Hebrews 11:1-7 / Mark 9:2-13
Faith makes the difference; Faith made Abel's sacrifice special.
Joan Cinelli and her mother had just listened to today's reading at Mass. On their way home Joan said, "I wish that I had lived at a time when people had such great faith." "You do!" said her mother. With that, she shared these thoughts with Joan: "By faith, John works two jobs to support his young family . . and still finds time to work with fatherless boys. By faith, Alma cheers (her nursing patients) even though she's single-handedly raising a retarded son. By faith, Lucille takes it upon herself to run a meal program for needy folks in our county." Joan got the point.
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Do we, also, overlook the deep faith of so many people around us? "Without faith we are a stained-glass window in the dark." Author unknown
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The Lectionary takes today an excerpt from the Letter to the Hebrews that praises the faith of the holy persons from the first pages of the Old Testament.
After he has announced his coming suffering and answered Peter’s protest, Jesus is transfigured before the eyes of his intimate friends among the apostles who will also watch his agony in the garden. This is how he strengthens their faith. Then, he speaks again with them about his approaching passion. Let us ask the Lord in this Eucharist to give us courage in difficult moments.
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The one word that keeps recurring in the 1st reading is the word "faith". It begins the passage as well as ends it off. It talks about the faith of Biblical characters like Abel, Enoch and Noah. By their faith they came to know who God is, and by their faith they experienced His presence, and it was by their faith they did God's will. In the broadest sense of the word, faith can be said as believing in what cannot be seen and hoping in what cannot be fully explained. In other words, faith is a gift from God to experience a mystery that is revealed and yet keeps revealing.
In the gospel, the disciples had their faith brought to another dimension when they saw the mystery of who Jesus is being revealed in His Transfiguration. But still they don't understand what was meant "rising from the dead" and that Jesus will suffer grievously and be treated with contempt. There may be still many things about our faith that we do not understand.
But still let us give thanks to God and hold firm to our faith. With faith, we will be able to see beyond the ordinary to a mystery in which God reveals Himself and will keep revealing Himself to us.
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Prayer
Lord our God, when your Son was transfigured, you gave eyes of faith to the apostles to see beyond appearances and to recognize Jesus as your beloved Son. This vision gave them courage for the hour of trial. When our faith and trust seem to desert us in dark moments, let your Son take us up to the mountain and give us a glimpse of his light, that with fresh courage and generosity, we may see where he wants us to go. We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
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St. Chavara Elias Kuriakose (1805-1871)
St. Chavara Kuriakose, co-founder and first prior general of the Congregation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, was born on 10th February 1805 at Alleppey district of Kerala. St. Chavara Kuriakose was instrumental in founding two Catholic religious Congregation-one for men, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) and the other for woman Congregation of Mother of Carmel (CMC), for the spiritual renewal and all-round development of the society.
Starting seven ashrams and a convent in different parts of Kerala, Chavara initiated a spiritual movement among the people of Kerala. He established the first Catholic Sanskrit School, a major seminary and a printing and publishing house at Mannanam. He directed that every church should start a school (Pallikku pallikkoodam) attached to it and encouraged children of very poor sections to attend the schools by supplying midday meal and dress. He found a “Home of Charity” to take the destitute, the beggars, the uncared sick and the old. He also organized the first voluntary charitable association in Kerala for self-help among the needy.
Even in the midst of such manifold activities he found time to write several literary and spiritual books in prose as well as verse. Among them was the first chronicle of history in Malayalam. He knew seven languages- Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit, Syrian, Latin, Italian and Portuguese. Essentially, however, St. Chavara Kuriakose was a man of prayer and great charity. He lived for 65 years and died on 3rd January 1871.
