Claire Smith

Scripture:

Genesis 18:1-10a
Colossians 1:24-28
Luke 10: 38-42

Reflection:

Growing up in a small Kentucky town exposed me to the stereotypical family dinner every Sunday evening and the practice of southern hospitality. Today’s readings are about service and hospitality.

In today’s first reading we see an example of Abraham and Sarah serving and providing hospitality to three men. The meal was carefully prepared, and the hosts attended to the visitors’ comfort. In the second reading, we find Paul serving the Lord in preaching, prayer, travel, suffering, and writing. We have lots of examples of people of faith who were active in the service of the Lord and the practice of hospitality.

Every three years on this Sunday we hear this brief gospel story of Martha and Mary. Nearly every year we hear about Martha busy being hospitable. The homilist usually gives the same advice. We should seek to be more like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus and less like Martha who is always busy, anxious and worried about many things.

So, what do today’s readings teach us: 1) Service and hospitality are essential to being Christian. 2) Comparing ourselves to others like Martha breeds anxiety and discontent. 3) Martha took her concerns to Jesus.  4) Making time for prayer sitting at the feet of Jesus should be a daily priority.

How well do I balance serving and sitting (praying) in my life?

Carl Middleton is a theologian/ethicist and a member of the Passionist Family.

Scripture:

Exodus 12: 37-42
Matthew 12: 14-21

Reflection:

Has any historical event so important been described in such an understated way?  In today’s first reading from Exodus, we read the rather bland statement, “The children of Israel set out from Rameses for Succoth….”  Admittedly, you begin to get an indication of the scale of the historical moment as the text goes on, “about six hundred thousand men on foot, not counting the little ones.”  But even so, it’s a pretty laid back description of one of the great liberation events in history!  After 430 years in Egypt, the last 50 or so in slavery, the Jewish people are finally being set free.

No doubt, as they began the journey, they were filled with excitement and hope, happy to shake the dust of Egypt from their sandals.  Had they realized how long the journey would take, some 40 years, they probably would have never had the heart to begin.  Trials and tribulations, suffering and loss, fear and violence were an integral part of the journey.  Yet, at the urging of Moses and their other religious leaders, they persisted.  And, they gradually came to understand how deeply God loved them, how faithfully God traveled with them, how attentive and responsive God was to their needs.  By the time they entered the Promised Land, they no longer thought of themselves as the slaves of Egypt, but as the “chosen people of God.”  Now that’s a true transformation.

Many of us can recognize ourselves in this great story.  It’s a long journey to a deep understanding of God’s great love for us.  And, it’s a great challenge to grow into a deep conviction that God is walking with us throughout all the experiences of our lives.  Yet, that’s what this story is about.  It reminds us that the journey of the people of Israel is the model for our own personal journey and that of the whole Christian community.  As you remember these great events of old, may you recognize in it your personal journey and realize that your journey is the path God is using to invite you into His loving embrace.

 

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

Scripture:

Exodus 11:10-12:14
Matthew 12:1-8

Reflection:

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” Matt. 12: 1 – 2

Have you ever broken the law? I know that I have.

I remember one of my first traffic tickets, a violation of the law. It happened in California. I came to a complete stop as the light had turned red while making a right turn. Both streets were wide, two lanes of traffic each way. Two persons had just stepped into the crosswalk as I began my right turn. I thought nothing of it. They were at least three lanes of traffic away from my car. Two blocks later, a police car stops me, lights on and sirens blaring. Lowering my window, “what’s wrong, officer,” was my question, “Did you not see the two people who were beginning to cross the street?” “Yes, but they were far away.” He says authoritatively, “In California, that doesn’t matter. The pedestrian always has the right of way.” I had broken the law! I got a traffic ticket.

Probably, everyone one of us has had a similar experience. We break the law, sometimes unknowingly and other times, intentionally. Who of us is going to keep to the speed limit when we are driving to the hospital in an emergency? Jesus never taught that laws were to be obeyed absolutely, without expectation. This Gospel is a good example of that teaching.

The early church dealt with the issue of obeying God or human law. It was an easy issue for them to resolve. We obey human law unless it violates God’s law. And God’s law never violates the human person or human dignity. A clear example of this is found in the Gospel of John, the woman caught in the very act of adultery. Faced with enforcing an unjust law of his tradition, Jesus chose mercy rather compliance, saving a woman’s life rather than obeying the letter of the law. For Jesus, this was a no brainer. Jesus was sent by the Father to save the world and not to condemn it. Our tradition is clear.

But our own times and our own lives does not always leave us with such clarity and certainty. We grew up believing that every law that we human beings pass in our government institutions, whether by election or by city, state or federal bodies, are to be obeyed. When we begin to doubt whether a law is just or unjust, we rightly need to pause and rely on the best our core beliefs about God, God’s Will for us, Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel and the guidance of Church, our Mother.

How can God desire the violation of our human rights and our human dignity? How can Mother Church forget the least of her children? No human being has the right to violate the good name of another. No human institution can deny human rights. No government or government officials have the authority to enforce unjust laws. This is our Catholic tradition!

Living the moral life in today’s world is not easy. Our humanness may try to lead us in one direction but our faith and discipleship to God and to Jesus will show us the way to living right, to loving God and neighbor, and embracing a God of Life and Love. We cannot go wrong following Jesus, Son of God and of Mary, who died on the Cross so we could have life and have it to the full.

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

Scripture:

Exodus 3:13-20
Matthew 11:28-30

Reflection:

“Come to me…you will find rest for your souls…my yoke is easy”

We are pilgrims on a journey, alone and together – pilgrims heading toward the kingdom.
While the journey can be joyful, it can also be weary, burdensome, even oppressive at times.
Uniquely, we are all searching for God – and life gets in the way…we may discover ourselves searching alone and in vain.

Sometimes because of choices we have made or decisions to carry what isn’t ours to carry – worries, perceived obligations, deeply rooted ‘shoulds’, fears and anxieties.  Other times we are faced with illness or troubles that we would not bring on ourselves.

Whatever it is, Jesus says, yoke yourself to me – learn from me – I have your back, trust me, you will find rest.

Can we put on that yoke?  Sometimes the yoke itself is oppressive looking, do we really want that around our neck?  How will that help relieve the burden and allow us to experience the peace that only Jesus can give?

Jesus says, ‘my yoke is easy’.  William Barclay reminds us that easy comes from the Greek Chrestos, which can mean well-fitting.  The Yoke that Jesus offers is custom made for each of us, adjusted to do exactly what it needs to do – no added weight, pulling or nagging.

If the burden is caused by our own decision or anxiety, Jesus can show us how to choose a new path, a new direction, a new way.  If it is caused by something beyond our control, Jesus can invite us to hope in the place where there is no more tears, sorrow, struggle or dis-ease.

Chaos can be all around us and it can also be within us – we may find ourselves in the garden wanting this cup removed – but yoked to Jesus we will find the strength, unity and peace of the Father.

The promise of Jesus is that when we can give up our own ways and learn from Him, even though we may still have burdens, we will be refreshed, we will receive new life.  Life that includes healing, and freedom that comes from seeing life through the prism of God’s love.

Jesus yoke is light because he helps to bear the burden – he has been there and done that – he has our back!  Sometimes the confusion and overwhelming weight are simply the result of us trying to do things alone.

Are we willing to yoke ourselves to Jesus and trust the path that opens up for us?

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

Scripture:

Exodus 2:1-15a
Matthew 11:20-24

Reflection:

The disciples of Jesus have just returned from their missionary successes.  Jesus is disappointed that some of the villages did not accept the Gospel preached to them.  Jesus speaks to three cities in which he is especially disappointed because some of Jesus’ greatest miracles were performed in these cities, but the message was not accepted. The cities named are: Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin, Sodom, and Tyre.

The reason Jesus is so disappointed is not that they would not believe but that they refused to have repentance for their lives.  The language Jesus uses here is harsh because these people do not see their need for repentance.  The miracles were a call to reformation.  What Jesus saw missing in these people’s lives was that they did not have any gratitude?

Jesus reminds these peoples it is not possessions that make one great but that their names are written in the Book of Life Jesus gave these people the knowledge of the Father. They should be grateful that Jesus has revealed the Father to them. Gratitude is the heart’s memory.  The Passionists take a fourth vow to be grateful to keep alive the memory of the Passion.  We can say it is everyone’s mission to keep alive the Revelation of the Father.  We are grateful.

Fr. Ken O’Malley, C.P., is the local superior at Holy Name Passionist Community in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Exodus 1:8-14, 22
Matthew 10:34-11:1

Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading from the 10^th Chapter of Matthew can be very challenging to us as mere mortals. Looking through the lens of the world one may ask how can Jesus tell us “I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against mother, etc.” These are hard teachings, but before we jump to conclusions, let us read between the lines a bit. Jesus is not telling us that we should hate our family members; He is telling us that we will not find peace; we will not find the City of God, unless we put Him first and foremost in our lives, unless He is the peak of our affections. When we orient our lives to his teachings, when we place Him in His rightful place before father or mother, son or daughter, etc. we are aligning our free will with His will, we are aligning our world with His world, we are aligning the city of man with the City of God.

Today we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church who was born around the year 1218, in his work, Journey of the Mind to God, he teaches, “In order for the Passover to be perfect, we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone.” “We must suspend all the operations of the mind”, we do this by putting Jesus Christ before all earthly things including family.

Today Jesus is telling us that He wants to be the “peak of our affections”. He wants us to align our will with His will, He wants us to transform our lives to His life, then we can take care of Father and Mother, son and daughter, because when we receive Him we receive the one who sent Him. Saint Bonaventure says it best, “Christ is both the way and the door, Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages. A man should turn his full attention to the throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude and open to praise and jubilation.”

In the Sunday Liturgy yesterday, we heard from the Letter to the Colossians, “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent.” So, let us keep Christ preeminent in our lives, trust in Him, then through this trust, take care of our loved ones, it is the proper alignment for us as Christians.

Deacon James Anderson is the Administrator at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 10:25-37

Reflection:

How much time have I, and we as a people, spent searching, questioning and debating God’s will? Why does it seem so complicated when all we are asked is to allow the life of the Spirit to break into our own planned versions for ourselves? To let love in, to let God in, and act from this place?

I spent the day in deep tears yesterday. Having reflected and prayed with the parable of the Good Samaritan. It opened to my amazement in a rush of fruitful, unforeseeable ways as if the story became a prism of God’s Love and Will and a hub linking in so many images, gospel stories and parables throughout the New Testament.

Just a day later I rose, caught between the inexplicable gifts of grace and miracles and the struggle of making sense in my own fallen world, rising with the thought.’        “It is hard to figure out our rightful space amid God’s creation.”

What trips us up? Not God’s world, or God’s Word, but the worlds we have created and the world we have complicated by materializing, politicizing, marginalizing, characterizing, separating with fear and a sense of self-possessed power. A world full of speed and of movement and gain. A world with multiple moving parts and a sense of purpose beyond the Spirit and all that lays open-in the heart and Word of God.

What is possible when we allow the life of the Spirit to break into our own planned versions for ourselves? When we act on the longing for connection placed in our hearts? During an interview C. S. Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham spoke of his childhood perspective of Lewis’ ability to “accept interruptions every ten minutes if necessary while he was working very hard on a book without the slightest degree of irritation. ” “He was able to believe and to behave, as if he believed, which he did, that our own personal work is nowhere near as important as the interruptions to it. The interruptions are the real substance of God’s job for us.”

How do we access that part of our spirits to bring greater fruit and healing into our lives, into the world, to honor God’s will? There is a moment at St. John Paul II’s funeral where the pages of the book of Gospels that had been placed on his coffin began turning _in the wind. As if to say, “It is all right here.”

Years ago, after being introduced to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy by a religious sister at my mother’s bedside vigil I found the only answer that makes sense is in the ending words ”with great confidence submit ourselves to Your Holy Will which is Love and Mercy itself.” Love and Mercy itself. So intimately shown through the actual words and actions of our Savior and spoken through His parable of the Good Samaritan.

As Moses so beautifully proclaims in the first reading, “For this command I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote to you.” “you only have to carry it out.”

M. Walsh is a retreatant, and in profound gratitude for the gift of the charism and vocations of the Passionist Community.