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Scripture:

Isaiah 65:17-21
John 4:43-54

Reflection:

“Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death.  Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Jesus does not seem happy about the search for signs and wonders in today’s gospel reading.  Yet it seems in our daily world we are always “looking” for the next sign.  Social media is full of people searching for the cutest dog or cat story, the cruelest political jab, or the most moving, sad episode in human relationships.  News is no longer news unless it is “breaking news”.  People are bored in the present moment and must be stimulated constantly by signs, wonders, tweets, emails and breaking news to be happy.  What have we all become?  No wonder Jesus sounds frustrated with people looking for signs and wonders in his own times, even without all our distracting electronic stimulants!

Perhaps we should concentrate on “creating” signs and wonders rather than “looking” for signs and wonders.  I can create a sign with a simple hug for someone suffering a loss, like yesterday at the bowling alley with a woman who lost a good friend of 18 years.  I can create wonders by standing up for peace and justice in my community, like last week when our national church leaders urged us to care for and protect refugees and immigrants in this country.  I can be a sign by caring for those most in need, like every day when people drive “Meals on Wheels” to lonely elderly folks.  I can illuminate the world with a wonder, like yesterday taking time in a restaurant to sincerely ask a server how her day was going and actively listening to the response in a caring way.

My reflection today is simple and easy.  Instead of “looking” for signs and wonders today, I will try and “create” signs and wonders!

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

Scripture:

Hosea 14:2-10
Mark 12:28-34

Reflection:

Turn, O Israel, to the Lord your God.  Hosea 14:2

The simple statement to turn to God occurs 37 times in SS!  The word in Hebrew is suv!  It is used 1050 times!  It means to turn or to face.  Often it is translated by repent.   In its simplicity it carries a wonderful digest of the whole spiritual life.  The Lord is the sun to which we turn to face for our growth.   It is an amazing thing to see acres of Sunflowers in Kansas facing and following the sun as it moves from east to west.  To grow and flower we must bask in the light of Christ.

There are various ways that scripture expresses the basic idea of facing Christ.  One  of the most common is to come to Christ.  Jesus Himself encourages us to come to Him.  “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”.  Mt 11: 28 literally in original Greek the word is rest up (ana up  and pauo rest) for another day of work!    In Mathew’s gospel alone over 100 times people are said to come to Jesus or Him coming to them.

There is a simple wisdom that people have in the Gospels.   They probably did not have a great theological knowledge of Jesus, but they knew He had power to heal and help them. If only they could touch Him they could be healed.  “He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed (Greek ĕpipiptō to fall upon or crush) around Him in order to touch Him”.  In fear of the masses crushing Him to death He had to get into boat off shore for safety!

What a simple loving way to describe what prayer is.   It is an unpretentious way of turning or repenting in the sacred season of Lent.  Maybe we make prayer too complicated.  It seems to me that the heart of prayer is getting close to the very human and divine Christ. It is that magic touch of faith on the ever present Jesus!

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

Scripture:

Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23

Reflection:

In both of our readings today we hear about “stiff-necked” people. In our first reading, God reminds the prophet Jeremiah that the people did not obey or pay heed to what God had told them through the many prophets that were sent. In fact, God tells Jeremiah that the people will probably not listen to him either.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus drives out a demon that had been making a man mute. There were some there who said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” These people seemed to simply refuse to believe in Jesus, no matter what Jesus said or did. Just like Jeremiah, Jesus encountered stiff-necked people.

One thing that occurs to me about these encounters is that even though both Jeremiah and Jesus encountered stubborn opposition, they still went ahead with their mission. I find it interesting that even though God tells Jeremiah that the people would not listen to him, God doesn’t tell him to stop speaking the Word! And even though Jesus could not convince some people, it didn’t stop Him from proclaiming the kingdom of God to the people.

We may encounter people who are not interested in our witness to the Good News, but we are still called to do it. What we need to be careful about in these politically charged times is automatically judging the “other side” as the stiff-necked ones without taking a look at ourselves. Perhaps it could even be said that a part of listening to God may be listening to those who have different stories to tell from our own.

Whatever the situation, our testimony to the Good News of Jesus Christ has to be done out of love and compassion. We need not judge others, but remain faithful to our call as disciples.

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

Scripture:

Deuteronomy   4:1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Reflection:

Six years ago, a Filipino medical doctor who practices in a neighboring city requested permission to erect a monument of the Ten Commandments on Saint Ann’s Basilica grounds.  I came to learn that he and a rather large group of medical professionals in the area were part of a larger movement to place such monuments in as many places as possible.  When asked the purpose of it, he explained that the donor of these monuments lived a rather questionable life.  He experienced a profound conversion to a life of faith and charity.  His new life revolved around living God’s law as revealed in Jesus.  The Ten Commandments symbolized for him this new found freedom and grace.  Rather than experiencing God’s law as a hemming in or fencing off, he discovered a new fullness of freedom and love through observance of the law.

As Americans, we may perceive this to be a strange description of living by the law.  We tend to experience the law as rather stern measures which direct mostly what we cannot do.  Who of us has not rolled through a stop sign at one time or another or made a right turn on red onto a deserted street even though the sign said no turn on red?  Who of us haven’t heard it said that as long as you stay ten miles an hour below the speed limit on a highway, you should be fine, i.e. you will not be pulled over?  I have a friend who is a Sister and the cook at a nursing home for more than ninety people.  She was late one morning and drove to work with great anxiety.  It was five in the morning and the streets were absolutely free of traffic so she went through a red light and was stopped by an officer.  As he approached the car and saw she was a nun, he said, “Good morning Sister!  A little bored with our red lights this morning, are we?”  He was a fine Irish officer and said his mother would never forgive him if he gave her a ticket but he did          issue a warning citation.  We all know that laws create order in a large society.  We experience them as rather rigid – yes or no, black or white, legal or illegal.  There can be no exceptions, no excuses, and no possibilities of violations without appropriate penalty.  Fear of penalty is the operating force behind our understanding of law.

The Scriptural understanding of law is somewhat different.  As today’s reading from Deuteronomy reveals to us, God’s law is the source of life and love.  The law is God’s invitation to remember the abundance of love that showers down upon His people.  They experienced it in the call to become God’s own people through Abraham and Sarah.  They found the blessings of that love in their growth as a people and then as a nation.  They saw God’s love vividly in the gift of freedom given in the Exodus, and now as they are about to enter the Promised Land.  Having experienced God’s love, they are now asked to live that love among themselves.  Living the law of God means living according to the mind and heart of God.  What is that mind and heart?  We see it over and over again when the Chosen People abandon the law and are reminded through the messages of the prophets.  Living God’s love means especially a loving generosity for the most vulnerable, the weakest, those without a voice in circles of power, the sick, the very poor.  For this reason, we hear so very much about the absolute necessity to take care of the widows, the orphans, and the stranger who comes amongst them.  How these are treated will dictate God’s judgment about how well the mind and heart of God is being lived.

This, then, is our Lenten invitation today.  Do we understand the message of Jesus in today’s gospel as His invitation for us to live the fullness of the gospel law?  Do we understand we are being asked if we are remembering all of the love of Jesus poured out upon us in the gift of redemption and our continuing nourishment in love through the gift of His Body and Blood?   Are we living the mind and heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus in our families?  In our parishes?  In our neighborhoods?  In our country?  In our world?  What is our attitude toward the most vulnerable people of our day?  Among others, these might include the disabled, the chronically ill, the elderly poor, the working poor, those without adequate health care, the “strangers” in our land – both documented and undocumented.  Are we reflecting the love centered mind and heart of Jesus toward these?  Love God and love one another as you would have them love you – this sums up the entire law!!!  How are we doing?  How am I doing?

Six years ago, I gave my blessing to my Filipino friend.  His group came and in one day erected the monument to the ten commandments.   It stands as a testament to the outpouring of God’s love upon us all and as a visible manifestation of God’s continuing invitation to live the mind and heart of God with one another in our world. It is the law that gives life and grants freedom to be the sons and daughters of God.  May our Lenten graces abound.

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:

Daniel 3:25, 34-43
Matthew 18:21-35

Reflection:

We often fail to take account of the advantages we enjoy as Christians.  For we have been extremely blessed and should enjoy our status as Christians—an advantage when we ponder the situations of hopelessness experienced by the major players in our biblical readings today.

We read, in the prophet Daniel, about the tremendous losses suffered by the ancient Jews, consisting of assets which they previously enjoyed, but which they have lost at the hands of their opponents who have destroyed all they depended on to offer compensation acceptable to God.  And this was primarily carried out in the beauty of their magnificent temple and the worship offered there. The temple’s  beauty won acclaim for its architecture far and wide.  Also, the elegance of its prayer forms and ritual was the envy of others.  But, as the prophet Daniel grieves, this has become a thing of the past because, as he says to God on behalf of the Jews: “we have sinned and transgressed by departing from you and we have done every kind of evil”.  Consequently, God allowed them to be overrun by their enemies, and they sadly complain: “…we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere…”   But the heart of their miserable situation is: “We  have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no burnt offerings, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.”  Their religious practices have been demolished.

There is no longer any religious ritual left to them in which they can engage to placate God.  So they are left to their own devices to approach God, without any supporting temple worship or priesthood.  All they have left to rely on is their lowly, humble prayer: “But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received, as though it were burnt offerings of rams and bulls, or tens of thousands of fat lambs,…”  Here they reminisce on the good old days when they had a regal priesthood, a magnificent temple and a beautiful ritual.  That’s all gone, and they are left to their own devices to placate an angry God upset with the way they live. They are like a debtor owing his creditor a huge amount of money he cannot possibly repay, and who begs for mercy at the hands of his creditor, and receives it, but then turns around and inflicts similar punishment on one of his debtors owing him just a pittance of what he himself had owed.   When caught in this act of cruelty, he is handed over to the torturers until he pays back everything.  Here we see a man bereft of any resource, left with nothing on which to fall back to escape the punishment coming upon him.

In both these stories we come face to face with our own pitiable resources on which to fall back, to satisfy, so to speak, our standing with God.  It is an impossible task.  There is no way to equalize our standing with or before God.  If we were face to face with this impossibility, we would appreciate what we have at hand in such marvelous sacraments as that of reconciliation and eucharist.  Access to such sacraments are the equalizers in our life, enabling us to level the playing field on which we live out our lives.  It is only when we would be bereft of such wonderful enhancements that we would painfully realize we have nothing left to level the playing field between God and ourselves.

There are times in our lives when we think we can do it on our own, but there may come a point where  this confidence and self-reliance evaporates, leaving us with nothing to make it on our own.  The Jews of old realized this when they lost their temple worship.  And we today must come to terms with this when we find ourselves in situations where, for one reason or another, the sacraments might not be available to us any longer.  But they are our lifeline.  When we’re surfing with ease and grace, we feel we can make it on our own, but when we find ourselves alone in choppy waters, we’ll welcome any rope thrown out our way.

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

Feast of St. Joseph

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16
Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22
Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph, the spouse of Mary and the Foster Father of Jesus.  It is usually on the 19^th but since yesterday was the Third Sunday of Lent, the feast was transferred to today, Monday, March 20^th.

The first two readings for today connect Joseph with King David and Abraham.  Joseph is an important link in the clear fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to make of him the father of a great nation.  The reaffirmation of that promise through and to King David, a descendent of Abraham, and on to Joseph, a direct descendent in the House of David.  Joseph, the husband of Mary and the Foster Father of Jesus, identifies Jesus as the legitimate fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants forever!

In the Gospel, we learn a little more about the person Joseph beyond his place in the Abraham/Davidic line.  We hear his story at the critical moment of his betrothal to Mary.  When Mary is found to be with child before their marriage, Joseph doesn’t rise up in righteous anger at her betrayal.  Rather he decides to break their engagement quietly so she won’t be held up to the harsh judgment of others.  Clearly, he is a gentle, thoughtful man who truly loves Mary and wants to protect her even though he believes she has sorely betrayed him.  But then he has the dream with the message from the angel assuring him that Mary has not betrayed him nor has she been unfaithful but rather has become the vessel of God.  He believes wholeheartedly in the message from the angel and takes Mary as his wife without further fanfare.

There are only a few Gospel stories about Joseph but they are completely consistent.  Joseph is the gentle loving protector of Mary and her son, Jesus.  He is a man who believes that God speaks to him in his dreams and takes prompt action to keep Mary and Jesus safe.  He is present as Jesus grows up, teaches Jesus his craft and through his example, shows Jesus how to be open to God and faithfully loving to those around him.

It’s no wonder that Joseph is held in such high esteem throughout the Christian tradition.  His faithful love for Mary and Jesus is a great example to all of us.

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Exodus 17:3-7
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-42

Reflection:

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
John 4:23

The Scriptures for today’s Mass speak eloquently to me, giving me hope for the future, even as we search for meaning and truth in today’s world.

The image of water in both the first and Gospel readings is easy for us to identify with, given the drought, the many deadly floods that have recently taken place and the questionable quality of our drinking water in our world and in our country. We long for good drinking water. We do not want to be concerned about our next glass of water we drink or the safety of our homes because of dangerous water hazards. So, when Jesus speaks about making available to us life-giving water, a living water that will satisfy our thirst once and for all, then we, like the Samaritan woman with whom he is talking, desire that water, so we many never thirst again. Jesus clearly identifies himself as the Source of Living Water. What a beautiful truth!

Truth is very important for John the Evangelist. He first references Truth in the Prologue, when he writes: “And the Word became Flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory of the Father’ Only Son, full of grace and truth.” John, 1:14 His last reference to truth is made in Chapter 19:35. In all he has 28 references to Truth, including the one that is often quoted, “What is Truth?” John, 18:38, asked by Pilate, the Roman Ruler. So, when John says in today’s Gospel that people must worship God in Spirit and Truth, he is speaking not only to the Samaritan woman, but also to us: to us today, to us in this moment in time in our history.

This is not the first time that our Church has asked us to speak our Truth. From the Acts of the Apostles to our present day, we followers of Jesus are called to worship the God who is Spirit and Truth. We are to confess, in truth, our Trinity: God, Creator of the Visible and Invisible, Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Mary, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and Love. This is our Faith.

It is difficult to speak our Truth, at times. As children, telling untruths comes easy. With maturity and experience, we begin to recognize “What is Truth.” So, when Jesus caught the Woman at the Well in a lie, he confronted her. When she took responsibility for her untruth, she took another step toward accepting the Living Water that Jesus promised her at the beginning of their conversation and her conversion.

The Gospel concludes by offering us another beautiful and powerful image. Two peoples who had once been bitter enemies, so much so that they never welcomed one another and sometimes even refused them entry into their cities, became friends and shared fellowship with one another. The Samaritans opened their hearts and doors to Jesus and his disciples.

In another place in John’s Gospel, he says: “And the Truth will set you free.” It certainly set Paul the Apostle free. Our second reading fills us with hope and inspiration and peace. We have a God who liberates, because we have a God of Love and Life. We have the Son of God who willingly accepts death so that we may have Everlasting Life, the same life that Jesus offered the Woman at the Well.

Let us have the courage, then, to Worship the God of Spirit and Truth!

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

Scripture:

Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

Reflection:

Gift or threat. We can mark our lives by these two words. If we see another person as a gift, we reach out to them and open our lives to them. If we see another person as a threat, we either pull back in fear or find ways to eliminate the threat from our lives.

Today’s readings tell the story of two groups who could see those closest to them only as threats. In the first reading, Joseph’s brothers are so consumed by hatred for him that they coldly plot his murder. Not only can they no longer bear his presence but, even more, they can no longer bear the thought of him in their lives. Thus, “that master dreamer,” as they cynically describe him, must be permanently eliminated. They strip him, toss him into an empty cistern to die, and then, without a trace of remorse or compunction, “sat down to their meal.” Joseph is saved only because his brothers, deciding to make a tidy profit, sell him as a slave for twenty pieces of silver.

In the gospel, Jesus addresses a parable “to the chief priests and the elders of the people” because he knows they have hardened their hearts against him. He tells a story of an owner of a vineyard who sends his servants to obtain the harvest. But the tenants beat and kill the servants. Then he sends his son, who in the parable represents Jesus, and they kill him as well. The parable poignantly, yet tragically, reveals Jesus’ awareness that he is such a threat to those to whom he has been sent that he will be killed. Instead of receiving him as who he truly is, the gift of God’s love and mercy in person, they are so threatened by Jesus and his message that they will be satisfied with nothing less than his death.

Gift or threat. How do we see those with whom we live and interact each day? And how do we see the God who comes to us in Jesus, the God who calls us to find ways for gift always to triumph over threat?

Paul J. Wadell is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the extended Passionist family.