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August 6

[ media presentation below]

GospelThink

Thursday, August 6, The Transfiguration of the Lord

MATTHEW 17:1-9

Jesus is Transfigured

Prayerthoughts

a. There are certain times during Jesus’s human life when his divinity “shines through” and the Transfiguration is one of them. In my life, where do I see the Lord’s presence most of all?

b. Elijah symbolizes all the prophets. In my life right now, where do I most need to be guided to do better?

c. Moses symbolizes the law. Which directive of Jesus is most important to me at the present time?

d. “It is good that we are here.” Jesus’s saying should encompass everything we do on earth. Do I have a positive attitude toward life?

e. How can I be more positive right now?

f. They were very much afraid. When we truly sense the Lord’s presence in our lives, it can truly be incredible. In what area of my life do I most sense the Lord’s presence?

g. “Listen to him.” This is one of the five or six most important directives from God in my life. Do I truly “listen,” that is, not only “hear” but desire to follow the Lord’s directives in every way?

h. My prayerthoughts…

Today I will read Daniel 7:9-10,13-14 and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

LISTENING WITH THE HEART

+ We had a teacher who loved to get our attention in a unique way

- while we were taking a test or reading very intently, for example, he would suddenly slap the desk as hard as he could

- we just about jumped out of our chairs, and then he would say something like “Now that I have your attention”

- I look at the Transfiguration in Jesus’s life as one of those times

- it’s like God is saying to us: “I want to get your attention because I’m going to say something today that is so important that I want you to never forget it.”

- and the point God was making: arguably the most important words in Sacred Scripture:

Listen to Him.

+ If we are to make the Christian life something personal to us, we have to listen to Jesus

- but right there, we have a major problem in spiritual development

- how do we listen to Jesus

- he obviously is not talking to us as we are accustomed to

- the standard answer is that Jesus talks to us in the Scriptures, and in ways other than spoken words

- that’s true, but not complete enough

- what must be present to have real communication between people, and therefore, between God and us, is what might be called “listening with the heart”

- if we learn to listen with the heart, we can easily hear what another says

- mothers and fathers do it all the time with their small children who cannot talk

- in terms of listening to Scripture and the Gospels, it means:

- thinking that Jesus is saying something vital for me, and therefore, I have to look into it carefully, meditate on it, and then choose it as a guide

+ Our problem with listening to Jesus may be nothing more than we don’t want to listen with the heart

- and we don’t want to listen because the words of Scripture are sometimes very difficult

+ Listening with the heart can happen with any Scripture, really, but especially with the Gospels

- we can do it by means of a routine, one that is suggested by Christian authors:

- prerequisite: that you spend at least 10-15 minutes doing it

- 1) take the time and energy to read a Scripture passage—slowly and quietly—reading Scripture every day for the Christian is like “breathing”—you must do it to live spiritually

- 2) ask questions about the passage—personal questions: what are you saying to me, Lord; how does this relate to my experience

- this is the guts of the prayer—honestly confronting ourselves with all our circumstances in light of the words of Jesus/Scripture

- and 3) make some decisions with regard to what we thought about

- so three things: read, ask questions, and make decisions

+ Those of us who enjoy movies have probably seen “The Sixth Sense,” and were probably a little bit frightened by the dead people and the preoccupation of the young boy to work with them

- the secret of the movie though was the discovery that the only thing the dead people wanted was to be listened to

- listening is one of the secrets to living well

- God tells us that we must listen to the Son, to Jesus

- which involves listening with the heart

- God and Jesus are waiting and wanting to be heard.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "The Shack" -- beginning session

WITH YOU ALWAYS

The Gospel

MATTHEW 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Gospelthink: Although my disciples doubted at times, my word to you is a promise: I will always be with you. Do I live with the thought that the Lord is always present to me?

Based on a book of the same name, the movie "The Shack" is a movie about the experience of God by a man by the name of Mack Phillips. His young daughter had recently been abducted, and the FBI had discovered that she was most probably killed in a shack in the country. Some time later, Mack received an invitation to return to that place, even though he felt that somehow it was a mistake and may even have been dangerous, thinking that the abductor would probably be there. The invitation was signed by "Papa" his daughter's favorite name for God. Mack discovered God in three persons as he searched around the shack. It became clear to Mack that it was indeed God who allowed the tragedy to take place.

The closing words of Matthew's Gospel during Jesus's Ascension into heaven are among the most hopeful words for humankind. Our God promised to stay with us until the end of the age, that is, forever. No matter what, God will be there to help us. As St. Paul phrased it when he wrote to the Romans about twenty years after Jesus Resurrection: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, not powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39-40).

...Not even the death of someone close to us whom we love with all our hearts. The love of God is there. The movie and book "The Shack" deliberately chose one of the most difficult of all tragedies and evils to speak of this love. The death of someone close to us cannot easily be understood to be the "love of God." Yet, it is the lesson of the first part of the movie.

It has an easy application, but it is very difficult to live out. God is working good out of the absolute worst evil that there is. We do not want to believe it because we are suffering the hurt and the loss. As Mack does in the movie, we cry to God's wisdom to take "us" and leave the loved one alone: let us suffer and not the one we love.

But it is the lesson of faith. God does not back down to Mack's anger because God stands behind the creation of free will, that which causes the tragedies and evils. God knows full well that nothing will separate us from the love of God, and nothing will separate the love of God from us. God is with us until the end of the age, including everything in between.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, You are with us until the end of time. Your Son has assured us of that. Give us the grace to always be aware of it, and show it by how we act. Be with us, we pray.

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GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: God is part of everything that happens to us.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 64 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie was most striking to you? Why?
2. Gospel analysis: "They doubted." Why did the Apostles still doubt as Jesus ascended into heaven?
3. In what ways can we carry out the Lord's directive to "make disciples of all nations?
4. In your opinion, do most Christians truly believe that God is always working for us? Yes or no and why?
5. What is the best way to console a person who has lost someone close to them?
6. Choose an evil, and discover how "good" is coming out of it.
7. What is your definition of "faith"? See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 153-165.
8. Scene analysis: Mack kills his father. What should have Mack done to work with the situation?