Claire Smith

Scripture:

Isaiah 58:9b-14
Luke 5:27-32

Reflection:

The Swirl of Lent Becomes a Stream of Grace

I heard an artist explain why at times he paints with oils and other days with watercolors. When life is in chaos he choses oils because they stay where he puts them and he can return later and move them where he wants. He is in control. But, he said, when my life is too organized, when I need freedom, then I like the watercolors. I put them on a wet piece of paper and they go where they want. I enjoy the surprise of the beautiful colors and the patterns that emerge.

We have begun Lent the journey into the mystery of Our Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection – the Lenten days of preparation, the Triduum and the fifty days of the Resurrection. Lent is like a stream running to the Triduum, to the mystery of Jesus’ dying and rising. It begins with tiny sources here and there that come together feeding the stream that takes me into some aspect of this mystery of God’s love. This is a long hand way to describe the naming of the graces at work these days.

I am feeling it will be a watercolor Lent so far. We describe the Triduum as one great day where the entire mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus is present. There is victory even on the Cross, the marks of the wounds even at the resurrection, all creation blossoming in the quiet of the tomb, and in the breaking of the bread the living memory that becomes, as best we can describe it, a sharing of the banquet table in the Kingdom of God. All these colors swirl around making such amazing patterns.

As the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection swirl around the Triduum, so in our Lenten preparation the celebration we prepare washes back into our preparation. It is at work forming the stream of grace guiding us into the unique gifts of God for us.

Joel’s first words of Lent, ‘Return to me with all your heart’ are words of a lover to a loved one who is separated by place, or distraction, or perhaps betrayal. These words are spoken to us by God. Imagine being called to the embrace of this Lover!

Today Isaiah says, do not push others down, but raise them up. Live the Sabbath, that is, enter the time of walking with God again in the garden. In Jesus we believe this time is now realized. The garden gates are open to us. Matthew hears the words, ‘come follow me’. Like Peter and the fishermen he also ‘leaves everything behind’ to follow’.

May what we prepare to celebrate flow back to us today and draw us on. Even a willing disciple stumbles before the mystery of the Cross; pushed down, burdened, the Shepherd will be raised up and draw all to himself. Did the ‘come follow me’ spoken by Jesus to Matthew sound in Matthew’s ears more like the voice of Joel, ‘return to me with all your heart’? Will we hear those words spoken to us today? Will they come as unexpectedly as to Matthew? Will we be as responsive or slip a few coins in our pocket, just in case? May the celebration for which we prepare come back to ‘delight’ us these Lenten days. It is a time when we don’t ‘follow our ways’. For Jesus the Sabbath was not meant to limit, He becomes the Sabbath and makes grace free to flow where it will. May we enjoy the surprising colors and patterns of this Lenten time.

Fr. William Murphy, CP, is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Isaiah 58:1-9a
Matthew 9:14-15

Reflection:

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Matt: 9:15

When I was taking classes, one thing that irritated me a great deal about some of my teachers was when I would ask a question, the teacher would answer me with a question. Another irritating moment in school was when I would ask my teacher how to spell a word, and then received the reply to look it up in the dictionary. As I look back on these learning experiences, I can appreciate them now for pushing me to become an active learner, to search for answers that were not evident at first glance.

It seems to me that we need to take a closer look at this passage as we begin our Lenten journey. We began our Lent with a very clear declaration as we received our ashes on Wednesday: Repent and Believe in the Gospel. A traditional form of repentance from the beginning of our Salvation History in our Scriptures has always included fasting in one form or another. There were associations of people during the time of Jesus that included fasting weekly. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays; the disciples of John probably fasted weekly as well. Fasting was a sign of living a life pleasing to God as well as a sign of repentance.

At one point, the Catholic Church had many Church laws around fasting. We had a strict rule of fasting from all food and water since midnight before receiving Holy Communion up until 1953. In our Passionist seminary, we had weekly fasting, especially during lent and advent. And as we begin lent, so many of us make it a practice to fast until Easter. Many times, these are symbolic fasts, giving up candy, giving up going to the movies, or giving up our free time to do good deeds for others.

For many Catholics, especially those of us who live in first world countries, fasting from something tangible is a challenge. Many people want to turn fasting from visible behaviors to personal and psychological ones. For some, this may work, but for the vast majority of us who have tried this, it doesn’t. It is more difficult to feel the satisfaction of actually completing a tangible expression of a fast when we do something else in its stead. Those of us who have been on 5 K runs or walks know the satisfaction of crossing the finish line, even though we come in last. As we look deeply into our spiritual life, most of us will recognize how difficult it is to commit to such expressions of tangible fasting practices and address the question: why is that?

The question asked of Jesus in the passage is not from his disciples, but the disciples of John. Jesus’ response did not absolve his followers from fasting in the traditional ways of fasting during his time, but they would fast when it was their time to fast.

But Jesus was also clear, as were the prophets and mentors from Hebrew Scriptures, our practice of fasting is organically connected to living a holy life, a life that is not deceptive, dishonest or duplicitous. Fasting doesn’t absolve our sin, but rather recognizes us as a sinful person who approaches God with a contrite heart. The more that we are helped to recognize the Mercy and Love of God, especially with such practices as fasting, the more we can be assured that we are disciples of Jesus. Lent, then, is our time to fast!

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

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Luke 9:22-25

Reflection:

…I set before you life and prosperity…death and doom…choose life then…

We have begun our Lenten journey with the message of Ash Wednesday – sound the trumpet, prayer, fasting, almsgiving…40 days in the desert…

Today, only the second day in, in some ways really, the first day of our journey and we are told how to do that – choose life!  Yet we are also told – deny yourself…take up your cross daily…is that how we choose life? 

Thomas Merton talks about the first Lent – the Exodus journey of Israel out of slavery – he says, they needed to be ‘educated in freedom’ – they needed to let go of the ‘comfortable’ yet unhealthy ways they learned to adapt to their life of oppression and slavery.  They had to learn how to be free.  To live with no other mast but God.

Each year during Lent we are invited to do the very same thing – learn how to live in the freedom of being a Child of God!  Let go of all the other ‘masters’ that have found a place in our lives, let go of the oppression of always trying to please the other – God even – and be willing to simply live our everyday lives in service of the Lord.  Let go of ‘shoulds’, of unrealistic expectations, of becoming better than, or stronger than, or too comfortable with self-centeredness, greed, busyness or rampant consumerism.  We are invited to learn how to journey through our own ‘passions’ on this life journey – to discover anew, that it is in the going through rather than going around – it is discovering as Jesus discovered, we can do anything with God’s help – but sometimes, like Jesus, we need to go to the garden first and lament – to shout out – so God can enter and transform whatever needs transforming – What in our life needs to be transformed?  Are we willing to take God with us and be ‘educated in freedom’?

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

Scripture:

Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

“Three cheers for Lent!” It’s unlikely that we’ve ever said that before or known anyone who did, but we ought to welcome, and even joyfully celebrate, this season of the liturgical year that begins today, Ash Wednesday, because Lent is the annual six-week long reminder that it’s never too late to change, never too late to begin again. Nothing is ever hopeless, nothing is beyond repair and redemption, because the God whose love brought us into being continually calls us from death back to life by returning to relationship with him.   

To turn to God is to turn to life. To turn away from God is to turn away from life. Lent pivots on these two truths, truths we are all pretty good at denying. Lent reminds us that we are commanded to love God wholeheartedly and our neighbors as ourselves because there is no other path to life. But we frequently live and act as if this were not the case. We become experts at self-sabotage because we develop ways of being that pull us further away from all that is life. We’re miserable. We’re more dead than alive. But after a while we see no way to move from death back to life. 

Today’s readings show us that the way back to life is surprisingly simple. The passage from the prophet Joel puts it succinctly: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart.” In the reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul pleads with us, even begs us: “We implore you, in Christ’s name: be reconciled to God!” And our gospel, with its triple warning against performing religious acts in order to be seen, counseling us instead to “go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private,” assures us that in that quiet, intimate moment we shall discover what it means to be fully known and fully loved, and, therefore, fully alive.

That’s wonderful news, news worth celebrating. And so, on this first day of Lent, let the cheering begin!

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:

Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
Mark 8:14-21

Reflection:

Jesus was on his way to the synagogue to teach. In rout a man afflicted with leprosy fell on his knees with reverence, deference and sincerity he addressed Jesus and asked that he might be cleaned. His response was that “If Jesus wanted to heal him he could.” Jesus then asked him directly. “Do you believe that I could do this?” His answer was “Yes I believe that you can.” Usually leprosy was a terminal illness. This man knew that this was his fate. It was obvious to Jesus this man had already suffered because of his leprosy. It was not only leprosy that caused him his greatest suffering. It was also whatever his “uncleanness” was also a source of suffering. Persons afflicted with leprosy suffered physically, emotionally, and spiritually. People with leprosy are forced to leave his wife, his children, family and friends.

What impressed Jesus was that this man was different. He was extraordinary because he didn’t ask for his leprosy to be removed; but something even more serious caused his suffering. It was his being “unclean.” Jesus was touched. He reached out and blessed this man.This was the same suffering Jesus experience at the tomb of his friend Lazarus.

This passage in Mark reminds us that when we pray we always preface our petitions with “If you will!” This is how Jesus on Gethsemane began His prayer to the Father. This is also the same prayer the man with leprosy prefaced his prayer to Jesus.

Fr. Ken O’Malley, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community at Sacred Heart Monastery in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:

I don’t know about you, but when I read the passage from the 13^th chapter of the Book of Leviticus I felt eerily uncomfortable because it reminded me all too much about the various restrictions we have been facing globally in dealing with the Covid-19 virus.  Leprosy was a terrible disease at the time Leviticus was being composed, one that could destroy an entire tribe or community of people, just like Covid-19.  It was something that was protected against by distancing one person from another, family member from family member, just like Covid-19.  And, if one was exposed in one way or another to the virus, it became only too clear that the right thing to do was to quarantine yourself and no longer be a part of the family or body of friends and associates for their sake even if it did mean being cut off and alone, just like Covid-19.  And the poor soul with leprosy was commanded to “muffle his beard” (assuming it was a man, of course.)   And so, all of us in this Covid19 time are muffling even more than our beards but our faces from nose to chin, and now even double muffling!  And while we may cope with this terrible pandemic with a little humor, there is nothing funny about it at all.  And it was not funny at the time of Leviticus, which was written about five centuries before the birth of Jesus.  But one thing is for sure, the contrast between our first reading from Leviticus and the great mercy of Jesus in curing the man with leprosy could not be clearer.

Imagine the scene, if you will.  Jesus is standing there and the poor man with leprosy sees him.  The scriptures tell us that he came to Jesus and, kneeling down, begged him, saying, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus response to this special man was nothing less than complete and total compassion: “I do will it.  Be made clean.”  With the simple touch of the Master’s hand, this once isolated and shunned soul is now able to be a part of family, synagogue, community, and society once again.  I do will it.  Be made clean!  What a glorious moment!  What joy and wonder.

Today, and perhaps every day this week, come before the Lord as the leper did.  Kneel before him and open your heart to the Lord.  Tell him what you most want to pray for.  Ask him to bless you and all the world.   And then hear him as he says, “I do will it.”  Then just trust in his healing presence and mercy.  It is there for us all. 

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Genesis 3:9-24
Mark 8:1-10

Reflection:

We are being treated this week to stories from the book of Genesis. We have so many elements to reflect upon in our readings today. Scripture scholars offer that the final chapters of Genesis may have been written during the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon, sometime between 587 and 538 B.C. Accordingly, their primeval history was written as they tried to figure out life and death; as well as labor pains and how they might have ended up in captivity. Yet, in their wonderings, they never doubted the compassion of God.

In today’s text, blame enters our world with Adam assigning blame to God for the woman he (God) gave him. Eve on her part realizes that she was tricked by the serpent. However, one common item that stands out between both readings, is the idea of pity or compassion. The word for pity or compassion in Greek is Splanchizomai. Deeper meaning can be understood as translating to “from the depths of his being or even, “womb.” This explanation is so much deeper and richer than pity or compassion as we understand the words.

We hear, “For the man and his wife, the Lord God made leather garments, with which he clothed them.” I have always loved this verse because it speaks to me of compassion and action. Further, it reminds me that God desires to cover our shame with his love. He desires real healing for us to live shame-free regardless of our actions. It also brings to mind many childhood memories of watching my mother making garments. She loved to sew and placed so much care and attention on her work. Today, I read this verse through that lens of the loving tenderness of my mother.

Our Gospel from Mark offers us the story of the second feeding of the multitudes, the first coming in chapter 6: 34-44. This one is believed to be food for the Gentiles. We are now situated in the middle of the Gospel where soon we will hear Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Messiah (8:29).

Pope Francis has said, “If we put what little we have into the hands of Jesus in order to share with others, it will become an overabundant richness.”  I do not think I can add to his words except to say that it is not just our food we are called to share although, that is helpful. Perhaps we can imagine that Jesus feels deep compassion for those in need of help in our world, today. What I read in this Good News is that each of us has a part to play in making miracles happen. We simply should not assume that seven loaves and a few fish cannot feed thousands abundantly with leftovers. We are called to do what we can.

Another element that I see in the text is the idea of waiting for Jesus to act. “Taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute.” We often find ourselves impatient as we wait on Jesus to act and attempt to take matters into our own hands…and out of his hands. Finally, if our hands are already full, how can we be of help to Jesus?

Like the psalm says, “In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.” May we always know that God is indeed our refuge, especially in these times of uncertainty. Amen

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Genesis 2:18-25
Mark 7:24-30

Reflection:

“Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  These words of Jesus are shocking, if not cruel.  These words are arguably among the most troubling in the New Testament.  These are the words of Jesus to a mother who is begging him to heal her daughter.  What are we to make of these words?  How can this passage be redemptive?

Some Scripture scholars try to soften Jesus’ words by suggesting that when he refers to Gentiles as “dogs” he actually means to express an affectionate tone by using the diminutive Greek kynariois, which refers to household pets.  But who wants to be compared with dogs, even if they are cuddly pets?  Others explain that Jesus simply wanted to test the woman’s faith with his provocative words.  These scholars may be right.  But I respectfully disagree.

Let us look at the historical context to help us better understand this gospel passage.  When Mark wrote his Gospel, sometime in 60-70 CE, the church included many Gentiles, along with Jewish Christians.  This Jewish church community was still uncomfortably struggling to determine its relationship to these once impure pagan Gentiles.  In his letter to the Romans, which was written earlier than Mark’s Gospel, the Apostle Paul writes: “for the Jews first and also for the Greeks” (Rom. 1:16).  The Gospel must first be preached to the Jews, followed later to the Gentiles.

Mark’s Jewish Christian community needed to know how they were to relate to the Gentile Christian members.  In his Gospel, Mark showed his community that even Jesus, like them, needed to grow in his in his relationship with Gentiles.

Jesus clearly felt it necessary to focus his mission on the Jews.  But here in the Gentile region of Tyre, Jesus was confronted by the urgent need of a Gentile mother.  She approached Jesus in desperation and yet in deference with her plea: “She begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.”  Jesus, however, rebuffed the woman: “Let the children be fed first.  For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  This mother will not be put off: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”  The Jews saw themselves as God’s children, and Gentiles derisively as dogs.  Because of her persistent pleading, Jesus could no longer ignore her: “For saying this, you may go.  The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Jesus did not accompany the woman to her home.  He did not touch the child.  He did not even issue a healing command.  He simply informed the woman that her daughter had already been healed.  The emphasis in this passage is not on the healing, but on Jesus’ relationship with the Gentile woman.  The woman began her relationship with Jesus by first expressing a simple but profound faith by coming to Jesus.  Then, she expresses her profound faith by going home.  Just as Jesus grew in respect of and relationship with the Gentile woman, so too, Mark is saying, his community too, must learn to respect and relate to one another.

And what of us today?  What might we learn from this passage?  Just this: The woman is a compelling example of persistent prayer that refuses to be discouraged by difficult circumstances when prayer is not immediately answered, or in the way we expect.  This remarkable woman also shows us how to engage God fully and passionately in prayer.  God honors and hears such prayer.

We are no different than Mark’s community.  Human relations can be difficult.  Because of our cultural upbringing, we may hold conscious or unconscious prejudice against others.  Like Jesus, we too are challenged to be open to others who may not look like us, dress like us, believe like us, or act like us.  We can also learn from Jesus.  Yes, he was fully divine.  But he also was fully human.  And in his humanity, his growing self-awareness, he “grew in wisdom and maturity” (Lk 2:52).  He learned that no one should ever be called a “dog.”  Jew or Gentile, all are children of God.  This is what it means to be Christ-like, to grow in wisdom and maturity.

In this month of February, we celebrate Black History Month.  This is a time to reflect on the history of black Americans, their experience, and what it means to all Americans.  However, this is not just a time to celebrate.  This is also a time to consider how we can create greater understanding and respect for one another, to treat one another with the dignity and respect we all deserve – no exceptions.  Why? Because we all are created in the imago Dei, in “the image and likeness of God” (Gen. 1:27).  No one is a dog.  All are “children” of God – no exceptions.  

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.