Author: DVO

Jesus calls his followers to be the salt and light of the world. As his followers, being salt effectively preserves and enhances what is best in the society around us. We can undermine what is dysfunctional in the surrounding culture. We are also light by which people around us come to see what is worth seeing. By the quality and integrity of our lives, we shed light, illumining what is beautiful and revealing what is ugly. The clear implication is that, without vibrant Christians, the world is a much worse place. Mother Teresa of Calcutta would never have achieved much for the poor if she hadn’t lived authentic discipleship. People can see through false words and self-promotion. That is the sense of the Arab proverb: “Three things cannot be hidden: a mountain, a man riding on a camel, and love.” Mother Teresa embodied the love of Christ that all disciples are called to be.

Today’s reflection verse from Hebrews links Christian teaching on grace with man’s response to that grace. Commenting on this passage, St Thomas Aquinas explains that the words “equip you with everything good that you may do his will” is the same as saying “may God make you desire everything good” because it is God’s will that we act of our own free will. If we did not act freely, our will would not be good; if we do God’s will, we will always do what is good for us. God has disposed man’s will to choose to do what is right. It is up to man to respond to God’s design. In this sense, God “equips us with everything good that you may do his will.” We can do nothing to add or remove the grace God bestows on us, but we can affect how that grace will impact our lives and vocations through our actions.

Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that God lets his sun shine on the bad as well as the good. God’s love doesn’t discriminate; it simply embraces everything. God loves us when we are good, and God loves us when we are bad. God loves the saints in heaven and the devils in hell equally. They just respond differently. Why be good if God loves us equally when we are bad and good? That is an interesting question, though not a deep one. Love, understood properly, is never a reward for being good. Instead, goodness is always a consequence of having been loved. We aren’t loved because we are good, but hopefully, we become good because we experience love. That is the power of unconditional love.

The verse we are reflecting on today speaks of contradiction. Simeon’s words bring me back to the basic principle of “non-contradiction,” which says, “something is, or it is not, it cannot be both, and two plus two can never be five. Our God is One. That means that there is no internal contradiction within God, and that assures us that there is no internal contradiction possible within the structure of reality and a sane mind. Jesus is either the messiah or a crazy person; he cannot be both. God incarnate existed, and that fact will forever be true and cannot be denied. The single most dangerous thing in the whole world is lying, dishonesty, and denying facts. To deny a fact is not only to play fast and loose with your sanity and the very foundations of rationality; it is also to play fast and loose with our God, whose consistency undergirds all sanity and all meaning. God is one, undivided, and consistent.

Discipline. Let’s look at the word’s origin to understand what discipline is and what it means. The root word of discipline is “disciple,” which comes from the Latin word discipulus, meaning “student.” Most people believe a disciple is a “follower.” To be a disciple is to put yourself under a discipline. That, as St. Paul says today, is the enduring “discipline” to make “straight” our paths in life, striving “for peace with everyone,” seeking “holiness” that will be blessed by the “grace of God.” The greatest discipline we can exhibit as a disciple is living in ever-greater transparency and honesty through an ever-wider embrace of being compassionate as God is, trusting as God is, and loving as God is.

The Gospel reading from Matthew tells the story of the Canaanite woman and her persistent pleas to the Lord. She begs the Lord to heal her daughter. Initially, Jesus ignores her request, stating, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” However, the Canaanite woman continues to plead and honors Jesus by recognizing who he is. Through her acknowledgment, Jesus is reminded of his identity and ultimate mission. In response to her understanding, Jesus grants her request to heal her daughter. Our takeaway is the importance of worship. The Canaanite woman had such faith in Christ that her persistent worship ultimately won him over. This should inspire hope and trust in us, reminding us that even when we don’t receive an immediate answer to our prayers, we must continue to worship God for who he is. God hears our petitions and understands our needs. However, in all things, we must keep his desires at the forefront by graciously accepting whatever answer he provides us.

Imagine walking into your church and seeing an 80-foot mural of the Transfiguration. It captures your attention, much like our readings today that focus on this pivotal event in the life of Jesus. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the papal household, writes that Christ appears “as the center of all time in the Transfiguration.” He notes that we see Jesus not only as the center of all time but also as the center of all worlds, encompassing both the divine and human realms. Christ is simultaneously truly human and truly God. Our human tendency is to view these two worlds—the divine and the human—as opposing forces. The historical Jesus wasn’t merely attached to the Christ of faith as a facade; only a genuine human could be affixed to a cross and cry out in the despair of abandonment. Likewise, only a true God could rise from the tomb and live eternally. The question of having a “personal transfiguration” is illustrated through the act of receiving Christ in Holy Communion. With a steadfast belief that the bread and wine are now the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the overwhelming joy at his presence with us transforms us for a moment, allowing us to be on the mountaintop with him. However, we inevitably return to the reality of falling short of the true conversion our lives should embody in imitation of the one who has granted us such grace through this sacred sacrament. So, the next time you attend Mass and find yourself in line to receive him, take a moment to reflect more deeply on what you are about to accept. For as Peter, James, and John witnessed in the Transfiguration—Jesus, the beloved Son of God—we, too, can recognize and experience his presence in the Eucharistic celebration. Christ is truly present in the bread and wine we share. What a glorious and wonderful mystery we encounter in the Holy Eucharist.

In our reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is looking for a place to pray after hearing of John the Baptist’s death. As we read in chapter 14, he arrives at his destination, and upon seeing the multitude of people gathered, “his heart was moved with pity on them.” It was evening time, and the people were hungry, but the disciples, knowing they did not have enough food to feed the multitude, begged Jesus to send them away. The reply from Jesus was to tell the disciples, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” The reaction from the disciples was precisely what a practical person would say, “five loves and two fish are all we have here.” They were reminding the Lord that there was a reason they asked for him to send the people away as that amount of food was not near enough to feed so many people. But the disciples sought to solve the problem through their own devices. We know that the Lord did not heed the advice and instead miraculously multiplied the bread and fish to feed all the people. The message for us to meditate on is how often we fail to truly trust in the Lord to deliver us from whatever predicament we find ourselves in. How often do we fail to take our needs to him in prayer? Is there something in your life or that of a friend or loved one that a prayer offered to God might start the process of raining down his mercy and gracious generosity?