David, as a model of faith and a precursor, a prototype of the Messiah, also illustrates how faith is a basis for hope. Two are really inseparable, because faith not only believes in the goodness of God, in God's world, in people, But it believes also in the goodness of God in the promise. And so it leaps immediately toward the future. It is a goodness that is and a goodness that will be. You recall that saying of Dag Hammarskjöld, for all that has been, thanks. To all that will be, yes. I would add a little nuance to that and say, to all that has been, thanks if possible, and if not, forgiveness.

[01:11]

And then you're liberated to turn to the future and say yes. It's impossible to deal with the future and to see the promise of the future if one is still you know, stuck in the past with unresolved problems and unforgiven hurts, makes it impossible to turn wholeheartedly toward the future. So forgiveness and gratitude are the two ways to deal with the past. In Hebrews, I imagine that we have what seems to be a definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Of course, substance is a very poor translation for hypostasis, even though literally it means substance, that which, you know, substantia. But it means that in the basic original sense of that which stands under,

[02:19]

that which forms the basis of. And so faith is that solid, firm foundation on which one can stand and hope, can stand and look toward the future. It is the elencus, the argument of things not seen. Not a logical argument, but the argument here is a summary of a thousand hints. Again, it's the rumor of angels, the hints of transcendence. Hope is that assurance That solid assurance that comes from being sensitized to that cloud of witnesses, to that mass, that ton of feathers which tells us about the presence of God and reality of the promise.

[03:33]

And hope reminds us that our home is not high above the earth. It's a Greek understanding of heaven as some place high above this veil of tears. Heaven then becomes only an escape from something evil. No, the world is not evil. It's a wonderful place with challenges and problems and evil to be overcome on a journey that leads to heaven which is at the end of time. to heaven which is at the end of the journey. And this journey to heaven takes us through the desert. The journey of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land was a paradigm, a model for the journey of every believer.

[04:41]

from the liberation that comes from discovering the gift of God, the love of God, discovering love and goodness in all forms and ultimately in God. From that liberation, that euphoria, that honeymoon expressed in Psalm 115, 116, the mountains sleep like lambs, somewhere around there. He mountains, you know, chides the mountains for not remembering to be pontifical like David, you know. David should have been. They says, well, we have no choice but to dance and leap. I used to tell my students that, you know, we ought to have some sheep out here on the yard beside the classroom. So I take you out and see the spring lambs. and see how they jump straight up in the air. They're so full of vitality.

[05:46]

You have an advantage here. And that's the exuberance and the euphoria that comes from being liberated, from discovering that you are loved, that you are chosen. They went from there into the desert. Then came the testing, the journey, the lifetime, the honeymoon ends, reality sets in. And it wasn't long before they were clamoring to go back to Egypt. What did they like about Egypt? Its regularity. You could count on having meals at regular times. Out here in the desert, we don't know what's going to happen. Even prison can be attractive, because there you have no responsibility. You get three square meals a day, and you complain and rattle your tin cup on the bars as much as you like.

[06:50]

They hankered to return to Egypt. for the leeks and the onions and the garlic and the cucumbers and the melons, especially the leeks and the onions and the garlic, the seasoning. That's what you miss when you leave home and go to a boarding school. They don't know how to season the food like my mother did. The end result is you put very little in. And you're expected to add some later if you wish. But it's not the same to add it later as to cook it with the food. I've lived in institutional cooking for many, many, many years. It's not bad, but it's not the same. My mother used to make us oatmeal.

[07:51]

She just took the salt in her hand like that and felt it and then threw it in. He didn't have to measure it. It came out perfect every time. I was so enthralled by this text that I knew about onions and garlic, but I didn't know about leeks, so I started raising leeks in my garden, which was one of my therapies, to have a garden. Raising leeks, a wonderful vegetable to get to know. Easy to grow, tastes delicious, It is not an onion, even though it belongs to the same general family. Leek and potato soup warm the cockles of your heart. And you can add almost anything else you want to. It never gives up. You never lose the leeks. Well, Vichyssoise is leek and potato soup served cold, with some garnish, of course.

[08:53]

So I'm the leek man at St. Vincent. Then you dig them all winter. All you have to do is be able to get through the ice. Well, I'm not here to sell leeks, but I can understand why they would hanker after the leeks and the onions and the garlic out there in that desert. The hunger for the romanticized past. Yeah, romanticized. Oh, it was like it was when I was a child. And then they heard the stories about the giants. The scouts came back and said, that land ahead is full of giants. We felt like grasshoppers beside them. We cannot go in and conquer that land. It is impossible. And they wailed all night long. What a sound that must have been. The whole people of God wailing. That's one thing I want to hear in heaven. The other thing is Ezau's cry. When Jacob cheated him of his inheritance, he was a big man.

[10:00]

It must have been an incredible moan that he let out. Anyway, giants. Well, these are all intended to be symbolic metaphors for the human experience of believing, to be yearning for the illusion, the illusion. of the comfortable life, often an illusion of the lost childhood, and to be fearful of the giants that stand ahead. It's impossible. Those giants can be many things, the fear of death, the fear of illness, can be some addiction, terrible giant, can be Anything that prevents us from being what we could be can be fear, anxiety, depression.

[11:06]

But Joshua said, God will be with us. We have no need to fear the giants. So Joshua was chosen to lead them into the Promised Land. And God was angry at Israel. and this generation which saw what I did in Egypt and had a basis for hoping and trusting and forgot that they will wander in the desert and die. God gives us goodness in order to establish a basis for trust. The opportunity to trust is inevitable. We have to remember the good things, the signs of goodness that God has established. Then in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, magnificent passage,

[12:13]

Chapter 12 begins with this reference to the cloud of witnesses. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Sounds almost like Benedict. Maybe he was influenced by this. running inenarabili delexionis dulcedine, with unspeakable sweetness of love, to run the way of God's commandments, to run the race that is set before us. And here's the verse that's important. Looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, the pioneer, the one who went ahead. We are not asked to make a journey that Jesus has not made. And so we are not alone on the journey.

[13:16]

The pioneer, pathfinder of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, made light of the, endured the cross, making light of its shame. and is seated now at the right hand of the throne of God, who for the joy that lay before him. Jesus, it says, was able to make this journey not because he looked back at accomplishments in Galilee, not because he could look back and remember the miracles and his successes, Not because he got out his Galilean scrapbook and read about the great things that he had done and how the crowd responded.

[14:21]

No, he was able to make the journey because of the joy that lay before him. Because he had discovered that the future was illuminated with the love of his Father and that he was moving toward that. Past accomplishments can be helpful and it is excusable if, when one is depressed or put down or overcome by some adversity, if you go back to your room and get out an old letter, Dear Father Demetrius, you are one of the nicest people I have ever met." Signed, somebody, well, I hardly remember who it was, but that's excusable if you need to do that to buck up your courage a little bit. But that's not the way it ought to be.

[15:26]

We shouldn't really have to live off the scrapbook, old letters, clippings from papers. No, we should, by this time, have begun to see that our strength and courage comes from the future, not from the past. For the joy that lay before Him, He made light of the cross, despising its shame. The cross was nothing. Oh, it was hard there for a while, but I knew it was going to end. I knew what lay beyond it, not with human knowledge, but in faith and hope. Our attitude toward the future, more than anything else, will govern how we appear and how we live in the present.

[16:30]

If the future is primarily threat, I cannot be happy in the present. If the future is danger, something dark, negative, something to be avoided at all costs, threatening, then I will, in spite of myself, I will look like one who is expecting bad things to happen. We are asked to follow Jesus, the pioneer, to learn to walk in his path. I think of the example of a child learning to walk. I'm sure you've seen this scene among your younger brothers and sisters or children, nieces and nephews. Daddy and Mommy decided time for Johnny to walk.

[17:36]

He'd been crawling for three months. And so, one of them takes Johnny and says, go across the room now to Daddy. Johnny starts out and in the first couple of steps he looks back for encouragement. Go ahead, you're doing fine. And then at that critical moment, he suddenly looks forward and puts his hands out and runs, well, wobbles toward the other parent. I think something like that must happen in our lives. We look back, for encouragement, but at a certain critical moment, we begin to look ahead, to look forward, toward the illuminated horizon, toward the joy that God has placed before us. I don't think we can say our faith is really victorious in our lives until this begins to happen. This turning point in the ministry of Jesus occurred, I think, at his transfiguration.

[18:54]

This critical moment where Jesus began to move toward the future, to run toward the future, began at the transfiguration. I think it's a shame that so many scholars have copied Bultmann, who looked upon the Transfiguration as a displaced resurrection story. Good Lord. Resurrection story that somehow got confused and they got it in the middle of the ministry. not to be taken very seriously. It's something that was put in there afterwards and has no significance for the life and ministry of Jesus, historically speaking. I can't believe that that is the case. So I have, you know, worked a great deal at this transfiguration. I searched through different commentaries. a German, Paul Gechter, in his commentary on Matthew, who agreed with me, at least I found him after I had come to this conclusion.

[20:09]

And the whole thing boils down to whether the light, the illumination of Jesus in the Transfiguration, was a light that came down from heaven or came from the resurrection from outside of Jesus and fell upon him for the benefit of the disciples, or whether the light came from within him primarily for his own benefit. And the disciples hardly knew what it meant and didn't really understand it until afterwards. They knew that something special had happened, but they weren't really quite sure what it was. To say that the Transfiguration, which is prominent in all three Synoptic Gospels, and is located in each case midway through the ministry of Jesus, and becomes a kind of significant turning point

[21:20]

so that it marks the end of the Galilean ministry and the beginning of the Judean ministry, or in Luke, part of the journey that continues. To say that that is only a failed attempt on the part of the Father to reassure the disciples, because they were not reassured, they didn't really understand it. And Peter, who was supposed to be reassured, denied the Master shortly after that. No, I think it's much more than that. In the Galilean ministry, Jesus acted out the implications of his baptism. He had been affirmed into Sonship He had become the first fruits of the new creation, symbolized by the dove-like figure.

[22:24]

And the nature of the new creation was this powerful affirmation of God's love, now felt in him. And the immediate consequence for him was to declare what he had experienced, that the kingdom has come. The new age has dawned. That is what he experienced in baptism. So he went out and every one of his sermons in the Galilean ministry could have been entitled, The Coming of the Kingdom. In many different ways, he says the Kingdom of God is at hand. And then, even more important, he symbolized and represented this coming of the Kingdom by doing the works of new creation, by delivering from bondage, by delivering the blind, and the lame, and the deaf, and the mute, and the possessed, and I think above all, the paralytics.

[23:47]

There's hardly any miracle in the Galilean ministry that is more revealing than the curing of paralytics. Because paralytics are people whose muscles are not absent, but they're useless. They're frozen. And creation, the original idea of creation was liberating being from nothingness. It was a great act of liberation. Let there be light, let there be order, let there be goodness to deliver being from nothingness, from chaos, from the empty and the void, from the formless, from the meaningless to create meaning. Jesus does symbolic actions

[24:50]

of the new creation, the new liberation. He calmed the storm, symbolizing the calming of chaos. He came to bring peace, to release from bondage, good news to the captives. All of these were symbolic, never meant to be the real salvation. They were only metaphors for it or hints of the real salvation. All those people that Jesus cured got sick and died. Those people he raised from the dead, I feel especially sorry for them. They had to go through it again. Poor devils, how would you like to die twice? No, this was not the remedy. This was only a foreshadowing. And he was very, very careful.

[25:54]

They would not think this was the remedy. And in spite of his best efforts, they still thought it was so. They wanted him to be the miracle worker. And that'll be the end, the Messiah, the popular Messiah. I think Jesus, pretty early on, in his own human consciousness. We know so little about the human consciousness of Jesus, how it developed. I think early on he began to see that he was not going to be the popular Messiah, the one who would drive out the Romans, the miracle worker, the deus ex machina that would come in and solve all the problems. Now, in today's gospel, you recall, he worked miracles and the crowd clamored to see him. And he went into some secluded place. And the disciples came and said, what are you doing here?

[26:57]

They were so disappointed in him. Here's your chance. The crowd is on your side. Is this not the time to raise the flag? Jesus refused it to capitalize. He goes off into hiding. And then he says, he doesn't go back to the crowd. No, let us go into some other village. He frustrated the disciples over and over again. And even though the Gospels are written after the resurrection, in hindsight, we still see plenty of evidence that the disciples really didn't know what he was doing a good part of the time. I like to fantasize, you know, if we had the diary of Peter, the diary of one of the disciples, not the Gospels written after the resurrection, but what was written at the time that was going on. We'll never have one, of course, but I suspect, here's what I think Peter's diary would look like, you know.

[28:05]

January 10th, 28 AD. He didn't make any sense today either. I think that would have been the most common entry. He didn't make any sense today either. Just when they thought he was making sense, he would turn aside. But they, the disciples, learned to trust him enough that they went with him in spite of everything. Only Judas felt betrayed by the Master because he didn't capitalize as he should have. And Judas then turned and betrayed his Master in turn. I think Jesus as I said, began to sense that his task was not to lead the crowds against the Romans. Early on, he sensed that.

[29:06]

And then he began to notice certain things. I think there was a development in his human consciousness, that he was not... only gradually discovered the implications of his mission. is a much more believable Messiah, if that is so, because that's the way we live. Only gradually do we discover the implications of our mission. I think he noticed on the fringe of the crowds, you know, the crowds, of course, are hanging on his words. They agree with everything. They, for the first time, they hear someone that makes sense, in the sense it gives them hope, that really seems to know where they are and what they aspire to. But on the fringe of the crowd, there were the Pharisees and scribes, and they have their arms folded and they are shaking their heads.

[30:09]

I don't care how big an audience you address, someone in the back of the room shakes his head, you will see it. I know. Someone looked at his watch, you will see it. And so he saw that not everyone was approving. And even more than that, those who were not approving were the ones who had the power. The simple people down the front had no power. And then he heard about the death of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, the prophet. God would not intervene to save his life. He was allowed to pay the prophet's price. I think that sent a shiver through Jesus when that word came to him.

[31:18]

Am I going to be spared? what happened to John the Baptist and to most of the prophets? I think he began gradually to discover that his mission was not the popular Messiah, not the miracle worker, that that was to establish his authority in the eyes of the people, so that he could then tell them what he was really set to tell them that the way to salvation is not the way that men choose, which almost always involves violence, but a new way. And the new way is the subject of the Transfiguration. That is where Jesus discovered the new way.

[32:21]

And that is why He was illuminated Because discovery of something wonderful always is manifested in your face as a kind of illumination. Arthur Michael Ramsey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who's written some very good things, and one of them is on the transfiguration and the glorification of Jesus, And he says the Transfiguration is like a mountain, a watershed in the ministry of Jesus, so that from that height one can look down on one side at the Galilean ministry, which is now ended, and on the other side one looks down upon the Judean ministry, and the Passion, and beyond that the Resurrection. It's a watershed. Some scholars have pointed out that in Mark's Gospel, transfiguration occurs almost literally in the middle of the Gospel.

[33:32]

Chapter 9, verse 2, it begins. Yes, chapter 9, verse 2. And some have even taken the trouble of counting back the words from beginning and end to see if it was not literally, you know, the number of words be the same on both sides. Well, chapter 9, verse 2 is the beginning of the second 8 chapters of his 16-chapter gospel. Of course, not all the chapters are the same length. But there's no doubt that it is a middle point, a midpoint, a turning point. Jesus works maybe one miracle after the Transfiguration, and that probably was due to the fact that they wanted to enclose this in two miracles about a blind man. The illumination of Jesus is in contrast or in support of the illumination of the blind man before and after the transfiguration.

[34:37]

There is a recent article by Murphy O'Connor, Jerome Murphy O'Connor, in Bible Review. It came out about a year ago, a year or so ago. And it's entitled, What Really Happened at the Transfiguration? I was very pleased to see it, because he takes literary criticism almost too far in some respects. I would not necessarily go all the way with him. But he analyzes the three versions of the Transfiguration, and his conclusion is completely in harmony with my own conviction. The Transfiguration was something that happened in the consciousness of Jesus. No account of the transfiguration says that the light came from heaven.

[35:39]

No indication in any of the texts that the light came from heaven. The texts never identify the mountain. Mount Tabor is something dreamed up later on. How did they discover Mount Tabor? Well, it says six days after the questioning of the disciples in Caesarea Philippi, he took them up a high mountain, the three of them, Peter, James and John. And if you leave Caesarea Philippi and walk six days, not too fast, you come, if you go in the right direction, to Mount Tabor. But that's only one point in 360 points of the circle. It could have been Mount Hermon, the opposite direction, much, much higher mountain. But that's not important. The thing is, this is a symbolic mountain.

[36:44]

This is a mountain where everybody has to go who follows in the steps of Jesus. As if not everyone can go to Palestine, the Holy Land. It's not given a name. It's the mystical mountaintop where one discovers the true and deepest meaning of salvation. The way in which God's power works for salvation in one's own life. If that does not happen, one cannot walk face forward to the end of life. One can only back up toward it because one will not know what is happening and not be able to greet it or to deal with it. The Transfiguration is carefully prepared by the events of Caesarea Philippi.

[37:52]

It is rare to find in the Gospel the kind of temporal reference that you have at the beginning of the Transfiguration story. After six days. That's a most unusual kind of reference. It can only mean that what is told here must be seen in the light of what happened six days earlier. And what happened six days earlier? Two things. Jesus questioned the disciples. It is like an examination at the end of a certain period of education. Who do men say that I am? First question, worth 33 points. The easy question. Every good teacher gives the easy question first. Don't scare the students. And that was an easy question. Some say John the Baptist or Elijah or the Prophet or whatever. And then the big question, who do you say that I am? What is your conclusion?

[38:57]

Sixty-six points for that question. One point for your name. And Peter, Peter always, always had his hand up first. Peter's mother told him, when you're in school, put your hand up even if you don't know the answer. Make a good impression and you won't often get caught. So Peter right away blurts out, you are the Messiah. Messiah. All that Peter said was what we have in Mark, not Matthew. Matthew brought stuff back from the resurrection. Son of the living God. How could Peter have said that and then turn around and deny him? No, all he said was, you are the Messiah. What he meant by Messiah was popular Messiah, come to drive out the Romans, this worldly Messiah, which was what everybody thought, really. And really, in a way, it's all they could have thought.

[40:02]

It was not a bad answer at all. But now, Jesus is going to take them to another phase of education. And in this new education, that will be an inadequate answer. So it says, after the questioning of the disciples, it says, and he began to tell them, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected and be put to death and rise on the third day And he said this plainly. Well, this was no casual observation. No, he leaned on these words. He emphasized them. They were so clear that they could not have been misunderstood.

[41:06]

Listen, Taylor. whose commentary on Mark is still probably one of the best, a little outdated in some ways. Unfortunately, the new commentary by C.S. Mann in the Anchor Bible series is, in my opinion, a disappointment. It's interesting, and I might mention in passing, that the Anchor Bible, of course, is probably the best commentary in English at the present time. The two best commentaries on the gospel are by two Catholics, and the two worst commentaries are by two non-Catholics. Just to tell you what has happened to Catholic biblical scholarship in the last 25 or 30 years. It's amazing. Fitzmyer and Brown have two very good commentaries on Luke and John.

[42:09]

C.S. Mann, an Anglican, Benedictine oblate too, but an Anglican, did Matthew together with Albright. Albright was a great scholar, but he was an archaeologist. I think he was miscast as a commentator on Matthew. And then C.S. Mann did Mark and delayed and delayed and finally came out about a year or two ago. And it's not really up to par with the other commentaries. I hope that someone will start a new edition of the Anchor Bible and ask John Mayer to do Matthew. He's the best, I think, the best American scholar at the present time in Matthew. Anyway, Vincent Taylor in his commentary on Mark says, In all likelihood, the only thing that Jesus said at that time, because after the Resurrection, when the Gospels were written, they filled in details at times.

[43:19]

There's influence from the Resurrection. He maintains that all that Jesus said was, the Son of Man must suffer many things. And that later on when they saw what that meant, to be rejected and put to death and then raised up, those things were added. In any case, all that the disciples heard was the Son of Man must suffer many things. And so Peter took him aside and tried to make him take it back. You can't be serious. Please tell us that you were talking in riddles or something." And Jesus said, Get behind me, Satan, which is really not quite as strong as it seems. You see, HaSatan in Hebrew means the adversary.

[44:22]

It didn't have simply the meaning of a person, an evil person, a devil as it is now. He's saying, you are my adversary when you say things like that, because you represent the thoughts of man and not of God. They're understandable, but they're human and they have to change. No, Peter, I'm serious. You must come to this new understanding, painful as it may be. Son of man must suffer many things. I think that understanding, that same kind of thing hits us when we first discover that we're not going to get stronger and younger. It hits people at different times. We call it over the hill, that the future is not full of promise anymore, that I've reached the age

[45:32]

where it's going to be somewhat downhill. And then Jesus takes them up to the mountain, Peter, James and John, and is transfigured before them. The light that illuminated Jesus came, I'm convinced, from within him. It was like an aura It was like the light you see on the face of a student who is trying to follow you in some difficult argument and then suddenly recognizes it, sees it, sees the implication. Ah, yes! That's a little transfiguration. Oh, for goodness sakes! What an extraordinary way to save the world!

[46:33]

Who would have guessed it? Moses and Elijah are there with him because this revelation of God's ultimate plan and wisdom for saving the world is the purpose of all the scriptures And Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. And they're there for another reason, maybe even more important. They were two great mountain men of the Old Testament who themselves had mystical experiences on mountaintops. Moses on Sinai, Elijah on Carmel. So they are there with Jesus. And what is this new way to save the world? killing the giant with the sling instead of the sword, the only way really to deal with the giant. It is that salvation comes through love unto sacrifice.

[47:45]

That is what releases the power of God in any human being. Love unto sacrifice. And when Jesus understood that, he made a beeline for Jerusalem. Nothing could deter him. Nothing could distract him. He went directly to Jerusalem, to the place of sacrifice, to the fulfillment of his love, to the final self-giving, for the joy that lay before him. And it says, a voice from heaven was heard, this is my son, which had been heard baptism, but now something new and important is added.

[48:53]

Listen to him. Listen to him. He is now no longer simply the one who proclaims the kingdom and acts out its implications. He is now the one who teaches wisdom in the ultimate way. Listen to him. So, Open yourself to all the goodness in life that you can. And don't reject any of it, because you will need every ounce of freedom that comes from that experience of goodness and love and affirmation. And then you turn that freedom into loving unto sacrifice, and thereby allowing God's power to enter into your little human, fragile person, and to bring resurrection life.

[49:56]

This is the new way, the new power, and it is the primary subject of the Passion story. In the Transfiguration, understood as something that happened to Jesus and that must happen to every one of us if we are to follow him and end up with him in the resurrection, he has discovered the secret of life, the secret of succeeding as a human being. And we must not think too, must not conclude too readily that we know the meaning of human life, something we learn as we go along. This is a critical moment.

[51:01]

We must visit this mountain. May not be in any dramatic single event, may be in various ways. And as I concluded last evening, I think it is a profoundly monastic moment. As you know, among the Buddhists, every layperson, every layman must spend some time in the monastery. And I think even though we don't have that custom, we must try to bear effective monastic witness by showing how important and how fruitful it is to visit that mountaintop, to enter into that cloud, that mystical experience of discovering what life is really for. I'm sure many of you recall the sermon that Martin Luther King gave in Memphis, Tennessee,

[52:08]

I think it was the night before he was assassinated, certainly very shortly before. And there's no question that he had a premonition of what was going to happen to him. He didn't know when or how, but he knew that he was in grave danger. And so, in that sermon he said, I know not what lies ahead for me, but I am not afraid. I am not afraid because I've been to the mountain. Remember that? I've been to the mountain. I think that is the mountain of the Transfiguration, where you lose the fear of accepting the lot that God has given to human beings.

[53:12]

To deal with adversity and setbacks and weakness and to die. Not to be afraid of being a human being as God intends that. And so, it's very important that we get to that mountain, learn that lesson, and listen to Jesus as he gives us this wisdom. Then we lose fear and move ahead in life, not be afraid to grow old, not be afraid to die. The passion story is the center, the heart of the Gospel. And it's a shame, in a way, that it is not recognized as such. I don't think it's recognized as such.

[54:14]

Most of us, in our experience as Christians, reserve the Passion Story for Holy Wheat, or at least for Lent. Maybe we make the Way of the Cross. We're used to do that. And in fact, for most people, the Way of the Cross was the only way that they had of learning about the Passion story. Because in those days, the Passion was read on Palm Sunday, called Palm Sunday then, in Latin. And because it was so long, you didn't have time to read it in English. Then you had to give out the palms and had to clear the parking lot. And so, they didn't hear the passion story. On Good Friday, the few that came heard it sung in Latin. Today, we have a shortened version of it on Passion Sunday, and a shortened version of it on Good Friday for those few who come, relatively speaking.

[55:27]

And that's about it. My older brother, who's a Benedictine priest at St. Vincent, had an interesting experience one time. He was out on a weekend mission, a typical small parish in Pittsburgh diocese. And he, for one reason or another, didn't have a sermon for Palm Sunday. So he said, I'll just read in English part of the Passion story. that had just been read in Latin. And he went back to the rectory afterwards, and the holy name man counting the collection said to him, Father, what was that story you read? We never heard that before. Now, I'm not saying that's typical, but my goodness, if the passion story is the heart and soul of the gospel, So that if we were on a desert island and were allowed only three chapters of the Bible, we'd have to take the passion story.

[56:35]

Why is it that we've failed to communicate this effectively? Too often, the only thing they know about the passion is some melodramatic, you know, breast-thumping version of it. given by some preacher who is more interested in shocking and discouraging people than in telling them about the great love of Jesus for us, the love of God for us. So I think we have a very, very important responsibility to restore the passion narrative to its proper place in the consciousness of our people, in our own consciousness. It is not a story about how much Jesus suffered. He did suffer, but it is the story about how much Jesus loved.

[57:43]

And that makes all the difference in the world. Those who love will suffer, but we must never make the mistake of feeling sorry for them. For they have found the secret of life. To suffer because you love is a great blessing. To suffer without loving is meaningless and dangerous. And so we must first of all note that this is a story of the love of Jesus and then only the story of his suffering, which then, of course, is sacrifice. There is a story at the beginning of the Passion narrative about the anointing of Jesus, which I think is intended to emphasize this very fact.

[58:48]

And I recall, after I had discovered and become convinced of the centrality of the Passion story, and decided even though I had a tight syllabus in my course in Synoptic Gospels, I decided I'm going to teach the whole Passion story to these students. However, I wanted to get other things in too. After all, there is the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, and all kinds of wonderful things, parables. So I thought I will leave out this story about the anointing of Jesus, which all scholars agree is an intrusion, is an interruption of the narrative, so that it flows quite naturally without this story. So I thought I can drop this and save a little time on my syllabus. I read that rubric at the end of the story, intended precisely for people like myself.

[59:57]

Jesus said, and truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, including Latrobe, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Don't you dare take that out of your syllabus. You want to give the passion story, you give that story too. Wherever in the whole world this story is told, this part of the story will be included in memory of her. And then I began to wonder, well, what is there so special about this story that it has become indispensable to a proper reading and understanding of the passion narrative? So I probed and pondered, and I came up with an answer which I think is valid.

[61:05]

It's one of those answers that It just seems so right that it's almost self-confirming. Let's look at the story. And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the jar and poured it over his head. An anonymous woman came up to him, and she had this cruet, delicate cruet, made of alabaster, transparent marble. The cruet itself had great value, and it was filled with precious ointment, a few drops of which would fill a room with aroma. And she broke the top off the cruet and poured all of it on his head.

[62:18]

An extraordinary, lavish, extravagant act on her part. And irreversible. It's like she's been waiting all her life for the moment when she will Use the ointment. Most of us hope that we have some warning of our death, and I ask for about a week. Lord, give me a week to get rid of my junk, to save the prior the trouble of doing it, so I can But in the meantime, I might need some of that junk. So I hang on to it. But give me a week that I can get rid of it. So, you know, we like to have that. I won't need this anymore.

[63:22]

This is what I've been saving it for. She knew it instinctively. Oh, Matthew says she took the cork out of the bottle and poured it on, but Mark wants to make it more radical than that. She broke the top off and poured all of it. An absolute irreversible gesture and extravagant and wasteful. And there were some who said to themselves indignantly, why was the ointment thus wasted? The disciples murmuring and grumbling, oh, for God's sakes, look what she did, all that ointment. For this ointment might have been sold for more than 300 denarii. Oh, yes, they know its value in the marketplace and given to the poor.

[64:24]

And they reproached her. We don't know exactly how they reproached her, but they probably clucked their tongues at her. And I think in a male chauvinist world they might very well have said, typical woman doesn't know the value of things guided by her heart instead of her head. Foolish. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. Wasteful, extravagant, foolish, oh no, no, beautiful. A beautiful thing, an admirable thing she has done for me. I think all of us would like to have Jesus say about our lives,

[65:29]

that was a beautiful thing that you did during your life. Even though at the time we did it, many might have said, what a waste, what a wasteful way to use your life, living for others, giving up ambitions of wealth and security, maybe even foolish enough to become a monk, for goodness sakes. A beautiful thing that you have done. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them, but you will not always have me. This is a classic example of a text that is misunderstood more often than not. and even has been used as an argument against trying to solve the problem of poverty.

[66:36]

And when that letter on the economy came out from the American bishops, in large part under the, well, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Rembert, When that letter came out, I recall reading an editorial in the New York Times, one of those on the editorial page, and this typical, sophisticated, secular commentator said, that's a very interesting but impractical letter. unaware of the realities of economics and things like that, you know. Poor bishops, you know, just don't know what's going on. He said, we have it on good authority that the problem of poverty is not to be solved. Quoting, in a way, indirectly, quoting the scriptures back to the bishops, we have it on good authority.

[67:45]

Jesus himself, that the poor you have with you always. So you don't try to really solve this preferential option for the poor. That's your idealistic nonsense. No, Jesus didn't mean that. In the context of the entire New Testament, he cannot have meant that. What did he mean? I think he meant something quite simply like this. Oh yes, you want to save this and give it to the poor. You are concerned about the poor in general, which is an excuse for not dealing with the poor in particular. Oh, someday we'll give this to the poor, but the poor in general. Never benefit. It's the poor in particular who need to be cared for. And here I am in front of you, a man about to die, and there is no one so poor as a man the day before he dies.

[68:47]

And only this woman has been able to sense my need and my poverty. Because only she is sensitive to such things. You have your mind full of all kinds of other things. And so she has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. She has done what she could to alleviate my need. Great need, generous response. And truly I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. I think this story is included in the passion narrative because it strikes the key note for that narrative. And you know how important a key note is. The key signature of a piece of music is important for the whole piece of music.

[69:55]

If you don't read the key right in the beginning, it's not going to come out right. So it's important to get off on the right foot to understand what this story is about. And I think this little story is told to help us to view the passion story from the right perspective. Why? Because the passion story will be Jesus breaking the alabaster cruet of his body and pouring out the most precious ointment of his blood on all of us who are about to die. I think that's why this is the opening of the Passion Story and indispensable to it, because it tells us what to look for in the Passion Story.

[71:02]

To look for this extraordinary love and generosity of Jesus, which caused Him to do this wasteful thing, this extravagant thing of giving His life totally and absolutely for us, because He knows our need, because we are about to die. And if we read that key signature properly, then we will understand the music. And it will be all about the love of Jesus, and about how costly love is, but about how privileged those are who can love like that. Jesus then takes his disciples to the upper room,

[72:06]

celebrates the Passover meal with them. We are not given the ritual of the Passover meal, but we can pretty easily reconstruct it. The important thing is the evangelist wants us to know that at a certain point in the meal Jesus changed the rubrics, changed the ritual. I think the site The disciples sitting around the Master and having celebrated Passover with him before, I think, oh yeah, here it goes, same old familiar things, story from Exodus. And all of a sudden he says something new and all the heads come up and look toward him. Because he took the bread and he broke it and said, This, this is my body. This is me.

[73:09]

This is my life. This is my meaning. Bread broken. Not just bread, but bread broken. And then he took the cup and said over it too, as never had been said before in the ritual, this cup is the cup of my blood, which is poured out for you. Not only blood, but blood poured out. So he tells them, in this last opportunity to speak to them, he tells them the whole meaning of everything that he has tried to do and teach up to this point. And the whole meaning of everything that will happen on that next day. Bread broken, body broken, blood poured out. And as you know, of course, the Eucharist, the sign, the sacrament of the Eucharist is perfectly and properly presented only in the Axio, only in the Mass.

[74:20]

Because only there is the bread broken and the blood consumed. All other manifestations of the Eucharist are secondary. And that reminds us then that the The Eucharist, to join Jesus and to understand the message of the Eucharist means that I commit myself, when I receive this sacrament, to break my body, to pour out my blood in love and sacrifice for others. Sometimes I like to imagine someone not too far-fetched, Someone who doesn't particularly care for community. I mean, people get on my nerves. One of our fathers used to say, I don't mind community. It's people I can't stand. And another one said, 50th anniversary. Someone said, congratulations.

[75:23]

Yes, he said, I have survived 50 years of fraternal charity. Well, those little things, we can relate to that, you know. So I can imagine someone who says, oh, I'm not going to go to recreation. No, I get bored with those people. I'm going to go down and visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. That's what I'll do. I'll get a reputation for being a holy man. I can avoid recreation. Well, the only thing that surprises me is that Jesus doesn't open the door in the tabernacle and say, get out of here, you fraud! Don't you dare come down here and later on you're my friend, when you should be up there, not trying to be entertained, but trying to help others to deal with life. So, it's important to remember the deepest meaning of the Eucharist and what it means in terms of our life.

[76:29]

And then Jesus took his disciples and went out to Gethsemane. Gethsemane, which in many ways is the high point of the whole Passion story. Much more significant, much more meaningful, much more difficult in some ways for Jesus than even the crucifixion. Because at Gethsemane, Jesus accepted what the Father had in store for him. As you know, when we die, the hardest part will be to accept the fact that we are dying. And once that happens, often there is calm relatively peaceful, passing on to the end. It's very, very hard to agree to die.

[77:35]

Jesus had seen the storm clouds gathering for a long time in his ministry, and he knew that he was on a collision course with the power brokers especially after his prophetic action in the temple, which in effect told them that they had turned religion into something that they controlled, something represented by temple worship, it was rigid and scrupulous and under human control. They were men who had worked hard to establish this religion in the way they thought it should be and were not about to change it, even for a profit. They had perverted religion to make it a source of guilt instead of hope, a source of bondage instead of freedom.

[78:51]

You have destroyed the law, Jesus said, the Torah, the charter of freedom. You have destroyed it by subjecting it to human traditions and interpretations and making it the opposite of what God intended. Jesus had not chosen this conflict. He wanted simply to give hope, to show the Father's love. not indulgent love, but the love that demands sacrifice, true love. And he cannot turn aside now, he cannot forget the people to whom he has given hope, even though he is misunderstood and rejected by those in authority. He tries to prepare the disciples for what is coming in the Passover meal.

[79:59]

Bread broken, wine poured out. I am one who puts aside human power so that divine power may work through me, is what he said in effect. And after the meal he leads his disciples to the garden a familiar place, so familiar that Judas knew exactly where to find him, and he enters into the moment of truth, in many ways the most critical moment of the Passion story. And because it is so important, it is carefully staged by the evangelist. Jesus is shown with the twelve, or the eleven, And then he moves away from the larger group, taking with him only Peter, James and John. These are those three more intimate disciples that he took with him to the Mount of the Transfiguration, who are more likely to understand his mood.

[81:13]

And then he leaves them too. and goes alone deeper into the garden. I am not sure that historically Jesus ever left his disciples. What the evangelist is telling us is that Jesus is entering into a world where the disciples cannot follow. And he describes it visually, but it is really a spiritual and psychological experience on the part of Jesus. He is entering into a private, personal world because he has no choice. He is about to die. His death is imminent. The death of the disciples is not imminent. And so he goes to that place to deal with what is about to happen to him, into that inner personal sanctuary where alone one can confront ultimate reality.

[82:31]

Oh, we are very much afraid of that place. It's terrible stillness and silence. It's the place that we visit when we really pray. the place where we can see and taste our nothingness, our contingency, our total lack of control over the important things in life, and our fragility, our humanity. It is a human experience that is no longer protected and buffered by distractions or illusions. That is why truly personal prayer is so important, because it makes it possible for us to enter a sanctuary that we will have to enter sooner or later. And if we've been there before, it helps. Jesus, as a human being, is overwhelmed by the imminence of his death.

[83:40]

The Gospel says he was greatly distressed and troubled but that does not do justice to these very strong Greek verbs that are almost scandalous. Really, they say that he had a sense of horror and dismay and panic. It is as if he has tried and succeeded up to now to hold off this dam, this flood with a mound of distractions. And now it breaks over him. It is important to notice here for those of us who since the Aryan heresy have been endowed with high Christology, emphasizing the divinity of Jesus almost to the complete loss of a sense of his humanity, it is important for us to note with Pierre Benoist in his book on the Passion, that here Jesus is no pretender

[85:09]

He is not pretending to be in panic for the benefit of the disciples. When he threw himself full length on the ground, much as King Saul had done after the witch of Endor told him there was no hope, but obviously with greater faith than Saul, that he was experiencing the normal experience of a human being, the presence of finality in death. Nothing to be ashamed of if we are filled with fear, fright, when death approaches. Jesus did too. It says that the disciples were overcome with

[86:14]

drowsiness, and were sleeping, could not keep their eyes open. Here again, I am not so sure that they really were that sleepy and not like those famous Flemish paintings where the disciples are lying all over each other with their mouth open and stuff. No, no, I think here again the author uses a literary image to convey the tremendous gulf that has appeared between Jesus and the disciples. He is dying, they are not. He was never more wide awake in his whole life. They are drowsy, cannot keep awake. A great gulf has opened between him and them.

[87:17]

And this reminds us that when it comes time to die, no matter how many people may be gathered around our bed, we die alone. And there is a great distance between us and them. And if you've ever visited someone who is dying and tried to comfort them, you sense, I think, that they are in another world, that you are not dying, and you can only reach over and try to say something helpful. But you cannot join them. So Jesus is alone confronting death. His disciples are there, and he's happy to have them there, but they cannot really be with him. And then he turns to the Father, Abba Father.

[88:23]

This Father is no stranger to him. I have talked with you many times before. I have often turned aside to spend time with you, to tell you about the response of the crowds, about my fears and joys and my questionings, my sense of satisfaction, my premonitions, my confidence, my gratitude, my concern about my mission. I have come to know you and to feel at home with you. And I have learned that when I am with you, I am refreshed. And that's why the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, because they noticed that when he came back from those moments alone, he looked like a new man, refreshed, restored.

[89:30]

Teach us also the secret that you have found. And he says, all right. When you pray, say, Our Father, Abba Father. Then he asked the questions that every human being must ask the Father. Can this cup not pass from me? Is this really what you want of me? I don't think Jesus is saying, I never knew that this would be the cup for me. I think in a way he's probably saying, must it be tomorrow? We read in the Psalms that with you, Father, a thousand years is like a day. Why not another year? Does it have to be tomorrow? It's not death that is the problem frequently, it's the imminence of death that is the problem.

[90:33]

And I think when Jesus posed this question, all the angels held their breath. because they knew that it had to be tomorrow, and they wait for Jesus to agree. And he does, of course. Father, I know that you love me. I trust you. If it is your will that it should be tomorrow, that's all right. That's the way I want it too. Let it be tomorrow. Not my will, but yours be done." This is the most important moment in the history of the world, I think. When Neil Armstrong got off that space capsule and put his foot on the moon and said, one short step for man, one giant step for mankind,

[91:47]

Richard Nixon, the next day, or in the next day's paper, Washington Post, is quoted as saying, this was the most important event and achievement since the creation of the world. Well, you can't accuse him of understatement. The most important achievement since the creation of the world. That covers a lot of ground. And I remember when I heard this, I was giving a summer course in Kansas, and I thought to myself, whatever happened to Holy Week? Well, you see, in our American religion, our American civil religion, there is no Holy Week, there is no Christ. It's kind of a bland form of Unitarianism. And so, you just don't deal with Holy Week.

[92:55]

Oh, some people think something happened at Holy Week, but we really don't know too sure what it was, so don't worry about that. But something did happen at Holy Week, and it truly was the most critical event in the history of the world. And this is when it happened, when Jesus said, Father, not My will, but Yours be done. and thereby established what constitutes the most important decision anyone ever makes. A decision that will change the world if it ever is changed. The degree that it is converted will depend upon how many of us can say this. Trust is the most beautiful fruit of love. To help another is a sign of love. To trust another is the perfect sign of love.

[93:59]

Father, I do not understand, but I accept because I know that you love me, that this is best for me and for those whom I love. And so the struggle turns into acceptance. He goes back to the disciples and says to them, watch and pray. He is not really scolding them. I don't think they had any choice but to be drowsy. After all, they're only human beings. He is reminding them Oh yes, this is my turn, but your turn will come. The Pairasmos, the trial, the final grinding and sifting will come to everyone. And in preparation for that, you must watch and pray.

[95:05]

You must not let this come upon you as if you didn't know it would happen. Watch and pray now. that when it comes you will know how to act, how to respond. And how do we watch and pray? By making room for God, by setting time aside for prayer, by not being so busy that we cannot enter into that terrible silence where we learn not to be afraid of our nothingness because God is there. where we learn to be sustained by God, where we learn how to be on familiar personal terms with God, so that when we are face to face with the end, we will not say, what is happening?

[96:14]

We will say, oh yes, so this is it. Abba Father, I trust you. The angels hold their breath again when that moment comes for us, and hopefully we will not disappoint them. And so we pray now, and we watch, and we try to be in the presence of God, in the reality of God's presence. And then we are ready for whatever may happen. And if we can trust the Lord to the end and live out the implications of the Transfiguration discovery, then we will enter into that life which God reserves for us.

[97:15]

We have no idea really what it is. It is beyond comprehension. It is the fruit of trust. Francis Durwell, in his book on the Resurrection, it's an old book, but it was a radically new book when it was written, because up to that time the Resurrection was simply an argument for the divinity of Jesus. He said, oh no, no, the Resurrection is much more than that. He said, what is the Resurrection? It is Jesus being embraced forever by the Father. Welcome home, my son. This is the reward for those who trust. Welcome home, my son. This is what we all hope to hear. And we can prepare for this wonderful homecoming by watching and praying now.

[98:19]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ