Peace and Forgiveness
The Risen Christ gives the disciples the gifts of peace and forgiveness.
The disciples who have denied and abandoned Jesus need the gift of forgiveness. Moreover, knowing that one is forgiven is a human need.
God knows that peace comes with forgiveness.
The Risen Christ then empowered the disciples to forgive so as to be the instruments of His peace.
The Risen Christ now empowers us to do the same.
Keeping the Vision
Matthew places Jesus’ transfiguration between two of the times that Jesus told his disciples of his coming crucifixion.
The voice from the cloud repeats the proclamation at Jesus’ baptism, at the beginning of his public ministry.
He is well aware of what awaits him. He also knows who he is, God’s beloved Son. That will keep him focused on who he is, and his mission, of being the incarnation of God’s love and of bringing God’s salvation for the world.
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Children of God
A week after the end of the Christmas Season, we now continue to live the mystery of the Incarnation.
We do so with the words of Scriptures from today’s readings to reassure us that
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Children of God
“God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”
Certainly!
And the same almighty God has created us out of nothing.
Then, God’s only Son came to save us from sins, and to restore us as God’s sons and daughters.
In the Savior, God’s promise to Abraham was now extended to all, “in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing” (Genesis 22:18).
God created me a child of God and now God blesses all nations of the earth through me. What a privilege!
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“We”
“We have seen the Lord.”
The pronoun “we” suggests the importance of the communal aspect of Christian witness.
Today, let us pray for Christian unity. That together, may we witness to the world of the peace of the Risen Christ.
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Prayer
Jesus took Peter, John, and James to the mountain to pray. The three were “overcome by sleep.” Later, while “fully awake,” Peter spoke to Jesus, “but he did not know what he was saying.”
Can we relate to those experiences in our prayer? Sleeping? Saying things that we do not know what we are saying?
We are consoled and encouraged to know that it is Jesus who leads us when we pray. It is Jesus, the head, who prays in us, His body. It is also Jesus who is speaking to us the words that God invites us to listen to.
As God spoke to the disciples, God still speaks to us. In addition, whether we are awake or asleep, God’s presence and glory always embrace us.
Prayer really does not depend on us and our efforts. It is God’s initiative to draw us into relationship with God.
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“They have no wine.”
What do we do when we realize our limitations, shortcomings, and sins?
There is a natural tendency to hide or to deny them.
Moreover, we are often told that we must overcome them – with our own efforts and strengths. Successes and achievements receive greater praise when they are accomplished against greater odds.
The Gospel passage of the wedding at Cana teaches us that the realization of our limitations, shortcomings, and sins is itself a blessing. When we do not know ourselves, we might be tempted to think that we do not need God. On the contrary, self-knowledge is God’s gift. It teaches us that we need God. It gives us the opportunity to see God’s great power and love for us.
That’s the response of the disciples. Having witnessed the power of Jesus, and that he took it upon himself to help the couple, the disciples “began to believe in him.”
It is also consoling that Mary, God’s perfect creature, was the first to notice that “they have no wine.” She teaches us that God knows our limitations, shortcoming and sins even before we know them.
And God does not use such knowledge to punish us.
Out of love for us, God sent God’s only Son to save us, who otherwise, cannot save ourselves.
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The Word of God Came to John
St. Luke begins this passage with a list of important people. It was to none of them, but to John did “the word of God” come.
And through John, one who was not important by human standards, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Let us be thankful to God for the gift of God’s word. May we embrace the same mission that was given to John, to share God’s salvation with all people.
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His Hands and His Side
Jesus shows the disciples “his hands and his side.”
This can be interpreted as Jesus’ way of telling the disciples that it is him, and that he is alive.
Moreover, the nail marks on his hands and the wound on his side are no longer the signs of death.
With his resurrection, those are now signs of God’s power and life.
God’s hand signifies power and protection. (Examples, “the mighty hand of God” in 1 Peter 5:6, “the palm of God’s hand” in Isaiah 49:16, “Your right hand saves me” in Psalm 138:7). Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd, and “no one can take [the sheep] out of [his] hand” (John 10:28)
From his side, when pierced opened, “blood and water flowed out” (John 19:34). The water brings us back to Jesus telling the Samaritan woman at the well that he would give “living water” of new birth [1] . The blood is the Eucharist, the food of divine life.
The Risen Christ shares his life with us. As when God created Adam, now Jesus breathes on the his disciples. And with divine life comes the gift of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of our sins as well as the power to forgive sins.
He truly is risen. Alleluia.
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[1] John Petty, www.progressiveinvolvement.com
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“Listen to Him”
Prior to this passage, Jesus told the disciples for the first time of his coming passion and death. The disciples did not understand. Nor could they accept it. Peter was trying to talk Jesus out of it (Mark 8: 31-33)
Jesus then told them that as his disciples, they would have to “deny [themselves], take up [their crosses] and follow him” (Mark 8: 34). This is his way to eternal life. The disciples were not ready for that either.
Now, God the Father tells them, in the voice from heaven, to listen to Jesus.
The vision affirms the words of Jesus – his glory that they now see is only possible with the cross.
Mark’s Gospel will continue to show us how the disciples were not ready to listen to Jesus.
During this Lenten season, God is giving me the opportunity to ask myself, “How am I at listening to Jesus, particularly when that involves carrying my cross and following him?”
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Stay With Jesus
Having “stayed with Jesus that day,” the two disciples recognized Jesus as the Messiah.
In order to know who Jesus is, we too must stay with him.
And Jesus himself teaches us how we can stay with him. Later in the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches that if we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we remain in him (John 6:56). He then tells us to “remain in him” and have his words remain in us (John 15:7). He also assures us that we remain in his love when we keep his commandment: “love one another as I love you.” (John 15: 10-12)
Therefore, if we want to stay with Jesus in order to know him, we need to receive him in the Eucharist, to spend time with his words, and to love one another.
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[1] “Stay,” “remain” and also “abide” are different English translations of the same verb in the Greek text.
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Here Is Your God!
The Prophet Isaiah urges us to be “heralds of glad tidings” of the Reign of God. There, God cares for God’s children “like a shepherd” cares for the flock (First Reading). Isaiah proclaim, “Here is your God!” That Reign of God is already here.
St. Peter also speaks of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (Second Reading).
Yet, our world seems still so far from such time of God’s Reign.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had already come and inaugurated the Reign of God. Still, we are waiting for its fullness. Thus, John the Baptist invites us to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Gospel).
Whatever that is not right of our life and our world reminds us of the validity of that mission. We are called to prepare the way of the Lord, to be messengers and builders of God’s Reign as we continue to wait for Christ’s return to bring God’s Reign to its completion.
And that mission begins with my own conversion. First, I must repent and change where my heart and life have not aligned with the Reign of God.
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