O.T.XXI-A: Isaiah 22:19-23   Romans 11:33-36   Matthew 16:13-20

There is a practice in today’s culture and society that can help us understand this Sunday’s Gospel: opinion polls. These are conducted everywhere, especially in the political and commercial spheres.

One day, Jesus also wanted to do an opinion poll, but, as we shall see, for a different purpose. He did it not for political reasons, but for educational ones. Having arrived in Caesarea Philippi, that is, in the northernmost region of Israel, and taking a little rest alone with the apostles, Jesus asks them, point blank, “Who do people say that the son of man is?” It seems that the apostles were not expecting to be asked more than to report what people were saying of him. They answered: "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But Jesus was not interested in measuring his popularity or in looking for an index of how well he was regarded by the people. His purpose was entirely different. So he immediately followed his first question with a second: “Who do you say that I am?" This second, unexpected question catches them completely off guard. There is silence, and they stand looking at each other. To the first question, they all responded together, but only one person, namely, Simon Peter, responded to the second question: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

Between the two responses, there is a leap over an abyss, a “conversion.” To answer the first question, it was only necessary to look around, to have listened to people’s opinions. But to answer the second question, it was necessary to look inside, to listen to a completely different voice, a voice that was not of flesh and blood but of the Father in heaven. Peter was enlightened from on high. It is the first clear recognition of the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels.

Jesus' poll, as we saw, has two parts, which have two distinct questions. First, “Who do people say that I am?” And second, “Who do you say that I am?” Jesus does not seem to value very much what the people think of him. He wants to know what his disciples think of him. He immediately asks them to speak for themselves. He does not let them hide behind the opinions of others. He wants them to speak of their own opinions. Almost the identical situation repeats itself today. Today as well “people,” and “public opinion,” have their ideas about Jesus. Jesus is in vogue. Just look at what is going on in the world of literature and entertainment. A year does not go by in which there does not appear a novel or a film with its own distorted and sacrilegious vision of Christ. Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” has been the most well-known one of late and has produced many imitators. Then there are those who are middle-of-the-road, like the people of Jesus’ time, who believe Jesus to be “one of the prophets.” He is regarded as a fascinating person and placed alongside Socrates, Gandhi and Tolstoy. Jesus does not scorn these responses to him, because the Bible says of him that he does not “quench the smouldering wick and does not break the bruised reed,” that is, he appreciates every honest effort on the part of man. But, truth be told, this view of Jesus does not seem quite right, even from a human point of view. Neither Gandhi nor Tolstoy ever said: “I am the way, the truth and the life,” or “Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worth of me.”

 With Jesus, you can not be middle-of-the-road. Either he is what he claims to be, or he is not a great man, but rather a great lunatic lifted up by history. There are no half-measures. There are buildings and structures made of steel -- I believe that the Eiffel Tower in Paris is one -- made in such a way that if you touch a certain point or remove a certain element, everything will come down. The edifice of the Christian faith is like this, and this neuralgic point is the divinity of Jesus Christ. But let us leave aside the responses of the people and consider the nonbelievers. Believing in the divinity of Christ is not enough; you must also bear witness to it. Whoever knows him and does not bear witness to this faith, indeed even hides it, is more responsible before God than those who do not have this faith.

Today, Jesus challenges us to know him personally as he makes an exclusive, concerned, loving claim upon each one of us. He invites us to discover him, serve him and love him as Lord, and he wants from each one of us our total, single-hearted response.

For that, Jesus should become a living experience for us – as our God protecting us and providing for us in our life’s journey, loving us, forgiving us, helping us, and transforming our lives and outlook. This is made possible by our listening to Jesus through the daily, meditative reading of the Bible, by talking to Jesus through daily, personal, communal and liturgical prayers, by offering our lives on the altar with Jesus whenever we participate in the Holy Mass, by receiving him in Holy Communion, and by leading exemplary lives, as we cooperate with God’s grace. May our personal experience of Jesus lead us to praise and thank him and witness to him as the Son of the Living God.

 

 OT XX [A] Is 56:1, 6-7; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28

This weekend's readings remind us of one of the key teachings and attitudes of Our Lord. Our Lord shows us God's nature as inclusive, welcoming, compassionate, forgiving, and flexible to be able to respond to others and their needs. Whenever we come across restrictive, "not listening", unwelcoming and exclusive situations, it is very likely that the value is not resonating with Our Lord's teachings.   In obedience and imitating the Lord, the church always strives to be a welcoming, compassionate, open and inclusive community.

Today’s Reading from the Gospel of Matthew, the account of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, is one of the rare encounters of Jesus with Gentiles.  When Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon, he was approached by a woman who abounded in love for her daughter, who was tormented by a demon.  Most likely, she would have heard of the great miracles that Jesus was performing towards the Jewish people, this Canaanite woman took it upon herself to personally locate Jesus and asks him to have pity on her.  She tells him that she has a daughter tormented by a demon.  What is unusual about this event is that the woman was a Canaanite. In the Old Testament understanding, the Canaanites were viewed as a very sinful race that embodied every possible evil and godlessness and was seen as a nation that was to be exterminated. Also surprising is that she not only wants Jesus to heal her daughter but refers to him as Lord and the Son of David, which are faith affirmations indicating that she believes Jesus as the Messiah.

The Gospel narrative tells us that, at first, Jesus ignored her. He did not show any response to her request. The more Jesus ignored her, the more the woman shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me.” When the woman was shouting repeatedly, the disciples of Jesus were getting annoyed and urged Jesus to send her away so that she would go away and they would have their peace. In this particular case, when the disciples were urging Jesus to dismiss the woman, this was not a request to just get rid of her, but their request was for Jesus to dismiss the woman by granting her petition. Jesus does not at this point directly address the woman but utters in the hearing of the disciples that his mission was only to Judaism. He tells them that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Yet she persists even when she gets an initial and notable rebuff from the disciples and even by Our Lord's initial negative response.

She is not about to take no for an answer. And so, she threw herself at His feet and repeated the words, “Lord, help me.”  What is important is that her prayer expresses both helplessness and faith, even when Jesus responds sharply that it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs, a slang used to indicate the Gentiles. The Gentiles, in the eyes of the Jews, were total outsiders and unclean and were considered no better than dogs.  But she responds with an answer that catches Jesus off guard.  She tells him that even though dogs do not get children’s food, they will surely eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. She is willing to share in any "scrap or morsel" of the richness God has to offer, which, ironically, is not being appreciated by those who sit at the table, viz the Jews. And she is RIGHT.  Our Lord does not merely say, you can enjoy the scraps that fall from the chosen one's table… He is saying to her, because of your faith and persistence….  you can JOIN the table…  What faith!!  What persistence!! In all of the Gospel of Matthew, only she is said to have “great” faith. Jesus is generous in His praise and in His healing power.

By showing unwillingness to heal in the beginning, perhaps Jesus was allowing her to show just how strong her faith in him was; and how strong her determination was. How very different her response is to the lukewarm response of these "chosen ones" around him, for whom he was indeed first offering his good news.

In fact, Jesus’ mission and work were almost entirely centered on his own people, and it was left to his disciples to go out to the world and preach.  We know from the Acts of the Apostles, they did not realize that at first.  It took some special experiences before they realized that the Gentiles could also be filled with the Spirit of God and were being called to be followers of Jesus.    Matthew stresses the key issue of today’s Gospel, namely the place of the Gentiles in a Christian community that originally considered itself exclusively for Jewish people.

At the same time, today’s Gospel is an affirmation that God’s love and mercy are extended to all who call on him in faith and trust, no matter who they are or where they are.  We had the words of Prophet Isaiah that the foreigners who have attached themselves to the Lord and have loved his name and held on to his covenant, the Lord will bring them to the holy mountain.  He will make them joyful in His house of prayer. There are references to Our Lord starting out addressing the chosen ones of Israel. Still, by the end of his ministry, this has widened right out to include everyone and anyone who will respond positively to him and his message. 

God came among us with healing power, and He is looking for our faith. The Canaanite woman came to God in faith and in search of healing and found it. Your task, and mine as well, is to live a life-story just like hers. May the Lord help us to persevere in our faith and prayer just like this Canaanite woman did. 

 

O.T: XIX. 1 Kings 19:9.11-13 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:22-33

The readings for this week speak of God’s saving presence among His people, our need for trusting Faith in our loving and providing God, Who always keeps us company, and our need for prayer in the storms of life.

The first reading provides us with a strange but insightful theophany - a manifestation of God to the prophet Elijah during one of the darkest moments of his life. Elijah had fled a murderous pagan Queen who sought revenge for the death of her pagan prophets on Mount Carmel. From the dramatic and climatic battle with these prophets, which proved victorious for Elijah because God had fought on his side, Elijah fell to the lowest moment of his ministry, where he wished for his own death as an escape from misery. But God sent an angel to console him and lead him to another mountain, Horeb. On Mount Sinai in the Old Testament, God had revealed Himself to Moses. God had hidden behind dark clouds lit up only by streaks of lightning and the sound of deafening thunder. We see something similar in the first reading - wind, earthquake and fire. But ironically, God is not found in the strong wind, earthquake, or fire. Elijah recognises God’s presence in “the sound of a gentle breeze” or, in some translations, “the sound of silence.”

The gospel passage when our Lord came walking on the waters in their direction, the storm had not yet calmed. Despite what they witness, their fears and doubts seem more overwhelming than their faith in God. But there is a glimmer of hope. St Peter seeks to take a first step in faith. He requests our Lord to help him walk on water too. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Christ, he was able to walk unhindered through the stormy sea; as soon as he let his eyes wander away from Christ to examine the intimidating waves and listen to the sound of the strong winds, he began to sink. It was not the noisy raging storm around him which caused him to sink, but it was the noise in his heart which stopped him from trusting and listening to the Lord.

Finally, the Lord steps into the boat, and the evangelist tells us, “the wind dropped.” The noise fell into silence again. Our Lord had restored calm. Our Lord had silenced the noise in the surrounding storm and the storm within the hearts of His disciples. Once more, we see the power of silence.

Many of us, too, experience the sound of silence in our own lives. The silence is disturbing and unnerving. Perhaps we’ve prayed and prayed, and still no answer comes. Maybe we’ve been in a long season of waiting, and the silence grows increasingly loud as the days wear on. Or maybe we find ourselves in a spiritual wilderness where the fog of doubt and uncertainty is thick. We feel all alone,, abandoned and forgotten. And the silence makes us think God has turned and simply walked away. We start to think He’s given up on us and begin to wonder if we should too.

The problem isn’t with God but with us. It is we who have the wrong assumption about God’s silence. Perhaps God’s silence isn’t silence at all. Perhaps what seems like silence is actually an important pause in the score of our life. There is good in quietly waiting on the Lord. There is good in the silence. Silence forces us to hear things we can’t hear in the storms and cacophony of life. It makes us sit and notice those things we often avoid or drown out with busyness and other distractions. The silence gives us an opportunity to take an honest look at ourselves. To see what we truly love and trust and hope in. To perhaps realise how fickle our hearts are and how far we’ve wandered from God. To see the lies we’ve long believed and lived by. And, ultimately, to grasp just how much we need God’s grace poured out into our lives. Then, like the flash of light in the darkest night, God breaks the silence. The Spirit prompts our hearts and reminds us of what is true. And we realise God has been there all along.

There are those who would limit God’s presence for their own comfort or security or to keep themselves in power. In years past, there were those who would deny God’s presence in slaves. There have been those who would ignore God’s presence in their enemies. There are those who would refuse to believe that God is present in the murderer sitting on death row, in those who are marginalized by our society: the gay person, the addict, the person living with AIDS, the illegal alien, the handicapped. It is in situations like these that we have to get out of the boat, surprise others, and show them the reflection of God in such people. Let us always look for ways to be surprised by our God and opportunities to wake one another up to the beauty, the power and the nearness of our loving, providing and protecting God. Let us also pray for a deepening of God’s gift of Faith within us, that we may be able to recognize Him in the ordinary situations of our lives, and humbly pray to Him saying, “Lord, let us see Your kindness, and grant us Your salvation.” 

 

 

 

 OT 18 [A] (Aug 6) Feast of the Transfiguration: Dn 7:9-10, 13-14; ; II Pt  1:16-19; Mt 17:1-9

On August 6^th the Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration. The feast of the Transfiguration became widespread in the West in the eleventh century and was introduced into the Roman calendar in 1457 to commemorate the victory over Islam in Belgrade. Before that, the Transfiguration of the Lord was celebrated in the Cyrian, Byzantine, and Coptic rites. According to tradition, the transfiguration occurred on Mount Tabor, but some believe it may have occurred on Mount Hermon or the Mount of Olives. There are no Old Testament parallels for this event, the closest being Moses’ face shining after he had visited with God on Mount Sinai (Ex 34:29-35).

The transfiguration occurred shortly after the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand. The account of the transfiguration confirms that Jesus is the Son of God and points to the fulfilment of the prediction that He will come in His Father’s glory at the end of the age (Mt 16:27). This event marks the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem for His passion.

During His Transfiguration, our Lord speaks with Moses and Elijah. Moses, of course, led God’s people out of their slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, God’s kingdom. Elijah, the most beloved of all the Jewish prophets, is closely related to the redemption of Israel and to God’s promised Messiah. In this Gospel account, we find Jesus about to enter Jerusalem, where, in fulfilment of God’s will, He will suffer and die while ushering in God’s heavenly kingdom, a kingdom transcending any earthly kingdom.

The great event of the Transfiguration seeks to peel away at the mystery of the Passion of Christ. On the Mount of Transfiguration, we have a glimpse of the true glorious nature of the scene that took place on another hill, Calvary. It’s hard to make out the crucifixion's innate beauty and true nature, especially when it is covered by all the blood, gore and horror of the event. The Transfiguration, however, allows us to see what really took place. The gospels attempt to do this by making striking similarities between the transfiguration account and the cross story: Both these scenes would have constituted an extraordinarily powerful diptych representing the high and low points of Jesus' life.

Our Lord takes Peter, James and John, His inner circle, with Him up the Mount of Transfiguration. On the evening of Holy Thursday, He will lead the same threesome to Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to witness His passion. History repeats itself - the three disciples fall asleep on the Mount of Transfiguration as they did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our Lord is transfigured on a mountain and crucified on another. Just as Jesus is flanked by His heavenly courtiers, Moses and Elijah, at the Transfiguration, He is placed between two thieves at His crucifixion. Although the disciples were enveloped with light on the Mount of Transfiguration, the whole land was covered in darkness at the Crucifixion. It is as if glory and suffering somehow belong together, two sides of the same coin. In the context of the deepest humiliation, pain and suffering, the true glory of Christ is revealed.

This feast calls us to be Peter, James, and John to those around us. With them, you and I, in our baptism and confirmation, are called by God to walk in the shoes of Peter, James, and John, not just for our own salvation but for the salvation of those who will know us, observe us, and learn from our example of God’s kingdom. It is through our faith and our love that our relationships with others can carry God’s graces to them. God’s kingdom is realized, made real, in how we relate to those around us.

 

As priest Jesus, offered His life on the altar of the cross and redeemed the human race by this one perfect sacrifice of peace. As king, He claims dominion over all creation, that He may present to You, His almighty Father, an eternal and universal kingdom: a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love, and peace...

When we pray The Lord’s Prayer, we ask that God’s kingdom may come here on earth as it is in heaven, not in some remote and distant future but here and now, in the way that we live and act with other people.


One day you and I will encounter our Father in heaven, the God who created us in love, so that we might give Him our love and share our love with those around us. Hopefully, on that day, we will hear the same words we heard in today’s Gospel account: “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” “You are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased.” Hopefully, you and I are allowing ourselves to be transformed into the persons He made us to be. Our transformation will be at the same time our transfiguration.

Let us, therefore, listen to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on high, so that with the Lord’s chosen disciples, we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our capacity to express. (Anastasius of Sinai)