In Darkness, Hold on to His Promises

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to Him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. We heard this voice born from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.” On this feast, the transfiguration we have in the second reading from Peter, who was, as he’s saying, an eyewitness who saw this and who he possessed the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. “You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining, in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts.” And then that’s the part we had in the excerpt we had today. But then St. Peter immediately afterwards goes on to say, “first of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation. Because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man. But man, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.” That’s the greatness of prophecy.  It’s a man speaking, but he’s conveying the words that come from God Himself. And I’ve often spoken of how our little Mission of Divine Mercy, as we were discerning how the Lord was calling us, He had made it very clear that He wanted us to be open to His prophetic words, His prophetic words, which He continues to give. And we’ve often spoken about that, that prophecy is not just something of the past, but it can, the Lord continues, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “to give the grace of prophecy.” And it’s been extremely important for our community. But I think He doesn’t want it, just something we just keep for ourselves, but He wants us, that’s part of our mission is to help the Church become more aware of this grace that God has always given to His Church. And obviously, the prophecy also needs discernment and prudence.  St. Peter goes on also to speak about false prophets. And so that’s an important part, which I won’t go into right now. But I want to just look at this passage we had today, because St. Peter is saying, “as to a lamp shining in a dark place,” a dark place. Something that’s especially important, when times are dark, and confusing and difficult. Like this transfiguration that they were experiencing, was preparing them for hard times, as Jesus’ mission was encountering more and more opposition, that He’s beginning to prepare them for His passion. And then there will come the moment in which that the apostles will also be there. Well, I mean when Jesus’ passion will happen, and which the world manipulated by satan, turns all its viciousness on Jesus, on attacking Jesus, and trying to destroy faith in Jesus. And at that moment, it seemed like God was absent. Where was God when all this was happening? Everything was just so human, there seemed like no presence of God, everything was so ugly and evil. And even Jesus Himself seemed to be at the  very edge of His strength. And the apostles were experiencing their own weakness, where was that motivation and enthusiasm that they had had earlier? It seemed all gone. Where was the strength that they had felt earlier? Seemed absent. So the Lord was preparing them for the dark times that they would be experiencing by this grace of the transfiguration. And St. Peter’s also speaking to us, when we experience dark times, when God seems absent, when we don’t experience His presence. And when we experience a lot of darkness, especially the darkness of evil, and all the confusion that that creates. And these are very dark times, I’ve often spoken of how the US statistics show how many people are losing the Catholic faith. And we all know many examples of people who have lost their faith as a sign of the darkness of these times that we’re living. But in these dark times, St. Peter speaks of a lamp. A lamp is a little light, it’s not the sun, right? When the sun comes out, you don’t even notice the lamp. But in darkness, like imagine you know like, for instance, in your house, if suddenly the electricity goes off, to have a little lamp, even a little candle that you can light, makes so much difference between just being in absolute darkness and having a little lamp. Or if you’re out outside in the darkness, having a flashlight. It’s very little compared to the sun, it can’t illuminate much, but it makes a difference. You can still continue. Or think of sailors, to sailors, especially in the past, to be able to see a lighthouse in the darkness and in the storm to see a light which made them aware of where they were, where they were going and where the dangers were.  And so St Peter speaks about a lamp in the dark place. And what is this lamp and the dark place that he’s talking about? He says it’s the prophetic words. The prophetic words are a lamp that God has given us in the dark place that we might be in and it’s sometimes that dark place is inside of us when we feel a lot of darkness and confusion inside of us. And so it’s important to know what is the lamp and he’s telling us, what the lamp is. The lamp is that prophetic word. So what is this prophetic word? Well for the apostles, St. Peter’s probably talking, first of all, about the words that they heard from God the Father speaking, and the words that they had heard from Jesus, from the mouth of Jesus Himself, but also all the words of Scripture. The Scripture they had, and all the Scripture we have, the Gospels, but also other prophetic words. Like say, for instance, St. Faustina, her great revelations about Divine Mercy is a special prophetic word, a special lamp for our times. And many other ways in which the Lord continues to speak often, through especially through our Blessed Mother. And sometimes, you know, there’s the apparitions, apparitions, even that are going on right now in the world, even. There’s even the Vatican has recognized that the, at least at least at the beginning, the apparitions of Medjugorje, I think more than the beginning, but were authentic. And so the Lord continues, but not just to grace, the grace that are have like, public notoriety, but also personal graces. Many people, many of you have shared with us, share with our graces that you’ve experienced, real sense in the Lord speaking to you in a special way, even many examples, even right here in this very chapel. And our community has experienced that in a lot of ways, the guidance and words from the Lord. And so these are things that we shouldn’t demand. But when the Lord Himself chooses to give them, we should certainly be open to them. So what should we do with these prophetic words? St. Peter says what we should do. This lamp shining and dark place, these prophetic words, he says, you will do well to do what?  You will do well to just ignore them. Don’t pay any attention. No, that’s not what he says. He says you will do well to pay attention to this. So that’s very simple, very clear what he’s saying. Pay attention. You will do well to pay attention. Well, that sounds obvious, right? Well, yeah, God’s speaking we should pay attention. But many times, we don’t pay attention to God. That’s what St. Paul says to the Thessalonians, “do not despise prophecy.” He’s saying that it’s because it’s a danger, and it’s a danger today to despise prophecy, he says, do not despise prophecy. How come? Because it’s the word of God. It’s God speaking, as we say, in the Creed, the Holy Spirit who has spoken through the prophets. And Saint Peter, that’s what he’s saying today. God, the prophetic word is a word coming from God. St. Paul says to the Corinthians, that he who prophesies, speaks to men for the upbuilding, and encouragement and consolation, upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. So we need that. And so this prophetic word is given for our upbuilding, and encouragement and consolation. And how much that God’s people need the upbuilding when it seems like we’re being torn down, and we need encouragement, and we need consolation. The words of God strengthen us in faith. That’s why, for instance, Jesus, before His death, that night before He died, He gave some of His most beautiful words, words of consolation and love to His apostles, at the Last Supper, especially recorded by St. John, so that they could hang on to those words, in the dark time that they were going to be living. In St. John, one who transmitted the materials of all the apostles, the one who did the best job of holding on to those words, so that he could make it through those dark times. And these prophetic words give us hope, in a darkness, hope in a triumph of Jesus. So that’s why Jesus announced His resurrection, so that when He was going through His passion, His apostles would have prophetic words to hold on to, so that they would not fall into despair. But they would, and most of them didn’t do a very good job of that. But if they had, like we had the example of our Blessed Mother, she did hold on to those prophetic words in the darkness of that Saturday, after Jesus that she held on to His words, and it was a lamp in the dark, shining in the dark place. Already way back in Deuteronomy, when Moses was speaking to the Israelites before they entered the promised land, after Moses, the great prophets, speaking of words of God, about you shall Hear, O Israel, the LORD your God is the Lord alone, you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength. And so what should they do with that? Here’s what the Lord through Moses says, “and these words which I command you, this day, shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk, by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.” And on the screen of your phones. It didn’t say that, you might say that today. But he’s talking about practical ways. So that the light of the Word of God can shine in our lives. God gives the light, but we have to do something too.  He gives us the light of His word, but we have to do something too, that when He’s talking about binding these words, write them upon your mind, pay attention to them, repeat them, to yourselves, so as to remain steadfast. So He says, teach, taught, bind, write? All those are things that we can do. And each time we do that, we’re taking advantage of this light, so that it can shine and help illuminate us. And so let’s look at some concrete ways that we can do that. One way is to write them down. Oftentimes, people share with me – Father, I sense that the Lord told this to me, or He gave me this sense. And I invite them to write it down. Because first of all, it helps us to remember it. And it helps us to have a place that we can come back to. And whether it’s a word that we sense personally, or whether it’s sent difference, it’s a word in Scripture. There’s a word in Scripture, that maybe all of a sudden it really has an impact on us, a word of scripture or for instance, a word of a saint. It’s good to write those down. Because again, just a simple human act of writing down, helps us to remember it. You know, the memory experts say that that’s one of the simple things, just writing it down, helps us. And then going back, you know, the memory experts say, you know that it’s hard to remember a lot of things. And so they say, to go back to your they call it what they call spaced repetition, where you learn something safe to try and to learn vocabulary, like in a new language, you, you go back to it right away, you know, a couple minutes afterwards, then maybe you go back to it an hour later. And then a day later, and then maybe a few days later, and then maybe next week, and then maybe a month. And so by doing that, each time it’s the same each time the word is just about, you’re about to lose. And by doing that, even as they study the brain, that’s kind of rewiring your brain, so that those pathways in your brain become stronger. So those memories in your brain become stronger. Well, that’s, you know, the science of memory and neuro whatever that tells us today. But that’s what the Lord, without giving all that explanation about neuroplasticity, and so forth, the Lord was teaching them how to do that, way, you know, 3000 years ago, how to get these things to stick so they can be a light for you, so they can guide you. So one simple thing is to write down, you said that you have your own book of what the Lord has been, how he’s been guiding you. Thinking about the different ways, you know, the Lord has been guiding you and write that down, and then go back sometimes, and re-read it. And even it’s good to have reminders. Yeah, that’s why the image of Divine Mercy, and the Lord image of Divine Mercy, He puts a face, Jesus, I trust in You, to help us remember that. So that there, you’re combining an image with a phrase. And so by seeing the image by having the image, we remember, Jesus, I trust in You. So there can be that that light and that message, that act of trusting in Jesus can be a light in the dark place. And I mentioned, I don’t think that was Moses, he talked about putting on your phones. But we always have these doggone phones with us all so but you can use those to put little reminders of special words, like Jesus, I trust in You. And now today we have our phones, also have like, you can get podcasts and audiobooks and songs and so forth. So those are other ways that we can have for taking a walk or running or washing dishes or something, we can still be listening to things which remind us. And also the Mass. The Mass is an opportunity each week to come back and hear the Word of God again. These are not words that you’ve never heard. You’ve heard this before, but we forget it. And that’s what satan is trying to do it to us all during the week, to try to make us forget the words of God, to cover them with a bunch of other junk. And so the Mass is a chance for us to come back and hear the word, which is not the word of man, but the Word of God, which is a lamp in a dark place. Satan is creating the darkness with all his lies and all his confusions and distortions. And so we need the light of the Lord. That’s this prophetic word, which is given to us. And then what is St. Peter says, it says, How long should we do this? He says, “Until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts – until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts for me.” When I think about these two expressions, we said the day dawned that the Sun which comes it illuminates everything is like the external situation. But they also says, and the morning star rises in your hearts, that makes me think of the internal situation. So the external situation until God transforms the external situation, but also transforms us interiorly. For the apostles, this began with the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension, that come into the Holy Spirit. And then when He would come for them at their passing from this world, and in our own life, there can be special moments. I was talking to someone not long ago, she had been in a difficult situation, very difficult and hopeless. It seemed hopeless and she was about to give up hope. And then there was a special prophetic word from God. And it, she said, it transformed the situation. The situation has been transformed. So that can be special moments in our life in which we experience that day, a dawning. But we’re also waiting for the great triumph, the great triumphant day of the Lord. And in this very letter St. Peter says, He speaks of scoffers, who says that’s never gonna happen. And who say, Where is the promise of God’s coming for ever since the father’s fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. And he says, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but he is forbearing or merciful toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But according so the Lord is His justice is waiting, giving time for mercy, giving time for repentance, but then His justice will come. But according to His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, and which righteousness draws. And so, our Blessed Mother, is the great example of someone who pays attention, who fixes her attention on the prophetic words of the Lord. So that can give her a light, to be strong to know what to do and to have the strength to do it in the dark times. And as many of us are experiencing this dark time, it’s good to ask her for this grace, to put into practice, what St. Peter’s talking about. I’ll just end by recalling those words of Saint Peter. “Moreover we possess the prophetic message that is all together reliable, you will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
2 Peter 1:16-19
Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration