God Is Not 3 Guys

The Transfiguration, the subject of last Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 9:28-36), usually is used by preachers as a “proof” of Jesus’ divinity. The homilist where I attend Mass, Abbot John, refreshingly drew a different lesson: The task of discipleship is not to build tents and houses for Jesus. Jesus is not to be housed and worshipped. . . . As spiritual writer Richard Rohr notes, if religion is not fundamentally about transformation, it is pretty useless. [The Transfiguration] only makes sense in the light of transformation. Abbot John was talking about OUR transformation. . . . to give consent to the Spirit to transform us, to move us toward the white light, the gifts of the Spirit more visible; not the gifts we want, but the gifts that are given. He addressed “the spiritual poverty of postmodern culture,” and I add that fundamentalist literalism is one example. It reacts to information that stretches us past our accustomed religious information and imagery in a defensive way, thre...

Today in liturgies is read the beginning of Acts, which tells the story of the Ascension. Since Easter, liturgical readings have included the resurrection appearances in the gospels. These stories gain new significance in light of contemporary resurrection appearances such as those I tell here and term “paranormal” in my blog index. Contrary to the assumptions of our materialistic culture, the inner world regularly breaks into this surface world, assuring us that life has larger, deeper meaning than keeping up with daily duties or amassing stuff. Birth and death often call attention to the inner world. The death of the extraordinary spiritual master Jesus gave birth to the great religion of Christianity. Appropriately, his followers at the time experienced him alive and elevated to higher status. Thus the Resurrection and Ascension. Recently I heard this startling idea: When we learn how to die, we’ll learn how to live. Fr. Roger Karban in NCR reflects similarly that Jesus “was constan...