testimonial of Fr. George Zabelka, US Air Force Catholic Chaplain who served the airmen who dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Scroll down to the title: “Bless the Bombs”.