In today’s gospel the scribes who exercised leadership in the Jewish community with their interpretations of the law found their authority being threatened by Jesus and therefore wanted Him to take a position on their discussions about what is the most important law in their scriptures.
I have often wondered what the angels in heaven were thinking when they heard Jesus tell the apostles that He would share His divine authority with them: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be considered loosed in heaven.
There has been a saying going around our Community that the Feast of the Ascension reminds us that Jesus decided thereafter “to work from home”. But Jesus promised not to leave us orphans.
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus spent the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven moving in and out of the lives of His disciples.
Jesus’ hope filled words today prepare his disciples for his upcoming ascension. The whole experience of the resurrection and the appearance of Jesus to his disciples might have been quite overwhelming.
When I was a young priest, I was often surprised by the number of people I met who were “disappointed by God”, and so they walked away from Him. “God never answered my prayers, so I stopped praying.”
The Gospel reading of today speaks of the transfiguration of the Lord. Jesus’ appearance changed on the high mountain: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.
Many years ago I read a Life of Jesus by the Scripture scholar Dominic Crossan. There were many different lives of Jesus coming out at the time as the scholars tried to identify the “historical Jesus”.
The gospel text in today’s Mass reminds us of two important realities in our life of faith – God sometimes chooses people to carry out special tasks – and if they accept God’s call it can mean that they make their calling a priority in their life and leave go of some things that are no longer all that important to them.
Mention was made above of Paul’s assertion that the Law was a reason for the proliferation of sin, and of the criticisms brought against Paul by his adversaries.