Jun 8: The Past is Fulfilled in a New and Unexpected Future

Albert Bouts (1460-1549): The Transfiguration
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 5:17-19

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill(NRSV, Mt 5:17).”

Father, the evangelists described Jesus in glory atop the holy mountain surrounded by the Law and the prophets personified in Moses and Elijah. In Jesus we meet in the flesh the future to which we are all called, the future already accomplished. Jesus fulfills all things, the Law, the prophets, everything that preceded him and pointed to his coming.

Father, you call us to new life through the Word in every moment. The past drops away; the old understanding is subsumed into the new. Nothing of value is lost but all takes on new meaning and reality.

Father, help us to be faithful to what our “yes” of faith to you in the past has brought us, not by clinging to it, but by letting go and allowing it to be transformed into something new and glorious. Father, you are our one and true Future who affirms what has been of value in whom we have been by calling us always to something new and unexpected.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.