Be Transfigured Ministries

The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22.2-14) expresses what we can expect at the Final Judgment of Christ. It won’t only be those who are violent to the Church who are left out. Those who are indifferent to God’s invitation will be excluded by Him, remaining outside the Kingdom. We must hear God’s invitation and not stop ignoring it. We must change our lives and accept the invitation from God, if we want to be with Him in heaven.

In the Gospel story of the Vineyard, Christ takes the Church away from the servants who didn’t produce fruit for God. The Church was given to us to produce fruit. The Church is more than just the building. God will demand and accounting of us when He returns. How will God see our behavior toward His children? Our hearts must produce fruit for God. We are not guaranteed our salvation. It can be taken away. The Gospel warns us to not waste another day. This is our chance by God to make good on our faith.

When a rich young man asked Christ, “What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life,” Christ called him to a higher expectation. Life is more than just following the rules and commandments. If we really want to accept God’s high calling, we must be willing to love Him more than anything else in the world. That includes our giving. If want to be perfect our giving must first recognize that everything belongs to God. Stop thinking of giving to the Church as a rule. Think of giving to the Church as loving God more than anything so we can be perfect.

When we stand in front of the Judgment Seat of God He will take an account of our life. The only way for us to be forgiven by God will be our ability to forgive even the smallest things that others have done against us. All our begging won’t help if we hold on to what others have done. Only with a clean heart can we approach God for Holy Communion and salvation.

In the most difficult times of our Christian struggle, it isn’t easy to understand why God doesn’t give us what we want. In those most difficult times, we are called to a life of prayer and fasting, not to follow God’s rules, but to train our hearts to understand that God knows what we need better than we know. A life of prayer and fasting heals our hearts when we don’t get what we want from God.

When we are faced with the hard reality of struggle, we can either panic or remain focused on Christ. The storms of life push us back and forth, but when we focus on Christ, He walks with us and keeps our heads above water. When we remember that Christ is in front of us, even the worst storm is bearable.

  When we allow God to use us to be His blessing to others, great things can happen. When the Disciples asked Christ to dismiss the crowd, they were acting selfish and wanted to spend their own time with Christ. Christ said, “You give them something to eat.” We are God’s hands and feet to be used for His blessings. When we allow God’s love to work through us, there will be an overabundance of God’s grace us, and for others.

When a community gathers united in Christ, healing takes place. When we bring each other closer to Christ, sins are forgiven. When Christ sees our faith as a united family, He blesses us, forgives us, and heals us.

  As humans and especially as American’s we never like to admit that we are not worthy of God’s love. There is nothing we can do to make us worthy of God’s love, mercy and grace. He is the one who makes us worthy through our faith and humility. Instead of pride and arrogance, humility and faith lead us to Christ. If we want to be healed by God, we must accept the humility of our realty and ask God to make us worthy of His love.

In the Gospel of Matthew we hear Christ say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” What things? ALL THINGS that we need in life. If we are willing to seek God, then our food, our health, our shelter, even our minds, will all be blessed by God. If we seek the world we will be left alone when the world ends. When we seek God, we always have God.

When faced with the invitation by Christ to drop everything and following Him, the disciples immediately left everything and follow Him. As humans it is natural to wonder about the future. Will we have what we need? What will the future look like? Unknowns can create anxiety, but when we learn to trust Christ, even the unknowns are blessed. When we trust God, He will always have our back. Learn to trust God and leave anxiety behind.

We are all called to be saints. On the Sunday of All Saints Christ says, “Every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” If we want to be holy as Saints, then we will confess God by loving Him more than anything else in the world.

When Christ was about to be crucified, He prayed for the Church. He prayed that we might know Him. He prayed that we would have life in Him. He prayed that knowing Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit would mean eternal life. The Church has protected that truth ever since.

On Mothers’ Day, our memories of our mothers bring us joy and love. Our mothers offer us important lessons of faith and repentance. They brought us to Church to encounter God’s mercy and forgiveness. They taught us to love God enough to confess our sins and live in His glory. May we live up to their expectations. May we live a life in faith and repentance.

When we have faith like Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus, and courage like the Myrrh Bearing Women, who went in the darkness of the night to anoint Jesus, our actions are blessed by God for the glory of His Church. Through faith, courage, and action, we will go out in the darkness of the world and share the good news of Christ’s resurrection. People need hope. People need the Good News to convince them to come to the Church to experience Jesus Christ, the King of King, Resurrected from the dead.

It is hard to believe that with so many examples of God’s power in the Gospel, and the stories of the Church throughout history, that so many still refuse to believe God. The Feast of Palm Sunday gives us the chance to believe God as our King, even in those moments that we don’t agree with Him. We all like the idea of a king when we agree with the King. Once we no longer agree, like the Pharisees and Jewish leaders, we refuse to believe Christ is our King. If we ask God, He will give us the strength to have faith.

In our weakest moments of faith, we wonder why God chooses to do what He does. We question why He doesn’t give us what we want. When our faith is weak, Christ calls us to a life of prayer and fasting. It our prayer and fasting that gives us stronger faith.

There are many obstacles between us and God. Some obstacles are from the world trying to stop us from reaching God. Other obstacles are from God to protect us from ourselves. The most dangerous obstacles are from our own making, our sins that separate us from God. No obstacle can keep us from God if we are committed to overcoming them to reach God.

On the cusp of Great Lent, we are called to three challenges. All three challenges have one thing in common. We are called to forgive, fast and be generous, all to prepare our hearts for God. Great Lent isn’t about food and prostration. Great Lent is about changing our hearts for God.

On Judgment Sunday we are reminded that God will judge us based on our inaction, not necessarily the sins we commit. We spend so much time avoiding sins, we forget the good things we are called to do by God. We forget to allow the love we say we have for God to translate into our actions toward other people. Doing nothing is not an option.