A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

First Reading – Joshua 5:9-12 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 15:18

The Gospel According to Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 ©

 

(NJB)

 Listen!

 Set aside the notion that the events reported in the book of Joshua refer to actual historical realities…they do not.

 These writings are fragments of oral history woven together with allegories into a metaphorical tapestry whose mythological narrative was meant to a struggling people.

 The Joshua Epic begins to be collected and written down in the tenth and eleventh centuries BCE, in a process that took generations. It reflects the point of view of the Davidic Monarchy, and that of David’s heirs, it is not a faithful representation of the actual history of the people of Israel, Judea or any of the other tribes belonging to the Hebrew confederation.

 Know this:

 God did not deliver the people from Egypt, they saved themselves. They had nothing to be ashamed of for having been the vassals of Egypt for so many years. According to their own story the children of Israel entered into the service of the Egyptians during a time of famine, they did so as a means of self-preservation, it is not likely that they ever left the land of Cannan in doing so, some perhaps but not the majority, they merely accepted Egyptian rule, and paid Egyptian taxes, while remaining in service for several hundred years. The Children of Israel may have ultimately come to find this burden to onerous to live with, but during that time they grew into a strong people.

 Here is the story that the tradition has preserved:

 There was conflict in Egypt and the Hebrews through off their bonds, when they did, they did so under their own power. They were on their own, caught between feuding empires and without the backing of a major power. The tribes consisted of some herders and nomads, the ancestors of the Bedouin, but there were also bands of thieves, brigands, pirates and runaway slaves.

 They established their own customs, traditions based on law rather than the religious cults of imperial power, they planted new roots and settled the Levant, allowing other tribes to join them if they agreed to keep the law before them, the foundation of which was a commitment to an ethical society, and those who not they put to the sword.

 What is hidden in the reading is this:

 People must rely on themselves for what they do in the world, they must produce their own food, protect themselves and grow their own tribes. People are responsible for this and cannot wait upon God to provide it for them…if they do they will starve. God will not intervene, not until our point of departure from this world, from that moment on God will handle the rest.

 Be mindful of the psalmist.

 If you intend to seek God, look no farther than your heart; you will find God by loving, and in loving you will be blessed.

 Praise God through works of love. Look for no other glory than service seek praise through the emulation of God’s infinite compassion.

 Know this!

 The Divine spirit is nameless, you cannot lift God’s name in praise, if you try you must be humble and keep before you the knowledge that whatever issues from your throat and passes through your lips is nothing more than air, shaped by your tongue whose only connection to the divine is found in the intent with which you utter it.

 Listen to your neighbors when they are afraid; rescue them. Reassure them with you faith, let them see the divine light shining through you…the light of hope and love.

 Understand this:

 God is merciful; with God there is no need for shame. God is no respecter of station, class or wealth…God loves everyone the same.

 Do not look for God to solve your problems, we are each of us another Job, though our tribulations are not tests applied to us by some celestial agent. Our tribulations are merely the vicissitudes of natural world and human culture, they are the price we pay for our freedom of will, and we persevere while we endure them through faith, by your trust in the divine you will come to understand how transient they are.

 Do not look to God to for rescue, look to your neighbor instead. Be the person your neighbor looks to for aid; be that person even if your neighbor is a stranger…rescue them in their need.

 Be mindful.

 All pain is temporary, but love lasts forever; therefore, do not fear.

 Speak the truth, avoid evil; do good.

 God see all, hears all, knows all, even your innermost thoughts, your secrets and desires, your hidden motivations, we all exist within the divine being and God understands the whole of our experience, even as we understand it ourselves (only better).

 Keep your mind in the present and do not focus on the good things that may or may not come as a result of the work you do in the here and now…the work is what you are called too.

 Love and do good, love without the thought of reward for yourself. Love as God loves so that those near you can experience the love of God through you in in the here and now.

 Hearken to those who teach hope…ignore the fear-mongers. The way is not found in fear.

 Consider the teaching of the Apostle and know that our salvation is derived from the work of God’s, not our own. It is God’s work, and the work is done already, the work began as John said, in the first moment of creation.

 The fall, such as it was, happened subsequent to and in the context of God’s saving work, not apart from it or outside of it…apart from God there is nothing.

 The work of salvation begins in eternity, and eternity is where it is realized, while the product of sin is a function of time and space, it comes to an end.

 Jesus revealed the truth of it and entrusted all future followers of the way with the task of sharing that Good news with the world...this is the mission of the Church, to proclaim that we are already reconciled to God, that there is no debt to pay, to lift the terrible burden of sin and allow it to fall away from hearts of the people.

 We fall and rise together, because we were created as one in the goodness of God.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today and know this:

 People change and appearances are not everything; there is good in everyone, and in everyone there is reason to be disappointed. The degree of judgement levelled by the Pharisees in this narrative; is not something we should emulate, neither is the jealousy expressed in this parable by the loyal son. Beneath the veneer of piety there is often bitterness and resentment; making the pretense of piety a mere façade.

 The parable is about justice.

 Jesus teaches from the perspective of divine justice…few are able to recognize the mandate of heaven when they see it, fewer still are those who can articulate it with authority as Jesus does.

 The more common discussion of justice is found in the superimposition of human values and  contemporary social mores over what we hope and fear God would desire.

 It is a rare to be able to set aside the prejudices of the day in favor of an expression of the heavenly, but this is the role of the prophet; to articulate a mode of justice characterized by love and mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and to demand that we reform our human traditions in light of those.

 This parable is often analyzed as a narrative on the power of repentance.

 Repentance: the action a sinner takes when he or she turns away from the world and toward God.

 This parable is a story of conversion and the power of transformation that ensues from it.

 The characters in the parable are a father (read God) and his two sons (read the dual nature of humanity), the younger self-indulgent and the older self-disciplined.

 The self-indulgent child is like most of us, he is greedy and heedless of the future. The journey he makes, takes him for from his father…far from God. It is a long journey, it takes years to complete and it leaves him destitute.

 The disciplined child represents a much smaller number of us (though most people fall somewhere in between). He stays home, remains obedient and asks for nothing from his father, though expecting to receive everything that belongs to the father as his inheritance.

 He is pious and resolute, but in his heart he is resentful and bitter. Because he asks for nothing for himself, he receives nothing for himself and in his heart he is covetous of everything.

 Between the sin of self-indulgence and the sin of covetousness; which is greater?

 I think it is impossible to say; sin is sin, and this is a story of sin and repentance.

 The younger son repents and returns home, the road into depravity was long, but the road to recovery was short, and what the narrative reveals is that while he was away from home, the eyes of his loving father; the eyes of God, were always on him.

 I believe this is the point of the narrative.

 The purpose of this narrative is not to remind us that repentance is possible, or that God rejoices in the repentant. The point is to say that the divine is always with us; we are never out of God’s sight, and we are never far from God’s love.

 The parable concerns God’s mercy, God’s Love, God’s compassion and forgiving heart. It is about what God and Jesus, ask each of us to emulate everyday insofar as we have chosen to be followers of the way.

First Reading – Joshua 5:9-12 ©

The Israelites Celebrate Their First Passover in the Promised Land

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’

  The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time, from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna stopped falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Glorify the Lord with me.

  Together let us praise his name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

  from all my terrors he set me free.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Look towards him and be radiant;

  let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

  and rescued him from all his distress.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ©

God Reconciled Himself to us Through Christ

For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 15:18

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

I will leave this place and go to my father and say:

‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©

The Prodigal Son

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’

 

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

A Homily – The Third Sunday of Lent (Year C)

First Reading – Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 102(103):1-4,6-8,11 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 4:17

The Gospel According to Luke 13:1-9 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The reading from the Book of Exodus is a story of Moses, presenting an image of God who would turn one nation against another, tribe against tribe, family against family. It presents an image of God who prefers one group over another making promises to them of conquest, and the intervention of the almighty on behalf of that selected people.

 This story depicts the punishment of the people of Egypt for the sins of Pharaoh, who, if you read the story correctly only did the things he did because God intervened in his process off discernment to harden his heart, time and time again; God determined the course of action Pharaoh would take, and then punished the entire nation for those deeds.

 This is false; these stories are not worthy of the sacred text. They make God, the creator of the universe out to be a hack, a mean spirited and capricious fool, a bully, a murderer and a thief.

 Remember this:

 God is not a king, God is not a lord. God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings, preferring one group over another.

 Do not fall into the same pitfalls as the psalmist.

 Give thanks to God for the blessings of life, freedom, self-determination and every other element of our being that allows us to be persons.

 God gave us personhood, it is a gift we are meant to cherish. God’s spirit is reflected in our personhood and in that reflection God is present fully. God is present in us, and present in every other person we encounter, the mighty and the meek, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

 Give thanks to God and give thanks to those who do God’s work, to those who are loving, to the peacemakers, bless them as you are able. Bless all of God’s children, as God does, love them all; the helpful and the harmful, the just and the unjust, the kind and the mean…share a blessing with them

 Consider the teaching of the apostle, like the other disciples, he commonly allows his fear to blind him to the way of faith and hope which Jesus preached.

 Remember this:

 God loves you; God loves everyone. God does not lay traps along your path to test your faith…that is not the way.

 God does not visit suffering on one generation for the purpose of teaching a lesson to another, as the apostle suggested…that would be unjust.

 God does not intervene in human affairs, as such, we know that God did not guide the Israelites through the desert. They found their own way, and they suffered terribly on their journey.

 They did not suffer because they were sinful people, they suffered because life is hard. Many people died, many were killed in the wars they fought; they visited violence and anguish and sorrow on their enemies, not because God willed it, but because they were led into those endeavors according to their own human ambitions. It is poor theology to suggest otherwise, and contrary to the teaching of Jesus who says that God wills us to love our enemies, that we pray for those who persecute us...this is the way and within it is the entire content of Christian faith.

 It should be understood that the Israelites committed terrible crimes, their own records testify too it. And yet, despite their crimes, they did many things that were good. They put some communities to the sword, they also bonded with one another and strengthened their own. They made a place for themselves in the world according to the ways of the world, while it is not praiseworthy it is not condemnatory either.

 This is the way of sin, human beings perpetrate it according to our nature, as Christians we hope that God will bring something good out of it.

 Jesus teaches that we can be forgiven for our sins, in the same way that we forgive everyone who has sinned, in the same way that we seek forgiveness for our own, by not dwelling on our pain and moving forward as one.

 Do not be confused by the apostle, resist his appeal to authority, do not follow him into error.

 When the apostle uses allegory to relate images and tropes from the exodus to his audience, as fore-shadowing the Christ and the rites of baptism, his interpretations and interpolations of meaning cannot be viewed as having been written with those intentions a thousand years prior to the birth of Jesus and the foundation of the Church…he is writing poetry, not attempting to establish a historical record. Therefore, we should read the text as a poet would and find meaning in its fiction.

 Understand this:

 Moses never lived, everything we have read about him is myth and metaphor. By reading the text as a poet would, we honor the spirit by which it was written. This is how we keep the text alive from age to age, by not falling into the trap of believing that we have discovered its meaning, the truth of it, once and for all.

 The proper use to which we put the sacred text is to promote the teaching of the way, which is rooted in love, mercy and compassion. We use it to facilitate the rejection of fear, by clinging to the image it presents of God as the bringer of hope, not the harbinger of terror.  

 Be wary of the Scriptures, especially when the authors attempt to fit their narrative of Jesus into a picture that makes it look as if he is fulfilling a prediction made by a prognosticator from the past…this is always a falsehood.

 Even if a prediction was made, and even if Jesus did the thing that was predicted, it is a false narrative to suggest that Jesus’ actions were in fulfillment of it.

 Prophets only speak of the future for two reasons: 1) to engender hope, 2) to warn of danger.

 The words of a prophet are always addressed to the people in their own time, in their own place. Prophecy is never meant to guide the lives of future generations, except in the cases when the prophet is engaged in pattern recognition, or addressing an issue of universal truth, such as the nature of justice…a truth which is itself unchanging.

 Know this.

 The Gospel writers were propagandists. They fabricated many of the details of Jesus’ life. They fabricated those details to suit the narrative they preferred about who Jesus was, why his life and death were necessary, and what his life and death meant for the early church.

 In this narrative the Gospel writers place Jesus directly in the tradition of John the Baptist, with the words “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is a continuation of John’s narrative, meant to harness the energy of John’s movement, contextualizing Jesus’ arrest and murder as a part of the same sequence of injustices visited upon the people then.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, the text is plain.

 It acknowledges the overwhelming reality of suffering in the world, whether it is the type of suffering caused by human beings, or suffering caused by the random nature of events in the world; or the specific suffering inflicted on the people by the Roman prelate, Pilate, who brutalized the people of Palestine, for political and religious purposes (which to the Romans were one and the same).

 In the face of this suffering Jesus teaches his people that they should proceed with care, be mindful, watchful and considerate of the secular powers. He encourages his followers to take care of one another or they too will be caught up in the aegis of Pilate’s authority and subjected to the cruel whimsy of Roman justice.

 The people who suffered and died under Pilate did not suffer and die because they deserved it more than any others, they were not more-guilty of crimes than he was, or his followers were, but they were careless, and due to their carelessness they were caught up in the grip of Roman power.

 In this parable Jesus stresses the power of intention. The farmer is the Roman State, he has the power of life and death over the people, if the people do not fulfill his expectations, he will destroy them. This is what Jesus wants the disciples in particular remember.

 The man looking after the vineyard represents the community. The community pleads for mercy on behalf of the people, so that through mindfulness and care, the people are brought along safely into the next year, preserving themselves and their families in the face of the oppressive Roman State.

 

First Reading – Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 ©

'I AM has sent me to you'

Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and look at this strange sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’ Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ Moses answered. ‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,’ he said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God.

And the Lord said, ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.’

Then Moses said to God, ‘I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’ And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 102(103):1-4,6-8,11 ©

The Lord is compassion and love.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  all my being, bless his holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  and never forget all his blessings.

The Lord is compassion and love.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,

  who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

  who crowns you with love and compassion,

The Lord is compassion and love.

The Lord does deeds of justice,

  gives judgement for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses

  and his deeds to Israel’s sons.

The Lord is compassion and love.

The Lord is compassion and love,

  slow to anger and rich in mercy.

For as the heavens are high above the earth

  so strong is his love for those who fear him.

The Lord is compassion and love.

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 ©

The Life of the People Under Moses in the Desert Was Written Down to be a Lesson For Us

I want to remind you, brothers, how our fathers were all guided by a cloud above them and how they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in this cloud and in this sea; all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them as they went, and that rock was Christ. In spite of this, most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert.

These things all happened as warnings for us, not to have the wicked lusts for forbidden things that they had. You must never complain: some of them did, and they were killed by the Destroyer.

All this happened to them as a warning, and it was written down to be a lesson for us who are living at the end of the age. The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 4:17

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Repent, says the Lord, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 13:1-9 ©

'Leave the Fig Tree One More Year'

Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

 He told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”’

 

The Third Sunday of Lent (Year C)

A Homily – The Second Sunday of Lent (Year C)

First Reading – Genesis 15:5-12,17-18 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 26(27):1,7-9,13-14 ©

Second Reading – Philippians 3:17-4:1 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 17:5

The Gospel According to Luke 9:28-36 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Exercise great caution when you read the sacred text. There is a temptation to read them in a way that enables the reader to justify their most corrupt desires, and that is the opposite of the way.

 The reading for today from the Book of Genesis, contains many errant and problematic tropes, even though its central message, the promise that God makes to Abraham, is sound.

 Remember.

 God does not intervene in human affairs. God never has, never does, and never will. God made the universe and every creature in it free, and as such God does not appoint kings and princes, or rulers of any order.

 God did not call Abraham, but rather, Abraham found his way to God, and as always the path Abraham took was to live a just life.

 Like Abraham we find God by doing good; through acts of compassion and mercy.

 Know this:

 God does not favor the cult of animal sacrifice. This is a human contrivance interposed on human culture for human ends.

 God did not give land to Abraham in a covenant; God is not a relator, there is no land covenant and there never was.

 The idea that there is a covenant of some kind between God, the creator of the universe, and the descendants of Abraham, merely served as a justification for seizing the so-called promised land by force.

In the time of Abraham they were lands which belonged to other people. The covenant narrative became woven through the history of the children of Israel after they slipped the bonds of the Egyptians, and only after they successfully prosecuted their wars throughout Canaan, against all of the other Semitic peoples.

Be mindful: in the reading we have been given for today, what is useful is this:

“Your descendants will number as the stars in sky.”

This is the central promise in the reading, not the phony covenant with Abraham.

God’s promise is a word of hope; Abraham’s children will increase without measure, and based on this hope we may set aside the notion that the world will come to a sudden and arbitrary end. We can set aside the notion that we are on a race to the finish line, that the clock is ticking, that the sands are falling, or that the end of days is near.

Know this!

There are billions of stars in the galaxy, and there are countless galaxies lighting up the night sky; in fact, there are stars and galaxies aborning at this very moment; their number is without end.

God is good. Open your eyes and you will see God’s goodness, look for it in the faces of your enemies, the goodness of God is shining.  

God is good. Open your ears and you will hear God’s goodness, even in the words of your enemies, the goodness of God will ring out.

God is good. God loves you, and with you God loves all people. Your eternal home is waiting for you…come, and invite your enemies to the table with you.

This is the way of Jesus.

Take heed!

Reflect on the daily concerns of the apostle, how he seeks to manage his community of believers, knowing that people are notoriously difficult to manage. They do not always do as we would wish them to do, they pit themselves against each other…they are divisive

Paul was not alone in experiencing this, Jesus experienced it with the disciples. Paul deals with it everyday, in every community he helped to form he encounters the schizophrenia of the group mind, a recalcitrant church, ungrateful, vain and unwise.

If you are responsible for the care of people and you are seeking to follow the way of Jesus, remember this; God is always with them. God dwells inside of each and every one of them, in each and everyone of us…if you are true, they will be true with you.

We may try to influence the circumstances we find ourselves in, to free ourselves from folly and the impediments of sin, which is the burden of our nature, but we are not responsible for it’s resolution. The resolution of sin is in God’s hands, and because we will not live to see it, this is something we are called on to hold by faith.

Do not give up on God as the apostle did, free yourself from the doubts the disciples shared. Do not denigrate God’s creation, or imagine that the body is evil, do not malign the state of our mortality simply because we experience hunger, disease and pain; these are belong to the mystery of life, they are of God’s creation, and God’s creation is good.

Remember.

As Christians we are bound to read the Gospel in the context of its truthfulness. We must let the Spirit of Truth guide us, even if it means rejecting a passage such as what is behind the acclamation from Matthew today.

There may have been an event or a time when Jesus, together with James and John went up the mountain by themselves, and it may have been that at such a moment Jesus connected his ministry with that of Moses, the liberator and law giver; and to Elijah who was the truth-teller.

If there was such a moment, or perhaps there were many such moments sewn together by narrative into one; this may be the case, but the supernatural events that were described in the text, these did not happen.

God does not engage in supernatural activities, because God is the author of nature and its laws, and God does not violate them for any reason…especially caprice.

The lesson here is that the disciples were meant to understand that the ministry of Jesus was in keeping with the expectations of Enoch, the Son of Man, a proto-type of the Hebrew Messiah, whose return was hoped for.

In the text Jesus warned the disciples that his ministry will lead to his death, but like Enoch, death would not stop him, and that like Enoch he would return, and this is what they hoped for.

Be mindful.

Strip the fantastical elements from the scripture as you find the, they may fuction metaphorically, or allegorically, but stories of the supernatural cannot be taken literally, they are not elucidating and to read them this way is contrary to the way.

In theology the words we use to speak about God. These words are only good and useful, if they are grounded rationality.

In mythology; we use words to contextualize our experience and link it to a world beyond ourselves, this is the place for metaphor and allegory.

These two modes of narrative are not necessarily at odds with each other, but they can be.

Myth can be grounded and rational, but only when the motif of the metaphor and the assumptions in the allegory are fully understood and properly balanced so that they are aligned with the way. They can be good and useful when they facilitate our engagement with the narrative with our eyes wide open.

By the same token theology can be irrational; if the assumptions we make about the nature of reality, human nature and the divine economy are not rooted in truth, or worse, if they are rooted in fear, hate and greed.

The mythology behind the transfiguration motif is easily and often misinterpreted,  and this is because the root of the narrative has its origins in a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus was.

As I have already suggested; it may be the case that those who first articulated the narrative of the transfiguration, and those who first penned it, only intended to transmit the message that Jesus stood in the same tradition as Moses the lawgiver, and Elijah the prophet.

The motif of the cloud descending on Jesus may have only been meant to suggest that Jesus’ authority, his understanding of the divine will, came from a place of mystery as well as “on high”..

The voice from the cloud naming Jesus “son,” may have only been meant to convey the message that Jesus is the “heir” to the Abrahamic tradition, and not merely a “teacher” within that tradition.

This is a grounded and rational interpretation of this myth.

However, the interpreters of this myth commonly dwell on the more sensational images in the narrative; the bright lights and the shining garments, the presence of Moses, and Elijah (as if they were actually there), their journey together into the cloud with Jesus (as if they went there bodily), the voice from that cloud naming Jesus as God’s son, as an actual declaration of paternity from the divine source of all being…this is irrational, and this fantasy-based interpretation has led to great confusion through the centuries. Incredible conflict and bloody warfare between opposing factions of Christians have ensued based on these falsities, including conflicts with non-Christians as well.

 These conflicts came about because the people involved in them felt the need to take sides on the question of who Jesus was, and defend their claims with violence; this is a tragedy, and it is antithetical to the way.

 Know this!

 Jesus was a human being, like any other. Like all creatures he carried a seed of the divine within him, and where the divine is, the divine is fully present.

 The fullness of God dwelt within Jesus, just as the fullness of God dwells within each of us. We are connected to and in relationship with God, and Jesus, just as we are connected and in relationship to every creature who ever was, is, or yet will be.

 What differentiated Jesus from his followers was his understanding of these truths and his ability to apply that understanding in a manner that points the way for us to a moral and just society.

 

First Reading – Genesis 15:5-12,17-18 ©

 God Enters into a Covenant with Abraham, the Man of Faith

 Taking Abram outside, the Lord said, ‘Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can.’ ‘Such will be your descendants,’ he told him. Abram put his faith in the Lord, who counted this as making him justified.

 ‘I am the Lord’ he said to him ‘who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to make you heir to this land.’ ‘My Lord,’ Abram replied ‘how am I to know that I shall inherit it?’ He said to him, ‘Get me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these, cut them in half and put half on one side and half facing it on the other; but the birds he did not cut in half. Birds of prey came down on the carcases but Abram drove them off.

 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, there appeared a smoking furnace and a firebrand that went between the halves. That day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram in these terms:

 ‘To your descendants I give this land,

from the wadi of Egypt to the Great River.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 26(27):1,7-9,13-14 ©

The Lord is my light and my help.

The Lord is my light and my help;

  whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

  before whom shall I shrink?

The Lord is my light and my help.

O Lord, hear my voice when I call;

  have mercy and answer.

Of you my heart has spoken:

  ‘Seek his face.’

The Lord is my light and my help.

It is your face, O Lord, that I seek;

  hide not your face.

Dismiss not your servant in anger;

  you have been my help.

The Lord is my light and my help.

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness

  in the land of the living.

Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.

  Hope in the Lord!

The Lord is my light and my help.

Second Reading – Philippians 3:17-4:1 ©

Our Homeland is in Heaven, and from Heaven Comes Christ to Transfigure Us

My brothers, be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us. I have told you often, and I repeat it today with tears, there are many who are behaving as the enemies of the cross of Christ. They are destined to be lost. They make foods into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think shameful; the things they think important are earthly things. For us, our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can subdue the whole universe.

  So then, my brothers and dear friends, do not give way but remain faithful in the Lord. I miss you very much, dear friends; you are my joy and my crown.

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 17:5

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

From the bright cloud the Father’s voice was heard:

‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’

Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 9:28-36 ©

Jesus is Transfigured Before Them

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ – He did not know what he was saying. As he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. And a voice came from the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.’ And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. The disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.

 

The Second Sunday of Lent (Year C)