Wisdom’s Week

          The First Readings at Mass for all of this the 25^th Week in Ordinary Time have come from our Old Testament patrimony of wisdom literature. The passages are all terribly familiar, treasured and esteemed words to live by. My favorite of the week was Wednesday’s:

“Every word of God is unalloyed, he is the shield of those who take refuge in him. To his words make no addition, lest he reprove you and know you for a fraud. Two things I beg of you, do not grudge me them before I die: keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, ‘The Lord – who is the Lord?’ or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30:5-9)

Speaking for myself, in all honesty, I must confess that living with a sufficiency has always been a great challenge for me. It’s like packing for a trip: airline baggage weight restrictions are about the only effective motivation that keeps the “just in case” change of trousers out of the overnight bag. Sadly enough the extreme cases we encounter of people attached to material things are all too common. Although I cannot bring myself to watch such shows, I can imagine it’s like the reality TV programs out there about people who hoard, with something about “buried alive” in the title of the show.

Even detachment of a measured or moderate sort is all too rare. I still remember as a young priest, watching with amazement one of the priest mentors from my childhood as he moved to a new assignment. I am sure he was 30 years ordained at the time and yet he could still pack all of his personal belongings into his car, have elbowroom sufficient to drive and have a clear view of the road behind through his rearview mirror. He was the rare one even then when a priest’s base salary was $125.00 per month and not much was left over for frills or impulse buying. Somehow we still managed even back then to possess too many things beyond our personal library of books from the seminary. What was true then is all the more so now: yes, believe it or not, you can have too many pairs of dress socks!

          O Lord, I make the words of Proverbs my own: give me only my share of bread, lest… or lest… Ouch! It’s a prayer I need to work on to make it as free as possible, with no dread or fears or hesitations factored in.

          This and Ecclesiastes’ refrain about vanity have been echoing through my head this week as I look at the news or page through the daily papers. More than anything else, I would say Wisdom is a challenge to your and my pretenses, whether they center on recognizing that for me at age 60 there is no longer the “time for certain occupations under heaven” or our not being surprised at Iphone mirror pictures a certain Eddie Long is supposed to have taken of himself duded up in spandex. “…give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, ‘The Lord – who is the Lord?’ or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.”

          Beyond moderation and discipline, wisdom’s call first to the ministers of the Church and then to all who have been buried with Christ in baptism, involves self denial. I always have to laugh at these women in the commentary boxes on web pages who gravely and almost triumphantly announce their discovery that the lifestyle of prosperity gospel preachers does not conform to the image of Christ. Why are they surprised and why do they think they are risking something by making such a statement? The whole mendicant movement, St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Dominic, was based on a society-wide conviction that Christians followed Christ in His poverty. St. Albert the Great, even after he was made a bishop, continued to walk cross country never riding a horse or taking a carriage, as did his prize pupil, St. Thomas Aquinas (Jesus walked and so did centuries of His disciples). The perception about the rightness of following Christ in His poverty has not changed or been otherwise since the Lord Jesus Himself sent out His first missionaries without walking stick, traveling bag, extra tunic or sandals. “…give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, ‘The Lord – who is the Lord?’ or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.”

          It is only our vanity which would have us hold to other or seek to justify an approach modeled on the success-oriented movers and shakers of this world. I can remember back in the seminary in Rome one year we had the venerable old Father John Tracy Ellis, a church historian, as our scholar in residence. In a very candid moment, he expressed skepticism concerning the heroic virtue of Fulton J. Sheen. Fr. Ellis had lived in a New York rectory with him and found him too full of self, too vain. Although shocked by this criticism at the time and wanting to dismiss it as perhaps sour grapes, I must admit that nowadays seeing some of Sheen’s old TV programs on EWTN it is hard to miss certain details about the way he dressed for TV and that “wardrobe” or someone eliminated the bow from the archbishop’s ferraiolo… Granted, the look is more tailored.

          The object of the exercise is not to criticize, not even to put down the proud and condemn vanity. It is to give the proper content to what we call good example. Although some people are indeed hard to please, there are a lot of seekers out there among the young who condemn us for our attachment to electronics, cars, jewelry and clothes. I think their search is honest; it is a search for Christ where He is to be found. If we would represent or present Him, we should be coming from where He is to be found.

          It’s not as easy as cleaning out the overstuffed sock drawer or weeding out clothes you haven’t worn in forever and then purposely dressing down, while going about subdued. There’s nothing particularly brilliant about that sort of pretense or posturing either. It’s not simply a matter of resisting the upgrades, updates, new models or whatever. We need not be told that a big, beautiful watch as jewelry will not draw anyone to the truth which is in Christ alone. The point is that more often than I am willing to admit I am chasing after my own comfort and convenience; I can be demanding; my vanity or my attachment to things effectively excludes me from the list of those who are seeking. “Flashiness” or “Tailoredness” might be a point of contact with a world caught up in the material, but by the same token it is a capitulation and not a gain, as that world is passing away.

          Why is all of this so hard or awkward? Why do we have examples of heresy on the side of poverty as well? Maybe the Gospel of Saturday of this Week can help, if nothing else, to console us in our plight:

“At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men.’ But they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.” (Luke 9:43-45)

          Let us pray for each other in our struggle to be content with a sufficiency of bread, lest we be unmindful of the Lord or lest we be a source of scandal by our chasing after things.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

The Reason for Your Hope

Patron Feast
of the Companions of the Transfigured Christ
Sunday, 3 August 2008

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
2 Peter 1:16-19
Matthew 17:1-9


“The Companions of the Transfigured Christ”:

ever since I learned the name of your community, I’ve been struggling with that name because of a long-standing presumption or prejudice on my part concerning this great mystery which unfolded on Mount Tabor. I’d like to share with you today my spiritual dilemma and how you have in a sense helped me to work through it and grow in my appreciation of the Mystery of Jesus’ Transfiguration and its importance for our life of faith. I hope these thoughts may be of help to all of you too.

Very simply, it boils down to this: For some reason and for as much of my life as I can remember, whenever I read the Gospel account of the Transfiguration or meditate on that mystery, even in conjunction with the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, Peter dominates the scene:

“Lord, how good that we are here! With your permission I will erect three booths here, one of you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Luke adds in parenthesis: “(He did not really know what he was saying.)”

What then is unique or special about being a companion of the TRANSFIGURED Christ, as opposed to being a companion of the Risen Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Adolescent Christ or the Infant King? If we focus on Peter’s offer to set up tents and stay on the mountain, it would almost seem as though the Transfiguration would have to be classed as an experience without application in the Christian life, as the one mystery in the life of our Lord and Savior which is not open to a discipleship experience. That, however, cannot be!

But it is not only Peter’s confused reaction to what he saw on Mt. Tabor which causes me to pose the question. We need only look a little further and ask why Jesus said what He did to them as recorded in the closing words of today’s Gospel:

“As they were coming down the mountainside Jesus commanded them, ‘Do not tell anyone of the vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead’.”

What kind of an experience did the first companions of the Transfigured Christ, Peter, James and John, have? We know that Jesus wanted to prepare the inner circle of His Apostles to endure the scandal of the Cross and the glory of the Resurrection, but why did He command their silence? Moving on to our day and to us who live in the glory of Easter, what possible role can this mountaintop experience play in our lives or in the life of any Christian?

The Infancy of Jesus, His Adolescence, His Adulthood, His Passion and Death, His Resurrection and Ascension are all events that have something of the journey about them. We can identify with them to a greater or lesser degree and apply them to our life’s experience. They work as models to be imitated: the Child Jesus within the Holy Family is an easy one. The Adolescent Christ in the midst of the elders in the Temple may not be quite as easy, but really offers all sorts of hope to young people and to the parents and teachers who must deal with youth. All the rest of Jesus’ life-and-teaching is rich in impulses for the lives of Christians great and humble.
The Transfiguration is different. What sort of ground rules does this event provide me for living the Christian life? Where do I begin and where can I go with the Transfigured Christ – He accompanying me and I being His companion? What do I carry with me from this mountaintop experience?

The Second Reading for the Feast is the key to what discipleship with the Transfigured Christ is all about. St. Peter, reflecting on his mountaintop experience, puts it very clearly:

“We ourselves heard this said from heaven while we were in his company on the holy mountain. Besides, we possess the prophetic message as something altogether reliable. Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

What did these three chosen men hear said from heaven? “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

What are they and we to do? “Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

“This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.” The Transfiguration and the words of God the Father spoken from heaven as set out by St. Peter in his second letter tell us that the focus of our lives is and must be Jesus, true God and true Man, Son of God and Son of Mary.

Since the glorious day of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father the question or real issue to be faced by any generation of Christians is not and never has been whether we live in the best of all times or the worst of all times. We are not and cannot be concerned with which way the wind is blowing or how the stock market is doing. No matter how dark the night, Christians have always and must always focus on the lamp of truth whose unwavering flame burns within the community of the Catholic Church. We wait in joyful hope for the Dawn from on high which is about to break upon us.

This is the insight; this is the wisdom to be found at the core, I believe, of the intuition which inspired your choice of a name, “The Companions of the Transfigured Christ”. It is not a question of pretending to be latter day Peters, James or Johns – the chosen ones among the elect. Moreover, Jesus admonishes you as He did those chosen ones that your message is not to be that of shouting out, “We’ve been to the mountaintop!” No, it would seem to me that your mission must be your focus as Peter would have it. Through your retreat and prayer apostolate, as well as through your work in the world, you can do no more and nothing better than take your cue from the lamp of truth burning within Christ’s Church, while living in joyful hope for the Lord’s return in glory. In the midst of darkness and confusion you are fixed on the lamp light until the Dawn breaks through.

In you people must discern a witness countering the prevailing distraction and consumerism of Blackberries, clothes and vehicles. While keeping what you saw on the mountaintop secret, you must be ready to respond to all who are drawn by your witness and explain to them when they ask the reason for your hope.

The Fathers of the Church in their commentary and in their preaching on the Mystery of the Transfiguration mention not only the insight gained by the three apostles from this manifestation. They point out that the Transfiguration was also a revelation to Moses and Elijah. On Mt. Tabor Moses and Elijah learned that the longed-for Messiah, the Savior had come. The Transfiguration was as prophecy and promise for Moses and Elijah what the descent among the dead was as reality and accomplishment for Adam and Eve on that first Holy Saturday. Not only did Moses and Elijah come to assure Peter, James and John that Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, but Jesus had summoned them too to hear those words from His Father in heaven: “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.” The Transfiguration was for the benefit of the living but also for the dead who had in this life fixed their gaze on the lamp of truth foreshadowing the Dawn from on high.

Today is your day for the renewal of vows and promises; you recall the covenant relationship which binds you to each other and to the Father’s beloved Son. When Peter awoke to see the face of Jesus “dazzling as the sun, his clothes as radiant as light”… and when he recognized that Moses and Elijah were attending to Jesus, Peter was carried away by emotion. His emotion was premature. The Father spoke from heaven and all three men fell forward on the ground overcome with fear. Jesus put everything back into perspective and admonished them to silence until the Resurrection. “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

In a sense, the Transfiguration is to the life of Jesus what the Creed is to the Christian Life: it’s all right there. Confessing yourselves before the Church and the World as Companions of the Transfigured Christ you are making, by the grace of God, a complete statement, a statement full of hope and expectation. Never doubt that you can do no better, nor offer the world around you any more.

The other day waiting in the Atlanta Airport, I watched a young man as he with more than evident pleasure unpacked some new electronic gadget he had purchased, showing it to his girlfriend. The man had dignity, the man had poise, and he unpacked the thing and showed it to her with absolute coolness and at the same time with unbounded pride radiating from his face and from every bone of his body. I don’t know what the gadget was or even if he had the slightest guarantee that it would work when he got it home and plugged it in, but it would be hard from his body language to imagine a happier man. I don’t know what he said to the young woman as I was out of ear shot, but it didn’t seem as though his lips were moving much at all.
Rooted, grounded in the Mystery of the Transfiguration you are and have much more than that young man had with girlfriend and gadget. The silence Jesus imposed on Peter, James and John on their way down from Mt. Tabor certainly didn’t keep them from radiating wonder, awe, boundless joy, fervor or whatever else positive and life-filling you’d like to name. They had seen and heard it all in a moment and were still in the company of the Father’s beloved Son, born of Mary. Why in the world would you want to say to anyone “I’ve been to the mountaintop” when everyone else is dying either to ask you the reason for the hope you radiate or simply to join you and your experience?

What you are as “Companions of the Transfigured Christ” may someday soon find its definitive configuration within the constellation of the Church. There you will have a privileged position for gazing upon the lamp of truth and waiting for the Dawn from on high to break upon us. Be of good courage! As the Lord has called you to His mountaintop so He will lead you as He led Peter, James and John. Go in His company, knowing that He is all you need for joy.