Claire Smith

Scripture:

Exodus 22:20-26
1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10
Matthew 22:34-40

Reflection:

Commandments to Love

Last week I reflected on the commandment “Love your neighbor” as a fitting response to “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 22:34-40), Jesus links the commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” with the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” As some Scripture scholars have noted, the scholar of the law who asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment was not necessarily looking for two commandments in Jesus’ answer. But Jesus does put them together and says, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

When you come right down to it, the commandment to love God and the commandment to love our neighbor are inextricably linked. We may be able to distinguish them in our minds, like the Three Persons in the Trinity, or the divinity and humanity of Jesus, but like those things I just mentioned, you can’t really separate them in practice.

As I look at the readings for this Sunday and the readings for the next few Sundays leading up to the end of the liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have an exploration, if you will, of various aspects of what it means to follow these commandments.

In our first reading from Exodus (22:20-26), we have some strong words coming from God to the Israelites:” Thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.’” To love God and to listen to God involves taking care of the most vulnerable (widows and orphans) and respecting the “other” (alien). I feel that we Catholics in the U.S. should especially be sensitive to this, as we Catholics for a long time were considered “aliens” in this country, even into the 20^th Century, shown in how some reacted to the candidacies of Al Smith and John F. Kennedy for President. At the same time, perhaps trying to prove how “American” we were, the Catholic Church in the U.S. did not embrace the abolitionist movement. With both of those things in mind, no matter where we stand on the debate about immigration or racism or prejudice, we can still heed the command not to molest or oppress those we consider “alien.”

Our second reading from 1 Thessalonians (1:5c-10), St. Paul praises the Christians from Thessalonica, because knowledge of their conversion inspired by Paul and his companions and their subsequent faith came to be known in other places, so much so, that when Paul and the others would come to those places they had “no need to say anything,” because the people at those places would “openly declare about us what reception we had among you and how you turned from idols to serve the living and true God…” To love God and love our neighbor involves turning away from the “idols” of violence, greed, self-righteousness, prejudice, and complacency, and to turn towards working for justice and making peace.

And how incredible would it be if our conversion “to serve the living and true God” were so well known! Again, this would not be from a stance of feeling superior or wanting to force things on others. Instead, it would come from a demonstration of love.

May we hold together the two commandments to love and live them out with the love God has for us.

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:7-16
Luke 13:1-9

Reflection:

Saturday Vigil, St. Paul of the Cross

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 St Paul of the cross when he was an old man was saying his rosary.  Two young students passed by him and noticed he was saying his rosary.   They came back two hours later and saw he was still saying his rosary.  One of the students said: How many rosaries have you said?  The old saint looked at his rosary and said: “I am still on my first Our Father!”

Paul could not get past “Our Father” without being wrapped in awe at the wonder of saying “Our father”!  When it takes us two hours to say “father” to God we are getting a glimpse at the meaning loving God with “all of our hearts”!    This year Passionists are celebrating the 300-year-old founding of our Congregation.  Paul deeply understood the twofold love of God and neighbor on which his new institute must hinge.  “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

The Hebrew account in Deuteronomy 6 says we must love God “meod” (exceedingly)!  Before Paul would preach on Sunday in a nearby church, he would spend the whole night in prayer before the sermon.  What a wonderful way to love your neighbor!  Like the Apostles he “devoted” himself “to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4 It was often his practice to go out with Scripture and pray for hours on Monte Argentario.  He realized his love for God would not be “exceeding” if he failed to love the neighbor “as Christ has loved us.”

To understand this deep love of Christ which possessed Paul we must understand his devotion to the sufferings of Jesus.  “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.^” John 15:13 Paul was deeply driven to the most explosive moment of the Gospel!  “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” Lk 9:43   I love these words of Paul: The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God.    We must arouse the world from its slumber.  His Holy Spirit will teach us how.”

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-6
Luke 12:54-59

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, after Jesus points out to the people how well they can see things and know what kind of weather they’re going to have, He says, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? He’s pointing out to them that they are witnesses to all kinds of signs that the Messiah has come, but they fail to recognize Him and who He is for them.

After reading this, I found myself wondering how we are interpreting our present time. For me, the pandemic has given us evidence of how much we are connected. What we do actually does affect another person. But it appears that we have let the political divisions in the U.S. influence how we treat each other and the pandemic itself during this time.

It just seems to me that this moment is calling us to come together, not split apart. What we hear from St. Paul in our first reading from Ephesians makes the most sense to me about how we are to be in what is a difficult time for so many: “I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love…”

If we can interpret the signs that Jesus gives us of His love for us, the Cross and the empty tomb, can we discern His call for us to care for each other?

Loving God, give us the grace to interpret the signs You send us. Amen.

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 3:14-21
Luke 12:49-53

Reflection:

October 1966. Sunday morning sunlight streams in through the amber windowpanes high on the East wall of the Chapel, then spills down onto the tiles of the chapel floor between the phalanx of polished wooden pews.   The back doors are blocked, open so the Autumn breeze is free to ripple up the aisle and softly dance the candle flames on the altar. It’s just chilly enough to make us glad for the enveloping warmth of cassocks and surplices.  Above the crucifix a soft light shadows Christ’s face, deepening the image of His suffering.   “May the passion of Jesus Christ be ever in our hearts.”  

The organ begins and the choir sings out it’s joyous song of praise;

    “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.  
      To sing praise to His name on high.
      To proclaim His kindness at dawn,
      And His faithfulness throughout the night.
     With ten stringed instruments and lyre,
      With melody upon the harp…’’  

The psalms and the Gospel today give rise to such dissonant visions; one of peace, praise and thanksgiving, the other a visceral reaction to the hellish contemporary visions Our Lord’s words evoke .     

            “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already
blazing!” 

Televised images of the cruel fires consuming the West Coast spring to mind. All that suffering as homes, small towns, and hundreds of thousands of acres of trees and wildlife refuge are sacrificed to the flames.  It’s almost as if Christ has truly returned and the earth is succumbing in flaring destruction.  He speaks of a baptism which He must painfully endure, and assures us that He brings not peace, but division – father from son, mother from daughter.  

The flames sweep through destroying what is present.  New growth, in time, will follow in its path.  Christ speaks of flames and His own suffering which must be passed through so the new growth of His kingdom arises to draw mankind to the love of God.  Division, loss, death, destruction, all the sorrows of this life have purpose which we struggle to understand.  “Lord I believe, help my disbelief”.  Help me to see beyond the glowing devastation and to trust in your love, making that leap into the darkness which is the very definition of faith.  

Ray Alonzo is the father of three children, grandfather of two, and husband to Jan for 45 years. He is a USN Vietnam Veteran, and a 1969 graduate of Mother of Good Counsel Passionist Prep Seminary. Ray currently serves on the Passionist Alumni Council.

Scripture:

Ephesians 3:2-12
Luke 12:39-48

Reflection:

Unsearch Riches of Christ

“You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation, To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” Eph 3:8

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St Paul of the Cross.  He was the founder of the Passionist Congregation.  His dream was to found a religious congregation that was deeply prayerful and evangelical.  His ideal was that his members would live in community about half the year a contemplative life and for the rest of the year to preach and pray “to bring to light for everyone the mystery hidden for ages in God”.

For Paul of the Cross the mystery to be contemplated and preached was the “unsearchable riches” of Christ’s love.   According to the scriptures this wonderful love of Christ would best be seen on the Cross. “Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down his life for his friends.  You are My friends!” Jn 15:13     Paul centered his community on this greatest and startling act of love for us on the cross.  By a meditative life of prayer on the greatest expression of God’s love his community would be on fire to expose this “miracle of love” by preaching and example. This is their “stewardship of God’s grace”. In Paul’s own words: “His most holy Passion is the greatest and most stupendous work of his love.”

 This Word of Christ’s passionate care for us on the Cross was branded on our hearts by an added forth vow to promote devotion of the sufferings of Christ.  “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1Cor 1:18   Paul summed up his dream for the whole Passionist family by these words: “The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God.  We must arouse the world from its slumber.  His Holy Spirit will teach us how.”

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

Feast of St. Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Passionists

Scripture:

Jeremiah 1:4-9
I Corinthians 1:17-25
Matthew 9:35 – 10:1

Reflection:

Today, we Passionists celebrate the feast of our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross.  I know that many of you have a devotion to this great saint so please join with us in thanking God for this wonderful and saintly man.  St. Paul’s life was a remarkable story of God’s great love for the people of his time, especially those who were often forgotten or were on the margins of society.  Surely, in remembering him we are opening ourselves to the goodness of God revealed in the sufferings of Christ.  Let’s remember together a few of the important moments in Paul’s life.

St. Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Passionists, was born in 1694 in a small town called Ovada, in Northern Italy.  He was one of sixteen children, only five of whom survived infancy.  His father, Luke Danei, owned a small clothing and tobacco shop that barely supported his large family.  His mother, Anna Maria, was a faith-filled woman, whose devotion to the Passion of Jesus was the source of her courage and strength as she endured the grief and loss of so many of her children.

From his earliest years Paul, by the example of his Mother, had a deep devotion to the Passion of Jesus and at the age of 19 had a vivid experience of the depth of God’s love.  As a result of this experience Paul became determined to give himself totally to God.  Due to family need, however, he stayed at home, helping to support the family by working in his father’s shop.  At 22 he joined the crusade against the Turks though it took only two months for him to realize that the army was not for him.  Returning home, he once again worked in the family business.

When he was 26, the circumstances of the family became a bit better and Paul finally felt free to pursue his own personal dreams. Bidding good-bye to his family, he went to Alessandria, where Bishop Gattinara, Paul’s spiritual director and confessor, clothed Paul in a black tunic on the day of his arrival and then sent him to the parish of St. Charles in Castellazzo for retreat.  In the small sacristy of the parish church Paul made a 40 day retreat.  It was during those 40 days that Paul had the most extraordinary experiences of union with God and wrote the Rule of Life for the congregation he hoped to found.

After his retreat Bishop Gattinara sent him back to his home town where Paul lived in various hermitages for several years.  In 1721 Paul made his way to Rome in hopes that he could get his Rule of Life approved by the Pope.  He was turned away by a Vatican guard so Paul returned home, discouraged but determined.  On his return, his brother, John Baptist, joined with him to try living according to Paul’s Rule of Life.  Paul and John Baptist became well-known catechists and Paul was even invited to give spiritual talks by various groups.

In 1725, the brothers returned to Rome and this time Paul was given verbal permission to gather companions to live according to his Rule of Life.  Cardinal Corrandini asked the brothers to work in a newly established hospital there in Rome.  The president of the hospital was so impressed by Paul and John Baptist that he arranged for them to be ordained to the priesthood.

As more men joined with Paul and John Baptist, they moved the whole community to Monte Argentario, a promontory about 150 kms northwest of Rome, where they established the first Passionist monastery in 1737.

While contemplation and prayer were at the very heart of Paul’s life and the life of his new institute, Paul himself soon became a very famous popular preacher, spiritual guide, writer and mystic.  For Paul the Passion of Christ was the most vivid witness to God’s love for us and he constantly called upon his followers to remember the sufferings of Jesus.

During his lifetime Paul founded thirteen monasteries of Priests and Brothers throughout Italy as well as a monastery of Passionist Nuns.  Today the Passionists live and serve in 59 countries of the world and are enhanced by other religious and lay groups who find inspiration in the Charism of St. Paul of the Cross.

May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts!

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 2:1-10
Luke 12:13-21

Reflection:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. Ephesian 2: 8 – 9

The story goes that St. Teresa of Avila convinced her younger brother to run away from home to be martyred when she was about 7 years old. I suppose that we who have been followers of Jesus have a deep desire to go to heaven and be with him in paradise. Sometimes that desire is stronger than other times. However, so many of us are like St. Augustine who wrote in his autobiography, Confessions of St. Augustine, “Lord, make me chaste but not yet.” We want to be good people, we want to be saved, but we are also drawn to the sinful side of life. We want to have it all. It takes a bit of time and spiritual maturity to choose God and God’s ways over all else in life.

Today, we celebrate the memorial feast of Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Jesuit priests and martyrs. Like St. Theresa of Avila, they were drawn to being missionaries when they joined the Jesuits in France. St. John de Brébeuf went to New France (Quebec, Canada) in 1625. St. Isaac Jogues joined the Jesuits in Canada in 1636. These two missionaries represent the Church’s commitment to evangelize those who resist evangelization but are undaunted by their challenge, even when facing death.

Pope Francis often calls us to be missionary disciples. For most of us, this means being missionary from the safety and comfort of our homes, like St. Therese of Lisieux, who is the patron of the Missions. So, being a missionary is not a vocation of living a certain lifestyle, like leaving our homeland and traveling into life-threatening situations. It is, rather, a commitment to evangelizing those near and far with our words and deeds, with our prayer and our solidarity with those who we are called to evangelize.

We may think that evangelization is all about convincing others that we are correct in our beliefs, in the way we speak about the truths of our faith and in forcing people into repeating formulas that we have memorized and believe. Being a missionary disciple is not being that way at all.

Being a missionary disciple will always be dangerous. No matter the age, no matter the culture, no matter the people who surround us, there will always be some who will not only reject our evangelization but will hate us for it. Yet, we are called to love them. There will be some who will want to win arguments about what is right and wrong. Yet we are called to listen. There will be others who will pretend to follow us but will denounce us. Yet, we are called to respect them as brothers and sisters.

As missionary disciples, we may suffer many deaths. The death of being ostracized by loved ones. The death of being shunned by our friends and neighbors. The death of being denounced by the “learned and the wise.”

St. Isaac Jogues was captured by the Iroquois in 1642 and later escaped and sailed back to France. Yet, his heart was set in returning to Quebec and did so in 1644. He was captured again, this time martyred on October 18, 1646. His Jesuit brother, St. John de Brébeuf was captured, tortured and then finally martyred on March 16, 1649.

May they always inspire us to be committed missionary disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ!

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Matthew 22:15-21

Reflection:

…the Pharisees took counsel how to entangle him in his talk…they went along with the Herodians…

Wow!  This line could be taken directly out of today’s news…they plotted against him, they wanted to trip him up, they wanted him to fail so they could win!  Do you ever wonder why it is that human nature feels the need to make everything so transactional?  Why is it that humans need tear others down in order to feel good about themselves?  Why is it so easy to get ‘sucked’ in to negativity, mistrust, judgment and cynicism?  Pharisees and Herodians were very strange bedfellows – they hated each other!  Maybe that is the message of today’s gospel, be careful who you hate – hate never has a good outcome!

Jesus is always about love.  Oh, they wanted to trip him up, they would do anything to ‘catch’ him – even join their hate together…  Jesus is able to see beyond the façade, see into the heart – and he refuses to respond in kind.  But he does challenge – from a place of truth – give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s. 

We all belong to God’s Kingdom – in fact, we are first heirs to God and God’s kingdom, defines for us who we are and whose we are.  We have a privileged citizenship and we are called to extend that privilege to all in God’s kingdom.   We, like Jesus need to be voices of love and truth to all facets of our lives.  We can’t be about plotting against, we must be about building the kingdom, finding ways to bridge rather than divide, search for common ground that makes room for growth, vision and possibility.  Can we, like Jesus learn to make room for the light of the Holy Spirit – and trust where that light shines?

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