Today's Gospel

A God of Purpose

Welcome back. There is genius in Catholicism. There's genius in the gospels, and this opportunity to break open the Word of God and to allow God to speak into our lives is so powerful. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 9:28-36. "Jesus took with Him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as He was praying, the appearance of His countenance was altered and His raiment became dazzling white. And behold, two men talked with Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His departure, which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep but kept awake. And they saw Jesus' glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were partying from him–"

"–Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is well that we are here. Let us make three booths, one for You and one for Moses, and one for Elijah,' not knowing what he said. As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, 'This is My son, My chosen. Listen to Him.' And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone, and they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen." Is there a word or a phrase or an idea that jumps out at you today? It's easy, I think, to overlook the beautiful humanity of the gospels. Sometimes we can read the gospels in a very sort of mechanical way.

And we can miss all the beautiful human detail. So today we've got the transfiguration, and we've got Jesus. And He takes Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain. So you think about that, right? How did Peter and James and John feel when Jesus said, "All right, you three-- we're going on an adventure today, just the three of us. I know that one of the things my parents taught me was to spend time with children individually, as well as as a group. But my mother and my father used to do things with us one on one. I have seven brothers, so the eight boys. And different things, different interests. I loved art growing up, and there's a fabulous art gallery in Sydney. The Art Gallery of New South Wales. And my mom used to take me there to see exhibits used to have these just spectacular visiting exhibits. And then they have a fantastic permanent collection. And we used to go to the art gallery, used to spend some time seeing whatever the special exhibit was, and then spend some time in the permanent collection, and then we would have lunch, and then we would go home. And in my mind, we used to do this like once a month. And I remember when I was about 30, I asked my mom, like, "Mom, you used to take me to the art gallery, and how often did we do that?" And she said to me, "I tried to do it once a year, but we didn't always get it done." So I found that fascinating, right? So probably from about the time I was 10 to when I was like 18, in my mind, we went like once a month, but in reality, we went once a year and not always every year. And that had a profound impact on me. And so, Meghan and I, we try to spend time individually with the kids and around their interests. And when you spend time with just one of the children, you have a different experience, and they say things to you that they wouldn't say if the whole group was around. But they light up, they just light up. You say, "Hey, Ralphie, let's go to the baseball next week, just you and me," Or, "Hey, Walter, let's go to the basketball or museum," or whatever it is. And they light up.

And so that's just a little old me, not so little, but definitely old and me. And here we got Jesus, right? We got Jesus, and we got Peter, James, and John. And Jesus is saying, "All right, guys, just the three of you. Let's go. We're going to do something special today." So what's the humanity? What are they feeling? Are they anxious? Are they nervous? Are they afraid? Are they excited? We don't know. We do know that they were afraid a lot. We see that later in the reading. We do know that they were afraid a lot. If the cloud comes, what happens? They're afraid. They're out on the boat, the wave comes, what happens? They're afraid. They're afraid a lot. And Jesus is constantly saying, "Do not be afraid." But they had this adventure with Jesus. He takes them up on the mountain. And why? I don't know. But I wonder that a lot about the things Jesus does. Why did he take these three? Why did he want them to have this experience? Was there something happening the following week and they needed to understand a little bit more what he was about, or did they need a little bit more encouragement? I don't know. But our God's a God of purpose. He does things on purpose, with purpose, for purpose. He's created you on purpose, with purpose, for purpose.

And he took them up the mountain, and they had this experience. But then the voice comes. What does the voice say? This is my son, the chosen. Listen to him. That's all. The voice identifies Jesus, Son of God, and then three words. Listen to Him. That's the message that I heard today. Listen to Him. And we all think we're better listeners than we are. Developing listening skills in our earthly relationships is critical. Learning to listen to God. Critical. Listen to Him. What is Jesus saying to you at this time in your life? Are you listening to Him? Are you hearing Him? Are you ignoring Him? Are you avoiding Him? Or are you rejoicing in what He is telling you? Have a great day, amazing day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic. Busy is not your friend. Only a toxic friend leaves you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, stressed, inadequate, and resentful. It's time to take our lives back from the tyrant busy. That's from my new book, Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, I encourage you to pick up a copy. It's about probably one of the biggest struggles in my life, and that is to escape like the insanity of busyness and the insanity of the urgent, and to become a lot more intentional about what I'm doing in my days and my weeks, what I feel God is calling me to do in my days and my weeks.

It was fun writing. It was hard to write. I think it reveals a lot of my struggles spiritually. And I was sort of put enough writing the book because it's not fun to write about those struggles. But then I realized, well, if I wait, I'd just probably never write this book. And I felt like it was a book that I needed to write. On back cover, they put a quote from the book. It says, "Joy erupts within us when we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul." Think about that, "Joy erupts within us when we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul." What kind of experience that could be many things. That could be having a meal with your friends and family. That could be going for a walk. It could be going to mass. It could be so many things. But joy erupts within us when we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul. When's the last time you allowed an experience to touch the very depths of your soul? And what I realized was it wasn't happening and it wasn't happening because you can't rush that. That can't be rushed. In order to allow experiences to touch the very depths of our soul, we do have to slow down to the speed of joy.