[Catholic Caucus Devotional] My Catholic Life! Catholic Daily Reflections: Good and Bad Days

“Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Matthew 17:4

The Apostle Peter’s reaction to the Transfiguration reveals that he was overwhelmed by his firsthand experience of a glimpse of Jesus’ true glory. Not long before this moment, our Lord took His disciples north to Caesarea Philippi and asked them privately who they thought He was. Peter boldly proclaimed, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). In response, Jesus promised Peter that He would build His Church upon him and that Peter himself would be entrusted with the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. It was a good day for Peter.

Shortly after this, however, Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He “must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21). In response, Peter pulled Jesus aside and said, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you” (Matthew 16:22). Jesus replied harshly to Peter’s rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23). It was a bad day for Peter.

Jesus then taught His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24–25). Not only was Jesus soon to suffer greatly, but His followers, including the Twelve, were called to follow Him on this difficult path. This was hard news for them to accept.

In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of the Transfiguration. Interestingly, Jesus allowed the disciples to reflect on His prediction of suffering for six days before taking Peter, James, and John up a mountain for prayer and solitude. Jesus, aware of their confusion and struggles, was transfigured before their eyes. “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him” (Matthew 17:2–3). Peter exclaimed in this moment of glory, “Lord, it is good that we are here.” It was another good day for Peter.

We all have good days and bad days. But what defines a good day versus a bad day? Was the day of Jesus’ Crucifixion a bad one for Him? Certainly not. Though filled with intense suffering, it was the most glorious day in history because His perfect obedience to the Father’s will was fulfilled. Similarly, Peter’s good and bad days can be understood in terms of his willingness to obey Christ, especially when the demands were great.

In our lives, we must also define our good and bad days through the lens of obedience to God’s will, especially when His will calls us to bear the Cross and practice sacrificial love... Peter’s declaration, “Lord, it is good that we are here,” is the perfect prayer for us to echo in every circumstance. When we are consoled, as Peter was at the Transfiguration, we must pray this prayer. But unlike Peter’s earlier missteps, we must also say, “It is good,” when we encounter opportunities for sacrificial love, even when difficult.

Reflect today on your own good and bad days. Use the lens of holy obedience and your call to live a life of sacrificial love. Do not hesitate to cry out to the Lord, “It is good!” Consider whether you view every cross and every invitation to love sacrificially as something good. This is what God desires for you; embrace His desire with determination and joy.

My sacrificial Lord, You embraced the Cross and saw it as truly good. You looked beyond the suffering and saw the fruits of Your sacrifice. Help me to imitate You by seeing every act of sacrificial love as the good I desire. I love You, Lord. Help me to love You and others with all my heart. Jesus, I trust in You.

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY(RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

Today’s First Reading

From: Genesis 12:1-4a

The Call of Abram and God's Promise to Him
------------------------------------------
[1] Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. [2] And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."

[4] So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…

***********************************************************************
Commentary:

12:1-6. God's call to Abraham (the name he would give him instead of Abram: cf. 17:5) marks the start of a new stage in his dealings with mankind, because his covenant with Abraham will prove a blessing to all nations. It means that Abraham has to break earthly ties, ties with family and place, and put his trust entirely in God's promise--an unknown country, many descendants (even though his wife is barren: cf. 11:30) and God's constant protection. This divine calling also involves a break with the idolatrous cult followed by Abraham's family in the city of Haran (apparently, a moon cult) so as to worship the true God.

Abraham responds to God's call; believing and trusting totally in the divine word, he leaves his country and heads for Canaan. Abraham's attitude is in sharp contrast with the human pride described earlier in connection with the tower of Babel (cf. 11:1-9), and even more so with the disobedience of Adam and Eve which was the cause of mankind's break with God.

The divine plan of salvation begins to operate by requiring man to make an act of obedience: in Abraham's case, he is asked to set out on a journey. This plan will reach its ultimate goal with the perfect obedience shown by Jesus Christ "made obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8), whereby all mankind will obtain the mercy of God (cf. Rom 5:19). Everyone who listens and obeys the voice of the Lord, all believers, can therefore be regarded as children of Abraham. "Thus Abraham 'believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.' So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.' So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith" (Gal 3:6-9).

Jewish and Christian tradition sees the three things God requires Abram to give up as epitomizing the demands of faith: "Through these three departures--from country, kindred and father's house," according to Alcuin's interpretation, "is meant that we have to leave behind the earthly man, the ties of our vices, and the world under the devil's power" ("Interrogationes in Genesim", 154).

Abraham's response also involves an attitude of prayer, an intimate relationship with God. Although prayer makes its appearance at the very start of the Old Testament (cf. 4:4, 26; 5:24; etc.), it really comes into its own with our father Abraham, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "When God calls him, Abraham goes forth 'as the Lord had told him' (Gen 12:4). Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled (cf. Gen 15:2-3). Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God" (no. 2570).

Abraham gets as far as the central part of Palestine, from where he moves south, building as he goes altars to the Lord, to the true God, in places which will become important shrines in later periods. The biblical text shows that Yahweh accompanies Abraham and that the latter renders him acceptable worship, in contrast with the idolatrous cult practised by the inhabitants of the country (given the generic name of "Canaanites"). God, for his part, in all his appearances to the patriarch, promises to give this land to his descendants (cf. 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 26:4). In this way the text is showing the radical source at the legitimacy of Israel's possession of the land of Canaan. However, this promise of a land to the descendants of Abraham goes beyond the empirical fact of acquiring territory, and becomes a symbol of the blessings and the divine gifts in which all mankind will share.

Speaking about Abraham's faith in the word of God, Saul interprets Abraham's "descendant in the singular, as referring to one descendant only, Jesus Christ, because only he, being the Son of God and making himself obedient unto death, possesses all the divine goods and communicates them to man: "Christ redeemed us [...] that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. [...] Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, 'And to offsprings,' referring to many; but, referring to one, 'And to your offspring,' which is Christ" (Gal 3:13-16).

Today’s Second Reading

From: 2 Timothy 1:8b-10

St Paul, Herald of the Gospel
-----------------------------
[8b] … Take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God, [9] who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, [10] and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

***********************************************************************
Commentary:

9-10. There is a theological basis for courageously confronting the difficulties the Gospel brings with it--the fact that we have been called by God, who has revealed himself as our Savior. As elsewhere in these letters (cf. 1 Tim 3:15ff; Tit 3:5-7). St Paul here speaks a succinct hymn in praise of salvation, probably using expressions based on some liturgical hymn or confession of faith.

The salvation which God brings about is viewed in this passage as it applies to Christians (v. 9) and is manifested in the incarnation of Christ (v. 10). Four essential aspects of salvation are identified: 1) God has already accomplished salvation for everyone; 2) it is God, too, who calls all men to avail of it; 3) it is entirely a gift: man cannot merit it (cf. Tit 3:5, Eph 2.8-9), and 4) God's plan is an eternal one (cf. Rom 8:29-30; Eph 1:11).

"The appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ" (v. 10) refers in the first place to his incarnation (cf. Tit 2:11; 3:4) but it includes his entire work of redemption which culminates in his appearing in glory and majesty (cf. 1 Tim 6:14; 2 Tim 4:1, 8). The Redemption has two wonderful effects--victory over death (physical and spiritual) and the abundant and luminous gift of everlasting life. "He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world. By dying he destroyed our death; by rising he restored our life" ("Preface of Easter", I).

"Ages ago": literally, "from the times of the ages", a primitive expression meaning the same thing as "eternity".

Today’s Gospel Reading

From: Matthew 17:1-9

The Transfiguration
-------------------
[1] And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. [2] And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light. [3] And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him. [4] And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if You wish, I will make three booths here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah." [5] He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him." [6] When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. [7] But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." [8] And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

[9] And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."

***********************************************************************
Commentary:

1-13. Realizing that His death will demoralize His disciples, Jesus forewarns them and strengthens their faith. Not content with telling them in advance about His death and resurrection on the third day, He wants two of the three future pillars of the Church (cf. Galatians 2:9) to see His transfiguration and thereby glimpse the glory and majesty with which His holy human nature will be endowed in Heaven.

The Father's testimony (verse 5), expressed in the same words as He used at Christ's baptism (cf. Matthew 3:17), reveals to the three Apostles that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the beloved, God Himself. To these words--also spoken at Christ's baptism--He adds, "Listen to Him", as if to indicate that Jesus is also the supreme prophet foretold by Moses (cf. Deuteronomy 18:15-18).

3. Moses and Elijah are the two most prominent representatives of the Old Testament--the Law and the Prophets. The fact that Christ occupies the central position points up His pre-eminence over them, and the superiority of the New Testament over the Old.

This dazzling glimpse of divine glory is enough to send the Apostles into a rapture; so happy are they that Peter cannot contain his desire to prolong this experience.

5. In Christ God speaks to all men; through the Church His voice resounds in all ages: "The Church does not cease to listen to His words. She rereads them continually. With the greatest devotion she reconstructs every detail of His life. These words are listened to also by non-Christians. The life of Christ speaks, also, to many who are not capable of repeating with Peter, `You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Matthew 16:16). He, the Son of the living God, speaks to people also as Man: it is His life that speaks, His humanity, His fidelity to the truth, His all-embracing love. Furthermore, His death on the Cross speaks--that is to say the inscrutable depth of His suffering and abandonment. The Church never ceases to relive His death on the Cross and His resurrection, which constitute the content of the Church's daily life [...]. The Church lives His mystery, draws unwearingly from it and continually seeks ways of bringing this mystery of her Master and Lord to humanity--to the peoples, the nations, the succeeding generations, and every individual human being" ([Pope] John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 7).

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.