"...You promised...!"

How often these words come tumbling out when children are full of expectation …a party, a treat, a trip…to hold us to our word. After all, our honor is at stake. As adults, we continue to make this plea in turn to God who has made promises, too, and has literally given us his Word.
This month of August brings us two feasts that at first glance may not seem related: The Transfiguration of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary. But a closer look reveals a similarity. Both feasts have something to do with the human body. In the Transfiguration we are given a glimpse of what is behind the veil of the sacred humanity. Jesus literally shines. In the Assumption we are shown that the body that had been the temple of the Incarnate Word would not be allowed to corrupt in the grave. It is carried into eternity, risen and transformed.
We need these two feasts this year in a special way. The news has been filled with violence. The human being has been destroyed, the body desecrated by bullets and bombs. But God has promised…  God has given his word that death would not triumph over life. God has promised that we too will be changed, that death will not be the final word. The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor is a preview of his resurrection. The apostles don’t know what to make of it, but are so taken with the sight that they don’t want to go home. The Assumption of Mary shows us the promise fulfilled for one of our own. Mary’s body had provided the Word with the human genome, and through that humanness he would redeem the world. With her Assumption, Mary gives us a preview of the promise kept for all the Church, and for us, who grow into our own resurrection with each Eucharistic kiss. Yes, God has promised…and this gives us hope through our tears.

Risen Jesus,

Your sacred humanity shines in the Transfiguration mystery.

You draw your Mother to yourself

in the risen and transformed humanness that one day will be ours.

Wipe the tears from our eyes

as we grieve the violence and loss that surrounds us.

Give us as a people the wisdom

to reverence our humanness in all the stages of its earthly journey.

Fill us with hope in your promise of everlasting life.

Turn us from violence to compassion,

from judgment to mercy,

from isolation to community,

from self-righteousness to honesty,

from discrimination to consideration,

and from accusation to respect,

for the glory of your holy name and the fulfillment of your promise. Amen

 

What is...the one thing necessary...?

the one thing necessary…

Summer is in full swing…ordinary time rouses itself day to day like a stretching cat. The Church is like the bride turning her wedding ring every which way to catch every facet of the diamond her spouse put on her finger. She is wedded, and her beloved is away. Every Sunday liturgy is another facet of the diamond she wears to keep his presence ever in mind. What is that ring that keeps her bonded to him? During the waiting time one must be faithful…full of faith. All the readings are presenting aspects of that faithfulness.

We lose something precious in English translation of the Greek word for faith. It means much more than “intellectual assent.” The word in Greek is pistis and it means “to adhere to, as with glue; to cling, to hang on.” What marvelous meaning comes when we realize that faith is like a magnet on a refrigerator door…it keeps us so pressed to God that it takes quite a pull to dislodge us! Go to your refrigerator door, and physically try to pry one of your magnets loose. Enter into the “pull” that fights your effort to remove it. Then sit down to pray, and enter that same sense. The magnet does not have eyes to see the refrigerator. You do not see the God you cling to. But like the magnet, you know where you need to be.

Then the community, through its creed and scriptures, offers content for that bond. In your baptism your Creator took you for better or for worse in a relationship sealed with blood. In your confirmation you confirmed that choice on your part. In your marriage vows you “sign” this mysterious marriage of the Word with our human genome for all to see. In your religious vows you witness that all your breathing, every blink of your eyes, every heartbeat, is an act of worship to the primary Lover of us all.

Yes, we are all wedded. To be mindful of it is the one thing necessary.

                                                           My Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer,

             My Shepherd, my Guest, my God,

       I search for you day and night,

                                    My soul longs for you like a dry and weary land without water.

                                Yet all the while that I search in the protective blindness of my faith

         You grasp me and will never let me go.

           Teach me to rest in You

           As the fish rests in the water.

          Calm me as I fight against the very faith that protects me from your beauty.

            For to catch but a glimpse of you would make me like a moth before the flame.

        I would be useless to you for the task you have given me.

       Fill me with yourself.

        Then I will be fruitful…giving birth to the peace and justice of your reign.

                   Teach me that my inseparable bond with you is

           The one thing necessary.