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Scripture:

1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19
1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
John 1:35-42

Reflection:

On this second Sunday of what we call “ordinary time”, we hear words that for me tell the whole tale:  “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”  In a nutshell this is exactly what it means to be called by the Lord: first we listen and hear, and then we respond. The response may be a yes and, in some cases, it may even be a no.  Samuel heard the call, even though at first he was confused and needed a wiser more attentive guide to help him realize what was happening!  And, as we see in our Gospel, John, Andrew, and Simon Peter heard the call of the Lord, as well.  The truth is, the Lord calls us all and, if we are listening carefully and are not distracted by all the noise around us, we, too, can hear God’s call, whether it be a quiet whisper or, as with the Apostles, an unforgettable, face to face encounter with Jesus himself.

I can only imagine the moment when Jesus called those first Apostles.  How compelling must have been the voice and the very presence of Jesus when he simply said, “Come and see.”  But there is just no escaping this simple fact: we are all called by the Lord.

In a very real way the heart of the retreat and preaching ministry that we Passionists are devoted to is all about helping men and women, young and old, to hear the voice of Jesus and to respond to his call.  In baptism we are claimed for Christ, we belong to God, and certainly not to a world filled with human expectations.  And for the rest of our lives the task is to listen, to hear, and ultimately to respond to God’s ongoing call day by day.

Sometimes the call is clear as crystal.  At other times we need, like Samuel, the wisdom of others to help us know what it is the Lord is asking of us.  But one thing is for sure.  If we are listening and willing, too, then we will be able to respond joyfully and without hesitation with the great words of our responsorial psalm:  Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1a
Mark 2:13-17

Reflection:

Today’s Scriptures present the motif of Call and reminds me of Paul’s Letter to the Romans where he writes, “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), his experience of the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus changed everything. In reading Paul’s letters from the time of his call, he experienced many challenges and tensions while living it out, yet, that call was irrevocable—no going back only forward in faith, hope and conviction. Martin Luther King is quoted as saying, “Out of the mountain of despair—a stone of hope” and what strikes me as I read this Gospel is that Jesus represents this stone of hope—this new day, to Levi, the tax-collectors and sinners, the disciples and the crowds who continued to appear everywhere he went.

We are only in the second chapter of Mark and already the story suggests a tension which we know builds all the way to Jerusalem as Jesus lives out his call.

As I reflected, I couldn’t help but have compassion for “some” Pharisees who were struggling to reconcile their understanding of the Law with what this healer –Jesus—was doing and teaching. Not to mention the effect he was having on the crowds. And what of Jesus’ disciples? Might the question posed to them by the Pharisees be the very question rising within them? Mark often portrays them as struggling to keep up with Jesus’ teachings. Did they question who is this person who evoked such a strong desire in them to “follow” and seemed to challenge much of what they held to be true, stretching them beyond where they expected to go. Sound familiar?

Then we have Levi, he is a toll collector—not a tax-collector, however, it sounds as if this profession is equally despised; being employed to collect a fee from anyone entering his region by Philip, the son of Herod the Great (also known as the puppet king). According to historians, the Jewish people frowned on anyone or anything connected to Roman rule. They were labelled as sinners. Can you imagine how he might have been treated? It is likely he came to expect rejection and believed himself unworthy—an outcast. And along came Jesus—the true King—and called him to follow. Hope dawned in the life of Levi as it dawns on all of us who come to understand our worthiness-in-Christ.

The Creator of the Universe deems you—and me—worthy to pitch his tent—among us, to take on our skin and share the good news of life everlasting; a life which is already here—and not yet. And it’s the “not yet” which can be tricky as we struggle to live out our call as Christians finding those stones of hope in the mountain of despair; making this the day the Lord has made and rejoice—always.

To claim my sickness, to know I cannot do this without God’s Grace, is the beginning of Wisdom.

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22a
Mark 2:1-12

 

Reflection:

The Way of the Cross According to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit that the life-motif of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has significance for those who embrace the Passionist charism of St. Paul of the Cross. First, “embracing” the charism includes these essentials:

1. Contemplating, “being” at the foot of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ;
2. Being attentive to the signs of the times pointing to the contemporary Passion, through immersion in the life of our people, dialogue with our own communities, and with those experiencing the contemporary crucifixion at the hands of unjust societies; and
3. To preach, teach, and model a Christ-centered community, and serve others, inspired by that which we have seen and heard.

Dr. King embraced his “way of the Cross” by strictly abiding by the tenets of non-violence with roots in the two Great Commandments, and he did so for the sake of the poor of every race, and in the face of great opposition, especially from the Black Community.

In February, 1957, in Montgomery, Alabama he spoke to a mass meeting with these words: “If we as a people had as much religion in our hearts as we have in our legs and feet, (referring to the rousing hymns which had precluded his speech) we could change this world.” And later that evening, “Our use of passive resistance in Montgomery is not based on resistance to get rights for ourselves, but to achieve friendship with the men (sic) who are denying us our rights and change them through friendship and a bond of Christian understanding before God.” (Let The Trumpet Sound, The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr, Stephen B. Oates, New American Library, 1982, p. 115)

In conclusion, Dr. King’s “Passion narrative” would be dramatically shared in the last speech that he would give on the evening of April 3, at the Sanitation Workers’ rally at the Masons’ Temple in downtown Memphis. After recalling some close encounters with death, he continued:

“ Now it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I don’t know what will happen, no. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now . Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. Like I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised land. And I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy tonight. I am not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality. With this faith, I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope from a mountain of despair. With this faith, we will be able to achieve this new day. When all of God’ s children – black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics –will be able to join hands and sing with the Negroes in the spiritual of old “‘Free at last! Free at last!’ Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” (Ibid., pp.485-486)

Let’s pause today to consider this man’s “way of the cross” as an inspiration for our own. Our General V. Rev. Joachim Rego, C.P. reminds us “to review and renew  our commitment and vocation to keep alive the memory of the Passion of Jesus as the greatest act of God’s love and mercy, and to promote this memory in the lives and hearts of the people today…” especially those who are poor and neglected; we seek to offer them comfort and to relieve the burden of their sorrow.” (Const. #3)

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is the administrator at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 4:1-11
Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:

Today’s gospel is a story of risks, reversals and joyful disobedience.

In the times of Jesus, lepers were outcasts, condemned to live in isolation, ostracized from family, community, worship, marginalized even from hope.  Levitical law also required them to remain a safe distance from the general population in order avoid spreading their contagious disease.  Some believed that leprosy was God’s punishment for sin.

But the leper in today’s gospel is strikingly bold.  He disobeys Levitical restrictions and comes so close that Jesus can touch him.  “If you choose,” he tells Jesus, “you can make me clean.”  Without hesitation, with compassion, boldly, even recklessly Jesus touched the leper and said: “I do choose.  Be made clean.”  Immediately, the leprosy left him.  He ordered him to tell no one about this miracle, but to present himself to the priest to confirm that he is clean.  The man disobeys.  He does not go immediately to the priest.  He does not remain silent to the miracle.  Instead, he went out and proclaimed it everywhere.

By contrast, Jesus reversed places with the once leprous man.  Jesus, who had traveled freely everywhere, now was forced into isolation to avoid the crowds.  He now was forced to the margins.  In other words, Jesus took the place of the man he made clean.  Love always says and does what is necessary and works out the consequences later.

There is another reversal to consider.  By touching the leper, Jesus should have been contaminated.  However, it is not the leper who is contagious, but Jesus.  The leper does not transmit his disease to Jesus, but Jesus whose contagion of love transformed the leper to wholeness, making him clean, medically, spiritually and socially.  The Franciscan spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, says “pain that is not transformed is transmitted.”  Jesus lovingly touched his isolation and pain, and transformed him.

We are called imitate the leper’s bold faith and Jesus’ loving touch.  Like them, It demands of us that we risk crossing barriers and boundaries of convenience and comfort zone in order to reach out to the other, the one living in pain or loneliness.  Such faith and love begin with the words:  “I do choose.”

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Mark 1:29-39

Reflection:

My brother Jim had his second brain surgery for glioblastoma cancer just before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, the fast-growing tumor was necrotic (dead) tissue caused by the intense chemo and radiation. However, he came out of it with the permanent loss of his left visual field. Because he cannot see the left half of anything he looks at, he will never be able to drive again. Little by little, this disease is taking away abilities and functions that we all take for granted, and that trajectory will continue until there is nothing left. In the meantime, Jim is living as fully as possible, working out in the gym, keeping his perspective, and remaining the incredible person we all know him to be. He gets down sometimes; anyone would. But he digs deep to find the strength and faith he needs to go on with resolve and hope.

In many ways, our world right now has “brain cancer.” The poor are becoming poorer while the wealthy line their pockets. Women increasingly report the sexual harassment and outright abuse they have endured, and rape is an accepted weapon of war. Peace between countries and religions seems more distant than ever. Treasured and sacred public lands are being lost to development and drilling, and environmental regulations are watered down or dismantled. I could go on and on. I’m sure you have a list that, although it may differ from mine, is also a source of dismay or even despair.

In the midst of this, it can seem that the voice of God is being drowned out. Where do we hear the voice of justice? Where do we see the beatitudes and the teachings of Jesus being lived out?  Where is compassion and care for those who struggle? Can we dig deep and find the strength we need to go on with resolve and even hope? Does that exist anymore?

Yet even when all I feel is absence, I believe and know that in the face of my brother’s dire diagnosis, God is calling.  In a world filled with noise, electronics, political upheaval, natural disasters, violence, and all the things that occupy our minds and hearts, God’s persistent voice can still be heard. In this Christmas season, we proclaim the God who is with us. The question is whether I can truly believe it when hope seems dim.

It helps me to remember that God is more determined that we can ever be. God is calling constantly, working to heal, pushing on to spread truth and bring the reign of heaven to this earth. It helps me to remember, too, that sometimes, like Eli, even wise and experienced prophets can fail to recognize God’s voice. Sometimes, it takes the persistence of the “little people” like the boy Samuel to get leaders and spiritual guides to wake up to what is really happening. God is always calling; it’s we who fall asleep.

So just as Jesus needed to retreat from the world and go into the desert, I need even more to take quiet time to pray. I need to sit patiently, surrendering my own perspectives and longings and turning them over to the grace of God.  I need to be persistent and faithful, and listen….listen….listen. God is calling.

Then, I need to answer that call. In this new year, I resolve to be more present to individual people in need – people like my brother who are ill or facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, people who are caught in war or refugee camps, and people who work endless hours trying in vain to make ends meet for their families. I resolve to work harder on issues of justice – to raise my voice in protest and advocacy, to defend those who believe, look, or act differently than me, and to fight for Gospel principles in the face of immense social and political opposition.

God is calling. I will work even harder to say “Speak Lord. Your servant is listening.”

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 9:-20
Mark 1:21-28

 

Reflection:

What We Have Seen, What We Have Heard

With the ending of Christmas season yesterday we set out into the ordinary time, reading the two Books of Samuel and the Gospel of Mark. We will see the anointing of Saul as first King of Israel and his successor, King David. Mark’s Gospel will begin with the first miracle of Jesus, the healing of a man with an unclean spirit.

Someone has imagined that the angel Gabriel was angry when he made Zechariah mute. Yet before Mary, bearing God’s invitation, Gabriel was afraid. He was realizing the mystery that was unfolding before him. He awaited an answer from a young woman creation of God, and upon her answer was bound up an outpouring of love that would be a new creation of God. Gabriel was bigger than Mary. At that moment it didn’t seem so to her. But he was like Trump Tower and she was a small lemonade stand in a back yard. Still he bowed before her so beautifully when she said yes. Now he was mute! When he stood before God he still was speechless. But God knew what he would ask and so told Gabriel to go tell the angels to gather in Bethlehem in nine months, tell all creation to get ready for something that will make them happy and to celebrate in whatever way the things of creation can celebrate, and of course go to all the stars and tell them to come and look down on Bethlehem. One star would even be chose for a special job since the stars had been so good at doing what they were created to do and people could find their way around in the dark because of their precision.

Our human vision is limited in range. At either end of the spectrum is infrared and ultraviolet which spectral imaging can capture but not our vision. Perhaps it is a poor analogy to say that in the lens of the Incarnation such things invisible to normal vision become visible: angels gathering in Bethlehem to see the Holy Family, the increase of charity among people immersed in the celebration of God’s Love incarnate, the gathering of stars and the special one noted by the magi as the one that would lead them to a new born king, or in the animal kingdom, how the great ones show mercy to their prey on Christmas Day and the animals speak at the hour of the birth of the Redeemer.

If the vision of the Incarnation has let us see the unseen, it is this ‘unseen’ that will be at work in the calling of fishermen by Jesus, his showing authority over demons, his going forth from the Jordan to do good and to lead us to the Father. The vision of God’s love will be at work in God’s choice of Saul to be king and in Saul’s weakness, in David’s greatness and praise of God as well as in his failures and penitence. In fact what we have celebrated in the mystery of Redemption we now see in the gritty details of humanity groping along humbly and proudly, confident but not always, sinful and sorrowful. We will meet heroes and heroines, some like ourselves and others whom we would like to imitate.

The Incarnation tells us, ‘He always loved his own in the world and when the time came for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father he showed us the depth of that love’. Let enter deeper into this mystery by going backward to our daily lectionary in which we can see ourselves and our world as the love story once again unfolds among us.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

The Baptism of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Mark 1:7-11

Reflection:

Parents and families are so joyful when welcoming a new child into their lives, and one of their proud actions is to introduce the child to their friends, relatives and older generations.

In today’s readings we see Jesus ‘introduced’ to the world by his cousin John, and we also hear God affirming all that Jesus has become and is now to do in the world.

We can also look upon this gospel scene and amplify its significance by listening to the words of the prophet Isaiah (reading 1). In this light, we can see that Jesus is truly God’s servant, and in the words of Isaiah is the one of whom God says is “my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smouldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.”

Those qualities and traits that the prophet mentions are the very ones that Jesus identifies when he opens the scroll in the synagogue and reads from the prophet Isaiah. He sees them as values and dimensions of his own mission from God.

How reassuring is the word given to us today. While we can cry out along with John the Baptist, that we are ‘not worthy’ to untie the straps of Jesus’ sandals, we are at the same time chosen to be his disciples.

We are beloved of God.  We too are precious in the eyes of God. God has taken us by the hand from our very birth, we are formed in God’s image and we are God’s emissary or ‘convent’ with others – God acts in and through us.

We too are to be a light for the nations. We are to bring sight to others perhaps not physically, but we can help others see the truth of life – that it is deeply relational and that love marks out humans as the unique image of God in a world that already teems with signs of God’s beauty and majesty.

We too are to free people from their inner prisons. Not necessarily through acts, but often through our words. Let us never forget the power of our own words – a word can forgive another, a word can encourage or give hope to another – hope that often sustains them for many years beyond our mere efforts.

We are to liberate those who live in darkness. A mere visit can lift someone from a deep sadness or a moment of darkness and lift their spirits and sense of self-worth.

I was a very young priest long when long ago a man stopped at our monastery to talk to a priest. He had travelled for two hours to talk, because as he told me “a Passionist was kind to me 40 years ago”. Unbeknownst to that priest whoever he was, his kindness to a stranger forty years earlier still reverberated within that man and empowered him to return to our monastery for help all those years later.

Like the unknown priest who helped that man so long ago, let us reach out to others and let us strive to be disciples of whom the Lord may say “You are my beloved…. with you I am well pleased.”

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia.  He currently serves on the General Council and is stationed in Rome.