The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 7, 2022

Luke 12, 32–48

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”   Then Peter said, “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant in charge of all his property. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly. “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” 

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”  The Lord has just taught his disciples that they are not to worry about what they are to eat, to drink, to wear, and where they are to live.  This is what he means when he says here, “Do not be afraid any longer.”  The “any longer” is an attempt to translate the verb according to its form as a (Greek) present imperative, meaning that it should be translated as a continuing action.  But this verb is also middle/passive, and so a better translation might be, “Do not continue to be fearful for yourselves.”  That is, his disciples have spent their lives worrying about how they are to live but God will take care of them as believers.  It is also possible that since the Lord is addressing “disciples” that these people have at least on a temporary basis given up their livelihoods in order to follow the Lord around Galilee and Judea.  With his next words to them, then, he would be encouraging them to follow him full-time: “Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven.”  He assures them that “your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom”, the Kingdom of heaven.  If they receive a Kingdom, then surely all their needs will be provided for.  They will receive goods that no one can take away and that will not be lost to them in any other way.  We might wonder at what the people understood the Lord to be telling them.  Since the Jews believed that the Messiah would restore national sovereignty to Israel, they could well have thought that the Lord was speaking of a worldly kingdom in which they would rule, and which would last forever.  This points to the crushing disappointment felt by his disciples after he was crucified, as we find with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24, 19-21).  

“Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.”  In this second part of the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, the Lord teaches how we should act now so that at the end of the world, they will receive the Kingdom of heaven.  Central to this part is his likening us to slaves (as the Greek says) “who await their master’s return from a wedding”.  The Lord says, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.”  We should note here that the Lord does not say that they are “blessed” for overcoming impossible odds or accomplishing some perilous work.  He calls them “blessed” simply for carrying out their ordinary responsibilities.  What is more extraordinary is that the master, finding his slaves thus engaged, “will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them”.  Now, the idea of a master and his slaves changing places had its place as a theme in Roman and Greek comedy, but it never happened in real life.  This, however, is just what the Lord says will happen.  For doing no more than what we are supposed to do, the Lord will make us the masters of his house in heaven and will serve us as a slave would.  The Lord does not exaggerate his role as our slave: we recall very the very graphic lesson of his washing the Apostles feet.  But we also recall, beyond this, that he makes himself our slave and us the masters of his house when he dies the death of a slave on the Cross.  His service to us is the forgiveness of our sins, and entrance to the life of grace, of “blessedness”.  He cautions us, “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  We should wonder that we need to be warned in this way, but we do.  Adam and Eve, who had never seen sin or become rutted in the habit of sin, were not given any impossible task either, but failed to keep the one simple commandment they were given.

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?”  In the third part of this Reading, Peter asks who this previous parable was meant for.  Is it for his ordinary followers or for the Apostles?  This seems an odd question until we remember that Peter is also thinking that the Lord is come to restore an earthly kingdom of Israel.  He interprets  the parable to mean that the people must be ready for when the Lord issues his call-to-arms for the uprising against the Romans.  Peter is thinking of himself and the other Apostles with the Lord — the master in the parable — who will lead the uprising.  The Lord’s answer puts the Apostles on the same level as everyone else: they are all slaves.  Even the one left in charge is a slave.  But “blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so”, that is, maintaining household order, for “the master will put the servant in charge of all his property.”  This means the fields, the house, and the other slaves.  He will be like the Patriarch Joseph, who found such favor in his Egyptian master’s eyes that he “being set over all by him, governed the house committed to him, and all things that were delivered to him” (Genesis 39, 4).  

On the other hand, the servant who abuses the position to which he is raised and “begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk”, will be severely punished when his master returns because he fails to be ready to “open the door” for him, that is, to present himself to the master as his faithful slave.  One thinks here particularly of wicked bishops and popes who saw their elevation as being owed to them and who use their office solely in order to indulge themselves and abuse those committed to them.  For them, all others are either a means to an end or an obstacle to that end: either sycophants or enemies.  Those servants left in charge to feed their fellow servants but abuse them instead will be assigned to “place with the unfaithful”.  That is, a place of punishment.  Now, the Lord makes a distinction between the ones “who knew their master’s will” and those who were ignorant of it.  These latter, who “acted in a way deserving of a severe beating”, that is, as will happen with those who knew his will, “shall be beaten only lightly”.  Here the Lord teaches that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the master’s will or even perhaps that there was a master, will be treated differently than those who did.  We can think here of those who do not know the teachings of the Faith or who have never heard of the Lord Jesus.  These remain subject to natural law but will not be held accountable for what they cannot know.  The Lord sums this teaching up very cogently: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”  Much will be expected of the one given faith, and more still will be expected of the one placed over the faithful.  The Lord was answering Peter and speaking first of the Apostles, but also to us.

Saturday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 9, 2025

Matthew 17, 14-20

A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

The events St. Matthew describes here follow his account of the Lord’s Transfiguration.  Overall, Matthew is showing how the Lord Jesus came down from his glory in the heights to the earth where he vanquished the devil.  He does this too in spite of the paucity of faith that he found there.

“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water.”  The terrifying violence in this case of possession compares with that of the man possessed by Legion (cf. Mark 5, 1-20).  This reflects the tendency of evil to self-destruction.  Suggestions that they boy was in fact suffering from epilepsy or some other condition are contradicted by the fact of the Lord’s exorcism of the possessing demons.  “Who is a lunatic”.  It was believed at the time that just as overexposure to the sun’s rays caused burns on the skin, overexposure to the Moon’s rays resulted in mental instability and even madness.  The father does not claim — or want to admit — that his son is possessed by demons.  He even speaks of the disciples trying to “cure” the son, not free him from demons.  It is the Lord who makes the diagnosis and performs the salutary action.  

“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?”  The Lord Jesus convicts the human race of its faithlessness and opposition to God’s love and mercy: if even his Apostles were lacking in faith, then how abysmal was the level of faith in the rest of humanity.  In this cry from the heart, Jesus sums up the complaint of God against his Chosen People, who time and again forsook him — in the very face of his blessings — for the worship of idols which had done nothing for them.  In Isaiah 5, 4, the Lord tells of doing the hard work of preparing the ground for his grape vines and of his care of them, and then of their lack of produce: “What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes?”  But instead of walking away from his followers, the father and son, and the crowd and going back up the mountain, Jesus says, “Bring the boy here to me.”  

“Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured.”  St. Mark gives the rebuke in greater detail: “He threatened the unclean spirit, saying to him: Deaf and dumb spirit, I command thee, go out of him and enter not any more into him” (Mark 9, 24).  While Mark, in his Gospel, focuses on the Lord’s actions in themselves, Matthew records them in such a way as to show the Father validating his Son’s preaching.  Here, Matthew wants his readers to understand that Christ has come down from heaven (signified by the mountain of the Transfiguration) to save us from the power of the devil, and so he tells the story simply and briefly.  Mark’s account almost makes the reader forget about the Transfiguration, but Matthew’s makes it stand out the more.

“Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  The Lord has compared faith to a mustard seed before, and explained how from it an enormous bush grows, as tall or taller than a man.  He does this in order to show the Apostles that their faith has not grown since the time he has told the parable despite all they have seen and heard.  Later, when they have received the Holy Spirit and they brave all manner of mortal dangers to preach the word of Christ, they will look back at their time with the Lord and marvel at his patience with them.

Friday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 8, 2025

Matthew 16, 24-28

Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from the Lord’s words following St. Peter’s confession that Jesus is “The Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16, 16).  After Peter, through the grace of God, made this amazing confession of faith, the Lord began to teach them very explicitly that the “Christ”, the Messiah, was not what the Pharisees had taught, but one who would “suffer many things from the elders and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again” (Matthew 16, 21).  His teaching so flew in the face of what they had grown up with believing that Peter tried to argue with the Lord about this, and the Lord responded strongly: “Get away from me, Satan! You are a stumbling block for me because you are discerning the things that are of God, but the things that are of men”  (Matthew 16, 23).  This quieted Peter and the other Apostles and prepared them, stunned and reeling, for what he would teach them next.

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  “Takes us” has more of the sense of “raise up” and “follow” can also mean “to accompany”.  The implication is clear from his previous teaching that he would suffer crucifixion from the elders, the scribes, and the chief priests, and that if anyone desired to come after him as a disciple he must “deny”, or, “disregard” or “disown” himself, take up his cross, and walk after (or with) him.  He teaches that the disciple must do much more than merely learning a few precepts or despising one’s property, or even members of his family (cf. Matthew 10, 37).  The disciple must despise or turn his back on his very self.   It is asking a circle to square itself.  What Jesus demands is accomplished only with the help of divine grace, but it still requires enormous sacrifice — self-sacrifice — on the part of the disciple.  Even with grace, one must continuously struggle to keep from “looking back” at his own interests, for “No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9, 62).  Only God could make such a demand.  The disciple thereby “loses” the life he had before becoming a disciple in order to find an entirely new life, the life God wants for him, with and in Jesus Christ.

“For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct.”  In the context, the Lord is saying that he will come again in glory and repay each disciple according to the degree to which he denied himself, took up his cross, and followed him.  Those who do not try, like the servant assigned the one talent, will be judged severely: he will be cast into “the exterior darkness. [where there] shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25, 30).  But for those who “gain interest” on the Lord’s investment of grace in them and do deny themselves and persevere in this denial, the Lord makes an astounding promise: “I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”  Many have misinterpreted this verse, and it does indeed poses certain difficulties for it sounds as if the Lord is telling people alive at the time that the Kingdom would come before they died.  But a close look at his wording reveals his meaning.  The Lord says that the righteous who deny themselves and follow him with not “taste” or “experience” death before they see him come again.  The believer encounters death in a very different way than an unbeliever.  He does not taste its bitterness for he knows that it leads to the embrace of Jesus, the love of his life.  Those who think of death as the extinction of the self experience terrible fear and anguish.  Professed atheists make a great show of being at peace with extinction but they busy themselves in this way in order to avoid thinking about it.  Secretly, panic rages in their hearts.

Let us so strive to give ourselves without reservation to Almighty God that at the end of our days on earth we may have as our last words, “My God, I love you.”  And may they be the first we speak in heaven.

Thursday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 7, 2025

Matthew 16, 13-23

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.  From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  The term “the Son of man” might seem innocuous enough to us today, but in order to appreciate the Lord’s question to the Apostles we have to keep in mind that for them the term was momentous.  The Prophets described the Son of man as one having great power: “I beheld, therefore, in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7, 13-14).  The Apostles would also have known these words from the Book of Enoch, a popular writing of the time: “There I beheld the Ancient of days, whose head was like white wool, and with him another, whose countenance resembled that of man. His countenance was full of grace, like that of one of the holy angels. Then I inquired of one of the angels, who went with me, and who showed me every secret thing, concerning this Son of man; who he was; whence he was and why he accompanied the Ancient of days. He answered and said to me, This is the Son of man, to whom righteousness belongs; with whom righteousness has dwelt; and who will reveal all the treasures of that which is concealed: for the Lord of spirits has chosen him; and his portion has surpassed all before the Lord of spirits in everlasting uprightness. This Son of man, whom you behold, shall raise up kings and the mighty from their dwelling places, and the powerful from their thrones; shall loosen the bridles of the powerful, and break in pieces the teeth of sinners.”  The fact that Jesus speaks of himself in this way tells us that he knew the Apostles had accepted him to be the Son of man.

And so the Lord asks: “Who do the people say the Son of man is?”  As if to ask, “You know me as the Son of man, and I am truly he; but who do the people say that I am?”  The Apostles have all heard the people talk, and they offer what they have heard from them.  “Some say John the Baptist.”  King Herod was one of those who believed this.  The thought may have been that John the Baptist  had risen from the dead and was continuing his ministry, though now also working great miracles.  “Others, Elijah.”  Elijah had been caught up to heaven in a fiery chariot, and so had not died.  The Prophet Malachi taught that he would return to announce the Messiah (cf. Malachi 4, 5-6).  Elijah had also performed miracles during his ministry, so it is easy to see why people may have thought Jesus was Elijah.  “Still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  Like Jeremiah and the Prophets, the Lord did not have an official position in the Temple, and he went about preaching repentance.  This idea might have been favored by those who had heard him preach but had seen him perform no miracles.

“But who do you say that I am?”  He poses a question and a challenge.  Which of them will speak out that which they all know?  It is Simon son of John, one of the first men to give up everything to follow him.  Simon, who, with his brother Andrew, had spent time with John the Baptist and knew that Jesus was greater than John.  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  In Hebrew, he would have said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That is, “the Anointed One”.  What is great here is not so much the belief — though this is enormous — but the public profession of faith.  And both the faith and the courage to profess it are the effect of Simon’s receptivity to God’s grace.  Simon does here what Abraham had done thousands of years before.  For his faithfulness, God said to Abraham: “I am, and my covenant is with you, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name be called any more Abram: but you shall be called Abraham: because I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17, 4-5).  Note that at the head of this quotation, God says, “I am.”  This translates the Hebrew an-ee, which literally means “I”, but when used without a verb, the verb to-be is understood to go with it.  Thus, the Lord God is telling Abraham his name, his identity.  The Lord Jesus will thus declare his divinity to the crowd in Jerusalem: “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am” (John 8, 58).  The Jews knew exactly what he was saying and they attempted to stone him then and there for it.

And so as Almighty God reveals himself to Abram, the Lord Jesus confirms to Simon that “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.”  And just as God changed Abram’s name to a name with a new meaning and identity (“the father of many nations”), so the Lord changes Simon’s name, explaining to him: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  

According to St. Matthew, this event marked a turning point in the Lord’s ministry as he began to prepare his Apostles for his coming Passion and Death — a destiny foreseen in Daniel or Enoch.  But this was before they learned from him that the Son of man was also the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.  Peter, in particular, was hurt by the prospect of his imminent Death: “Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”  The Lord reacted very strongly: “He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that by this time, the devil understood that the Son of God had come to die for the sins of the world, and so he strove to prevent this.  Thomas says that he tempted Peter to remonstrate with the Lord here, and this is why Jesus, knowing this, says to the devil, hiding behind Peter, as it were, “Get behind me, Satan!”  And then he addresses Peter, “You are an obstacle to me, etc.”  Thomas, later in his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, also offers the possibility that Satan had sent the wife of Pontius Pilate a disturbing dream about Jesus and so she begged her husband to “have nothing to do with that just man” (Matthew 27, 19).

We thank God for the faith of Abraham, our Father of faith, and St. Peter, the Rock on which the Son of man has built his Church, and ask, through their prayers, to be strengthened in our faith.

The Feast of the Transfiguration, Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Luke 9, 28–36

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up a mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.

In 1456, a short three years after the Fall of Constantinople, the Moslem armies swept through the Balkan Peninsula and threatened all of Europe.  The Hungarians and the Serbs rallied to stop them.  During the month of July of that year a great battle was fought at Belgrade in which the Christian forces were vastly outnumbered.  Despite this, and with the help of heaven, the Hungarians and Slavs put the Moslems to flight.  They would return to lay siege to Vienna in 1529 and 1683, but precious time had been purchased to forge alliances and build up defenses.  The victory over the Moslems in 1683 by the combined army of the Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and the Holy Roman Empire ended their threat to Christian Europe.  News of the victory at Belgrade arrived in Rome on August 6, and in thanksgiving, the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated only locally at that time on that date, was decreed by the pope for the whole Church.

In celebrating the event of the Transfiguration, we read in the Gospel how the Lord Jesus revealed himself in his glory as the Son of man as prophesied by the Prophet Daniel, in various of the Psalms, and as found in the Book of Enoch, a work written in the years before the Birth of the Lord and very popular among the Jews at the time.  In his glorified state, the Lord’s chosen Apostles Peter, James, and John, see him with Moses and Elijah on either side, signifying his superiority over them.  Moses and Elijah represented the Law and the Prophets, which the Lord had come to fulfill.  They themselves had acted as signs of the Lord: Moses as the lawgiver who led his people from the place of slavery to the Promised Land; and Elijah, who warned the people to repent, and also performed many miracles.  There is also this: there was evidently a tradition among the Jews that Moses had been assumed into heaven after his death.  Deuteronomy 34, 5-6 seems to lay the foundation for this notion, stating as it does that the burial place of the body of Moses was unknown.  In the Letter of St. Jude, the author seems to quote from an apocryphal work called The Testament of Moses, written shortly before the Birth of Jesus, in which the Archangel Michael and the devil contend over the body of Moses, as though it was to be brought up to heaven.  As for Elijah, 2 Kings 2, 11 plainly tells us that the prophet was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot.  Thus, with his position in the center of Moses and Elijah, the Lord Jesus is shown as the Lord of heaven.

It is not clear how long the Transfiguration lasted.  We are told that Jesus and Moses and Elijah “spoke of his exodus that he [Jesus] was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.”  At length, Peter regains his power to speak and babbles about making tents or shelters for the Lord and Moses and Elijah.  And then the cloud came upon them.  The event might have taken considerable time altogether, but for the Apostles it might have seemed very brief.  They were dazzled by the Lord’s glory and also that of Moses and Elijah.  Time would have meant nothing to them as their minds raced to comprehend the scene before them.  What did they hear of the heavenly conversation?  Evidently they heard enough to know the subject was that of the Lord’s “exodus” (the Greek text simply transliterates the Hebrew word, seeming to indicate that Luke was using a Hebrew language source for his account), or, perhaps, the Lord explained this to them after his Resurrection.  We know from Matthew 17, 9 that the Lord instructed Peter, James, and John, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead”, so he clearly had in mind to explain its meaning to the Apostles at a later time.

The Transfiguration has its significance in that here, for the first time, the Lord Jesus reveals himself both as the Son of man and as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53: the Messiah, the Son of God, has come both to rule and to offer himself in sacrifice.  He is glorious, and in his glory he speaks with Moses and Elijah about his coming Death.  The Pharisees had mistakenly saw the Messiah solely in terms of Daniel 7, in Psalms such as Psalm 2 and Psalm 117, and in the Book of Enoch.  They were not concerned with redemption from sin but with national restoration, and they were not open to correction on this, though no Prophet had appeared to confirm them in their belief, and John the Baptist had appeared and spoken clearly of what the Messiah would do.

“This is my chosen Son.”  That is, from all eternity the Father willed the begetting of his Son.  For us humans, the circumstances of pregnancy and begetting sometimes seem random or at least unwilled.  The Father’s begetting of his Son was a fully willed work.  In this sense, the Son is “chosen”.  This announcement by the Father ties together the revelation of the identity of Jesus: he is all three: the Messiah, the Son of man, and the Son of God, who will redeem us from our sins.  The Law and the Prophets had spoken of him in fragmentary ways, but here he is revealed as he is.  It is a stupendous moment in human history, eclipsing all the battles and discoveries that had come before it.  Like Peter, James, and John, we stand in awe before the Lord Jesus and wonder.

Tuesday in the Eighteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 5, 2025

Matthew 14, 22-36

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”   After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought to him all those who were sick and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched

it were healed.

The events taking place in this Gospel Reading follow the Lord’s feeding of the five thousand people.  

“He went up on the mountain by himself to pray.”  When we think of people praying in ancient times, we should keep in mind that they were praying aloud.  A few instances, such as the case of the mother of Samuel, are found in which someone is praying in silence but moving their lips, but these are rare occurrences.  St. Augustine even remarked how extraordinary it was that St. Ambrose prayed in silence.  Praying in silence does not become customary until the growth of monasteries, where the cacophony of hundreds of monks making their private prayers or reading would have made praying or reading impossible.  We modern Americans, with our obsession with personal freedom and privacy, would find ourselves very much be out of place in any other era than ours.  We should, then, think of our Lord praying vocally, even when he was “alone”.

“Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.”  The Greek is a little stronger: the boat was “tormented” by the waves.  As difficult an experience as this might have been during the day, so much more so at night.  And all this after a big meal.  “During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea.”  The “fourth watch” meant just before dawn, when the night was supposed to be its darkest.  The choice of verb by the Evangelist, which is translated here as “walking” is an unusual one and we will come back to it.  “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.”  This could also have been translated, “they were agitated”, that is, upset.  The sea’s tumult reflected their feelings.  “It is a ghost!”  One day, in the not far distant future, these same men would look at death and rejoice, knowing that it would reunite them with Jesus.  Philippians 1, 21: “For me, life is Christ and death is gain.”  “Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.”  The wind must have died down a bit for Peter to have dismounted from the boat, and then picked up again.  This in itself was quite an act of faith.  It was very dark, the water was choppy, and the wind strong enough that the men had to shout to each other to be heard.  “But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened.”  Peter had taken his eyes off the Lord and became frightened by what else he saw.  It is not easy for us to keep our eyes on the Lord in the midst of life’s troubles.  He seems in the distance and quiet while our troubles are close and loud.  To do this we must pray long and often, gazing at the crucifix,   gazing at the Blessed Sacrament.  If an athlete or musician can practice for hours in order to perfect their craft, than we can do this too.  “Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him.”  He had seemed far off, but he was closer than Peter could have hoped with only natural hope.  “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  He says this in order to explain to Peter that his failure was not due to the Lord’s lack of power but his own lacking in faith.  “Truly, you are the Son of God.”  The Apostles confess their faith in the Lord after having seen him walk on the water, and then both command Peter to come to him and then rescue him when he sinks.  It is a greater manifestation of power to rescue a person than to give him the means to do something and he does it.

Now, the word mentioned above that is translated as “walking” has the alternate meaning of “conducting one’s life”, as in, “going along one’s way of life”.  Taking this meaning, we can understand the above passage as the Son of God praying before his Incarnation; then his Incarnation, embarking on the water; then “conducting” his sinless life, obeying the will of his Father; the reaction of the world of nature to his Incarnation and the reaction of the human world to his manner of life; the attempt by some to imitate his way of life; the absolute need for perseverance to accomplish this; and the Lord’s getting into “the boat”, making it the Church by his presence with the Apostles.  Looking at this verb in this way helps us to understand the radical nature of what the Lord was doing on becoming man and saving us.  Nature itself was aghast that its Maker had come into it.  The Pharisees reacted with violence against this possibility, despite all the proof.

Monday in the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, August 4, 2025

Matthew 14, 22-36

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”  After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret. When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought to him all those who were sick and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed.

“Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea.”  The events in today’s Gospel Reading take place just after Jesus has fed a crowd of five thousand people and leads up to his rebuke of the Pharisees and their customs that they have taught the people to be mandated by the Law.  In essence, the Lord contests their supposed authority with his own, which is clearly established as from heaven in the miraculous feeding and then in his walking on the sea.

“He went up on the mountain by himself to pray.”  How greatly the Lord Jesus must have treasured those moments when he could get away from the crowds and even from his Apostles in order to pray!  The Gospels mention only a few time when he does this which indicates that these marked special occasions.  He chooses mountains and wastelands for praying because they allow him to be alone, but also because he seems to have genuinely liked these places.  Perhaps he liked them for their raw beauty, undisturbed by the workings of sinful men and thus reminiscent of how the world had looked before the cataclysmic sin of Adam and Eve, which brought destruction even to the natural world.

“The boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.”  We should consider the situation of a boat at sea at night during this era.  There are no lights except for the stars and the moon, there is no navigation equipment, no life vests, no long distance communications, and no Coast Guard.  While fishermen went out at night to the sea, they tried to remain within sight of the coast and avoided stormy weather.  Squalls blew up frequently and without warning, and such a one is blowing up now.  

“During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea.”  We can imagine the peace the Lord Jesus felt in his prayer to his Father while the Apostles were struggling fiercely to keep from capsizing.  And he maintains his peace as he walks on the water.  And in doing so, the Lord shows himself the water’s Lord and its Creator.  We might think of the water smoothing itself before him even as it threatened to swamp the boat of the Apostles.  He is walking on the water at the fourth watch, the time when the dawn breaks.  Apart from the dramatic scene this would have made, Matthew is probably specific about the time because it has significance in the history of Israel, for Almighty God saved the Hebrews from the Egyptians at the Red Sea at that hour (cf. Exodus 14, 24-25). This is also the time Matthew gives for the Resurrection (cf. Matthew 28, 1).  The water or the sea also signified death for the ancient Israelites, and so the Lord’s walking upon it shows his domination of death.  We might recall that in ancient times a conquering army would trod over their prisoners as a way of impressing on them the totality of their victory over them.  Here, the Lord Jesus shows the Apostles a sign which frightens them now but which they will understand and take solace in later: “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.”  

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  The sight that scares them calls out for them to recognize him.  He calls out from the sign of death to remind them that he is alive and present with them.

“Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.”  Peter also wishes to tread over death and he begins to do so.  The Lord gives him the grace to allow him to do this, but the paucity of his  faith results in his sinking.  That is not to criticize such faith as he had, for he will shortly confess his belief that Jesus is the divine Son of God.  But we see here how much faith is required if we are to tread death after this life and travel to heaven.  “Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him.”  If we call to Jesus for help in this life or at the time of our death, he will help us readily.  But if we rely on our own efforts, we will sink into the abyss without a trace.  “After they got into the boat, the wind died down.”  The wind had blown against them but now dies down, as though acknowledging the arrival of its king and bowing solemnly.

“Truly, you are the Son of God.”  The Apostles make this confession as a statement of faith that God has sent Jesus into the world and that he has given him great power, but it is not the confession that Peter will make later on, when he professes that Jesus is divine.  We recall here the various uses of this term for judges, kings, prophets, priests, and angels.

“People brought to him all those who were sick and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed.”  The Lord further manifests his power and also his compassion through his healings.  It is as if to say, Indeed, I am the only-Begotten Son of the Most High Father and all honor is due to me, but I most desire to serve among you as one who serves.  “My delights were to be with the children of men” (Proverbs 8, 31).