We should start with a simple question: how do you determine whether or not a particular medicine is effective?

If you have the occasional headache and taking half an aspirin once a month doesn’t seem to help, is it the aspirin’s fault?

Or you decide to down the whole bottle with a pint of Jack Daniels and you end up in the hospital, are you there because the aspirin doesn’t work?

Of course not.

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Only long-time readers of this column know that I have commuted 67 miles (round trip) to work at Our Lady of Joy for the last 7+ years. In fact, the day I drove north for my job interview, I almost turned around somewhere near Pinnacle Peak Road. (I only kept driving because I am morally opposed to no-showing an interview.)

I arrived to find a beautiful setting, a holy pastor, and a committed staff. These factors—along with fulfilling work and some of the most amazing parishioners in the world—have kept me here ever since.

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This week, our Gospel speaks of Jesus walking on water. It is another example of Jesus proclaiming his divinity.

Some might say, he was merely walking along the shore or on a sandbank. Those people are either ignorant of scripture or geography. Scripture tells us they were 3 or 4 miles from shore. In this part of that sea… that’s the middle. And at its center, the Sea of Galilee is over 140 feet deep.

Jesus said, “I AM,” while walking on water. He wasn’t saying, “I AM a good guy.”

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This weekend, the Catholic Church focuses on the Transfiguration of the Lord. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain and something pretty cool happens.

“He was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.”

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