TO BE OR NOT TO BE

So goes the famous soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But I am referring to next Sunday’s Gospel Text, the Trasfiguration on the mount. Nowadays, biblical scholars, including Joseph Ratzinge, tell us that Christ has not transfigured Himself. It was rather the other way round, that is a special grace was bestowed on Peter, James and John to see for that short instant, Christ in His full glory, as God. Light of Light.

No wonder that beautiful description by the Evangelist, about light, whiteness of the clothes, the three tents and Peter’s behaviour. Jesus was seen by them as He always is, looks. Jesus could not have been seen by the rest of the people during those three years of His Public Ministry, as Peter, James and \john saw Him … the time had not arrived yet. Besides Jesus wanted people to follow Him through conviction and belief in Him,  and not because He was visibly seen as God.

But there’s more to this Occasion. In brief, Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus called His three Apostles  ‘after six days’, whilst Luke mentions ‘after eight days’. Let’s make it clear there were no mistakes or lapsus by the Evangelists. It was rather ‘inspirational’ Why? ‘After six days’ refers to the week when the Jews used to celebrate their JOM KIPPUR, a time of penance and repentance for a whole week. So Matthew and Mark were correct.

At the end of the week come two other days on which they celebrated the ‘Feast of the Sukkoth’ or the ‘Feast of the Tents’ and in Latin the ‘Feast of the Tabernacles’. So Luke was correct in quoting eight days. That is History. But what happened during those two days is very important. During the Feast of ‘The Tabernacles’ every Jew was espected to live in a TENT and thank God for all the produce of the earth He had provided them.

It was a time when the farmer harvested olives, grapes and the rest of the agricultural produce. In fact it was sometimes called the ‘Feast of the Harvest’ And they were expected to thank God for it. On the last day the High Priest used to enter the Temple and into The Holy of Holies and pronounce the name of ‘Jahweh’. This was done only once a year and only by the High Priest.

Biblical Scholars tell us that when Jesus was asking His Apostles whom the people say Jesus is, as we know various answers were given, but not Peter’s. Peter declared: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” And according to the Scholars that was the moment when the High Priest was in the Temple annoucing, declaring the name of God.

Peter was completely lost, amazed, ecstatic, joyful and afraid, as the Gospel tells us. He wanted to build three tents, because that was the custom when meeting God in person, to welcome Him in the ‘Tent of the Meeting’. So Peter was correct. Peter’s behaviour resembles that of Moses on the Sinai, when even he wanted to build the ‘Tent of the Meeting’ as he was conscious of being in the presence of God Almighty.

One very important lesson: all the  ‘fuss’ (if some might call it), in the building of the Tents to welcome the Almighty, teaches us a lot. The Tabernaculum, the Tabernacle is the Tent where God Almighty is welcomed, But alas, how we have taken this fact forgranted, and pass by without making a sign of adoration by kneeling whenever we pass, by keeping silence in the presence of the Almighty, by adoring God from the Gospel about the Transfiguration.

THE STORY OF MY LIFE ………….

Autobiographies always make interesting reading, as long as the author is honest with himself, and his readers, in the writing about his life experiences. Though it can always be contested. But then dishonesty and lack of integrity, give the true picture of the author. Reading about someone’s experiences as recounted by the person himself give certain insights which no biographer can produce, even if reported. So far, no autobiography exists about Jesus Christ. But, this statement is incorrect. We do have experiences recounted by Jesus. As no one was present during His testing in the desert … which are sometimes erroneously called temptations … these experiences were written by Jesus Himself, through His Holy Spirit.

So we can call this particular ‘text’ as a part of the autobiography of Jesus. Certainly this ‘testing’ was faced by Jesus, who was no ordinary human, like we are. The tempter would have never ‘tempted’ or invited me to change stone into bread. The tempter would have never tempted me to jump from on high. He was dead sure no angels were coming to my rescue. Finally, he would never have offered any bounty for going down on my knees to adore him.

But this argument is correct, as much as it is incorrect. I shall explain. The devil was not hundred percent sure that Jesus of Nazareth was ‘divine’, was the real Messiah. These doubts persisted throughout the three-year public ministry of Jesus. They persisted up to the last breath of Jesus on the cross. We all remember the challenge: “If you are the Son of God, come down, save yourself and save others.” Certainly the devil was speaking through a human medium. To satisfy his curiosity the devil asked or rather challenged Jesus to perform three acts, which only a divine person could do.
But, in actual fact the devil tempts me, and all humanity with these three temptations. Just look at the state of society nowadays, as always; more interested in material things rather than in the spiritual matters. In fact the reply Jesus gave has hit the nail on the head: “Man does not live by bread alone.” And this is one of man’s main problems; he is ignoring the second part of Christ’s answer, which is the need of the ‘Word of God’. Joy, as promised at the Birth of Jesus, comes only through believing and spreading His Word, and not by amassing wealth, property, power and the rest.

You must be out of your senses to jump from a height, simply to be ‘master of all you survey’. Your IQ must be similar to that of Simon the Magician … and we all know how Simon died. But many are those who are following in the steps of Simon the Magus. Their main aim in life is to ‘own’, own everything in life; be it wealth, power, women, enjoying life, authority … you name it. Man is striving to be self-dependent. Man has become his own ‘god’. He expects, he believes that he can do without God, because he is powerful, he occupies a position of authority, he has enough money to influence anyone according to his whims and plans. Tony, to mention a name, has become his own god. And this way we are testing God’s patience. But we have miserably failed our ‘test’.

It is unfortunate that many are giving ‘full marks’ to Satan by believing in his promises, by falling for his gimmicks. His hatred and envy for man is so great, it’s astronomical. The devil hates man because humanity has been redeemed by the Blood, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Let us not fall for his tricks, nor for his promises. Lucifer does not believe in the COD, that is ‘Cash on Delivery’. Absolutely not, he is so generous, gracious, benevolent that he advances his payment before we report for work. BUT, once we swallow the bait it would be too late.

We can learn much how to behave during our temptations, from the ‘trials’ of Jesus on the mount, especially from the answers given to the Grand Master of Lies. I imagine Jesus citing the words of that beautiful song, ‘The old cross’: “I will cling to the old rugged cross and change it one day for a crown.”

A BREATHE OF FRESH AIR

I was in the company of my friend Reuben, whilst walking and listening to the new Rabbi from Nazareth, called Jesus. Yesterday I followed him to Simon of Zebedee’s house; to visit his mother-in-law. She was suffering from what we call ‘hot fever’. And Jesus cured her right away, with no incantations and burning of animal parts, as the other Rabbis do. So, as expected, I made it a point to follow Jesus again, today. Because something inside tells me that He is so different and special, He can preach love and sow mercy … which we so much lack in our society.

We were quite a crowd, listening attentively to His teachings. All of a sudden everybody panicked; we dispersed and ran away, including myself, I don’t know why. Jesus was left alone. We did not realise what was happening then. But word quickly spread around that a leper went close to Jesus. Other Rabbis would have sent the leper away and shouted at him. But not this Jesus.

When He saw the leper kneeling down before Him, and imploring Him, Jesus was moved to pity, to the depths of His being. Something extraordinary happened, Jesus stretched out His hands and touched him. Jesus actually touched the leper! I have seen it with my own eyes! Something unheard of! Can anyone imagine this? I would not touch him for anything in the world. These lepers usually have to keep a certain distance from other people, ring a bell and shout out, ‘Leper, leper’. Their’s is a very contagious disease.

But, notwithstanding anything, Jesus touched him and a great miracle happened. I was witness to the miracle myself. All of a sudden the great crowd went hysterical, everyone shouting, ‘A miracle, a miracle. The leper is cured’. But then I noticed that the man’s skin looked like that of a new-born man. This Jesus must be the Messiah, I feel it inside me. From a plagued man with leprosy the man is now completely cleansed. Thank God for His mercy.

Something curious happened, following his cure. Jesus told the man, and He was quite strict with him; He asked him not to say anything about his cure. I can’t understand this, not even those present, could not make sense out of it. Why should not the cured man talk about his great healing, and who was responsible for it? But He must have a reason behind it. What a difference from the other Rabbis we are used to.

Had they performed such a miracle, which they never did, they would have gone to the Temple bragging about it and praising the Lord with a great throng around them, making a show of themselves. They would have offered some gold coins for charity, throwing them from high up to make a lot of noise in the silver dish of the offerings. But Jesus insisted that he cured man should not say anything.

I suppose the healed man went to show himself to the priest, according to the law, and make an offering. But he did take some time to arrive because he stopped everyone he met along the way to proclaim what Jesus had done to him. The word soon spread around. It was the talk of the day. But what happened was that Jesus could not go anywhere because great crowds used to follow Him everywhere. So He had to stay outside in the lonely places. But just the same the people kept coming to Him.

Coming to think of it, Jesus could have driven the leper away because by approaching him, the leper was breaking the law, but to the contrary He spoke to him gently, and with love. He met his needs with understanding and compassion. To Jesus, the man was not unclean, he was a human soul in desperate need. Another thing, Jesus did not defy our cultural conventions; our laws and customs, on the contrary He submitted to them.

This Jesus, is a Rabbi of compassion, of power and of great wisdom. He must be the promised Messiah.

Ben Jehuda

A BURNING CANDLE IN THE WIND …………                                                                                    

the smaller it becomes, until the flame dies out. But in the process, the candle gave light, warmth, comfort to many. The purpose of its existence was fulfilled. God’s Will has been done.

The many facets of our present suffering can all ultimately be reduced to the earthly experience of our relationship to God.  God is invisible, while we are clothed with a body which one day will turn to dust. This means that the Godward-orientation, which the Spirit has aroused in our hearts, can only express itself here, on earth, through our contacts with other human beings.

If anyone who has enough to live on, sees another in need, and yet closes his eyes, his heart against him, how can the love of God dwell in such a person?  We must not make love a matter of mere words or talk … lip service, it must be genuine, and show itself in our deeds (St.James). No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God dwells in us and His love is brought to perfection in us (St. John).

There is always an element of suffering in the love of Christians for one another. It is measured by the extent to which we give ourselves, our person, and our possessions. Mother Theresa of Calcutta expressed this thought in different words: “Give until it hurts.” There is a struggle about this act of giving and our old fallen nature.

‘Dying to self’ is a full-time job, rather ‘vocation’, where our natural tendencies are concerned. My time, my strength, my knowledge, my talents, my energy … are not MINE. God was pleased to give them to me on ‘loan’, to use for my brothers, for the benefit of others. If we are using OUR time, OUR energy and every OUR for personal gratification, for OUR personal use, we are misusing them. We have to give account to the Creator some day.

Suffering also comes to us from somewhere else. We are probably a burden to others, and other human beings can cause us to suffer. Suffering, in the form of trials do not necessarily originate in ourselves or in other people. They can occur in the form of sickness or misfortunes of various kinds, and these too can demand of Christians the martyrdom of bearing witness to their Faith in eternal life.

Our existence on this earth is in itself a trial that requires a continual re-affirmation of Faith in God, a trial that offers us the opportunity to win freedom for ourselves by overcoming. By its means we learn to rule over created things, which can now no longer harm us. “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him.”

Let us recall St.Paul’s words: “What can separate us from the love of Christ? Affliction or hardship, persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril or the sword? It is written, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all day long: we are treated like sheep for slaughter.’ Yet in these we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us. Nothing in the whole creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”