Be a Rock

08-27-2017Weekly Reflection

Peter’s history as a follower or friend of Jesus is a bit spotty. It might be natural to wonder if Jesus, in giving him the keys to the kingdom, didn’t feel a bit like a parent giving a teenager the keys to the family car. But it was at the moment when God’s power and presence broke through everything else to raise up Peter’s great profession of faith in Christ as Messiah that Jesus chose to establish the bond between the loving, forgiving mercy of heaven and our vocation to be witnesses of that love, mercy, and forgiveness on earth.

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Called to Act in Gods Name

08-20-2017Weekly Reflection

“Let all the nations praise you!” (Psalm 67:4) today’s psalm response exclaims. In the psalms and other Hebrew scriptures, this kind of invocation is actually an invitation to God to act, to intervene in human lives in a manner that will cause everyone— not just the Chosen People—to give praise. Stated a bit more strongly, it is something of a “put up or shut up” challenge to God, the sort of strong statement the psalmists of Israel, trusting in their intimate and loving relationship with God, were not afraid to make.

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Nothing to Fear

08-13-2017Weekly Reflection

A rabbi was asked why God sends trials and troubles into human lives. “Because God gets lonely for his people” was the reply. There is some resonance with this wisdom in today’s Gospel, as Jesus makes his disciples get into a boat without him and goes off alone while they venture into stormy waters. Of course, neither Jews nor Christians believe that the Almighty plays this sort of whimsical game with them, but there is some truth in the statement that we don’t turn to God for saving help until we’re in a bind.

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Eyewitnesses

08-06-2017Weekly Reflection

Today, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, is a day of eyewitness accounts. The first, a vision reported by the prophet Daniel, was well known to Jesus and his apostles. The vision account was written in quite mystical and figurative language. It is a vision of heaven, powerful and memorable. There are flames of fire, burning wheels, the Ancient One, and a Son of Man. Clearly, Daniel saw something. But was it a dream? Was it real? Was it merely a clever myth?

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