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Scripture:

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Matthew 7:15-20

Reflection:

In our gospel reading today, Jesus reminds us to beware of false prophets, who come to us in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves!  It seems everywhere we turn today we are confronted by these false prophets! Whether it be in family, friendships, community, business, government or church, these false prophets focus on their self-interests and ignore what is best for the greater good.

Pope Francis constantly challenges us to put the needs of others before our own.  These false prophets seem to have infiltrated our family and friend relationships when mistrust and bickering exist.  They are present in our local and world communities when the needs of the poor and minorities are ignored and greed and power become the only agenda items at city council meetings or corporate venues.  Our government seems obsessed with tearing down rather than building up past structures that focused on the God-given rights of justice and freedom for all!

These ravenous wolves that Jesus speaks of are also part and parcel of our church! I love the Catholic Church, the church of my baptism and the place I have ministered in for 35 years! The Church is made up of very fallible human beings, myself included!  False prophets challenged Jesus over 2000 years ago just as they do to us this day.  They take on the guise of Church leaders who focus on the letter of the law rather than the heart of the law.  They abuse their office when they refuse a catholic burial to someone who is LGBT, or when they choose to listen to the big ‘giver’ and only pay lip service to the ordained and lay whose ministry is based on the model of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes the People of God, as good and faithful as they are, fall prey to the self-centeredness that manifests itself as entitled false prophets when they cop the attitude, ‘My way or the Highway’ of their leaders.

As the covenant people God has created us to be, we must remember this gospel message:

‘Remain in me, as I remain in you, says the Lord;
Whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.’

May we take to heart these words of Jesus and act accordingly!

Theresa Secord is a Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Genesis: 13:2, 5-18
Matthew 7:6, 12-14

Reflection:

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets.” These words from Jesus in today’s Gospel seem pretty straightforward. They raise the question, how do I want to be treated?

Treat me with kindness.

Give me your respect, even if I am different from you.

Treat me justly.

Remember we are all connected when you speak and behave.

Grant me your forgiveness quickly and easily when I make mistakes (and I will).

Remember we are all one.

Love me for who I am, not what I do.

Celebrate our common life in God together with me.

Share, protect and care for our common home and resources with me.

Listen, love, laugh, cry and suffer with me in the present moment.

Seems like these requests are not what we see reflected on social media and the news every day. We are divided. We live in the divisive hell of “I’m right and you’re wrong.” We don’t even venture into the territory of “both and and.”  We are so far from what we have come to know as the “golden rule” that we easily lose hope.

I guess there’s a reason Jesus seems to refer to the golden rule as the “narrow gate” in today’s reading from Matthew. It’s just not easy to live this way.  We have to learn to focus in an out of focus world. Take some time with me today and make a list of how you want to be treated. When the day comes to a close, ask yourself if you applied the list to others.  May God bless our efforts!

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of the Passionist Family in Louisville, Kentucky.

Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:1-6
Acts 13:22-26
Luke 1:57-66, 80

Reflection:

The Lord called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.  Isaiah 49:1 

We see that the vocation of the Baptist was God’s idea rather than John’s.   He was chosen from before birth to be the precursor of Jesus.   God is the Great Micro Manger! “In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” Job 12:10  Our lives are designer lives by the great Potter!   “O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. Is 64:8  Our life has carefully planned out by our Divine Potter.  The people with whom I live are not just accidents.  God is not the God of accidents!  He is a designer God, Who from eternity carefully and skillfully sets up our lives where we can best fulfill His plans!

Now there are many mysteries in all this because “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.  Is 55:8    When we are in situations where we cannot do anything about it, we can be sure this is the way God planes it.   He never causes evil, but will allow it to bring good!  Jesus suffered greatly in the Garden of Olives where He was soon to experience the greatest evil ever inflicted on human nature! saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  Lk 22:42

Providence is a Scriptural word meaning “God will see to it”   It comes originally from Hebrew “The Lord Will Provide” Gen 22:14    This is where the angel holds back the knife in Abraham’s hand and provides a lamb for the sacrifice instead of Isaak. “He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Gen 22:12 One of our greatest spiritual needs is to trust God’s gentle care in the scary situations of our life!  “In whose hand is the life of every living thing.”

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of St. Paulinus of Nola, St. John Fisher, and St. Thomas More

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 11:1-11
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

Each one of us has known one or more people who tend to “babble on” when we are speaking with them.  I had a cousin about whom the family used to say, “If you ask her how she is, be sure you have an extra 30 – 45 minutes to let her tell you.”  She was a very beloved cousin and her ability to talk your ear off was one of her endearing qualities.  Hers was a meaningful “babble” for our family.  Our only hesitation was that we sometimes received too much information.  Apparently, Jesus had thoughts about “babbling” as well.  I would suggest, He was taking aim at meaningless talking, i.e. words spoken just for the sake of hearing oneself talk.  Jesus is warning against the sheer multiplication of words by some who seem to believe that somehow these will back the Lord God into the corner and not let Him out until He answers the prayer in a satisfactory manner.  Jesus gives us an antidote to the run-on prayers to which He is referring.

“This is how you are to pray.”  Then Jesus teaches us the Our Father.  Many have written books on its meaning but for now, we reflect on it for a little while.

The opening words tell us a great deal.  “Our Father who art in heaven…” reveals an important nature of this prayer.  The personal pronoun is plural and will remain plural throughout the prayer.   This is not primarily an individual’s prayer but rather a communal prayer.  This is a prayer of God’s family and we are always to pray it, whether alone or together, conscious that we are one member of a much larger family.   We are one in seeing our God as a Father, meaning God is close and loving as a father.   At the same time God is in heaven revealing God’s majesty and divinity even while He is father to us.   Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of and the fullness of the Kingdom of God.  For us who believe in Jesus, this is our destiny, to be citizens of the Kingdom.  The path to the Kingdom is for God’s will to work its way through the pathways of life on earth as it is in the Kingdom.  It is insufficient to know God’s will.  The divine will must become the guide of our lives.  It must be embraced by each of us and construct the pathways along which we are to walk.  Seeking the divine will can be difficult.  Following it may be even more difficult.  To understand this, all we need to do is ask St. John Fischer and St. Thomas More about this part of the prayer.

Now we move into a prayer of petition, seeking from the Lord God what we need most in life.  “Our daily bread” certainly brings to mind our need for the Eucharist in life as our source of sustenance and strength.  Could it mean more?  Should we not be looking for the daily bread of God’s Word for our lives?  Are we not able to ask for the bread of encouragement, affirmation, and companionship with God?  Shall we not seek the bread of wisdom and enthusiasm in living out the mind and heart of Jesus in our own relationships and life circumstances?  The bread multiplies and nourishes.  There is much to be had.  A second need we all experience is the necessity of forgiveness for our transgressions against God and each other.  We petition God’s forgiveness for ourselves knowing full well that our forgiveness carries with it an essential condition.  We must forgive each other as God forgives us.  This is a very powerful request mostly because it is so very difficult for us when we are hurt, betrayed, or even overlooked.  How do we find a way to leave our wounds behind?  We cannot pretend they are not there yet we must find the path to peacefulness with what has been.  Jesus reiterates this at the end of today’s passage.  There are no loop holes in this prayer, in this way of life.  Perhaps this is part of the Our Father precisely because it is so difficult and we need to be reminded over and over again that we are in need of God’s grace to live this out.  Once again, we may be able to find insight about this as we look to St. John Fischer and St. Thomas More living this imperative at the very threshold of their entrance into eternal life. We cannot do it alone.

We end the prayer with a request to be free of temptations and all evil.  While this is an obvious recognition of our own weakness, it is also an acknowledgement of our determined dedication to live the Christ life.  We are asking for all the grace and direction we need to go forward in life with the mind and heart of Christ as the core of who we hope to be and will be by the grace of God.

Today’s gift of the “Our Father” has few words, but words revealing a fullness of meaning.  We discover the fullness of who God is for us and how we, united to God and each other through the Lord Jesus, are guided and directed to the fullness of who we are to be.

Fr. Richard Burke, CP, is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province.  He lives at St. Ann’s Monastery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 9:6-11
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a young Jesuit seminarian (a scholastic, as the Jesuits name them), who died at an early age, and who, for a considerable length of time, was a popular saint, especially for young people.  Over a period of time many young boys were either given the name Aloysius at their baptism, or chose it for themselves at the time of their confirmation.  In fact, St. Aloysius was part of a trilogy of young Jesuit saints popular with Catholic youth not too many years ago, including Sts. Stanislaus Kostka and John Berchmans.

Their achievements in becoming canonized (officially recognized) saints at a young age is sometimes reduced in significance on the score that they WERE young, and died young, so they did not have to endure the trials and difficulties associated with adult life.  This is true.  But, of course, their early deaths were not the result of their own planning, as if they said: I will die early so as to avoid the challenges facing me when I become an adult.  In fact, just the opposite was likely at work in their minds and hearts: My God, I am dying at a young age, and so will miss all the joys and triumphs and challenges of an adult life, including the recognition that goes with success, and the acclaim associated with doing things of significance.  That often describes the grief experienced by the parents of young children dying an early death, thereby being deprived of whatever joys might have been theirs, had they lived into adulthood.  But there are two ways of looking at an early death: not only success denied, but also disappointments avoided.  But the young, such as St. Aloysius, and his fellow Jesuit saints, are geared, as we may gather today, to the triumphs lying ahead rather than some early defeats, and, in view of them, are willing to sustain the anguish of an early death facing them.  This fits in with St. Paul’s remarks today about the farmer.  The farmer’s life operates in a cyclical fashion, starting again each spring with the preparation of the land and the sowing of the seed.  This is an arduous and time-consuming task, multiple hours each day, often including weekends.  But the fall comes round, and, with it, the harvest, a time of joy and success for that same farmer.  Of course, not every farming season works out that well.

Jesus provides a similar framework in today’s gospel, recalling the experience familiar to us all of taking advantage of opportunities to help others—what He calls almsgiving—being content to do so quietly, if possible, not anticipating any immediate satisfaction or reward in doing so.  This will come in its own time, when “…the Father who sees in secret will repay you”.  These are all familiar examples from the adult world: onerous present payments in view of deferred rewards.  We call them investments or insurance policies in which we deprive ourselves at the present time of enjoyable uses of the money available to us, with an eye to the payback we expect to receive later on—just like the wise and experienced farmer does.  So, people like the young Jesuit scholastics, though dying at a young age, thereby also avoiding the ordeal of deliberately deferring present enjoyments with a view to future compensation, will nonetheless come in their own special way to enjoy the special benefits awaiting them by what might be called an “early retirement”, which is a tragedy in the sight of family and friends, but a tradeoff they would not want to defer by delaying the “early” benefit package that will be theirs.  And so the Passionists, recognizing a good thing when they see it, come up with their own trilogy of three remarkable young members of their community, also dying at a young age: Gabriel Possenti, Pius Campidelli, and Grimualdo de Santa Maria.  We wouldn’t want the Jesuits to pull ahead of us in the benefits department.

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 8:1-9
Matthew 5:43-48

Reflection:

It’s a tall order to love one’s enemies.  Some days I can barely say “hello” to my condominium neighbors I’m so annoyed with them.

But love my enemies?? Love the terrorist, the rapist, the killer, the abuser? Love the corporate plunderer, the arrogant politician, the lazy, the entitled, the insufferable, and the list goes on and on? It’s good in theory, but are we humans really built to let go of our fear, anger and hatred of the perceived “other” and simply stand with them, shoulder to shoulder, in love and humility before God?

Jesus tells us that the call to love-not mushy, sentimental, romantic love-but a love that is forged out of the guts of our own resistance-is a call that reverses the very course of our human history, the history taking shape in space and time and the history unfolding daily within our own hearts.

I confess that there are times when I adore, like a false idol, my “righteous” anger at certain people and their actions or values. I feel entitled to it. I even enjoy it.  Maybe it gives me the sense that I am actually doing something productive or it affirms my “superior” nature. But in the end, it is all a distraction, I think, from what I’m really supposed to be doing.

As Christians we are called, tested even, to love each other generously and graciously, to be an image mirrored back of how our merciful Creator loves us (as difficult as that must be at times).  We know that Jesus felt intense anger while on earth, but that was at hypocrisy and injustice. That was the real “other” he was trying to isolate and cast out.

So if there has to be an enemy, let it be injustice. And if there really is an “other,” maybe it’s the stranger within us, the flawed heart just waiting to be healed by love for God, one’s self, and others.

Nancy Nickel is the former director of Communications, and friend of the Passionists.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Matthew 5:38-42

Reflection:

Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2

Life can be daunting. It is never smooth sailing. Those of us who want a life without problems and obstacles get frustrated when we are faced with many everyday obstacles, not to mention the extraordinary ones that just appear out of nowhere.

This last week, I had a weekday morning Mass in a nearby parish to our Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California. Although I had been to the parish Church several times, the daily Mass is celebrated in small chapel, detached from the Church. The first morning I get there, the parking lot is empty and was welcomed by an attendant and taken to the Chapel. I had to hurry back because of a meeting, only to find a detour sign that went up during the half hour I celebrated Mass. Unexpected obstacle.

A couple of mornings later, I drive into the parking lot, and there are all kinds carnival rides being taken down from big trucks and set up. There were now many obstacles to the entrance of the Chapel that hadn’t there yesterday. Then on Friday morning, it was impossible to park and it was very difficult to get to the Chapel.

That experience became my homily and the 40 people who come to Mass knew exactly what I was talking about. One day we find ourselves very close to God. Days later, we feel so far away from God, unable to reach the God we know and love, just because there are so many obstacles that get in the way.

St. Paul talks about those kinds of obstacles in his life, in our first reading of today’s Mass. He talks about afflictions, hardships, beatings, constraints, imprisonment as outside obstacles. He goes on to name a few inner obstacles: how to be more kind, more patient, more pure, more understanding, as he struggles to live faithfully with daily obstacles and his inner inclinations.

He prefaces all of this by saying: “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation”. What faith! What inspiration! What Paul is telling me is that I need to be close to God in good times and in bad times.

We need to walk with the Lord as we encounter life. It is precisely at these times, the times of trouble that everyone faces daily, and those unexpected troubles that just pop up in front of us, that takes us to a place of deep faith. I am reminded of another one of Paul’s sayings: “We walk by Faith and not by sight!”

There is never a perfect time to be with God, to be kind and merciful, to be loving and caring, to be forgiving and joyful. When we can learn to live this way, surrounded by disappointment, failure, struggle, injustice, alienation, rejection, then we begin to appreciate Jesus’ Sermon of the Beatitudes, which we have been hearing in the Gospels for Mass, over the last couple of weeks. Let us make the Beatitudes our Charter for Life!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Christ the King Community in Citrus Heights, California. 

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58

Reflection:

Today, we in the U.S. celebrate Father’s Day. But also in the Church we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. We know very well why we celebrate Father’s Day. We want to honor the fathers in our lives, those who provided guidance and good example for us.

But let’s take a look at why we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ. Simply put, the Body and Blood of Christ represents the sacrifice that Jesus made for our salvation. His Body and Blood were poured out for us! It is just as Jesus says in our Gospel reading from John: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Jesus has given us His all out of love for us.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we believe that we take that total gift of Jesus into ourselves in a special way, because we believe that Jesus’ Body and Blood is really present in the bread and wine we share. And so this day reminds us of Jesus’ gift of Himself and His Presence to us.

So what are we to do with Jesus’ gift? First, we give thanks. There is no way we can earn or pay back what Jesus has done for us! And no matter what may have been taken from us, neither no one nor no thing can take that away from us! The next thing we do is to give what we have been given in return. Jesus has given us Himself, and in turn we are to share the love of God we have in Jesus Christ, to the point of giving of ourselves. Is it not the gift of self that we note on Father’s or Mother’s Day? And as we grow in sharing the love of Jesus, we begin to see others with different eyes. In our second reading from 1 Corinthians, St. Paul writes: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” The gift of Jesus is not only given for our individual redemption, it also ties us together.

Recognizing our connection with each other calls to mind the other aspect we mentioned above: Presence. Very often, when someone confesses that he or she has missed Mass, the penance I give is for the person to spend some time before the Blessed Sacrament, thank Jesus for His presence in his or her life, and ask Jesus how she or he is called to be present to Him and to others.

To be gift and to be present is our call in response to Jesus’ Body and Blood poured out for us. If we believe Jesus’ words that sharing in His Body and Blood give us life, we are called to help others see the gifts of their lives. Can we see how receiving this intimate gift of Jesus into ourselves compels us to go outside of ourselves? Jesus’ sacrifice is not made present for us just so we can savor the moment of experiencing His love, but to respond to it by getting other people to get in touch with how much Jesus loves them! Many of the people who heard Jesus may have recoiled at the thought of eating someone’s flesh and drinking his blood, but perhaps others recoiled at the thought of someone loving them so much to give His life for them! Fed by Jesus’ gift of Himself, may we bring others to His love and presence.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.