Be Transfigured Ministries

The Parable of The Man and Lazaros (Luke 16.19-31) challenges us to look beyond ourselves. We live in comfort as modern Americans with ‘first world problems. We are asked by God to see others, like Lazaros who needs helps, as Christ sees them. They cannot remain unknown to us. The time has come for us to see them with compassion and grace. We must learn from the unnamed rich man as a warning from God. Until we look beyond ourselves and see others with dignity and compassion, we will be tormented.

God wants to protect us from evil. He wants to protect us from danger at every moment. The problem begins when we take our attention off God. When we pay attention to the devil and evil, we can’t even see God trying to protect us. The story of the man with legion demons teaches us that no matter how much we have allowed the demons to enter us, we can still approach God and then He will protect us.

It isn’t the easiest thing in a society filled with earthly honors, but being focused on earthly honors shouldn’t be our focus as Christians. Christ says, “Rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.” You should always be thankful for the blessings from God, but all those blessings are nothing as compared to your name being written in heaven.

When we hear the Word of God, the condition of our hearts is critical into accepting the Word and producing fruit for our faith. It is based on our effort through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and the sacramental life of the Church to work the garden of our souls. Our fruit will be a hundred-fold.

When we think of The Golden Rule, we think about how we are going to treat people ‘the way’ they treat us. We never really think about how Christ said that was no different than the world. The REAL Golden Rule is to be like God, loving and living as God loves and lives. God is good to us even when we are not good to Him. Our call as Christians is to treat others like God treats them. That is golden.

Being a disciple of Christ is more than just being a follower of God. Being a disciple is being a student of Christ and His Church. As disciples we learn to trust God more than we trust our own knowledge. We learn to be humble in the presence of God’s many blessings. If we want to attract others to Christ, to be ‘fishers of men’ we must learn to trust God with humility.

Christ invites His follows, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” The first step in following Christ into heaven is to deny ourselves. We must learn to get over ourselves if we want to follow Christ. The entire life of the Church is meant to assist us in learning how to deny ourselves, so that we can take up our cross and follow Christ into heaven.

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.