“Like the early Franciscans, we too are ‘joyous penitents’ who seek to spread the Gospel by showing what a happy thing it is to live it.” — Mary Agnes, PCC
(The early Christians were a joyful lot despite the persecutions. We all need to recapture the joy that ought to characterize a life well-lived.)
Let us remember today that freedom and liberty are the ability to pursue what is truly good and right, not the ability to do whatever we want. Our freedom is rooted in not being shackled to ourselves but giving ourselves to that which is true, good and beautiful. Our freedom is eroded when we pursue our individual desires. Our democracy cannot remain strong if we loose sight of what is objectively good and what is the common good.
May God bless our country, which we love, and my diaconal blessing to each of you and your families today!
“The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.” – G.K. Chesterton, A Defense of the Humilities, The Defendent, 1901
“Marriage is a school for gratitude.” — USCCB, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan, 2009
What glory there is in our hope! It is hope that will bring us to future glory. Our hope in the Cross of Christ.
In today’s Gospel, we hear of Christ’s glory as he is transfigured before the apostles Peter, John and James giving them a glimpse of what lay on the other side of the Cross. Giving them hope, a hope that would sustain them when confronted with the suffering of Christ on the Cross on Good Friday.
Our faith is like a ship. It is what defines us, gives us our shape, our buoyancy. Love is the destination of the ship, but hope is the driving force that propels us through the rough waters, the deep seas of life. We are carried by hope toward the glory of Jesus’ resurrection which we too will share.
Pope John Paul I, the pope that reigned for only 33 days in 1978 and whom we who lived in Rome at that time and were able to speak to him fondly called Papa Luciani, once wrote in his book Illustrissimi, ”We are the amazement of God.” He noted that some in history have said that God is not amazed by our faith because he has left so many signs of his presence even in our natural world that we cannot help but believe; nor is God amazed by our love for we all have hearts of flesh, not stone, and so we are made for love, we cannot help but love. But hope, yes, God is amazed by our hope.
The medieval poet Dante said that hope is waiting with certitude. A waiting rooted in the goodness of God, and the certitude of future glory.
Any of us who have lived for a length of time have seen the face of death, some of us more directly than others. We have seen the Cross. We have had our bumps and bruises and injuries. We have been through quite of few Lents, just as we are in the midst of one now.
It is hope that has driven us forward toward our destination, the “New Jerusalem” as the Scriptures would say, toward heaven, toward the Resurrection, toward Divine Love.
Abraham was given hope in our first Reading; hope that he would be the father of many nations, that his glory would be in his descendants, of whom we all are.
St. Paul in today’s second Reading tells us our hope is in the Cross of Christ, and we are the most pitiable of all if we place our hope anywhere else because glory comes after the Cross is endured.
In our Gospel, Jesus clearly shows us that like him, we too will someday be transfigured and he strengthens us to see in the Cross the hope of future glory so we do not become discouraged.
The Transfiguration gives us hope even today that this body of ours will be transfigured also, that our crosses will be transfigured into glory.
Do you know what was the difference between Peter and Judas Iscariot? Both were apostles. Both were called by the Lord. Both committed the same sin: Peter denying our Lord three times on the night he suffered; Judas betraying the Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
Peter had hope; Judas did not.
Peter lived; Judas died.
Let us be like Peter. Let us have hope. Let us choose life.
When life gets tough, cling to hope.
When practicing Lenten penance, have hope in Easter.
When looking at the Cross, see the hope of all humankind.
When faced with death, hope, wait with certitude for the life that is right around the corner.
Jesus knew there was no detour around the Cross — for him or for us. He knew that the Cross was the only route to our destination, that it was the bridge to glory. Hope is what drives us down that road and across that bridge toward:
The glory that is ours.
The glory of the Resurrection.
The glory of the Transfiguration.
Oh, what glory there is in our hope! We are the amazement of God!
It took me a long while to figure this out in my life, even though it is so simple.
Fasting, which we are obligated to do on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and encouraged to do each Friday of the year, is not about pain or discomfort. We are not trying to inflict distress on ourselves so as to win God’s favor in some way or another.
No. Fasting is an opportunity for us to exercise our wills. To master what controls us.
Again, in case this slipped by you, fasting is an act of the will that strengthens the will to pursue what is true, good and beautiful. We fast from food to strengthen us against the devil.
In St. Peter’s epistle, he describes the devil as a roaring lion that seeks someone to devour. The devil wants to control our will, to weaken it. He knows that a strong and well-oriented will deprives him of any food, any place to stay. He despises the flesh because Jesus took on our flesh and redeemed it. So the devil wants to corrupt our flesh again, to take up residence in our bodies and devour them. He wants to unleash undisciplined passion.
Fasting gives us the chance to exercise and develop our will. That is what we choose when we fast, not pain or distress. The devil flees when the will is properly used, when it is well-practiced.