Holy and transformed

The first letter of Peter in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today reminds us of the long history of our relationship with God which includes the Prophets of ancient Israel who looked to the time of Jesus when the means of being transformed into holiness as God is holy would be revealed. Friar Jude Winkler tells us that the Letter of Peter refers to the Book of Leviticus in the directive to be holy as God is holy. The Gospel from Mark today presents some apparent difficulty of Peter in understanding the theme in Jesus teaching of releasing our hold on the material things of life. The reflection of JohnMcKinnon on this passage of the Gospel is entitled Finding True Family. He associates the hundredfold of “houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions” (Mark 10:30) with transformation to seeing community through the eyes of God. This revelation of the unique dignity given humanity, created in the image of God, is visible through the grace of God in the hundredfold who Peter knows in the immediate followers of Jesus but also through growth in holiness we can see the Love of God for all in all people and through all circumstances of persecution. Don Schwager reminds us that should we not be surprised if we lose favor and experience ridicule, intimidation, and injury when we take a stand for truth and righteousness in the light of our vision of others with the eyes of God. As Amy Hoover of CreightonUniversity wrestles with the nature of holiness, she finds some experience of the Divine in living the tensions and contradictions which are the life of the believer. The first will be last, the last first but John McKinnon notes that this is not a replacement of the rich with the poor but a movement of rich and poor to a realization that in the hundredfold of followers of Jesus there is no division based on power, privilege or position. The Kingdom to which we are invited is the transformation in holiness which the Prophets foresaw.