The Foundational Contemplation:
The 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 6, 2023
www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com
predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673
Daniel 7:9-14; Psalm 97; 2 Peter 1:16-19; Matthew 17:1-9
The Transfiguration moment is a pivotal event that appears in each of the four Gospels. Though each evangelist has a particular point to make, the event signals that the earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth has come to an end and it is now the hour for Jesus to set his eyes upon Jerusalem. By this time, Jesus has built up a community of believers who are living the reign of God as he proclaimed and lived it, and now this moment is his sign that he must go to the heart of Israel and to call the leaders to decide if they will accept God’s rule as he presents it. This is a big moment in Israel’s history. If it as if, at beginning of his ministry, Jesus set his eyes upon God, and at the close, God sets his eyes upon Jesus.
The gaze of God has an enormous power to affirm and transfigure a person. For Jesus, it was a time to raise him up above the prophets and the laws as God declared that Jesus was his beloved one. God’s gaze upon us has the power to burn away our false selves and to help us see our real selves that has been covered over by misperceptions, masks, and the various roles we’ve had to assume. God is able to take our distorted view of self and restore us to our true identity. Often we cannot see ourselves clearly because we are looking at ourselves instead of letting God reveal to us who we are.
What do we learn from this sacred gaze upon us? That sin you did? God does not hate you for it. No way. The sin that someone else did against you? God does not despise you for it because God does not focus on your guilt and shame. Others are good at doing that for us. Preachers may do that; family and friends may remind you of it, but God does not see your sin, just your true self that has been battered, covered up, or hidden. If God does not see or focus on your sin, why do you see it? Why do you let the opinions of others hold you back from becoming all that God intends you to be? If you could see yourself the way that God sees you, you would do everything in your power to grow into that image, and as we learn about God’s image for us, our images of God will likewise be expanded.
The words we use have the power to create goodness or to pull us away from it. We need to be respectful of words so that they can transfigure the lives of others so they can see themselves as God sees them. These are not words that are superficial or hollow or casually given out. It is not false affirmation that gives everyone a trophy to each event in life. The affirming words we speak must be deliberate and respect the truth that is told is honest skillful ways. The timing of the moment and the choice of words is an art from in itself, and they are words that will help a person grow in grace. These are life-giving words that reveal something true about a person’s capacity to be formed in the image of God’s perception.
As God contemplated who Jesus had become must have filled God with pride, and it gave Jesus the necessary energy to grow into the person God imagined him to be. Only then could Jesus go into Jerusalem where his whole life’s work would be challenged, and he would experience rejection from his nation’s religious community. Jesus had affirmation he needed to see his mission through to the end. We cannot overestimate the power of someone’s belief in us to do something more, to be something greater, to be the truer person we are meant to be. Once we have that, our personal journey to Jerusalem begins and ends with God’s glory. This is how we transfigure our world.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Numbers 11) The children of Israel lamented, "Would that we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished.
Tuesday: (Numbers 12) Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman. They complained, "Is it through Moses alone that the LORD speaks? Does he not speak through us also?"
Wednesday: (Numbers 13) After reconnoitering the land for forty days they returned, met Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation of the children of Israel
in the desert of Paran at Kadesh, made a report to them all, and showed the fruit of the country to the whole congregation.
Thursday: (2 Corinthians 9) God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.
Friday (Deuteronomy 4) Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Saturday (Deuteronomy 6) Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Gospel:
Monday: (Matthew 14) When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.
Tuesday: (Matthew 14) After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
Wednesday (Matthew 15) At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not say a word in answer to her.
Thursday (John 12) Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Friday (Matthew 16) Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Saturday (Matthew 17) A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
"Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."
Saints of the Week
August 6: The Transfiguration of the Lord is an historical event captured by the Gospels when Jesus is singled out as God's Son - ranking higher than Moses or Elijah. In front of his disciples, Jesus becomes transfigured, thus revealing his true nature. Ironically, the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb occurred at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
August 7: Sixtus, II, pope and martyr with companions (d. 258), died during the Valerian persecutions in 258. They were killed in the catacombs where they celebrated Mass. Sixtus was beheaded while speaking in his presidential chair and six deacons were killed as well. Lawrence, the Deacon, is honored on August 10th. Sixtus is remembered during the 1st Eucharistic prayer at Mass.
August 7: Cajetan, priest (1480-1547), was a civil and canon lawyer who worked in the papal chancery. He later joined the Roman Order of Divine Love and was ordained a priest. He became aware that the church needed reform and he teamed up with the bishop of Theate (Gian Pietro Carafa) and formed a society of priests called the Theatines who lived in community and took monastic vows. They owned no property.
August 8: Dominic, priest (1170-1221), was a Spaniard who was sent to southern France to counter the heretical teachings of the Albigensians, who held that the material world was evil and only religious asceticism could combat those forces. Dominic begged and preached in an austere fashion and set the foundations for the new Order of Preachers for both men and women.
August 8: Mother Mary MacKillop, religious (1842-1909), who worked in Australia and New Zealand to assist the poor, needy, and immigrants to the country, was canonized on October 17th 2010. August 8th is chosen as the day in which she will be memorialized on the Roman calendar. I offer the following prayer:
Bountiful and loving God,
You have filled the heart of Mary MacKillop
with compassionate love for those
who are in need at the margins of our society.
Deepen that love within us
that we may embrace the mystery of the Cross
which leads us through death to life.
We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus
who having broken the bonds of death
leads us to everlasting life. Amen.
August 9: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), martyr (1891-1942), became a Catholic convert from Judaism after reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila. He earned a doctorate in philosophy, but was unemployable because she was a woman. She taught at a high school for eight years before entering the Carmelites in 1933 where she made final vows in 1938. She moved to Holland to escape persecution by the Nazis, but was arrested when the bishops spoke out against the persecution of the Jews.
August 10: Lawrence, deacon and martyr (d. 258) was martyred four days after Pope Sixtus II and six other deacons during the Valerian persecution. A beautiful story is told about Lawrence's words. When asked to surrender the church's treasure, Lawrence gathered the poor and presented them to the civil authorities. For this affront, he was martyred. He is the patron of Rome.
August 11: Clare, founder (1193-1253), was inspired by Francis of Assist so much that she fled her home for his community to receive the Franciscan habit on Passion Sunday 1212. She lived in a nearby Benedictine convent until she was made superior of a new community in San Damiano. She practiced radical poverty by wearing no shoes, sleeping on the ground, and giving up meat.
August 12: Jane Frances de Chantal, religious (1572-1641), founded the Congregation of the Visitation with her spiritual advisor, Francis de Sales. This congregation was for women who wanted to live in religious life, but without the austerity of the other orders. Jane was married to a Baron with whom she had six children and she sought religious answers to her suffering. Her order established eighty-five convents dedicated to serving the poor before she died.
This Week in Jesuit History
- August 6, 1552. The death of Claude Jay, a French priest who was one of Ignatius' original companions at the University of Paris.
- August 7, 1814. The universal restoration of the Society of Jesus.
- August 8, 1604. St Peter Claver takes his first vows at Tarracona.
- August 9, 1762. The moving of the English College from St Omers to Liege.
- August 10, 1622. Blessed Augustustine Ota, a Japanese brother, was beheaded for the faith. He had been baptized by Blessed Camillus Costanzi on the eve of the latter's martyrdom.
- August 11, 1846. The death of Benedict Joseph Fenwick. He was the second bishop of Boston, twice the president of Georgetown, and the founder of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
- August 12, 1877. The death of Fr. Maurice Gailland. He was an expert in languages and spent many years at St Mary's Mission in Kansas. He wrote a 450.page dictionary and grammar of the Potawatomi language.
No comments:
Post a Comment