Monthly Archives: February 2010

Reflecting on Luke 9:28b-36

One hot August 6th in 1985, we were packed and ready to head home after another great summer of study at the University of Notre Dame. During the last few minutes of our last class, the brilliant Nathan Mitchell, OSB sent us home with these words:

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, that moment in time when the blinding light from heaven enveloped Jesus

Mount Tabor

as he prayed on the sacred mountain. But we also remember today another flash of light, the white light of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima forty years ago today. So, as you travel home, pondering those two very different lights, I offer you this promise: if, through circumstances of famine, drought and war, the arsenals of the world are emptied into every city, every farmland, every mountain and ocean, and the earth is plunged into endless darkness, the light of the Transfigured Christ will burn brighter than that darkness.

I wonder if that’s what Moses and Elijah said to Jesus as they spoke with him about his death and resurrection. He was on his way to Jerusalem to confront the Prince of Darkness at the Cross. I think they were reminding him that things would look very different in Easter Light.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

As you face suffering, what prayers or Gospel accounts give you strength?

Reflecting on Luke 4:1-3

Have you ever received a compliment in public, and secretly wondered what some of the people who know you best would say?  They’re the ones, after all, who know your secrets.  They’re the ones who saw all the stuff you threw into the closet before company arrived.  They may be keeping a straight face during the tribute, but what are they really thinking?

The Mount of Temptation

We find out today that the Tempter― who was no doubt listening in when Jesus was baptized and the voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love”― immediately led Jesus into the desert in order to torment him about that Voice.  You really believe you’re God’s Son?  Prove it.  Prove it. Prove it.

Talk about believing your own press!  Satan thinks that all the kingdoms of the world are his to give over!  Jesus knows to Whom they really belong, and he stands, in his hunger and his thirst, in authority over the author of lies.

Of course, Satan was listening in on the day of your baptism too.  Never, never listen when he tries to tell you that you must have misunderstood the part about being God’s child, forever beloved.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

In what ways can you sense the Tempter trying to take away your experience of being loved by God?

Reflecting on 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

On this cold, cloudy day―a perfect day for ashes, and meditation, and starting over again―I remember the day I learned how to be, as Paul begs us, “an ambassador of reconciliation”.  I had been parking my car on the street, right outside the house that sat next door to the busy parish center where I worked.  For ten years the middle-aged man who lived in the house had pleasantly smiled and waved at me as I walked from my car into work.

That’s why I was so shocked on the day when, out of the blue, he left me a profane, furious note on my car, threatening

Ambassadors of Reconciliation

me with violence if I ever parked in front of his house again.  I was mortified, embarrassed, deeply hurt and a little bit afraid.  I spent several hours plotting my revenge, imagining sending his note to the police, never smiling at him again as I parked six blocks away to avoid him.

And then…all of a sudden I could see what he had seen all along.  I was parking in front of his house!  For ten years!  Without ever asking if he needed that spot, or thanking him for so kindly letting me take over his space.  And so I tried something I had never, ever done before.  I made the first move to get us back on track.  I reached out instead of waiting for him.

I made brownies and attached a note, apologizing for my years of inconsiderate behavior.  I was terribly nervous, but I parked several houses away and walked up his sidewalk.  And when he answered the door the whole story opened up in front of me.  This nice man who had looked the other way for ten years was standing in front of me in a full body cast.  He had been in a bad car accident the week before, and my car was impeding his ability to get into his house.  I looked at him, and he looked at me, and we both cried, “I’m sorry.”

All it took was the grace to yield, to not fight back, to see the world as someone else sees it.  My Lenten fast has been the same since that day: I will pursue the spiritual discipline of not having to be right, but really, really looking at traffic, and the workplace, and home, from the position of the other people who share the world with me.

That’s what makes Lent so rich.  It’s the blessed opportunity to yield.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

How are you an ambassador of reconciliation?

Reflecting on Jeremiah 17:5-8

Jeremiah lamenting over the people Rembrandt c. 1630

Someday, when through God’s grace I see Jesus face to face, I know that he will embrace me, hold me, and heal me.  But then he’s going to ask me this question:  You sang WHAT at that wedding Mass?  And during the Communion Procession???  Listen to Carole King’s lyrics, in light of the Gospel:

Now ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend, when people can be so cold?  They’ll hurt you, and desert you; they’ll take your soul if you let them.  Oh, but don’t you let them.

©1971 Colgems EMI Music

But of course, we are exactly called to do just that:  we MUST let the world into our hearts and souls,  and that is never more beautifully ritualized than when, at Communion, we each reach out to receive Him who gave it all away.

Poor Jeremiah.  He had lots of good reasons to distrust the bad judgment of the leaders of his day.  And then he ended up almost giving his life for them.  That’s the way it is for those who speak for the One who loves us all.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

Is it ever okay to shut people out of your heart forever?

Reflecting on Luke 5:1-11

It’s the shocking surprise of it all. You’ve fished all night, the sea is empty, you’ve given up and already washed and dried your nets. Another disappointing night on the lake in the troubled times in Galilee, circa 30 A.D.

Put out into the deep...

And now this rabbi Jesus, the one who healed your mother-in-law of her illness and has just commandeered your boat for an impromptu teaching to the crowds, has told you to cast out into the deep. You’re the professional fisherman, and yet…

Here they come! Marvelous, life-giving, delicious fish! Thousands and thousands of them, practically jumping into the net! This Jesus knows where the fish are. The dark, silent sea, teeming with billions of fish – that’s his playground, his orchestra, his domain.

The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God, and of his Christ.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

In what ways can you sense that God is the Master Designer of our universe?

Painting c. 2000, National Gallery, London.  All rights reserved.