Worth Doing Badly

The Transfiguration was the coronation of Christ the King who would inaugurate the new era of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Christ fulfilling the Law restored the Law to its proper part in His intent to fulfil the human desire for God’s love and life. This proper role of the Law is at work in repentance exposing our self-centred egoism as an incurable, crippling spiritual disease that, if we could see it materialized, would be as terrifying as an eye violently gauged out or a limb amputated.

Jesus rejected the accusation that he was abolishing the Law. On the contrary, his grace and mercy fulfilled the Law so that it could continue, as the Psalm declared, to be "keenly desired" and to inspire the "Alleluias" that expressed the hope of eternal happiness.

What would it be like not to fear loss? The beatitudes express the perfection of Christ that we as penitents can desire and aspire to. We can aspire to the beatitudes’ nonchalant attitude when we recognize that in Christ loss is gain.

Jesus was Light coming to save the lives of those who were defined by loss and sitting in dark despair.

The Word made flesh is the Lamb of God. The ordering principle of life is the sacrifice of the incarnate God. The cross and crucifixion would redeem life and become the 2nd creation.

John’s Baptism of repentance would fit into Christ’s intent to fulfill all righteousness because true God and true Man became the perfect penitent who reconciles the irreconcilables.

The 12 days of Christmas (Christmas day to 5 January) offers us characters and events like St. Stephen the first martyr and Herod’s killing of the innocent children to help us understand that the incarnation is an invasion of the kingdom of heaven into the kingdom of death.

Series A, Christmas Day The Evangelist John treats the incarnation of the Word of God as a military invasion which was heralded by the angelic host. Their rejoicing that the rightful king had begun his subversive campaign of sabotage of the earthly kingdom made the shepherds quake. We repeatedly express our desire for the continued success of Christ’s subversive sabotage every time we pray, "Thy k...

"...as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Mt 1:20) If the incarnation is true, then it is unreasonable to let fear swallow up life.

“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Mt 11:6) As great as John was, Jesus said that each individual who trusts that Jesus makes suffering and death into the portal into paradise shares in John’s greatness.

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mt 3:1) Repentance is not a joyless obligation. Rather, it prepares us to enjoy Christ’s Incarnation and the Truth that set us free.

“Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey...” Mathew 21:5. Jesus purposefully arranged to make his “triumphal entry” on a donkey to make humility the defining characteristic of his salvation.

For those who are in Christ, death is blessed because it gives life, not because it ends it. So, it is fitting that the last Sunday of the Church focuses our attention on the meanings of death, the final event in every human life.

Jesus’ truth of life is not found in the terror of death. The world’s demise is not the destruction of life, but rather the demolition of the old that makes way for coming of the new. This is why, when everything seems bent on becoming nothing, we are to straighten up and raise our heads so that we can see that the redemption that has been promised is now drawing near.

The beatitudes express the mystery of Christian freedom that we are never defined by our experiences of deprivation. Rather, Christ’s promised presence transforms every deprivation into the occasion of good fortune that generates gratitude.

Reformation means recognizing that the sign of the true Church is its commitment to continuous re-forming by Christ’s truth. This means the Church is free to be still, and in that stillness to know that Christ is really present, and that his presence as the Word made flesh promises the ongoing re-forming we need and desire.

The similar act of prayer in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-collector had significantly different meanings that reflect two kinds of critical thinking and two kinds of confidence. The first is self-confidence and the second is confident faith in Christ’s mercy.

Prayer that overcomes discouragement is characterized by the common frustration of dealing with a corrupt legal official and a stubborn widow. She could not overpower corruption but her persistence would outlast it because corruption is a stage of dying while prayer awaits the intervention of the eternally living God.

Gratitude is the sign of the existential experience of God’s presence. Scripture’s nearly outrageous claim is that, even with those who suffer affliction, God’s presence generates real gratitude.

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ’Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (John 17:5-6) Jesus was dismissive of the disciples’ request for more faith because the truthfulness of unlimited forgiveness did not depend on the one believing but on the One whom...

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus teaches about the complications and consequences of short-term and long-term desire.

Jesus continues his life lessons for losers with an odd parable commending the prudence of a corrupt servant who characterized the truth that “the sons of this age are shrewder than the sons of light.”

Jesus’ parables tapped into the deep human sadness of loss, which was, no doubt exacerbated by the unrelenting hatred tax collectors invited. Rather than being fixated on the sadness, these parables treated loss as the precondition for rejoicing because the lost were being sought after with a foolish intensity.

Renunciation is the way Jesus’ disciple suffers loss without losing hope. Renunciation does not reject the good. It rejects the lie that impermanent things satisfy the human desire for the eternal.