Not Seeing and Still Believing

Feb 18: Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Feb 18, 2023

Today’s readings are about faith. In fact, the reading from Hebrews contains one of the most commonly cited definitions of faith: “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”

If you find that a little bit confusing, you’re not alone. I found the chapter on Faith from CS Lewis’s Mere Christianity1 to be helpful in that regard—

Reading 1

Heb 11:1-7

Brothers and sisters: Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain's. Through this, he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was found no more because God had taken him. Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this, he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.

Everyone has faith. We have faith the gravity will keep us on the ground, that food will nourish us, that flicking the switch will turn on the light. Because we can’t see the future, human beings can’t really do anything without faith.

But faith in God is a special kind of faith. The thing that is hoped for many not become realized for a long time, or even until after death. It’s extremely difficult to hold onto that particular kind of faith, which is why God gives us examples, from Abel to Enoch to Noah and beyond. It’s why we keep these stories, and why we pass them on to our children.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 10-11

R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Generation after generation praises your works
and proclaims your might.
They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty
and tell of your wondrous works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, Lord.

Apparently, this is a hymn in acrostic form, meaning every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. And since we’ve translated it to English, these ideas are very loosely connected.

If you believe in God, in the Bible and the Magisterium of the Church, you believe that everything comes from God and is in God. Therefore, He is constantly worthy of praise. Did you wake up this morning? Did you have a good breakfast? Does your house still have power? Ultimately, although there are intermediaries, these come from God.

Alleluia

Mk 9:6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The heavens were opened and the voice of the Father thundered:
This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Hey, I get to use this meme again!

Gospel

Mk 9:2-13

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"

He told them, "Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

So, this reading cuts off the beginning of the first verse, “After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John…” Meaning, six days after he first told them the Messiah had to suffer and die. Matthew agrees with this timing, but Luke says it’s eight days. You can chalk up the discrepancy to simply faulty memory on the part of one or another witness, but I think it’s notably neither of them say seven days.

Back then, they didn’t track the days as closely as we do now. It was mostly either the Sabbath, or not-the-Sabbath. They didn’t really have “weekends” as we think of them today. The fact that they get the days wrong, but wrong by exactly the same amount, just in opposite directions, indicates that either the prophesy of the passion happened on the sabbath, or the transfiguration did, because that’s the only day of the week that would stick out in their minds.

I can’t find any textual evidence to support either way, but I suspect the transfiguration described in today’s reading happened on the first day of the week, what we would call Sunday, but to ancient Jews, is the day after the Sabbath. I think so, because although Jesus made a habit out of performing healing miracles on the Sabbath to drive the Pharisees nuts, Easter itself occurs on a Sunday.

The transfiguration tells us what the bodily resurrection will be like. He’s still clearly Jesus, but in a perfected form. Later on, after the Resurrection, the disciples on the road to Emmaus don’t even recognize Jesus. Peter, James, and John actually see the change and can barely comprehend it.

Seeing isn’t necessarily believing. We only have the text, and can’t see what the disciples saw. We have to have faith that what’s written in the Gospels gives some indication of what it will be like for us, as well.