Claire Smith

Scripture:

Acts 20:28-38
John 17:11b-19

Reflection:

This passage is one of the most touching sections in Luke’s Gospel.  Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. They are passing between Samaria and Galilee.  Subtly Luke is saying that suffering is the great leveler.  Samaritans and Galileans are thrown together by their sufferings.  This passage tells the story of the cure of these Ten persons, who were afflicted with leprosy.  Nine are Israelites and one is a Samaritan.  After being cured all ten are told to go to the high priest who verifies that the recipients have been cured and are welcomed to return to their families, friends, and society.  It is a surprise that only one of the ten returns to give thanks to Jesus for the cure.  It is ironic also that the only one to return was a Samaritan, a non-Jew.  Gratitude is held in high esteem in Judaism.  It is held as a basic ethical attitude. Gratitude or thanks is a source of vitality In Judaism and Christianity.

In Luke the one who has faith is able to be cured.  The shepherds (2:20) return home and praise God. The paralyzed man who’s friends have faith is healed .  He got up took his mat returned home and thanked God (5:25).  The widow of Naim’s son is brought back to life. The crowds thanked God (7:16).  The woman who suffered for eighteen years is healed. She stands straight and thanked God.  (23:23). The  man afflicted with blindness believed Jesus was the “Son of David.”  He followed Jesus and thanked God. (18:43).   The Centurion at the foot of the Cross witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection, thanked God (23:47).

Several years ago there was a periodical on the spirituality of priests. In this journal there was an article about the anger of priests.  The editor of the article has been publishing this periodical for several years.  In the issue following on the article on anger the editor said that this article received more responses than all previous publications completely.  He went on to say that he wanted to remind the priests who read this article that the opposite of anger is “Gratitude!”

Each of us is a song sung by God.  Our task is to discover that song and sing it in harmony with God.  Someone mentioned that a friend is one who hears the song in my heart and hums it to me when my memory fails. We should be grateful for such friends

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

Scripture:

Acts 18:1-8
John 16:16-20

Reflection:

My local paper, the Daily Herald, has been running a multi-part series of stories about people whose spouses died. (If you’d like to read it, you can click on the links to each article at this page: http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20180413/a-widows-advice-honor-what-was-function-in-what-is ). The editor said he was overwhelmed with the number of stories that came in, and the struggle everyone experienced to put the pieces of their lives back together and find new purpose. Some can’t believe it happened, even if the person was sick for a long time. They stand shocked and unsure of what to do now, and it takes a while to assimilate the reality before they can start to envision a future that will be very different from the one they had planned.

Others come to greater understanding and acceptance sooner. The death is a profound and often tragic, unexpected moment with an excruciatingly painful goodbye. Yet they begin to actively go forward and live, enriched by that person’s life, love, and memory. Neither path is “good” or “bad,” and ultimately everyone traverses the grief journey on their own timetable. In fact, many times the two perspectives exist simultaneously and operate in tension in the same person as they struggle to let go while going on.

The disciples seemed to experience the same dynamics when Jesus ascended into heaven in front of their eyes. Luke’s account in Acts is much more tentative – the disciples staring up into the heavens almost in disbelief that Jesus was gone. They had to be told by an angel that he wasn’t coming back, and that they needed to live in new ways now. Matthew’s Gospel is more proactive – as soon as Jesus ascended, the disciples “went forth and preached everywhere”.  Which one is true? I suspect it was a little of both. As with the grieving spouses, some of us are wired to jump right in, while others hang back, process, and think things through before acting. Most of us try to balance the tension between the two, with varying degrees of success on varying days.

The other common thread in the stories of the disciples and the spouses is the retention of memories and stories. Even if it had been years, and even if the widowed spouse remarried, they still loved to talk about the person who died. They still wanted to say the name and tell tales of their love. We keep the spirit of those we love “alive” by continuing to say their names and tell their stories.

Likewise, the disciples didn’t say, “Well, I guess that’s it. He’s gone. We’d better put this behind us and get on with life now. We should stop saying his name because we’ll make people uncomfortable, and just keep our stories to ourselves. Maybe once a year for the first couple of years we’ll mark the anniversary or something. But it’s time to get over it.” Instead, they continued to say Jesus’ name, tell his story, and keep his memory alive in the world.

Actually, one advantage the disciples enjoyed is the support of the community. It must have been hard for the disciples to leave behind the person they had so relied on for three years. He had transformed their lives and shaped their hearts. When he left, they couldn’t just “go back to normal”. That “normal” no longer existed. So they went on. They bonded more closely together, brainstormed the way forward, and inspired each other. They picked up where Jesus left off, each trying to maximize the gifts God had given them.  In their own ways, they lived and worked in his memory to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth.

I hope that recognizing these human commonalities in experiences, though separated by centuries, can help all of us gain more patience and understanding for those who grieve. They, too, need the support of the community. They need permission to shed tears, share stories, say the name, and keep the memory of their beloved alive, while learning to go forward and build a different future. They need to know they are strong when they are willing to face and resolve the grief instead of denying it. They need judgment-free compassion, and the inspiration of others who are farther along in the process. Most of all, they need love. They need to have people willing to be safe containers to share their pain, so they can face it, process it, and heal.

May we all, in the spirit of the risen Christ, reach out to those in pain and grief, and use whatever talents God has given us to help them learn how to rebuild their lives and go on, spreading the Good News of God’s love to the ends of the earth.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/. 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

A Restless Apostle Paul

When Paul comes to Athens Luke tells us that he is restless. The Spirit is at work within him, something is brewing, he is unsettled. At the synagogue he speaks to the Jews and those interested in Judaism, then goes out into the market place where the locals come together to keep life going – the shopping center, a busy place and a place to talk, a little leisurely shopping squeezed in during the days tasks. Unexpectedly, some of his hearers, who are philosophers, bring him to the Areopagus where he has an audience of what seems to be professional listeners. Luke describes them humorously as Athenians who ‘love nothing more than to tell or listen to something new.’

Paul must have been impressed by the temples and shrines he saw in Athens. The city was noted for them. As a Jew he lived in a less pagan world than that of such a cosmopolitan city. He focuses his talk immediately on a shrine he has seen  ‘to a God Unknown’. Paul intends to make known to his listeners the God they have been worshiping but whom they do not know. His sharing is beautiful, moving in a respectful, understandable progression to his goal of telling them of Jesus who is Risen from the Dead. Can we hear Paul identifying with these people, perhaps being restless because he knows that they have their Gods but he has what they really are seeking? Could we see them like himself when he was knocked off the horse on his way in to Damascus? He describes them as among the people who grope for God, wanting to see God, although this God they seek is not really far from any one of us? Like the first preaching of Peter after the coming of the Holy Spirit, Paul proclaims Jesus, the Risen One, as proof to help them believe.

How he must have been crushed that his preaching ended with an invitation to come again at some later date, and knowing that no date would be set!

So Paul’s restless spirit was not calmed, probably even more stirred up as he left for Corinth.  The first letter to the Corinthians says that Paul arrived fearful and weak. He meets Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple with whom he will work and minister. We might conclude from this that Paul did not leave Athens with plans, but came carrying the same restlessness with which he started his day in the synagogue and market place of Athens.

The failure in Athens, their lack of response to the Risen Lord, the ongoing groping in darkness of the Athenians amidst their numerous temples, the unheeded answer that Paul offered to the question of the Unknown God – all of these must have been ingredients stirring in his restless spirit. When Paul finds himself in Corinth his restlessness blossoms into the grace of a new understanding, a new missing piece that he can now articulate for himself and for all of us who continue to grope in darkness:

‘Yes, Jews demand “signs” and Greeks look for “wisdom,” but we preach Christ Crucified…God’s folly is wiser than men, and his weakness more powerful than men.’

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

Scripture:

Acts 16:22-34
John 16:5-11

Reflection:

As I write, the song By My Side from the musical production, Godspell, is playing. In the opening lines the artist sings “where are you going? Where are you going? Can you take me with you? For my hand is cold And needs warmth. Where are you going?”

The composer of the song, Peggy Gordon, states that the song was originally a love song sung by one character to her love, But in Godspell it is adapted so that it represents the newly forgiven Mary Magdalene seeking the courage to follow Jesus from that day forward. Shy to make a full commitment and say ‘I will follow you’, she softens her statement and merely asks a question ‘where are you going?’

But in today’s gospel account, it is Jesus who introduces this issue of the disciple following his or her teacher. While Jesus marvels at their lack of interest in the journey he must now undertake, he also clarifies that in fact this is a journey they cannot accompany him on.

For this journey is to the Father and it is part of a much grander scheme whereby the presence of Jesus will be mediated now by the Spirit and that from this time on it will be the Spirit in each of us who will lead us into relationship with Jesus and guide our discipleship.

The resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost are mysteries and do challenge us. However, the early church tended not so much to separate these three moments in the exaltation of Jesus after the Passion, but rather to see them all as part of the one great reality ‘Easter’.  All were aspects of the one movement of Jesus towards the Father and all were part of God’s plan for our salvation.

Nevertheless today our attention is drawn to the words of Jesus which promise the coming of the Spirit to be our Advocate – one who speaks in our defence.

The Spirit is named here as the one who will convict the world of guilt, but we must remember that the Spirit is also our defender. In truth we will see the Spirit as more than this and learn that the Spirit is counsellor, a comforter, a helper, a companion, teacher and witness.

All these potentials and actions are God’s gift to us. A presence whose mission is to keep us close to Christ, to be with him on our own journeys of discipleship.

Our journey may not be like that of Paul and Silas, we may not face persecution, rejection and punishment, but we will have many opportunities to offer witness through our example and our words.

While the first reading today stresses a dramatic intervention of God (the earthquake), our own witness may well reverberate too. It may not shake the foundations of buildings, but there are moments when others looking on and seeing a Christian act like Christ, is moved to his or her very depths. Witness, especially when it is close to an act of pure love, can move hearts and change whole lives forever.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia.  He currently serves on the General Council and is stationed in Rome.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Mayor Kobayashi banned dogs from Megasaki City exiling them to the Isle of Trash. He identifies dogs as the enemy of the people because of a dog-flu spreading in their population, threatening human life.  Besides, dogs bite people, they are full of fleas, and they don’t add anything to the economy.

On this Isle of Trash the dogs do as dogs do, they ban together in hopes of surviving in their new terribly unfriendly environment. In the meantime the Mayor’s nephew, a ward of the mayor, steals a plane to join the dogs and more importantly recover his dog Spots. After much intrigue and heart warming adventures, the nephew along with Professor Watanabe back in Megasaki City, help reestablish the place of dogs in their city. It’s a great movie by Wes Anderson and is out in the theaters now.

Jesus warns us in today’s gospel selection that:

“They will expel you from the synagogues;
in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you
will think he is offering worship to God.
They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.
I have told you this so that when their hour comes
you may remember that I told you.”

It’s so easy for me to see you or this political party or that particular religious group, as THE problem in my world. I think that to survive, I must ban you from my kingdom and then all will once again be safe and good. God help me see the real enemy, usually me, and to love all my brothers, sisters, animals, nature–all of your gifts as well as to serve them as Professor Watanabe who finds a cure to the dog-flu.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:1-8
John 14:6-14

Reflection:

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you. ~1 Corinthians 15:1

“If you hold fast…” So, how do we do that?

There are many ways that we can remember all that God has done for us and taught us. One way is to keep a journal. Writing down God’s blessings and the things He is teaching us is a great way to recount our experiences and gives us a way to go back and remember if we should forget.

Telling others is also a great way to strengthen our faith and can be a way to bless them as well. When you tell your story you reinforce what happened to you, and cement the truth of it in your heart. Stories witness to God’s working in our lives and teach us about His character and love. Jesus told stories, and we can tell our stories too.

Spending time in God’s word re-reading the verses that have blessed us, taught and corrected us and also searching for new verses that speak to us reminds us that God can and does communicate with us through His word, and that He cares personally for each one of us. Somewhere in the Psalms we are told to “hide God’s word in our hearts.” Memorizing our favorite verses allows the Holy Spirit to bring them to mind just when we need them.

Here are a couple of my favorite verses:

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty savior. He will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love. He will sing joyfully because of you.”

1 John 2:24b-25 “If what you heard from the beginning does remain in your hearts, then you in turn will remain in the Son and in the Father. He himself made us a promise and the promise is no less than this: eternal life.” (After which I wrote in my Bible: “Yipee!”)

And one more that I underlined this morning: “He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.” (Hosea 6:3b) I like this verse, because it rains a lot here in the beautiful state of Washington. I am hoping I will see the rain now as God himself falling on me as a blessing. May we all “hold fast” to the Word that saves us.

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Bainbridge Island, Washington,  and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 6. Janice also leads women’s retreats and recently published her second book: God IS with Us. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.janicecarleton.com/ or email her at [email protected].