Columban Reflection / The Body and Blood of Christ, Feast, year A

Dt 8,2-3.14 b-16: 

I fed you with manna which you did not know and your fathers

Psalm 147: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

1Cor 10:16-17: 

The bread is one, and so we, though many, are one

Jn 6:51-58: My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink

Today we proclaim Jesus, Bread of life, who satisfies our hunger in our desert, He gives us his body, the true manna, as a gift from the Father to humankind. 

All other breads: money, sex, consumerism, fame and power, never fully satiates the hunger of the human heart, but leave us hungrier. 

The words and deeds of Jesus, his kingdom and his alliance with us opens for us a world in solidarity and full of possibilities to sharing ourselves so no-one need feel left outside hungry.
Before entering the Promised Land, Moses gives the people three great and solemn speeches recorded in Deuteronomy, which some call the "Testament of Moses", his last words, full of anointing and deep spirituality. Moses invokes the past to make sense of the present in every generation.

Saying “remember” he tells us that to remember is to keep the memory alive, to connect to the glorious past, to be part of the history of faith or salvation. God has done this in the history of his people and has been present in all their happiness and sadness, never abandoning them. 

The ordeals in the wilderness (a purifying act of faith) were necessary to mature, to trust more in Him, to live alone with Yahweh and without human support. Hunger confronts them with their basic needs and prepares them to grow in a stronger faith, to trust in the God who fully satisfies. Later, when they became affluent and consumerist they forgot to be the trusting people of Yahweh. With his words, Moses reminds them that "people does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of God", and since then, fasting takes a deeper meaning. Matthew retakes this verse and uses it in the temptations of Jesus. 

The believer no longer lives for himself, he is consecrated and possessed by a presence that transforms, makes eternal and gives him a full meaning to his existence. 

The Gospel relates this special and unique food with the sacrifice of Jesus: In it we eat his body and drink his blood. 

At Communion we not only receive the body and blood of Christ, but we identify, join and are especially trained by Christ to give and offer ourselves, to promote a decent life for all, like the one whom we are in communion with.

Paul warns about the dangers of a divided community. He Opens the true spirit of the Eucharist and gives some practical applications to enjoy it. He Affirms that the Chalice, the bread.. must "unite" all in the blood, in the body of Christ. In Spirit and in truth, we all are united in the Eucharist, in the body and blood of Christ, we are in communion (common - union) with Him and with all. Drinking His wine, eating His bread, we give true meaning to our faith committed for unity, brotherhood, love, solidarity and selfgiving to brothers and sisters in Christ. 

If we are not united, our Masses are empty of meaning, it becomes a merely personal religious rites. Paul never taught his community to celebrate Eucharist in that way. The Apostle “reminds” them that "even though we are many, we are one bread". 

At communion "we become one body." The unity and universality, becomes real and actual. This "united body" expresses the sacramental dimension of the Church in the diversity of races and cultures and makes visible the whole Christ.

In Chapter 6, San Juan explains his "Eucharistic discourse." The word "will live forever", is present at the beginning and end of the verses 51-59 that we use in this Sunday readings. Jesus reveals himself by saying, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." The Jews did not understand it, not many of us do today. You need faith to understand this great mystery. 

Yet explained by Jesus himself, without faith it is impossible to grasp the meaning of his words and their power to our lives.  

Only through faith, we can truly say that Jesus is the Bread of Life, which has come from above, from God, to feed this insatiable and limited world, to satisfy the deepest hunger of the human heart. He quenches our dissatisfactions, our tired life, the senseless search and the deepest desires of our hearts. This bread of life gives us a healthy remedy. It Changes the place of loneliness and isolation into a room of communion of life.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you who left and broke
your bread, your wine, your body and your blood,
your whole life,
and on the eve of your death did it symbolically
in the breaking of the bread.

Help us to realize that 

every time we do the same "in memory of you"
we will renew our determination
to continue breaking and sharing, like you,
in everyday life,
our bread and our wine,
our body and blood,
everything we are and have. 

We ask this from you,
who gave us an example for us
to do the same, always. Amen.


My Body is food

My hands, those hands, your hands
We make this gesture, sharing
the table and the destination,
as brothers, as sisters.

We are lives in your death and Your Life.

United in the bread, the many grain,
we will learn to be the united
City of God, City of humans.

By eating you we will learn to be food,
The wine of His veins challenges us.

The bread they have not yet summons us
to become with you the daily bread.

Called by the light of Your Memory,
We march to your Kingdom making History,
A fraternal and subversive Eucharist.
(Pedro Casaldáliga)

Columban Reflection, Feast of Pentecost / Cycle A

We celebrate the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. 

Feast of the Holy Spirit
and the "beginning" of the mission of the Church.

Acts 2:1-11: all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
Psalm 103: Send forth your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth
1 Cor 12:3 b- 7.12 -13:
We have been baptized in one Spirit into one body 
Jn 20:19-23: Receive the Holy Spirit

In his book of Acts, Luke tries to explain why the disciples, like Jesus Christ, have the power to do the wonders they do. Luke uses the "feast of weeks" of ancient Israel that celebrates the commemoration of the arrival of the people to Mount Sinai where Yahweh gave the tables of the Law to Moses in the middle of thunder and lightning. Both, the symbolic elements of Sinai and of Pentecost are symbols of cosmic resonance that manifest God's intervention.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul highlights the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers and in the construction of the ecclesial community. The Spirit links the mission of the Church to the mission of Jesus. Paul knows of the divisions within this community, that is why he insists that gifts, charisms, ministries and services come from the same Spirit.

He says that all the charisms, gifts and ministries are given for the growth of the Church. The action of the Spirit makes the mission of the Church a Mission for the world and not just for individual sanctification.

John presents two contrasting scenes. 1) The disciples at dusk, locked in a house full of fear. 2) Jesus entering, communicates to them peace and shows his wounds as a sign of his real presence. This fills them with joy and gives them the Spirit who makes them ready for Mission. Jesus transforms his fear, darkness, isolation and confinement into: peace, joy and a missionary spirit. The mysterious and transforming action of the Spirit within the believer and in the community makes the resurrection, ascension, eruption of the Spirit and ecclesial mission are a closely and articulated action. They are not isolated but simultaneous, progressive and facilitating moments within the community of believers.

Jesus promised his disciples that he will soon return, that He will never leave them alone; and he fulfills it! He said that the Holy Spirit of God will assist them to make them understand everything he told them; and that happens! By blowing on them as God breathed to create the human being, Jesus tells them that the Spirit creates and makes everything new. They are the new people of the creation restored by the loving self-giving of Jesus.

- With the advent of the Holy Spirit in human history begins a new way to experience God´s presence.

- Pentecost is the beginning of the final stage in the history of salvation.

- it is the starting point of the preaching of the gospel by the Apostolic Church.

- The Spirit pushes the Church beyond geographical, social and cultural boundaries, everyone understands the message in their own language. All countries known until then indicate that the Gospel message is universal.

- The Spirit comes in community, when the disciples are gathered, and his announcement opened a new community.

Sometimes, violence, injustice, poverty and corruption of society fill us with despair, fear and discouragement. We see no outputs and we lock ourselves in our individual issues and forget the big issue that is Jesus. Then, suddenly, he breaks into our interior, pierces the doors of our heart and enlightens our understanding, helping us to realize that He has not abandoned us, He is still present in the believer's life, in the community and in the world.

We recognize Him and His Spirit acting in many people and organizations who fight against all forms of sin that dehumanize and alienate us. The Spirit of God keeps acting in our history even when we do not perceive it , He does it silently and often we do not feel Him because He acts in a simple way through gestures that may go unnoticed. The daily rush and worries prevent us from hearing  and recognizing Him. We must make space for a deeper prayer time, trying to hear the motions that the Spirit inspires in me, in my community and the world, in the commitment of love, in the care for the poor.

PRAYER

Beautiful God, elusive Spirit, Light of all lights, love ever present in all love,

Life and Force who blows on all creation:

empty Yourself out, again, today,
on all creation and all peoples,

so that in beyond the different names
that we use to invoke You,

we may find you, and we could meet each other
in You, united in our love
for all that exists.  

You who live and make live, everything,
for ever and ever.

Diálogo con el amor - Padre Diego y Gilmer Torres

Palm Sunday, year A

 Accepting that He was prepared to suffer unto death to show us how our God loves us, Jesus reveals his identity as the Messiah and the Son of God, establishing a new kind of kingship based on accepting the will of the Father above all. He is a king who accepts His limitations as human, embraces all people, especially the poor, crippled and marginalized; and makes welcoming, love and tolerance his code of conduct and ruling.

Jesus gives us an example of patient endurance and faithfulness in suffering. Suffering is something we all encounter. It is not something that anyone likes but sometimes we cope with it better than others who do not accept it as part of life.

He bore our pains and sorrows 

If we really consider ourselves followers of Christ, the text of Isaiah should evoke a response deep within us, seeing how they apply to God’s only beloved Son, and how he chose freely to die for all of us. “He was oppressed and was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” (Is 53:7).

St Peter tells us that without a sincere love of Christ, we are not true followers of Him. 

We cannot say we fully love him, until we appreciate that he suffered for us. 

To strengthen our faith, St Peter reminds us that “without having seen him you have come to believe in him, and so you are filled already with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described” (1 Pet 1:8).  Having heard the Passion narrative it is not necessary to retrace in great detail the events there described. But we must remember that Christ was no stranger to hardship, privation and suffering, long before that final day of his life.  Being in the form of God, as St Paul says, from the moment he came on earth, Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human as us (Phil 2:6). 

He, the highest God, suffered the hardships of the poor, sometimes without a place to lay his head. He endured hunger and thirst, and after long days pressured by crowds seeking a cure, he often spent whole nights at prayer in the hills. Despite his compassion for all who came to him, he was hated and rejected, particularly by Pharisees and priests, who planned to kill him. This hate and rejection must have been very frustrating and painful for him. It was not easy being rejected by the same people he chose, above all others. 

How terrible was the inner struggle of Jesus before facing his death that those drops of sweat became blood at Gethsemane garden falling to the ground. More so, was the knowledge that one of his own circle of twelve will betray him, that most of the others will leave him, and even the loyal St Peter would swear three time that he had never met him. But most terrible of all as the end drew near was feeling abandoned by God His Father. 

His inner spirit was shrouded in a deep darkness foreseeing the murky darkness of Calvary. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mt 27, 46)  That face so cruelly disfigured was the Son of God. The forehead streaming with blood, the hands and feet nailed to the Cross, the body wounded with scourges, the side pierced with a lance; were the forehead, the hands and feet, the holy side of the body of the eternal Word, made visible in Jesus. 

Why such suffering? We can only say with Isaiah, “It was for our transgressions he was smitten, for our sins he was brought low. On him lay the punishment that brings us healing, through his wounds we are made whole” (53: 5).

PRAYER

Dear Father, 

as I read through the narrative of the Passion 

let me find resonance with your Son´s sacrifice and salvation.

May this Passion story 

speak to me as a revelation of your infinite love for us.

May what I find in it help me 

to cope better with suffering, failure and rejection

and find a life-giving message 

for coping with the difficulties of today´s life.

Beautiful God, our Father, 

grant that your Son’s suffering for us 

may not be in vain.

Amen.

5th Sunday of Lent, Year A

Ez 37 : 12-14: I will put my spirit , and live

The worst misfortune of a displaced person is to die away from the familiar landscape, land and native soil. It hurts more when loved ones die on foreign soil, having to bury them among strangers. Yahweh speaks through the voice of the prophet Ezekiel comforting the suffering exiled Jews. He reassures the exiled in Babylon that He has called them to a whole new existence. 

The Spirit of the Lord will rebuild their reality, will stand up, walk with them in their dreams and projects and will give them peace and greatness only because he loves them dearly. Because of that love, Yahweh will call them out of their graves and give them a new life. 

It is a "resurrection" that moves away from exile. It is hope come true with the return to their homeland. This is a timely message for many of our people today to put our hope in the Lord and walk from suffering to joy. The message is a gift that encourages and strengthens us.

Rom 8: 8-11: The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you

Paul's letter to the Romans, is considered his spiritual testament. Today’s reading relates to the 1st reading: As Christ disciples, we have the same Spirit that the Lord promised since the days of exile. We don´t belong to the "flesh" sin, selfishness, or unbridled greed; we belong to the Spirit, We live the true life of love, forgiveness and service. Christ gave us his full Spirit, without measure. And if the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead He will also raise us to be partakers of the full life of God, day by day, every day.

Jn 11: 1-45 : I am the resurrection and the life

The gospel presented in the raising of Lazarus ("God helps"), is the last of the seven "signs" worked by Jesus, to show "the glory of God." With his life and works, Jesus reveals His Father to us. His faith is a trusting one, as shown in the prayer addressed to the Father: 

"I thank you, Father, that you have heard me. 

I know that you always hear me". 

He knows that the Father stands by him and He won't disappoint Him. He expressed His confidence even before performing this sign. According to John, before facing death, Jesus reveals himself as the Lord of life, declares publicly that he is the resurrection and the life, faith in Him will give life to all those who believe in Him will, they won´t die forever.

The faith of the disciples, goes through a process of growth. John shows it in the dialogues between the twelve, Mary, Martha and Jesus. By His word and His own faith in the Father, Jesus is driving them from an imperfect faith to a more solid and strong faith. 

The faith of Martha and Mary is more limited, they recognize it and regret it, but Jesus leads them from their limitation to a greater faith. Marta knows his brother will rise again at the end of time, but Jesus shatters all her beliefs by revealing to her that His power it is real, present and acting through him: "I am the resurrection and the life." 

This active and real experience is revealed to all who believe in him, "He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Jesus helps Marta to take the big leap of faith when he asks: "Do you believe this?".

In replying, "Yes, Lord: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." John puts on her lips another great confession of faith, highlighting her greater faith. Raising Lazarus, Jesus reveals that "the gift of God" goes beyond any human calculations. It acts even when there seems to be no hope ("Lord, it is smelly, and has been dead four days"). This great "sign" of Jesus pours the last drop that breaks the patience of the enemies of Jesus, and because of that miracle they decide to kill Jesus. This sign anticipates and completes the final and ultimate sign that is the resurrection of Jesus.

For us, "to live is to die". Each day we live is a day that we die, one day less to live, and another day of our lives ending. Confessing our faith in Jesus we become his disciples; and to all disciples who believe in Him, will happen what happened to Lazarus, now and here; we will find life again and again, without waiting until the end of times to rise. Christian faith is a way of life and hope where from Baptism, the Holy Spirit identifies us with Christ who has brought us out of our graves for us to live now as risen, despite not knowing or not being able to express that well what  we believe in.

Prayer

God, universal Father and Mother, 

You always inspire in human beings 

the desire for full happiness that triumphs even over death 

and becomes "eternal". 

We humbly implore you to help us 

to be consistent with this inner strength that dwells in us. 

Work with us to bring happiness to all

by the most honest means and a way most beneficial 

to us and to those around us. 

In union with all men and women of all religions. 

We ask this through Jesus, your son and our brother. Amen.

Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Reading 1 Ez 37: 12-14

Thus says the Lord God: 

O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. 

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! 

I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. 

I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm: 130: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8: R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Yahweh; Yahweh, hear my voice! 

Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

If you, O Yahweh, mark iniquities, Yahweh, who can stand? 

But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.

With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

I trust in Yahweh; my soul trusts in his word. 

More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for Yahweh.

R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

For with the LORD is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption; 

and he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

R/ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

Reading 2 Rom 8: 8-11

Brothers and sisters: 

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body 

is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of the one 

who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead 

will give life to your mortal bodies also, 

through his Spirit dwelling in you.

Gospel Jn 11: 3-7, 20-27, 33b-45

The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. 

Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” 

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

1Sm b.6-7.10-16.1 13th:
David is anointed king of Israel
Psalm 22:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
Eph 5:8-14:
Arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light
Jn 9:1-41:
It was, washed, and came back with view

To know who was sent by God and acts according to his will is an old problem, it was not easy to be ure who wanted to be a leader only for personal profit. In the first reading we see the prophet Samuel, who moved by the Spirit of God was looking for a leader to guide the Hebrews and face the Philistines. He chose Saul, a young man from a good family and good looks. The Hebrews immediately supported him, but he soon became an unbearable tyrant. His constant changes of mood threatened the safety of the Hebrews, Samuel thought he could solve it by anointing a new king. This prophetic anointing legitimized the action of a new 'savior leader' of the people, it was common to think that the 'savior leader' should be elected by a recognized prophet. The anointing of the leaders of Israel was a symbol of hope for a better future, in line with God's plans.

In Jesus' time, the people of God from Palestine wondered the same thing: how to know if Jesus was anointed by the Lord? Jesus knew John the Baptist, preached like him, but they were not convinced by his humble origin, his different way in interpreting the law and because he had little connection with the temple and its rituals. For those cultural and social prejudices, many didn't accept him as an anointed prophet of the Lord. The Christian community proclaimed the legitimacy of the mission of Jesus saying that only those who know the work of the Nazarene, his love for life, his dedication to the poor, his preaching of the kingdom of God will recognized him as the "anointed" the "Messiah" (Hebrew) or "Christ" (Greek).

Diseases and physical limitations were a terrible social and religious stigma, therefore, the 'signs and wonders' of Jesus among the poor caused great impact and the envy of his opponents. Some saw in their healing the work of a magic healer. His disciples, however, understood it in all its liberating and salvific value, they were not only a remedy for human limitations, but brought back the dignity to the person.

When recovering his vision the poor blind man discovers that his problem was not a punishment from God for the sins of their ancestors, nor a test of fate. He switched from despair to faith in Jesus and discovered the prophet, the Lord's anointed. The real problem was not his visual impairment, but the terrible burden of contempt that culture imposed upon him. Jesus frees him from the weight of social marginalization and takes him into a community that accepted him for who he was.

This beautiful passage from the gospel, relates a drama between: the neighbors, the blind beggar, the pious Pharisees, the Jewish religious authorities, the parents of the blind man and the blind man as the center. John emphasizes the blindness of the religious authorities to admit the miracle of Jesus, the most lucid are the most blind. Are our authorities a bit like them, or maybe some of us too?

They don't believe that a simple man like Jesus could work such wonders, especially on Saturday, the sacred and mandatory rest day, and to make it worse, done to a penniless blind beggar from one of the gates of the city. The neighbors, the Pharisees, the leaders of the temple now beset the blind who sees. Jesus seeks and sympathizes with the former blind man thrown out of the synagogue. In this new encounter with Jesus the blind man "fully sees" not only the light, but the "glory" of God. He recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, the final envoy, the Lord worthy of worship.

Jesus brings a new, loving and just message and judges the world turning it upside down: those who saw now don't see, and those who didn't saw now see. And what is there to see? Jesus. He is the light that illuminates. This reading is a beautiful "confession of faith", full of joy and love. Jesus came with a new judgment based on mercy, acceptance and love. His life and testimony challenge us to show in our life the same attitude without self-righteous fanaticism, trusting that the glory of God is also elsewhere, in other religions, through many other mediators, with the same joy, the same love and the same conviction. Jesus gives back to the blind his human condition, accepts him in the new kingdom. He can do the same to us if only we seek for Him, if we let Him find us, if we see him alive in others.

Prayer:

You, oh Lord,
who open our eyes to discover
the beauty of creation
and the greatness of your love,
help us to work with you
so that everyone can be happy
in their life when they see your light.
We ask this through Jesus
your son and our brother. Amen

Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

First Reading: Genesis 12: 1-4a "God promises Abram a great blessing".
Around the year 1800 B.C. Groups of semi-nomadic shepherds who sought pasture for their flocks away from the city- states organized themselves in Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast. Abraham and Sarah were part of these migrant groups, "seeking life" in other lands. While in their pilgrimage and struggle to live, they hear the call of the Yahweh "the God who is" asking them to leave everything and trust in His promise of life. This God promises Abraham that he is going to be the father of a people as numerous as the sands and that he will possess the land, the "promised land". Their hearts wanted that and also needed that to live in a dignified and peaceful way.

Abraham and Sarah walked the path that led them to the encounter with Yahweh. Today, the "Abrahamic minorities", weak, marginalized, displaced and expelled from their lands and the economic system, are those millions of people displaced by wars and political problems that walk towards the God of Life. They continue to hear God's call to look for new forms of a "promised life", to live happily as universal sons and daughters of God. They are the new Abrahams and Sarahs, who leave everything to look for a better and dignified life that are denied to them in their homelands.

In the Biblical narration, the Jewish people are those who speak of themselves. They attributed to the "will of the God Most High" for being "His chosen people" with the divine rights to invade, kill, marginalize and drive other peoples out of their land. They attributed to Abraham the title of "biological" father "father in faith" of Israel, and of the three religions that came out of Israel´s faith: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Jews of today want to justify their actions on a story made out from their perspective and to their convenience.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 8b-10 "Through God's grace we are called to holiness".
In his second letter to Timothy, St. Paul assures us that the Word of God is not chained; it is dynamic and makes its own way among the many ways of cultures. Although many have tried to manipulate it to their convenience and particular interests, the Spirit of the Risen Lord always finds a way to throw it to fly beyond the control of the manipulators; putting it at the fingertips of the displaced and marginalized seeking better living situations in dignity and justice, as Abraham and Sarah did. Those Abrahamic minorities or majorities displaced, reject this exclusionary and aimless system. With their lifestyle, customs, art and culture, they seek direction and guidance in the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 17:1-9 

"Jesus is transfigured on the mountain in the presence of Peter, James, and John".
The transfiguration narrated in the Gospels is a powerful symbol. Those who wrote Matthew, tell the story with lots of freedom, enriching an oral tradition retold and reworked in its transmission. Today, we can also interpret it in a purely symbolic way. This transfiguration of Jesus symbolically updated one of those many "transfiguration experiences" that we all experience nowadays.

Sometimes, daily life becomes gray, dull, drab and tired. It can discourage us and leave us without the strength to keep walking. And suddenly, unexpectedly, we encounter those "special moments" where a light goes on in our heart, and that lighted heart opens our eyes and allows us to see much further, deeper and beyond of what we were looking until now. Although the reality is the same, it appears transfigured, with another shape. Life shows its inner dimension, the one we used to believe in but with the tiredness and routine of our walking we had forgotten. Those mystical and real experiences help us to renew our energies; excite us again to continue traveling up the hard life without these visions, but “seeing and feeling him, The invisible”, walking by our side.

Like the disciples of Jesus needed then, today we all need those transfiguring experiences. Although we cannot meet Jesus personally on Mount Tabor in Galilee, we can meet Him in our own Tabor. This encounter in the Tabor of today happens in our silence, in listening to the Word, in reflection, meditation, contemplation and prayer. These are the sources where we get the strength, which will help us to be really happy. Those are the transfigured ways where we can renew our baptismal commitment. Of those, with no doubt, Prayer is the most important source.


Let us Pray
God Father, Mother, Eternal Wisdom, Infinite Vision, Total Intuition:
Give us profundity in our look, power in our heart,
light in the eyes of our soul.

Helps us to be able to transfigure reality and contemplate your glory now,
in our terrestrial pilgrimage:
We as this through Jesus, your son and our brother. Amen.