A Final Reflection

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This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  The scholar Pheme Perkins (632) provides a good final reflection for our Sunday gospel:

Despite providing the most dramatic evidence of Jesus’ relationship to God of any epiphany scene in the Gospel, the transfiguration cannot override the necessity of Jesus’ suffering and death. It does sharpen the paradox of the cross. Although God spared Moses and Elijah from the normal processes of death, not only does God’s own beloved Son die, but also his death is at the hands of his enemies. Even the affirmations of exaltation and entry into the glory of his Father (8:38) cannot nullify the scandal of the cross. God’s command to heed the word of Jesus gives his teaching the authority of divine revelation. Continue reading →

Seeing, Hearing and Remembering

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This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  4 Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. 7 Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Continue reading →

Christian Leadership

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The gospel for today is often a central part of any discussion about the role of Peter as appointed leader of the early church leading into the successors of Peter as the Pope of the modern Catholic Church. A modern evangelical scholar, nominally part of a religious perspective that would deny any particular role assigned to Peter, offers that his peers have to twist Scripture out of shape to reach that conclusion. Their arguments are molded to fit their predetermined end. This scholar holds that clearly Peter was assigned leadership. However, he would argue that there is nothing in these verses to point beyond Peter’s leadership of that group of Apostles. He argues that Catholic apologists argue to their own predetermined ends. Continue reading →

Our Lexicon

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One of the benefits of Latin being the official language of the Catholic Church is that it is a “dead” language. In other words, a language no longer in use in the world outside of Church and academia; a language no longer subject to the evolution of usage in the world. For example, “peruse” technically means to examine in a thorough or careful way, but in everyday use it is used and understood to mean to “glance over a document.”  The word has evolved to mean something very different. Words in Latin have meant the same thing for centuries. Over the centuries the Church’s use of certain words form a lexicon of language – something quite true in the lexicon of the Eucharist. Continue reading →

Reservation, Adoration, Exposition, and Benediction: The Eucharist Outside of Mass

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is a great resource for Catholics to explore the Faith and Traditions of the Church. When one reads the article on the Sacrament of the Eucharist it is clear that the sacrament is largely discussed in the context of the celebration of the Mass. But what about outside of the celebration of Mass? Continue reading →