Claire Smith

Scripture:

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-30             

Reflection:

Do you ever wonder what Jesus was like as a kid?  I do.

I wonder if he walked around in flowing robes blessing people.  If Mary and Joseph ever ran out of food, did Jesus just miracle up all the wine and fish and bread he wanted?  When one of his buddies hurt himself in the playground, did Jesus touch and heal the sore?  And in school, when asked a question, did he answer in eloquent and perfectly crafted parables?

Or, I wonder if he was the Class Clown, like me?

I imagine Jesus had to learn to walk, like the rest of us.  He probably made mistakes growing up.  Maybe he lost some friends, and even had to deal with human emotions and fears.  I can hardly begin to understand what he must have had to process as he himself began to understand who he was, and what he could do, and what he was going to have to do.

He must have had a hard time accepting who he was, and his mission.

Today’s Gospel picks up just after Jesus spent 40 days in the desert.  He was tempted to renounce his relationship with his Father, but he remains faithful, and comes home renewed.  He reveals himself to the people who know him best.  They’ve seen him grow from that little guy learning to walk and making mistakes, and now he’s saying that he’s the anointed one of God.

I’ll bet they all had a hard time accepting who he said he was, and his mission.

There’s quite a foreshadowing of Jesus’ end of life in today’s Gospel.  It begins with people praising him and being amazed at his speaking and depth, but ends with them filled with fury, taking him to the top of a mountain to “hurl him down headlong.”  First loved and accepted, but then pushed to his death.  Those who praised Jesus on Palm Sunday were the same people that would scream “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”

And yet, even fully knowing what would happen, God still pursued us.  He sent his son as one of us to reach out, to call us home, even though he knew we would throw him off a cliff.

Such love.  Such amazing love… to hold out a hand of care and forgiveness even though those very people would slam a spike through it.

Pursuit.  Chase after.  Hound.  Dig for.  Leave no stone unturned.  Do whatever it takes.

How has God pursued you?

How have you tried to throw him off a cliff, headlong?

What was it that led you to finally accept God’s hand reaching out to you, waiting for you?

And, how have you been God’s hands, reaching out to others?

The refrain of a pop song, which was recorded by the artist Richard Marx, titled “Right Here Waiting,” says it pretty well:

Wherever you go,
whatever you do,
I will be right here waiting for you.

What a perfect description of God.  All we have to do look, listen, and be God’s beloved.

Amen.

 

Paul Puccinelli is Director of Liturgy & Music at St. Rita Parish in Sierra Madre, CA, and a member  of the Retreat-Team at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center.

Scripture:

2 Samuel 12:1-7a, 10-17
Mark 4:35-41

 Reflection:

A violent storm was raging and a large ship was being tossed about on the sea.  A little girl sleeping below deck was wakened by all the commotion.  She asked, “What’s happening?”

She was told that there was a storm outside shaking the ship and all it’s passengers.
She asked,  “Is my father still at the helm?”
They told her, “Yes.”
“Then I’m going back to sleep,” she said.

In today’s gospel, that’s the kind of trust Jesus was hoping for from his apostles.  But they didn’t have it – yet.  Little by little, as they continued to see Jesus in action, they came to realize who he was.  Eventually they trusted him with their lives.

Throughout the centuries and especially in recent times the Catholic Church, the Bark of Peter, has been enduring turbulent times and frequent storms.  Yet it stays afloat and the ministry of fishing, of saving, goes on.  Like St. Paul, the Church has been “afflicted in every way, but not crushed: perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down by not destroyed;”  (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

As we encounter storms in our personal life, we need to remind ourselves that our father, Abba, is at the helm.  And he will not let us be crushed, forsaken or destroyed.  This realization brings us inner peace — and a good night’s sleep.

A final thought: “In the royal galley of Divine Love, there is no galley slave.  All are volunteers.”  — Francis de Sales

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:

2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17
Mark 4:26-34

Reflection:

I am not an expert on mustard seeds.  I don’t think I have ever seen one of these tiny wonders Jesus talks about in today’s reading.  However I do think I get the point Jesus is making today.  The smallest action on our part can build the Kingdom of God.   Twenty days at the Cleveland Clinic ICU with my critically ill wife has taught me a lot about mustard seeds and Kingdom building.

I was particularly down one night leaving the ICU.  I was alone in an empty hallway.  No chaplains, comfort doggies or social workers were there to console me.  Then I noticed him walking toward me, a tall, well-dressed physician I had only seen once on the ICU.  He saw me, grinned, stopped me and asked me how I was doing.

I started to tell him about the day, probably with tears in my eyes.  I related the story of my wife’s complications.  He stopped me in mid-sentence and said, “She is being well taken care of, let’s talk about you.”  He went on to counsel, console and encourage me.  I was deeply touched by this simple act of kindness, as small as the tiny mustard seed, yet building the Kingdom of God.

So maybe I am not an expert on mustard seeds, but I am very convinced one small act of kindness can build the mighty Kingdom of God.

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of our Passionist Family who volunteers at the Passionist Assisted Living Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29
Mark 4:21-25

Reflection:

We celebrate the feast day of the great Saint Thomas Aquinas today.  Aquinas was a member of the Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominican religious order.  He taught, wrote learned books and contributed in an outstanding way to philosophy and theology.  He is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation.  Thomas Aquinas is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles of Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.  The works of Aquinas have long been a part of most seminaries and schools of theology.  In researching some of Aquinas’ background, I was surprised to learn that his greatest and last work, The Summa Theologiae which deals with the whole of Catholic theology, was uncompleted.  He stopped writing it about three months before his death in 1274.  When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on…All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.”

In reflecting on the reasons Aquinas gave for not finishing the Summa I am very humbled.  In reflecting on the gospel passages found in our readings today from ordinary time as well as the feast day readings, I also come away being humbled and challenged.

In Mark 4:21, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?”

And

In Matthew 23:11-12, “the greatest among you must be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Aquinas was a brilliant theologian, philosopher and writer of Catholic thought.  So, why did he not finish the Summa???!!  I believe he was more importantly a person of deep faith, open to following the plan God had for him.  He did not need to finish the Summa, he did not hide his lamp of faith under a bushel basket, he opened himself up to the plan God put him on and in this way his light continues to shine in our world today.  He used the gifts God gave him to make the world of Catholic thought and deed live on for all the hundreds of men and women who have benefitted from his works.  He was a humble man aglow with the light of Christ.

…Challlenges for us…

Can we place our lamp on the lampstand to burn brightly so others may see the glory of God within and through us?

Can we serve humbly and faithfully as Aquinas did?

Can we give up our unfinished agendas and humbly accept the plan God has for us and trust that what needs to be accomplished will happen in God’s time and not necessarily on our timeline?

Saint Thomas Aquinas, inspired by your example, may we grow in knowledge of our Catholic faith and always strive to be people of humility and understanding.  May we keep this light of faith burning brightly as we continue to serve God and all God’s people.  Amen.

 

Theresa Secord is a Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:4-17
Mark 4:1-20

 

Reflection:

 I will not withdraw my favor!

I was really fortunate to have great teachers in college and graduate school (seminary). One of my favorite classes centered on sacramental theology, and the professor was also a Jungian analyst; he used Grimm’s Fairy Tales and other mythological literature to help us understand the mystery of Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation and Marriage. Repeatedly he had to remind us, however, of our proclivity to get mired in analysis. We always wanted to know, “What does it mean?” and his usual response was, instead, “Stay in the story.” Nocturnal dream analysis is similar: don’t move too quickly into finding out the dream’s meaning, but stay in the narrative!

Jesus often instructs his disciples in a similar fashion. They want a plain and simple explanation, and he asks them to be patient with the metaphor, and not to get too cerebral!

And I suppose most of us are like David, too, in our first reading. We want to confine God to our categories, our horizons, our temple. God’s response is that the Divine dwelling place is in peoplehood, not brick and mortar. As much as we attempt to grab the Lord by his divine ankles and pull him into our domesticated, little world, God is elusive. While King David seeks to build a house for God, God tells David that God will be doing the building for David!

I reverence that passage in John 4 when Jesus is speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well.  As she professes, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” Obviously, Jesus is speaking on a deeper level.

Yet, the core of today’s readings moves beyond this challenge to not limit ourselves to the heady or analytic. So, God tells the prophet, “I will correct him with the rod of men, and with human chastisements; but I will not withdraw my favor from him.” We may get snagged with our propensity for control, but God’s love — indiscriminate, unconditional, without boundaries — eclipses even our longing for control!

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. is the director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness.  He is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Scripture:

Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

 

Reflection:

The Favorable Year of the Lord

In today’s Gospel Jesus comes back to His home town of Nazareth to “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” The word in the original Greek for favorable is dektos which comes from word to welcome.  Jesus announces that with His presence comes a season of incomparable kindness from God! With the return of Jesus to His home town He offers the warm welcome of His Father to the people with whom He grew up.

Nazareth was a small village of 3 or 4 hundred people.  For about thirty years He lived here He must have known personally just about everyone.   When He was a child, He played with them.  As a young man He probably took hikes with them.  Jesus was a great walker! He walked all over Galilee.  He walked a number of times from Galilee to Jerusalem which is about 90 miles!  As a carpenter they hired Jesus to fix things. A percentage of the village must have been cousins.  We know there was no special word for cousins except brothers and sisters. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”  Mark 6:3 Jesus was among relatives and friends.   For them it was cousin Jesus and aunt Mary!

It should have been a nice safe reception for the beginning of Jesus’s ministry.  You would think the old timers would sit around the old spring and say: We knew this nice young man with great parents would be wonderful!   Just the opposite was true.   Not only did they reject Jesus as messenger of the Father, but even the finest human being that God made after His Son, Mary his mother!  “And they took offense at him.”

How can you live as close to Jesus and still don’t know Him!  Even Jesus “wondered at their unbelief” Mark 6:6   “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.”  Can this not happen to all of us?  Maybe after all the years I have lived near Christ, my relationship with Him might be cold and excluding.  Do I love and care for Him more than anything else in the world?   This is the year of mercy, “the favorable (dekos) year of the Lord”.   Do I warmly welcome Him into my heart who welcomes me?

 

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

Scripture:

2 Samuel 1:1-4, 11-12, 19, 23-27
Mark 3:20-21

Reflection:

During that last retreat season at St. Paul’s in Detroit, I had a talk about the sufferings of Jesus, some of which we don’t usually think about. Part of may talk was about how Jesus was often misunderstood, even by the ones closest to Him, and I used the passage from Mark which is our Gospel reading for today as an example of how He was misunderstood even by His family.

Mark tells us that when Jesus came home, a large crowd gathered, making it impossible for Jesus and His disciples to eat. Somehow, His family hears about it and decides “to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” So, Jesus’ family reaction to the news of great crowds coming to see Him is take Him home because He is obviously crazy.

Being misunderstood by even the ones closest to us is something most of us, I think, have experienced at one time or another. This Gospel passage challenges us to continue to strive to understand each other, out of love. Note the times in the Gospels when Jesus asks what He can do for this person or that when it seems obvious to us what should be done. Even though He may know what the person wants, Jesus gives them an opportunity to be heard.

Often it seems that in our society we have difficulty taking the time to understand each other, especially those who come from a different background or experience. But if we are to truly come together, we have to try to understand each other, as inefficient a process as that may be. We may even find how much we have in common! May understanding bring forth acceptance, and may acceptance bring forth love, and may love help bring forth the kingdom!

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.