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February 18, 2017
Today’s readings offer a potential starting place for those worrying about the future. I would like to live in a world where the good and the just are rewarded in short term. I would like a simple path to security in this life. That is not what I experience. When I encounter hard times or the events of the world do not go the way that I think they should, I can find myself beginning to wonder if God has abandoned me.
These readings remind me that material success is not the mark of God’s servants in this world. Rather, the mark is accepting the importance of the relationship with God even in times of trouble. This is my view of faith. When my desire for pressing on in God’s service falters, I am consoled by St. Ignatius’ insight on the value of just the desire to have that desire to respond to God’s call. Mother Theresa provides the saintly example of not giving up on God even when not feeling God’s presence.
Reflecting on the passage from Hebrews, I am reminded that Abel is murdered and Noah’s world is destroyed. Consider the lives of the men who are glorified in the Transfiguration in today’s Gospel. Moses, the lawgiver, must endure in the desert never making it to the Promised Land. At one point Moses expresses a sense of being completely overwhelmed. Elijah, the prophet, needs to go into hiding. His sense of apparent failure puts him into a deep depression. Both Moses and Elijah ask God to take their lives if things do not improve. Jesus will be crucified. The night before he wonders if he can be spared the suffering. These are the “heroes” of salvation history.