I just returned from a family vacation in Park City, Utah. It was wonderful, and I'm always amazed of the calming effects of certain surroundings. My wife and I live in a nice, small town and I definitely consider my state to be a beautiful one. In going to the mountains, however, just looking out the window was relaxing. Our hotel was at 6,000 ft. and the gondolas went up to 8,000 ft. The trees, mountains, little chipmunks scurrying across the pathways... wonderful! A great place for vacation.
My little nephew isn't quite half a year old and he's one of the happiest babies I've ever been around. Is there anything that can make you smile bigger than a happy baby?
Today's gospel (from Saturday) is the parable of the talents. We can reflect on many things in the passage, but one that doesn't come up very often in Catholic preaching: a judgment awaits us. Yes, Jesus loves us and God the Father is love... but we can't cast off the demands of the gospel to suit our tastes. This line from Romans comes to mind: "do you presume upon the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (2:4)
I've been reading Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa's book, The Mystery of the Transfiguration, and what a gem! Go buy it from your local Catholic bookstore (or from here) and read it. Fr. Cantalamessa is the preacher of the papal household; I read his book on the Eucharist a number of years ago and it was one of the best I've read on the subject. The Transfiguration is special to me, as it was the subject of my very first Scripture paper. I experienced Scripture in a deeper way than I ever had in my life. (see Ps 119:103)
Here are some great quotes from the book:
[regarding the Eucharist/being at Mass] "It is a great misery and a miserable weakness that when you have Him present with you in this way, you concern yourselves with anything else in the entire world." -St. Francis of Assisi
Ouch, that hits home. Staying focused is one of the hardest things for me to do in the spiritual life, not to mention in prayer and at Mass.
"In the case of Tabor, the meanings brought to light by the evangelists with recourse to the 'variety of Old Testament conceptions' do not, in a strict sense, 'add' anything new or extraneous to the event [of the Transfiguration] but rather 'extract' and highlight portions of its inexhaustible content." (Fr. Cantalamessa, pg. 12)
For me personally, a shot across the bow to biblical exegetes. There's a lot of great stuff in exegetical writings; there's also a lot of garbage. When I researched that paper on the Transfiguration, I ran across an article that filed the event under the category of "how the early Christians expressed their belief in Christ's divinity," and not as something that actually happened. Grrrrrrrrrrr....
"The icon of Christ, and even more so the sacramental host that contains Him, exercises its sanctifying power even through simple sight, if it is accompanied by faith." (Fr. Cantalamessa, pg. 25)
Implicitly, this references the great mystery of the Incarnation. Our culture has so many images--not all of them good ones. Some, even if they aren't objectively wrong, are at best, distracting. We need to have good, holy images in our lives!
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