Claire Smith

Memorial of St. Peter Claver

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b-27
Luke 6:39-42

Reflection:

                                              Becoming Mystics of the Crucified                                                         

Today we are in a jury box listening to Paul defend his ministry of preaching. “I have no choice; I’m under compulsion” to do it. Free, he has made himself a slave wanting to be weak so that he can be one with the weak, to share with them the Good News, and win some of them over.

I thought I found myself in a jury box yesterday, where I and a few other Passionists sat judging two professional Catholic writers, a man and a woman, both people of color.

Could these professionals help us in our mission of preaching Christ Crucified? As they shared with us about their work of writing on injustice and the suffering of men women and children of color in our society, I found myself not in the jury box but being judged, judging myself. They knew the prejudice that keeps people on the margin. They voiced the hurt and suffering known to them as people of color. They showed the faces of the unjustly treated through there professional expertise, and invite compassion and conversion. They showed the gift of hope given to us at Baptism.

Paul is a mystic of the Passion who invites us to share an intimate association with Jesus the Crucified by being one with crucified people. We proclaim Christ Crucified whom we meet in our brothers and sisters, and we come to Christ Crucified by becoming one with them in their suffering. Paul speaks of discipline. Could his discipline be this work of making ourselves one with those who suffer the Passion of Christ, thus enabling them to come to know the Crucified Christ through us?

Imagine Peter Claver, whose feast we celebrate today, in light of the the words of Paul.

Peter who has been in Cartagena for 5 years, in 1615 prepares to go on board a slave ship just arrived. He has established a bit of a reputation and will call himself in the days ahead a ‘slave of slaves’. The owners probably thought he did no harm, indeed the little food or drink he could share, some superficial medicines, the gentleness and kindness wouldn’t hurt and maybe would help the slaves when they got to market.

Poor, disorientated people. Exhausted after a long frightening voyage away from what was known into a cruel unknown. Ahead was work in the fields if they were lucky, others would go into the mines. Another part of the Passion of Christ that Peter knew was the slave system and culture. Some Christians would not go into church or into a confessional if a slave was there before them. How to do good in a society that accepted such injustice, such inhumanity? Peter said, “speak with our hands before we speak with our lips”. He served his crucified Lord by being one with his crucified people. This was also his gift of grace to the unjust. In Columbia today is the Day of National Human Rights. His work was not unseen. Besides the slaves others heard the work of his hands.

No blind guide is Peter Claver, SJ. He is a teacher inviting us to become like him. He gives a vision, a mystic’s vision. He pulls the plank of prejudice out of our eyes enabling us to see the Crucified of today, and full of compassion respond to Christ whom we meet in them. I so look forward to working with our two new writers.    

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Micah 5: 1-4 or Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

Reflection:

An Amazing Day of Grace

Let us celebrate with joy the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for from her arose the sun of justice, Christ our God. “We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His decree.” –Romans 8:28

On this day when we celebrate Mary’s birthday, some of you are on the verge of divorce, in danger of death, or in agony. Jesus loves you infinitely and has died on the cross and risen from the dead for love of you. On this birthday celebration of Mary, expect Jesus to make “all things work together for the good” (Rm 8:28)

It is typical in the church to celebrate a saint’s death-day instead of the saint’s birthday. The birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an exception because in her humanity, God “has prepared a living temple where his Son, made flesh, wanted to live among us and give us salvation”; she “reminds us that God is faithful to his promises” (Pope Francis). In fact, from the first moment of her existence God had a loving plan for her—and through her, for us! In honoring Mary on Her birthday, we honor God, for “He who established the heavens in wisdom has fashioned a living heaven” (Byzantine Liturgy).

Deacon Peter Smith serves at St. Mary’s/Holy Family Parish in Alabama, a retired Theology teacher from Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, a retired soldier from the US Air Force, and a member of our Passionist Family.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 7:25-31
Luke 6:20-26

Reflection:

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:

Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man. -Luke 6:20-22

Counting each step on our way to base camp which was still hours away, I found myself in the middle of a single file line of fourteen people slowly following the person in front of me. Twelve of us had spent the last two days driving from Chicago, an elevation of 600 feet above sea level to Vail Colorado, an elevation of 8,000 feet. Upon arriving we had two more days to get used to breathing at the higher elevation, while also doing team-building exercises like scaling a 10-foot wall without the help of ropes and learning to rely on each other. On this day we headed up another thousand feet to what would become our base camp for the next five days—truly a life-changing hike. It was the early 1980’s and we were out to “Meet the Wilderness” yes, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but also that wilderness that lies in each one of us when we isolate.

Here I am sharing this with you some forty years later and still learning how important it is not to isolate. I’m a slow learner, and I’m still not sure I get it—my wealth does not come from my bank account, my pension, my financial bottom line…life is not all due to my hard work, my toeing the line, my getting up early each morning, my praying to God, my doing chores…studying all about poverty, ignorance and crime, and racking up a bunch of letters behind my name, does not give me the secret formula that would do away with the world’s evils.

I’m learning, that only by me sharing my experience like I’m doing with the reflection, getting involved with my neighbors, helping tend the gardens…by my learning to live on less, less energy, less of the earth’s resources will there be enough for all of God’s (not Dan’s) creation. Yes, I am loved and can be part of that creation, but only if I join the we, meaning all of God’s creation.

Thank you, God, for sending us Jesus to remind us of our real wealth—one another and mother earth. Help me live those beatitudes recorded in today’s gospel selection, those paths up to a higher elevation. Yes, the going does get tough, but You are with us.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago.  

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Luke 6:12-19

Reflection:

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.  -Luke 6:12

Early in my life I, like most young people, caught the waves of activities all about me. Tasks to be finished, people to meet, events I did not want to miss, things I needed to buy, schedules to be filled.

Living frenetically, without self-reflection, without extended periods of silence, with rushed recognition of God’s presence, eventually led to a life of superficial experiences and minimal personal growth. And a frail relationship with God.

Under the gentle hand of a wise spiritual director, I gradually learned the satisfaction of extended prayer, but not without maximum resistance by me.

Making regular prayer a priority has, in time, shifted everything in my life.

What I thought I could not live without, I found out was false. What I thought I had to do, to achieve, to win, I found out were unnecessary efforts.

In time, I found a space of, what one spiritual guide called, “poised freedom.” It is a place, in God’s presence, where, in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, “…in everyday life, we hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts as we have a choice and are not bound by some responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response to our life forever with God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me.”

This experience of letting go frees us from urgencies, wishes and idols that our morally illiterate culture dictates we must follow.

When I make sure to take time each day for silent space in God’s presence, God seems to gradually seep into my awareness, giving me the wisdom to distinguish which things are ultimately important from the things that are imprisoning. By God’s grace I, step by step, am led to God’s deepening life in me.

This closeness is no doubt what Jesus experienced spending the night alone with God on that mountain. Throughout the gospels, he models for us how to pray. It is always done away from the activities and expectations of others. He sits alone with his Father, in silence.

By pulling back each day, finding a quiet space in a church, a closed room, a park, along a wooded path, or at the shore, and just sitting in silence before God, is absolutely necessary to deepen God’s life in us.

St Francis de Sales is said to have recommended we spend at least 30 minutes a day in prayer, except on days we are very busy. Then he recommended we spend an hour in prayer, no doubt because we have more to filter through the lens of God.

Trusting God will do what is necessary to draw us closer, we have to take the first step and be available for God to do the work. Otherwise, we drift through each day feeling and thinking of the immediate, the superficial, the urgent and the inconsequential demands of daily life.

God is offering each of us a lot more out of life than we realize unless we take time to stop, listen, and let God work God’s ways within us.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Luke 6:6-11

Reflection:

And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.   -1 Corinthians 5:2

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”   -Luke 6:9

There is a great dichotomy in our readings this day. On the one hand we have Paul telling a church in Corinth that they must hold to the Law. He severely admonishes them for allowing sin to flourish in their midst. He doesn’t even suggest that they try to redeem the sinner! He encourages them to turn him loose and let him make his way alone.

On the other hand, we have Jesus in the synagogue. Before the gathered religious authorities He seems to define the Law. He heals on the Sabbath! Now, in our day and age, it’s hard to understand how strident the law against all activity on the Sabbath was at Jesus’s time. I mean, who among us has not done yard work or gone shopping on a Sunday? But to those gathered around Jesus this was not a minor bending of the rules but a flagrant disregard for accepted tradition. What is it that sets these two scenes apart?

I once asked a friend of mine who is a priest this question. “Why is it,” I asked, “that sometimes it seems the laws of the Church can be bent or even broken?” He answered me in a similar way as Jesus does: “Is the act life-giving or community building or does it break relationships, tear apart friendships, damage our relationship with God?”

No greater theologian than Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) said this about church authority: “Over the pope as expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority, there stands one’s own conscience which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary, against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”

My prayer today is that I develop a “well-formed conscience [that] is upright and truthful” as the Catechism instructs so that I can truly discern what is life-giving.

Talib Huff is a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center In Citrus Heights, California. You can contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

Wisdom 9:13-18
Philemon 9-10,12-17
Luke 14:25-33

Reflection:

The Cost of Discipleship

Quite a picture in today’s Gospel:  Jesus is travelling with “great” crowds; He stops and tells them that, to follow Him you must “hate” your family and even your own life!  Strong words!  Discipleship is a great calling, but…hatred of family?  carrying your own cross?  Challenging words to those who wanted to join His team and help spread His “Good News” –both then, and now.

Jesus continues his discourse and invites his followers to consider the “cost” of discipleship.  He compares the decision to follow Him to building a tower (most likely for winemaking) or going to battle.  In both examples Jesus highlights that a person would be foolish to embark upon a major project without research, planning, sufficient resources, etc.

Today’s Gospel encourages us to consider our own discipleship, rooted in our Baptism.  No doubt we’ve been blessed thus far in many ways – and we’ve faced challenging times in living our faith in this 21^st Century world of pandemics, violence, injustice, etc.  Jesus directly challenges us to look deep in our hearts and check on our resources and personal resolve:  Is Jesus 1^st and foremost in our lives?  Do people or things of any size or shape get in the way?  Are we open to the energy involved in growth and change to follow Jesus?

“Hard”?  Yes!!  “Impossible”?  No!!  As noted in the reading from the Book of Wisdom, God provides the grace, the Spirit, to help us.  And like Paul in his letter to Philemon, we have the support of one another in daily living as credible disciples of Jesus — be we imprisoned or sick or elderly or experiencing any limitations. 

We are today invited to be grateful for the gift of our faith, nurtured in each of us by our family, friends and spiritual leaders…  Likewise, to be grateful for our 21^st Century call to discipleship within the vocation we’ve received from God.  We’re encouraged to continue growing as disciples, accepting the opportunities and challenges that are part of life – helping each of us be not just “one of the crowd,” but truly unique, faith-filled and loving disciples.  God’s blessings upon us all as we credibly share our faith and our gifts with our needy sisters and brothers world-wide.

Fr. John Schork, C.P. serves as the Province Vocation Director and also as Local Superior of the Passionist Community of Holy Name in Houston, Texas.  

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 4:6b-15
Luke 6:1-5

Reflection:

Paul warns his readers, and us, ‘not to be inflated with pride’. This specific warning might well be expanded into a broader warning not to be so taken by our opinion and perspective that we become blind to the larger truth.

That would seem to be an application of todays’ gospel text. The disciples are picking food to eat, a simple task, but one, if viewed through a narrow, literal interpretation of the Law was seen as ‘law breaking’. While some Pharisees see the actions of the disciples in this light, Jesus points out to them not just a parallel case that is not condemned, but opens their mind to a larger picture, to richer interpretations and newer possibilities.

Perhaps a parallel might help us. Early astronomers saw the solar system with the technology available to them (means we might now describe as primitive) and it led them to speculate accordingly. Today telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope show us that what is beyond us is vaster than we have ever believed, and in fact promises to be even more mysterious.

Likewise, if one attempts to see life and fidelity to God by means of limited theories and dull imagination, then we will miss the vastness and opulence of Jesus vision. We are invited to see life, love, our future and God through the eyes and vision of Jesus.

Today Jesus makes a simple concluding statement to the Pharisees – ‘The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath’, but it places him and his vision of God above all else. The limits of the imagination and interpretation of the Pharisees is shaken by a new revelation, one which has the potential to reorder what had been accepted doctrine and to reorient their thinking and interpretation (if they choose to be open).

We may not all experience a call to be reformers (like St Gregory whose feast we celebrate today), but we are called to listen to the deep wisdom of Jesus and to the legacy of freedom he has revealed to us.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia.