Claire Smith

Scripture:

Acts 20:17-27
John 17:1-11a

Reflection:

How often do we listen to and trust that voice that speaks to our very core? We recognize the voice as true. Somehow, we know it to be the voice of the Spirit – maybe even looking around to see if anyone else heard it. We want to believe but we don’t know what it might mean.

I’ve heard many stories from friends about “voices” they hear and know to be true. One friend told me about the time he was delayed in getting ready to go to Mass. Giving up and settling into a quiet evening, he “heard” that voice telling him to trust and get himself to Mass. There, sitting next to him in the pew turned out to be the love of his life.

Do I understand this? No. Do I trust it? Yes, or at least I try. Has there been a time in your life when you heard deep within your heart that voice and knew it to be truly of God?

In today’s first reading, St. Paul tells the community he must move on from Ephesus: “Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there, I do not know.” Paul trusts that God is working through him. He just needs to keep listening, trusting and responding to the Spirit.

This is what “discernment” means in our life of faith: listening. Of course, there are many voices out there vying for our attention. And we have all certainly listened to the wrong voice on occasion. But I imagine all of us can recall a moment of extreme clarity. We just knew something to be true, like my friend: “Trust me, go to Mass.” Or St. Paul knowing he must go to Jerusalem even though he did not know what awaited him there. Even Jesus, trusting in his relationship with his Father, knew he had to go to Jerusalem.

When I was a young Jesuit, the provincial said to me, “We’d like to send you away, like to the missions.” “How far away?” I asked. “Very far, like the Philippines,” he replied. And I said without a moment of reservation, “Yes.” I knew it to be right, and it was. Sometimes the Spirit speaks with great clarity and we need to go with it.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28:16-20

Reflection:

I Am With You Always

Today we celebrate the feast of the Ascension  We remember Christ leaving only His visible presence but His being closer than ever in His faith presence! Today’s feast is a paradox.  Jesus is not leaving us but coming to us.  The worse decision of our lives is to practice social distance from Christ!

The Gospel today ends with one of the most beautiful lines in the Scripture.  “Behold (idou), I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Mt 28:20    200 times the NT begins with “look” idou  i.e. to strongly point to the special importance of the following thought.  “I am with you”  These words are found from Genesis to Revelation some 647 times.  Jesus promises He will be with us forever!  The Apache Indians say only one word for the marriage vows ceremony Var la banah which means forever.  Unlike so many today Christ takes His vows very seriously to remain with us to the end of the age.

Two observations might be considered here.  If Christ promised He will be with us, means He is very close! “For in Him we live and move and have our being” Act 17:28   Karl Rahner beautifully observes: “People have God over their shoulder, but few stop, turn around, and say Hello”!   If we would treat our friends with such a lack of notice, they would soon lose interest in us.

The second observation is Christ will never leave us.  “He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”  Heb 13:5  The word desert in the original inspired text is anhiemi. The etymology is ana, “back” and hiemi, “to send,” denotes “to let go.  In modern English He will never drop you.  Many times in Scripture God assures us He will never leave us. ““He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  John 10

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

Scripture:

Acts 18:23-28
John 16:23b-28

Reflection:

In the beginning of our Gospel reading for today, Jesus says to His disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”

In the past, I have thought that “in my name” is a great qualifier for what Jesus promises. I don’t believe that the Father is going to give us anything contrary to Jesus’ commandment to love. But what about now, in the midst of a pandemic? Can’t, shouldn’t, God just take it away, and with it all the pain and suffering and distress that it has caused?

As one who has tried to grow in understanding of the spirituality of the Passion of Jesus, I’m not sure that is the “ask” I need to be making. Perhaps Jesus is inviting you and me to consider what we need to be asking for in His name. And if we were to ask for the alleviation of suffering, perhaps we also need to ask for the grace to do as He did. Perhaps we need to ask for the willingness to be God’s instruments for alleviating suffering, in whatever way we can, whether it’s supporting those on the front lines, or making masks or making phone calls, or working for justice and peace.

Would that make our joy “complete?” Maybe not, but it might help make our joy not dependent on the effects of Covid-19, but on the effects of God’s love for us.

In another part of our Gospel reading, Jesus says, “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you clearly about the Father.” In the sacrifices and heroism in both large and small gestures; in the love and compassion shown to those in need, maybe Jesus has spoken clearly to us about the Father. God is with us in this, and God will get us to the other side.

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

Scripture:

Acts 18:9-18
John 16:20-23

Reflection:

Most of us are familiar with the Global Positioning System.  What does a GPS device do for us?  It gives us directions.  “Take this road; turn here; oops, recalculating; go straight ahead; get ready to turn; avoid cliff; stay the course.”  But before the GPS can give us directions, we have to tell it our destination.  So, what is our destination?

In John’s gospel, chapter 10, Jesus says, “I came so that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) Life, abundant life.  That is our destination.

In John’s gospel, chapter 14, Jesus says, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always…” (John 14:16) The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete.  Paraclete means someone “called to the side” of another to be guide, protector, comforter, counselor and friend.  In other words, the Holy Spirit is like a GPS to life, to happiness.

During these days before Pentecost we are reminded of the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives.  If we listen carefully, we will hear the Holy Spirit guide us to our destination.  Among other directions, the Spirit will tell us not to be afraid and to keep on spreading the Good News (today’s Epistle).   The Spirit will lead us to shout to God with cries of gladness (Responsorial Psalm), filled with a joy no one can take from us (Gospel).

Come, Holy Spirit, be our guide.  Give us the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do what is right.  Show us the way to abundant life.  And thank you for loving us.

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.   http://www.alanphillipcp.com/.

Scripture:

Acts of the Apostles 17:15, 22-18:1
John 16:12-15

Reflection:

A dream come true!  I suspect that was what St. Paul was thinking as he arrived in Athens.  Here he was, in Athens, the intellectual and cultural capital of the world!  And did he have important Good News to bring!

He made his way to the Areopagus, the center of the intellectual life of Western Civilization, observed the statues of the all the gods from every part of the Roman Empire noting that there was even a statue dedicated to the “unknown” god.  He used that statue as his entrée into speaking about what God had done for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He preached a beautiful classic sermon in which he revealed that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, has made us the sons and daughter of God.  So, we are called to repent and live in the new life we have received through Jesus Christ.  No doubt, Paul used all of his oratorical skills and force of personality to convince his listeners of the truth of his words.  He finishes with a flourish and waits expectantly for the response from the people around him.

But the response of his listeners was not anything like what he expected.  There was no spontaneous applause.  Some scoffed; others say “We should like to hear you on this some other time.”  Ho-hum.  No gasps, no exclamations of wonder, no conversion of heart, no expressions of belief.  There were a few in the crowd who became believers.  We are simply told, “And so Paul left them.”

The lukewarm response of the Athenians to the message of the Gospel was not just a disappointment for Paul, it was personally devastating.  As Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians, “I came to you in weakness, fear and much trembling.…” (see I Corinthians 2:1-5).  He had used all his considerable intellectual and oratorical skills to bring the Good News to the Athenians and almost nothing had come of it.  A defeat that shook Paul to his very core.  Yet Acts reports, “After this he left Athens and went to Corinth.”

Have you ever done your very best to help someone, to convince them that the path they’re traveling only leads to heartache and death, only to have them totally ignore you?  Have you had that experience of utter failure?  Then you know how Paul felt in Athens.  Even though Paul lost his faith in his well-known oratorial skills, Paul not only went on, he became utterly convinced that Jesus Crucified was the only message that could move men and women’s hearts.  Strangely, he had his greatest success in Corinth!  And what a city that was.  Corinth was a major port city, corrupt, libertine, known throughout the Roman empire as a wide-open city populated by the very worst kind of people.  Yet here Paul preached only about Christ Crucified and found that a suffering Son of God who loved with his whole being was the transforming message.  The educated and wealthy of Athens were unmoved.  The suffering and outcasts of Corinth were transformed by the love they recognized in the heart of Christ.

As we recall this great Apostle, his perseverance in the face of defeat and his willingness to change and depend more on Christ, we pray for the grace to surrender the brokenness of our lives to God’s love, confident that through our weakness, God will bring us ever closer into His love.

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

Scripture:

Acts 16:11-15
John 15:26-16:4a

Reflection:

“The Lord takes delight in his people…the Spirit of truth will testify…”

One of the most amazing truths about our God is how much he loves us – delights in us even!  How easy it is for us to lose sight of that truth – we make a mistake and beat ourselves up over it, the treadmill of life gets moving so fast that we forget that we are not in control, our self esteem gets trampled by words of another or our perceived response of a particular situation – causing us to second guess ourselves.

Today’s readings remind us that Jesus promised an Advocate to help keep the Spirit of Truth alive in our hearts, minds and lives.  When was the last time you spent some intentional time in the presence of the Holy Spirit – the Advocate?  What practices have you developed to help you notice the presence of God in your life?  To help you remember how precious you are in God’s eyes, how much he delights in you?

Life can get very crazy and unpredictable – in the blink of an eye!  We know that in a very real way as we continue to navigate through this unprecedented pandemic.  But we are not alone, God is with us – if only we notice.

The season of Spring surround us with new buds, blossoms, scents, birds singing, vibrant colors, rain and blue skies.  We only need to look around to see the joy of God’s creation – joy is how we ‘testify’ to the truth that ‘our Lord takes delight in us’ – perhaps a question for us to ponder is how do we share our joy – how do others notice our joy?

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

Scripture:

Acts 8:5-8
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21

Reflection:

I am writing this reflection on the readings of May 17, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, exactly two months before they will appear. Right now, thanks to the Coronavirus, fear and dread abound. Each day we hear of more people infected and of more people dying. Each day we hear stories of hospitals flooded with patients and of people shut up in their homes. Pictures of empty airports and empty subway stations and empty streets suggest that the whole world has gone into hiding. And daily reports of closed schools, canceled sports seasons, a swooning stock market, and of things getting worse before they will begin to get better, make it seem like the whole world is falling apart.

And yet, in today’s readings, we hear of “joy,” “hope,” “peace,” and “love.” In the first reading from Acts, Philip travels to Samaria, proclaims the gospel, and a newly born church springs to life. People with “unclean spirits” are set free while the “paralyzed or crippled” are made whole. No wonder there was “great joy in that city.” In the second reading, the apostle Peter tells his fellow followers of Christ to be ready to give “a reason for your hope,” reminding them that thanks to the unsurpassable love that God has shown us in Christ, we have nothing to fear, no reason to be anxious, and certainly no cause for despair no matter what life might throw at us. Perhaps the most reassuring words we hear today come from Jesus, who tells us, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Is there anything more reassuring, anything more consoling? We should not panic. We should never let sadness or fear or anxiety rule our hearts because Christ will not forsake us. No matter what adversity might come our way, we never face it alone because the Christ who promised to be with us is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

I don’t know how things will be two months from today. I don’t know if the world will have returned to normal. But I do know that no matter what might be happening, we can take to heart the joy, hope, peace, and love that these readings proclaim. And that’s because, as Jesus tells us, “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

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:

Acts 16:1-10
John 15:18-21

Reflection:

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them so they crossed through Mysia. Acts 16:7

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:18

Did you ever just have one of those days? You know the ones – where everything is going great. The sun is shining, traffic is particularly light, you hit all the green lights, the laundry is all done, your inbox is cleared, you actually have a few minutes, if not an hour or two, to breathe. You may find your heart crying out with joy, just the sheer exuberance of being alive.

And then there are those other days. Where you awake with the awareness of tasks undone, issues unresolved, that phone call you’ve been dreading making that you cannot put off any longer.

Both of these experiences are part of our earthly life. There are those times that we seemed blessed and the gratitude spills from our lips. Likewise, there are those time when we feel beset on all sides, and our cry is more of, “why me?”

Jesus reminds us that even the Son of God was persecuted. Should we expect any less? There will be times when our decisions are questioned, when we feel ourselves on the defensive, when we just wish for a little peace and quiet. What are we to do when we feel persecuted?

The Acts of Apostles and the lives of the saints are filled with stories of triumphs and setbacks. It sometimes feels like it’s constantly, ‘three steps forward, two steps back.’ But our first reading today can give us an insight into how to proceed when we feel life gets in our way. Is so simple we might miss it: “So they crossed through.”

We must remember that we are a pilgrim people. We are on the way. We have with us the Spirit of God and Jesus has gone before us. Elsewhere in the Acts is says, ”So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.”

While I am a far way from rejoicing in my persecutions (even when they are are simple as hitting all the red lights when I’m running late), I pray today that I remember the example of Jesus and continue to trust in The Lord.

Talib Huff works and volunteers at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights. You may reach him at [email protected].