Gospel Reflections for March 12 2017
A happy ending story
This Gospel was written for people like me, who never liked mystery novels. Whenever I did pick one up, I would quickly look at the last few pages to see the ending. I just never liked waiting to find out.
Today, Jesus lets you see the end of your story.
He takes three disciples to a mountaintop and is “transfigured” before their eyes. No one today knows exactly what that looked like, but the disciples felt very happy to see it.
Shortly after His crucifixion Jesus rose from the dead. This was more than simple physical resuscitation, but rather a transformation into a “glorified body” that could both appear and disappear and yet still join His disciples for meals. He showed them what a “glorified body” looks like.
His teaching is simple. When you live your life in the same manner as Jesus you will have the same result. You can look forward to a happy ending!
The first part of the book that is your life is not fully written yet. You write each page each day, and it is the story of what you say and do. There are still pages to finish. The good news is that you can start over each day with lessons learned from the day before.
After His Transfiguration, Jesus leads His disciples down the mountain and back into the world of other people, responsibilities, commitments, both saintly and sinful behavior, and other daily challenges. How you face these events determines if your story ends in your own glorious transfiguration. That will be wonderful to see!
Lent is precisely that time to reflect on how your story is going, and if you are “writing” well or not. Now is the time to seek the help you need from Our Lord.
The University Series (theuniversityseries.org) is also just the right resource for wisdom, insights, and helpful advice to help you with the story of your life and ensure a happy ending.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Father Dave, Soooooooooooooooooooooo beautifully expressed!!! You are so lovingly gifted by God in love!!! Love the concept of each day writing our beautiful love story!! I loveeeeeee to write!! Each day would be soooooo beautiful if it unfolded with our Jesus and our Blessed Mother living in us and we radiating their love to the world!!! Love it!! Our book of life would be sooooooooooooooo precious!!We will try to live our Jesus’ and our Mary’s beautiful love every day!! and share it with others!!! and your University radiates their love to everyone!!!
Loveeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
Thank you!
The fourth Luminous Mystery: The Transfiguration. The Luminous Mysteries are so inspiring to me. They are wonderful stories of magnificent, joyful events in the life of the Church. Thank you for your commentary.
Yes, the Transfiguration is food for thought for a long time.
Thanks Fr Dave ! I like the part about starting new each day with my story that I am co-authoring with God.
Yes, every day starts our life over with a fresh new amount of hope!
This past week we had a death occur to a family member by an act of violence. It is important to “write each page each day” as none of us know the time we have available. Thank you Fr. Dave for your words of inspiration.
To you and the entire Ford family and all their loved ones, please accept my deepest condolences.
God bless you.
Be assurred of our continued prayers
My prayers and condolences to you and your family during this time of tribulation.
So sorry to hear the news of death in the family. Every day must be a day to express our love for one another.
Hi Father Dave,
As always, thank you for your inspiring message. Yes, how we face the events in our lives often define who we are. It’s hard to imagine how much the Ford family are grieving over their loss. Then there are the sorrowful lives of so many world-wide. I’ve said this before, but for me, I don’t know how I’d cope with certain issues if I didn’t have prayer, faith, and hope.
Yes, we must keep our daily prayers every day.
I pray for the Ford family that they know Gods peace and love during this time. Be blessed we are all holding your family up.
In this Gospel message it impressed me on what Jesus thought was important. You can talk about this later but the most important thing at this time was to go down and minester to the people. During this time of Lent it is good to focus on what is important. What is He calling us to give up and give us the strength to do it. Keeping in mind that Jesus is our deliverer and that it is through His strength that we can do all things.
Well said!
Dear Father Dave, I went to mass at St. Bruno’s today with my son, hoping to see you there, but you were up here giving a University Series talk. Nice to see that you got the Series launched at St. Bruno’s and St. Mary’s. It’s such a wonderful program. I’ve already been to three talks and plan to attend several more. Will see you and one of those.
Sorry to have missed you at St. Bruno’s! Yes, the University is going strong in both places.
What a beautiful way to explain the gospel of the transfiguration…and how appropriate during Lent when we all strive to reset our spiritual life. Such a simple positive hopeful message !
I am glad you liked it!