Claire Smith

Scripture:

Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13
Matthew 9:32-38

Reflection:

Thus says the LORD: They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority; they established princes, but without my approval. –Hosea 8:4

But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.” -John 9:34

“Fake News,” “Alternative Facts,” “Misinformation,” It’s hard to listen today to any source of current events without wondering if you are hearing the truth. John records Jesus as saying, “The truth will set you free.” But sometimes it is difficult to determine the truth from the falsehood.

In today’s gospel we have a clear example of fake news. The Pharisees, without discerning for themselves, declare that Jesus, “drives out demons by the prince of demons.” This is obviously said to dissuade the people from listening to Jesus. They fear the growing influence Jesus has on the crowds. They see his impact and want to mitigate it. They suspect their own influence might wane if people begin to believe in Jesus. Who should the people believe? The Pharisees, who are their leaders, or this upstart?

Later in Matthew Jesus says we will “know them [the good trees] by their fruits.”  When people ask Jesus if he is the awaited Messiah, He tells them to report what they see, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” These all seem to be very good fruits.

Jesus clearly tells us to discern with our own eyes. Where do we see compassion, tenderness, kindness being expressed? These are the “good fruits” He tells us to look for.

Unfortunately, this takes effort on our part. It is easier to choose a side and stick to it, regardless of the position. But as Christians we are asked to be awake and aware of what is going on around us. We are called to look for “the good fruits” and not fall into the trap of   blindly following a particular party out of ease. My prayer for today is that I take the time and effort to discern the “good fruits” in the world around me before I choose to lend my support.

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:

Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
John 21:20-25

Reflection:

Love Received, Love Shared

It’s July 4^th, 2022! 

For citizens of the U.S.A., this Independence Day invites us to ponder and celebrate our nation’s 246-year history and its involvement in the world today.  The Scripture selections for the liturgy of Monday in the 14^th week of Ordinary Time encourage us to pause and reflect on our faith and its impact on the realities of 21^st Century life.  God’s Life and Love are real, today, for all of us in our “Common Home”!!

Our reading from the prophet Hosea presents God’s love as that of a husband and wife:  attractive (almost seductive!), forever, forgiving, faithful, life-giving.  Human experience tells us today that even the most ideal human relationship is open to growth; that growth in love entails a life-long commitment!  Hosea reminds us that God’s love is life-giving and transformative, inviting our involvement.

Jesus reveals Divine Love in today’s Gospel selection by His loving concern for the sick and dying.  He meets the synagogue leader whose young daughter had just died.  As only a parent would, the official appeals for Jesus’ help.  Jesus responds and goes to the daughter.  On the way, a woman with a chronic hemorrhage boldly reaches out in faith to simply touch His cloak in hope of healing – and she is cured!  Jesus’ words to her echo his earlier words to the synagogue leader:  have courage!  believe!  Jesus travels on and lovingly reaches out to revive the young girl.  The result:  amazing!  Jesus shares life and love with all:  the young and younger, the “important” and ordinary, poor and rich…Life that lasts!

We today gratefully celebrate our independence and our interdependence, seeking to connect with our sisters and brothers worldwide.  We need Jesus’ healing touch and encouragement:  sickness, violence, doubt, and death are all-too evident; injustice, hunger, and apathy sicken many.  As we are blessed with faith in Jesus and his Crucified Love, may His Love transform and energize each of us, motivating us to witness the life, goodness, and freedom that is ours as God’s daughters and sons.

Let the celebration begin!  God is gracious, and merciful, and loving!

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:

Isaiah 66:10-14c
Galatians 6:14-18
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Reflection:

Over the course of their lives, many people will wrestle with their desires for position, power, privilege, and prestige.

These desires, or indeed often ‘drives’, will surface again and again in the journey of life. They are constantly present to us – be it in family settings or in the workplace and in public or community service roles. Parents will need to temper these desires and use them wisely in family relationships and roles, partners will need to exercise them carefully in building their loving relationships, people entrusted with roles of a fiduciary nature have a special obligation to be aware of such drives and to moderate them accordingly.

Such desires are not of themselves wrong, we all seek to enhance our selves and to expand our horizons. The danger lies in those hidden, unreflected, or undisciplined moments in life when needs can overwhelm good judgment and we rush towards something that seems to fill the void we feel.  In such moments we can align ourselves with unrestrained desire to self-promote, or to misuse our power, or to be selfish in seeking privilege or act only to win prestige – all at the expense of our better self and the good of others.

On the other hand, a good use of our positions of influence, a ‘shepherd-like’ exercise of one’s personal or institutional power, a service-oriented attitude to the privileges one enjoys and a healthy humility in the face of the prestige afforded to us, are truly gospel responses.  For in the vision of Jesus such attitudes and approach to service underpin all our actions. For Jesus generosity and self-sacrifice need to accompany all positions of trust.

Thus, today we read of his commission to the seventy-two. They are truly blessed – indeed they are to be his emissaries, literally sent out ahead of Jesus to represent him and prepare the way for him. The details of their commission are more suited to the life and conditions of first century missionaries in Palestine, and we do not have to imitate those actions – wise as they are. Rather we are invited to imitate the attitudes behind the actions – not seeking our own prestige or privileges, not pursuing only our own agendas and not being weighed down by the trappings of office.

The Lord needs disciples who are discerning, who are capable of carrying out the task of missionary evangelisation, who are capable of humility, self-discipline, and prudential judgements and who bear the peace of Christ within their own self and radiate this same peace to all they encounter.

Jesus needs disciples who are not easily side-tracked or seduced by the ‘trappings’ that accompany one’s role, but rather possess an innate capacity to put others first. Just as he did.

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

Scripture:

Amos 9:11-15
Matthew 9:14-17

Reflection:

People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.  -Matthew 9:17

In Jesus’ time, they did not put wine in glass bottles like we do. A wineskin was made of the complete hide of an animal, such as a goat or a sheep. New wine was put into new wineskins, because as it ferments, it generates carbon dioxide gas that exerts pressure on the skin bottles. New skins expand; old, inflexible ones burst under the pressure. Everyone knew that new wine needed to go into new wineskins. So, in drawing attention to the need for new wineskins, what is Jesus telling us about our life with Him?

I believe Jesus is calling us to wholeheartedness and also a willingness to change, to be flexible. He is describing the process of conversion. Half-hearted pouring of our new commitment into the old containers of our lives will not do; they are just not flexible enough to meet the challenges for growth and change. When an addict joins Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), they commonly hear this at their first AA meetings: “Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”  (AA Big Book) Recovery from addiction and discipleship with Jesus both require wholehearted commitment and willingness to change our lives.

The call to conversion can come from a crisis close to home like addiction, or a crisis as large as our planet. Earth, our common home, is in crisis with climate change resulting in “100 year” fires, droughts, and floods. We are in the midst of a Great Extinction where, if the current rate of human destruction of Creation continues, one-half of Earth’s higher lifeforms will be extinct by 2100. In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis identifies our current ecological crisis as a “summons to profound interior conversion.” What everyone needs, he writes, is an “‘ecological conversion,’ whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.” Pope Francis is calling Catholics to this conversion.

Pope Francis is praying for this grace of the Holy Spirit, this conversion, so that we will have the flexibility to change and live into the Laudato Si’ Goals (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org/) promulgated for the whole church in 2021. The Laudato Si’ Goals call for “new wineskins” in the areas of economics, education, spirituality, lifestyles, and community participation. And if our ecological conversion is wholehearted, it will include every aspect of our lives, especially our understanding of, and our expressions of our intertwined relations with God, self, others, and Earth.

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.

Scripture:

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Matthew 9:9-13

Reflection:

The first reading for today is a blistering attack on the rich and powerful who exploit the poor for their own gain.  Amos, the eighth-century prophet, is known as one of the most powerful voices in the Bible calling for social justice.  Amos did not aspire to this role but was “drafted” by God to do so.  In a poignant passage, he exclaims, “I am not a prophet, nor do I belong to a company of prophets.  I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamores, but the Lord took me from following the flock, and the lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

And prophesy he did!  In today’s reading, Amos challenges his fellow Israelites: “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!”  His indictments of those who exploit the poor have an eerie contemporary quality.  He accuses them of reducing the size of the containers for the wheat and fixing the scales and the weights that measure out the food of the poor.  They are willing to sell out a poor man “for a pair of sandals.” Such cruelty and injustice, Amos warns in blunt words, will earn the wrath of God, the one who cares for the poor.

God’s care for the poor and vulnerable is one of the most consistent and challenging motifs in the Bible from start to finish.  The basic logic is that God is compassionate and just and cares deeply for the well-being of those most vulnerable and in need of support.  One recurring biblical expression for this is God’s provident love for “the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner”—each of whom were vulnerable in a strong clan culture that could leave an “outsider” unprotected or supported. A fundamental conviction of the Old Testament is that Israel was a “covenant” people, God promising to protect and nourish them but they, in turn, expected to care for each other. Those made “in the image and likeness of God, were to act with the same sense of compassion and justice characteristic of the God of Israel.

The gospel selection for today from Matthew’s Gospel moves in a similar direction.  We hear of Jesus’ call to Matthew to become a disciple: “Follow me.”  Immediately this tax collector, despised by some of his fellow citizens, gets up from his “customs post” and follows Jesus.  We can presume that Matthew was ecstatic at this recognition by Jesus and invites his Master to dine with him and his friends, identified by Matthew as “many tax collectors and sinners.”  This, of course, earns a rebuke of Jesus by his religious opponents: “Why,” they ask Jesus’ disciples, “does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus’ answer echoes the spirit of Amos, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.  Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice [a quotation from the prophet Hosea]. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus reaches out in compassion to the poor, the lost, and the despised.

The great saints of our Catholic tradition have exemplified this same spirit of compassion and care for the poor, from the iconic medieval Saint Francis of Assisi to the not yet canonized Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic worker movement.  It is also a constant theme of Pope Francis’ teaching and example.  In today’s Eucharist the same challenge comes to us.

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Scripture:

Amos 7:10-17
Matthew 9:1-8

Reflection:

My eye was drawn first to the line in today’s gospel reading that says, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts?” When I read the comments from both sides of dissension in the news of today’s world, that is the thought that goes through my mind – why is it so easy for people to harbor evil thoughts against each other, rather than doing as the Father wants from us and just loving each other, living a life of prayer, and following Christ.

We live in a disposable and superficial world, where we act first and think later. We want to have what we want, do what we want, and say what we want, with no regard to kindness, respect, or mutual affection for anyone else. It is a selfish society. And in that society it is easier to do what you want, rather than do as the Father has asked – love one another; feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or comfort the sorrowful; live your vocation, whether you are single, married, a priest or a religious. 

Where is humility, charity and brotherly love today? They still appear as a paralytic on a stretcher, the person reaching out to us for support, crying out for love and mercy, wanting to take that first step toward the glory of a loving God.

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Scripture:

Acts of the Apostles 12:1-11
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Matthew 16: 13 -19

Reflection:

Today we celebrate two great men of the Church, Saints Peter and Paul. Two ordinary men, one a fisherman and the other a Pharisee and a tentmaker. Two ordinary men who recognized that God had called them to be something greater than they thought themselves to be. Two ordinary men who had courage to speak the truth that was spoken to them through Christ. They endured suffering through many hardships and trials for their words and actions and yet they kept on believing in the truth that dwelt in their hearts.

 “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church . . .” Mt 16:19

I have just returned from a trip to Rome, Assisi, Venice, the Klagenfurt region of Austria, Salzburg and Munich. As part of our travels, we had tickets to the Wednesday Papal Audience in Saint Peter’s Square. It was a surreal moment when Pope Francis passed by in his Pope-mobile. To be sitting there with the beautiful architecture and statues of the Apostles and Saints and hearing him give his address with many other pilgrims made real the image of the universal Church. After the audience, we had an opportunity to go into Saint Peter’s Basilica where the art and architecture is so beautiful and large that it is overwhelming. To be where so much history of the Church has taken place and to walk where many historical figures and saints have walked was both a thrill and a sacred moment I shall never forget.

To begin our tour in Rome was perfect and set the stage for the other churches we would visit or I myself would visit over the next two weeks. To pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi, see Saint Mark’s and attend Sunday liturgy at St Pantalon, where the world’s largest canvas painting covers the ceiling, in Venice.  In Salzburg, Saints Peter and Paul cathedral and in Munich it was the Church of the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter’s, Saint Michael’s and the Old Cathedral near the MarienPlatz. Their beauty give praise to God as well as the people who come to pray and celebrate mass every day and on Sundays. These churches and cathedrals were built to teach the people of their day about the Church and they are not the Church. If there were no great buildings the Church would still exist because the Church is more than brick and mortar, it is the People of God.

All of us who are baptized in the Church are the Church. From the beginning it has always been about the people. The prayers of the Church are powerful, they may not always be answered the way we would like but they are still answered. Peter and Paul both put their faith and trust in the Church as they went about spreading the “Good News” They did not have an easy task with the many abuses they underwent as they preached, taught and baptized those who wanted to become disciples. On this feast we remember our two great saints who established the Church. Let us pray for our Church and world that God may send us the graces we need to proclaim the “Good News” and be the Church in our world today.

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.