Claire Smith

Scripture:

Judges 11:29-39a
Matthew 22:1-14

Reflection:

The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.
 -Matthew 22:2–3

Recently, I participated in a yearly late-summer ritual that many, many families experience when they take their college-bound son or daughter to move into their dorm room, as they begin a new phase of their lives. Whether this is a new experience for the parents or not, it has that feel to the opening lines of our Gospel for today’s Mass: a king preparing a wonderful wedding feast for his child. The parents want to make sure that this son or daughter will have the best that they can give them as they move out of the house and begin a new life. They will talk to their new dorm mates, meet their parents and furnish their bedroom with everything they need to live as they begin their studies.

Those invited into these newly established living arrangements can be likened to the wedding guests in our parable today. At first glance, the king thinks that those who belong to his social circle would be delighted to come and feast at his table. Those invited were apparently wealthy, those who could afford to buy additional property or chose to take care of business transactions rather than celebrate a friend’s feast. Others were even hostile to the invitation.

The people that these college students invite into their banquets, who will eat with them, party with them, study with them, will often determine how their life will unfold in the future. Some will make life-long friends who will become important participants in their future. Others will be temporary friends, and at graduation, will part, never to have a social connection with them again. Others will be false or manipulative companions, (those without “wedding garments”) who will break their hearts or who may want to lead them astray from their family values.

All this time, the family may try to intervene, may find themselves feeling helpless and powerless to help. We hope the vast majority will be grateful that their child has passed a major test to maturity and adulthood.

While this reflection is a parable within a parable, we all recognize that many around us are not always responsive to God’s invitation to come to the table of plenty, and those who we think should be the first invited, are refusing to come to the feast. But God will not be thwarted in giving a generous invitation. All are called, but not all chose to come. This is not God’s choice; it is our choice. God’s Love will never be denied us!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California. 

Scripture:

Judges 9:6-15
Matthew 20:1-16

Reflection:

Are you envious because I am generous?

What is it about this parable that gets our attention?  What of our experience gets touched?  Challenged?  Often our first reaction is… well, that is not fair!, they shouldn’t all get the same wage, they didn’t work the same…

In Matthew’s Gospel, this story follows the rich young man who Jesus tells to sell everything and follow me – become a disciple – and he goes away sad.  Peter then says to Jesus – we have sold everything and followed you, what is in this for us?  And now this parable – everyone gets the same, regardless of when they begin to follow?!?  Our humanness cannot understand.  How can this be, we mumble and grumble and ultimately, go away sad…

But the owner of the vineyard, kept his deal, he paid everyone what he offered them – what they agreed to.  Maybe that is the real question – what do we agree to?  Are we really followers of Jesus?  Do we let the gospel guide us in all we do?  The whole gospel – not just what is easy or what we like to do – not just what is comfortable, but what is challenging as well?  Are we like Peter, who says, look, we have done this, this, and this – so what do we get, aren’t we better than him/her who hasn’t?  Or are we willing to do what we do out of love – love for God, for others and for self? 

When we notice ourselves reacting and getting defensive – do we pause to ask God to help us notice where this resistance or reaction is coming from – what is underneath this feeling, emotion, reaction – how can I open my heart to your generosity, love, mercy and forgiveness.  What does God want us to notice in ourselves, is there an opportunity for transformation?

Are we willing to leave everything – our judgments, biases, fears and defensiveness – to follow Jesus – can we be grateful that God is big enough for everyone – God’s generosity reaches everyone – does ours?

Faith Offman is the Associate Director of Ministry at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Judges 6:11-24
Matthew 19:23-30

Reflection:

Jesus says a lot of nervy things, but for many of us there are few things he utters that are more upsetting and preposterous—and just downright offensive—than the shocking statements that begin today’s gospel. In a culture that idolizes wealth and possessions and teaches us to measure the meaning and success of our lives in light of them, to hear Jesus proclaim that it would be “easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye” than for a rich man or woman to set foot in the kingdom of God strikes us as both offensive and outrageous. Among the many teachings we wish Jesus would retract, this is surely near the top of the list.

Jesus never softens the sting of some truths because Jesus loves us and wants our good, and sometimes that means telling us things we would rather not hear. Jesus knew that human beings desire, hunger and long for whatever we think will fulfill us. We attach ourselves to whatever we think will bless us with joy and bring some peace and satisfaction to our endlessly restless hearts. Unfortunately, our culture schools us to believe, even if our hearts know otherwise, that money and material things will complete us, that they will heal and make us whole; thus we should love and strive for them more than anything else.

The thrust of the gospels is to purify and order our loves so that we truly can grow and flourish and find joy. That means becoming detached from many things in order to be wholeheartedly attached to God. Another name for this is conversion and it is what happens to us when we follow Jesus on the challenging but infinitely hopeful path of discipleship.

What has won our heart? What do we love more than anything else and most fear losing? If our answer to these questions is God, we can rejoice for we have already entered the kingdom of God.

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

Scripture:

Judges 2:11-19
Matthew 19:16-22

Reflection:

The Israelites are living in the Promised Land.  They are mixed in with many other peoples with different customs, religions, practices, etc.  They have no central government.  Rather, each tribe lives on its piece of territory.  They come together if one or more tribes get in trouble.  God raises up spiritual and military leaders, called the Judges, in times of crisis.

The days of purity of faith, fashioned in their desert journey, are gone.  The Israelites are attracted and enticed by the cultures around them.  They are so diluting their faith that they are becoming an abomination to their Covenant God.   God allows their enemies to overpower them and harm them.  If they can make the association of this punishment to their sinfulness, then they can repent and God will bring good back into their lives.

Even though the stories of God’s mighty acts are told to them and handed down from generation to generation and remembered and re-enacted in their feast-day liturgies, the stimuli of the present, quickly blur and distance them from a sense of God’s presence.  They drift into the oblivion and faithlessness of the present moment.

Doesn’t this sound a lot like what is happening in our Western culture today?  We are absolutely being buried under this, that and another, often needless gadget.  Images, sounds, numbing and shallow philosophies of life, identity denying theories, political parties imprisoned in their ideologies, relativism running rampant and on and on we can go.  Even though the faith we grew up with years ago was not “desert pure”, it was certainly more “God orientating” than what so many people have today.

Jesus has us left with his Church, WORD AND SACRAMENT.  The Word seems to mean something to some but Sacrament struggles to breathe and survive.  The intensity and simplicity of Sacrament no longer have a strong attraction.  Maybe God will have to wipe the slate of our society clean through punishment before we can see again the etches of God’s law that has become buried underneath.

Jesus also left us with His Church, the Holy Spirit.  Come Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth!

Fr. Blaise Czaja, C.P. preaches parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist Community in Houston, Texas. 

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
1 Corinthians 15:20-27
Luke 1:39-56

Reflection:

Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. This feast celebrates our faith, that Mary, as the mother of God, was taken up, body and soul into heaven. We hear in our second reading (1 Corinthians 15:20-27), “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father…” And so, we believe that Mary received this promise as one first among those “who belong to Christ.”

For me, this feast tells us that Mary’s trust in God, and her hope in Jesus was vindicated. And that the promise fulfilled for her has been offered to everyone.

It’s not always easy to live in hope and trust. I usually don’t mess with the Book of Revelation because there always seems to be wild speculations about whether the visions described in that book are being fulfilled in our times. But in our first reading (Revelation 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab), the image of a terror-inducing dragon, standing before a woman about to give birth, ready to devour the child when she gave birth, gives expression, I think, to what many people might be feeling today.

Does it not seem sometimes that fear and a feeling of helplessness in the face of poverty and violence are ready to “devour” our hope? Or that resentment and a desire for vengeance are ready to “devour” mercy? Or that greed and prejudice and indifference and complacency are ready to “devour” our capacity to love?

The future can seem bleak. But our faith reminds us that out of God’s love for us, the virgin Mary did give birth to the Son of God, Jesus, who is our Savior and Lord! We believe that that Son of God died for us on the Cross and rose from the dead to give us all the promise of everlasting life. So we need not let our hope and mercy and love be devoured by the ways of the world. We can live in hope and show mercy and share love. We can, in the words of Pope Francis, care for our “common home.” But the time to act is now.

In our Gospel reading (Luke 1:39-56), after Elizabeth gives Mary a greeting which comes from the Holy Spirit, Mary gives a testimony which is often referred to as the Magnificat. And in part of that testimony, Mary describes how God has often turned the wisdom of the world on its head (scattering the “proud,” casting down the “mighty” and lifting up the “poor;” filling the “hungry” and sending the “rich” away empty). To care for each other and our common home, we will most likely need to stand worldly wisdom on its head in many ways. But with the grace of God, and a willingness to work together, we can do our part in building up the kingdom.

To paraphrase Elizabeth’s words to Mary: Blessed are we who believe that what has been spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Joshua 24:14-29
Matthew 19:13-15

Reflection:

Recently I heard a recording from a Fr. Richard Rohr presentation called the “Beginners Mind”. It reminded me of how a child reacts to the world. When we arrive in a room with small children, the child looks for the adult with a smile, the one who is open and friendly—the simple detective work of one hunting and searching for love.

Children detect hostility, unfriendliness, and those who are unauthentic in a way that is beyond words. Their agenda is simple; there is no agenda. There is no duality in their thinking, just looking for the one who is most friendly, open, and willing to love. Come play with me is mostly present in their eyes.  

How much of this can we learn again in our relationship with God. How many have fallen prey to following the tradition rather than the love? Our Catholic tradition without love is meaningless. Particularly if we start to “preach” tradition in a way that divides us from others rather than unites us in the community of God; the Body of Christ. The Church universal.

We sometimes need a reminder the word Catholic means universal. For us this is universal love, and there is nowhere we can feel and hear that word more soundly than in love expressed by a child. A child cannot fend for themselves; they survive only with love. So do I. Without love, I am nothing, just someone looking for a cave to dwell in with a warm fire and a loving friend.

The loving friend we seek is the same one the child in the room opens their heart towards. The love expressed by the adult in the room is filled with the grace of God. And one willing to communicate it freely, willingly with the smile which requires no repayment. Just gift. Pure gift.

Let us return to the “Beginners Mind”, let us unlearn the prejudices and offer ourselves openly to listen to others, even offer love to those we dislike, without scowls or pretense. The child in us all brings us back to the Beginners Mind, when we did not judge, but loved.

And sat silently on the floor waiting for God to come and play with us. Forever.

BE READY LIKE A CHILD

Be ready like a child,

For learning is simple when we accept
For belief with a child’s mind
is like simple addition.

The result is pure and right.

“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;
for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Gospel of Matthew

Reflection, Photograph and Poem by Michael Cunningham, OFS, the Director and CEO of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Joshua 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17
Matthew 18:21-19:1

Reflection:

The goal of this reflection is to deepen our commitment to daily prayer in contemplation with Christ, and our commitment to eternal life through our merciful acts towards others, especially the stranger.

“When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.” Joshua is profoundly aware of the universal implications of the “Chosen People crossing into the Promised Land.” A foretaste of our Salvation! He desires that this event is sealed in their hearts. Never forgotten. The implications of this event would take us into the next life…the final crossing of the Jordan.

“Stand still.”

 That is what we are encouraged to do each day in prayer.

“Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.” I ask myself the question, do I take the voice of God seriously, and do I deliberately pay attention?

If possible, the next time you are around the Table of the Lord, bring to mind this thought. If you are the Body and a member of Christ’s Body, your own mystery is placed on the table of the Lord – You receive your own mystery. That is, “Your intimate, unique relationship with God and all that God has in store for you according to God’s Will.”

To encounter the multifaceted Body of Christ, as something immediate and visible in our lives, we accept our daily occurrences and encounters with people as what I call “graced reality.”

Prayer is always an encounter with mystery. The Lord is there, in the heart of our Church working its way to Eternal Life, through our “merciful activity.”

Always, “stand still” in God’s presence, in order to know what God asks of you according to God’s Mercy. Expect the unexpected.

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.