Transfiguration, Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]
Readings
(New American Bible:
Philippines, USA)
Readings
(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel Luke 9:28b-36 (New Revised Standard
Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)
Jesus took with him Peter
and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed,
and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses
and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of
his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter
and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed
awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master,
it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you,
one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was
saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as
they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This
is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken,
Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any
of the things they had seen.
Readings for Ireland, St Patrick's Day, 17 March
Starry Night, Van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
[The LORD] brought [Abram]
outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to
count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
(From First Reading, Gen
15:5, NRSVACE)
+++
By the mystery of this water and wine
may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in
our humanity.
The deacon or priest says these words
quietly as he pours wine and a little water into the chalice during the
Offertory of the Mass. In today's gospel Jesus, who humbled himself to
share in our humanity, allowed Peter, James and John to get a glimpse of
his divinity. Moses and Elijah spoke of what Jesus was to accomplish at
Jerusalem. That was not only his death but his Resurrection and
glorification.
Jesus calls us to share in his
Resurrection and glorification, to share in the divinity that
is his.
We don't share in the Resurrection,
glorification and divinity of Jesus Christ only after death but also, as Peter,
James and John did in the Transfiguration, in this life when we experience the
gift of God's love in events that can transform us here and now.
My Australian fellow Columban, Fr
Warren Kinne, who worked in Mindanao, Philippines, for a long time before spending many years in China, tells the story of Xiao Ai, who was in her early days a 'non-person'.
But through the love and care of strangers, Chinese and foreign, she now has
possibilities open to her that she never could have imagined. And Father
Warren, who has some Chinese ancestry, sees her story as encapsulating in some
ways the meaning of Lent and Easter. Here's how he tells it. It's taken
from the January-February 2013 issue
of MISYONonline.com,
the Columban online magazine I used to edit in the Philippines. It is also on the website of the Columbans in Australia and New Zealand.
Xiao Ai
by
Fr Warren Kinne
Before the
great Feast of Easter when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus,
the Church goes through a period of preparation by prayer and fasting. We call
this Lent. In the northern hemisphere, where Christianity started, it was
celebrated in spring and slowly, throughout that time, the dead of winter burst
forth into the luxuriance of new growth, signifying life and the resurrection.
Xiao Ai is a young friend of mine. She was left at
the steps of a convent about 2004 or 2005 in a remote village of Shan Xi
Province, China. She was born with clubbed feet and abandoned. Xiao was brought
to Shanghai where a group of foreigners provided money and logistical support
for multiple operations.
During that period she was taken in by a family who
took great care of her and eventually wanted to adopt her as their own. However
there were many hurdles to be overcome. Xiao Ai did not have any identification
as the convent was not a registered orphanage and so was not in a position to
register her.
Indeed people could only guess at her actual birth
date. She was really a ‘non-person’.
After years of effort Xiao Ai has had all her
paperwork completed and she now has a Chinese passport that will allow her to
travel with her adopted family to Singapore. What happiness followed the long
and anxious wait where a wonderful outcome was hoped for rather than expected.
Xiao Ai and
Fr Warren Kinne
For the Lord
takes delight in his people
(Psalm 149:4, Grail translation)
(Psalm 149:4, Grail translation)
Xiao’s struggle to me is a Lenten story that has
become an Easter story; a fast that turned into a feast; a long journey in a
desert that ended in freedom; a near death that heralded a resurrection, a new
life.
Shanghai is a city of tinsel and glitter. Most
people recognize the image of its iconic buildings and towering structures
along the Huang Pu River. There are myriad neon signs and a ‘yuppie’ lifestyle
for many expatriates who ride the wave of economic frenzy. But it has its
under-belly.
The construction of this city has been done on the
backs of migrant workers - currently seven million - who have travelled to the
city to find work. They left their villages and often their families in order
to make a little money on construction sites and in restaurants and factories.
These people do not have residency permits in
Shanghai and so they cannot settle down where they work. Often they leave their
children back in the village in the care of grandparents and may only get home
once a year – during the Chinese New Year – to see how the family is going.
Children can resent their absence and may not
appreciate the sacrifice of the parent or parents in order to better the whole
family economically.
In the cities where they work they do not have
equal access to medical and educational opportunities that are open to the
local population.
Their sacrifice is a sort of ‘Lent’ lived in the
hope of a better future for their family. Like Xiao Ai’s adopting parents or
the migrant parents, they in fact live the admonition of God in Isaiah 58: 6-7:
‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to share your bread with the hungry and
bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him’.
God brought the slaves out of the land of Egypt
where they had made bricks for the ostentatious buildings of the Pharaohs. This
same God made a covenant with them and subsequently with us that we might treat
each other differently because in one way or another we have all been freed.
The worship of the market and the God of money has caused many to suffer. May
we all have the courage to live a Lent that will usher in true life for the
world.
Xiao Ai in 2016
With Fr Kinne in 2016
Kyrie eleison
Mass of Pope John Paul II by Henryk Jan Botor
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