By Fr Martin McCormack SDB MA.LPC
Sipho is a prosperous and God-fearing farmer, is praying with his son one night at bedtime. Sipho says to his son, “Let us pray for that poor man who lives down the road, that the good Lord may come to his aid.” His son turns to him and replies, “But, Dad, we don’t need to bother God about that. We can do it ourselves.” prayer and good wishes are not always enough. Love in action is very powerful. Evil prospers when good people do nothing. Each of us here this morning has the power to transfigure the life of another.
I live in a mission where the call for food is never ending. I come out the door some mornings at 6 and people are waiting for help. The usual cry is I am hungry. There are many hungry gogos, two who are blind whom I assist every week. The rawness of their situation makes me wonder about community and Christianity. How can we as a Christian community transfigure the lives of others
Our actions are a reflection of who we are. People may hear your words but they will feel your attitude. Faith manifests itself through actions. Love requires effort. Love is a verb that means action. Without action love is just a word that lacks the heart to fill it. Christianity for me is about witnessing and this is an invitation to go and do as Jesus did. The opposite to love is indifference and there is a lot of that around. Mother Teresa used to say the gospel is summed up in five fingers- you did it to me.
Sometimes when we pray God’s answer to us is, “But you, you can do that yourselves. “It’s easy to be frozen into inactivity because of what we see as our limited resources. If we take the message of Jesus seriously there is only one decision and that is be of service to others. In our service we transfigure life.
As individuals, as communities and as a world, we suffer all kinds of hunger – for food, for love, for peace. God is able and willing to satisfy all our hungers. But God is waiting for men and women who believe enough to give up their lunch pack, their “five loaves and two fish” which God needs to make the miracle possible. We have the power to transfigure life around us but we encounter problems and negativeness and we get hurt going through life, and then we have the choice either to say the negative things or we can choose to remember who we really are, brothers and sisters of Jesus, sons and daughters of God since baptism and that the glory of the transfigured Jesus awaits each of us. The transfiguration of Jesus in our Gospel was not just about Jesus. I would like to see it as a vision of the glorious future to which we are all called.