Transfiguration of the Lord (Year 2, NL)

Jesus and Peter care about each other enough to call each other out.

Light is light. And only light can bring our fragmented darkness into proper perspective and allow us to see things whole.

I was at a class reunion with several former classmates when one of them, a professor of philosophy, asked an unusual question: “What fears have you conquered over the years and what new ones have you acquired?” Not eager to make our private fears public, each of us waited for someone else to open up the discourse. One person finally listed some familiar fears, including “mice,” “being left out or abandoned” and “the dark.”

My wife and I have two sons, 12 and 14, and a standard-size refrigerator. Hence, we spend a lot of time at the grocery store. As I wait to pay for one day’s installment of food, I am invited to learn the full story about the semiprivate lives of numerous celebrities. If the number of these publications is anything to go by, our desire for insider knowledge is insatiable. We want to know all of the details and we want to know them now.

Do not look for this mountain on a Bible map. It juts out not from the topography of Galilee, but from the topography of God.

Why does James begin by addressing teachers?

If you have denied your “self,” the cross you take up isn’t exactly yours.