6th February Trinity 2017, Rise Up

6th February Trinity

The Transfiguration, (after Fra Angelico)

(5th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There his appearance was transformed before them. His face shone bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly they heard a voice from the cloud that said, “This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror.

And Jesus approached them, and touching them said, “Rise, and do not fear.”

And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

The Baptism, Collot d' Herbois

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them: “Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

And the disciples asked him, “What is meant when the scribes say, ‘First Elijah must come again’?” He answered, “Elijah comes indeed, and prepares everything [restores all things]. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and the people did not recognize him but rather have done to him whatever they pleased. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer much at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

6th February Trinity (5th Sunday before Easter)

March 12, 2017

Matthew 17: 1-13

The view from the top of a hill raises our consciousness. It opens things up; we

Gruenewald, Face of Christ

can see more, see further, see the greater context.

In today's reading, we hear that the disciples are on a high mountain. There they are able to see greater things. In our lives, too, we can have such peak experiences. Through prayer and contemplation, we can do the often arduous inner climb to a higher view. We can begin to see more, see further. We may be able to view things in a greater context.

Like the disciples, we may even be able to see Him, shining in love like the sun. We may even be able to hear the voice of His Father, our Father, the voice of World Karma, telling us to listen to His Son.

What we can see of World Karma can fill us with terror. Yet Christ encourages all of us to climb the mountain, to pray and to contemplate with Him. 'Rise up', He says. 'Do not fear.' 

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5th February/March Trinity 2017, Adversaries of Humanity

February Trinity 

(Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

Matthew 4:1-11

Tissot

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert to experience the tempting power of the adversary.

After fasting forty days and nights, for the first time, He felt hunger for earthly nourishment. Then the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, let these stones become bread through the power of your word.”

Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘The human being shall not live by bread alone; he lives by the creative power of every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the parapet of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Blake

Jesus answered him, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Again, a third time, the devil took him to a very elevated place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give to you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me as your Lord. “

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship [pray to] God your Lord who guides you and serve him only.’”

Then the adversary left him, and he beheld again the angels as they came to bring him nourishment.

February/March Trinity 

(Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

March 5, 2017

Matthew 4:1-11

Temptation in the Desert, Michael O'Brien

One of the dictums of war is 'divide and conquer'. This method is used to maintain or gain power. In today's reading, the adversaries of humanity seem to recognize that someone has arrived on the field of battle who will be a threat to their power over humanity on earth. The tempter always tries to separate the human and earthly from the divine. The tempter's plan of divide and conquer has always been to get the human being to depend on, either totally him or herself, or on the nature of the earthly world.

Christ's visitations by the adversaries of humanity are archetypal for all human beings. We are all tempted to nourish our bodies and souls solely through earthly substances. We are all tempted to defy the laws of spirit and the laws of matter. We are all tempted to pay exclusive attention and devotion to earthly splendors.

Christ has shown us how to maintain our connection to the divine while on earth. We can recognize that it is God's own life force that keeps us alive, not just the earthly substance. We can humbly acknowledge that we are not above God's heavenly and earthly laws. We can recognize that the splendor of all earthly kingdoms belongs to God, who keeps all alive.

We ourselves conquer the adversary through gratitude and praise. In the words of the poet:

I praise my God, as every morning the sun awakens,

And I am grateful for all the wonders my eyes can see.

. . . I praise my God every morning as I awaken,

And give him thanks for every breath I’ve taken,

. . .

I praise my God when I look up and watch in wonder,

As every time I see the sky, with naked eyes,

I pray that I should be made worthy of his grace:

That when I look up to the ether clouds, I see his face…*

*Psalms of Praises by r. de cassia Canticle 2- I Praise my God, Zurielpress 

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4th February Trinity 2017, Death Cannot Kill

(Sunday before Ash Wednesday, 7th Sunday before Easter)

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!

The Rich Young Man

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

When Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21] “One thing, however,

you lack: Sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him, but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

4^th February Trinity

February 26, 2017

(Sunday before Ash Wednesday, 7th Sunday before Easter)

Luke 18: 18-34

The rich young man had been pursuing a spiritual path. He wanted to develop the capacity to live in the eternal. Through strict adherence to the commandments, he had fashioned himself into a worthy vessel. And that vessel was full of the spiritual riches of his people and the hard-won treasures of the inner life, which had won him the esteem of his people.

Christ now discerns that the young man had gone as far as it was possible to go along the old way. And now it is time for him to step onto a new path. But before he can do so, he must be willing to sacrifice all that he had hitherto achieved.  

Sombart

It is a new path that Christ himself will build with him, a path of inner and outer sacrifice. 'Sell all of your possessions; give the money to the poor and then come and follow me.' This Christ-path starts as a path of renunciation, a path toward and into death. The rich young man is to give up everything he had achieved and embark toward something totally new. He is to walk consciously, with Christ, toward death. And Christ is the one who is indeed the Way itself. John 14:6

Naturally, it was a shock for him to realize this. It must have been like receiving a terminal diagnosis. Naturally, he would be sad over the impending losses. And perhaps one of the greatest griefs would be the loss of his identity. Yet walk he does.

Sombart

Although Luke's gospel doesn't say anything further about the rich young man, Mark's gospel gives us a hint: 'Jesus, looking at him, loved him.' (Mark 10:21). And John's Gospel refers to Lazarus as one whom Jesus loved. So we may perhaps assume how the young man's further story actually unfolds: as Lazarus, he is indeed led by Christ into death (John 11). And he is called

forth out of death by Christ. Christ initiates him into the mysteries of death so that the young man can stand by and accompany Christ with understanding when He Himself dies and comes forth from the dead.  

As William Penn said,

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle . . . *

William Penn, from More Fruits of Solitude 
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