Claire Smith

Scripture:

Tobit 2:9-14
Mark 12:13-17

Reflection:

The coin in today’s gospel passage—the coin which Jesus used to respond to the “trick question” which had been put to him—reminded me of the first reading’s closing passage, in which Tobit’s wife, Anna, challenges him for being “two-faced”.

Tobit has been introduced to us as a generous and pious person, faithful to the covenant even though his family had splintered from the Jerusalem Temple. Following the exile into Assyria, he continued his virtuous practices, especially the burial of the dead. This practice ultimately leads to his becoming a fugitive until the untimely death of the king, Sennacherib, makes possible his re-establishing his family life in Nineveh.

Following his misfortune that leads to blindness, Tobit seems to change, he seems to lose his pious and charitable attitude. When he rashly judges that his wife, Anna, has brought home a stolen goat, he refuses to keep it and demands that she return it to its owner. Anna then rebukes him, and asks what became of his pious nature; perhaps this is his real character now being displayed.

I think all of us can relate to Tobit’s response. We go through our life’s duties trying to be faithful to our Catholic way of life. We make efforts, consciously, to do the right thing. Eventually, all of us will come to the crisis that unleashes a run of words, throws up a wall of silence, or sharpens the biting rebuke that is not at all our “best self”.

Anna accuses her husband of being hypocritical, of finally revealing his true “side”. We are probably not surprised at Anna’s behavior; she has been hurt by the refusal of Tobit to accept her explanation that the goat was a “bonus” for a job well-done. Perhaps Tobit’s doubts are being interpreted by Anna as doubts about the quality of her work, implying that no one would give her a bonus for her work.

Let us bring Jesus into our reflection. We know from today’s gospel passage that Jesus was quite adept at turning his accusers’ traps and plots back on themselves. Jesus knew human nature, our shared human nature, and it is the reason that Jesus can be compassionate with us. As we will discover in the continuation of this reading, tomorrow, the compassion of Jesus flows as healing balm into our hearts when we repent, when we recognize the wrong we have done, and ask forgiveness, seek reconciliation with God and with those whom we have offended.

The two sides of a coin can always remind us that our human nature is flawed but redeemed. Which side of the coin of our personhood will we offer to Jesus and to our neighbor?

 

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P.  is the director of the Missions for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Feast of Saint Justin, Martyr

Scripture:

Tobit 1:3, 2:1b-8
Mark 12:1-12

Reflection:

Today is the feast of St. Justin, an early Christian martyr who lived in the second century.  He was a brilliant philosopher and a stout defender of the Christian faith—a stance that ultimately cost him his life.

The readings for today are part of the ordinary weekly cycle but their content makes us think about the cost of Christian discipleship.  The gospel story of the workers in the vineyard who abuse the emissaries of the owner and finally even kill his son—a harbinger of Jesus’ own suffering and death—is familiar to us.   But we seldom hear readings from the Book of Tobit like the one we have today.   This unusual book was probably written sometime in the second century before Christ,  and meant as a story of encouragement in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Middle East, which left the Jews of the region living under foreign rule.  The author of Tobit casts the story much earlier, when Israel was in exile due to the Assyrian invasion in the 7^th century B.C.  Tobit is a devout and faithful Jew living in Nineveh with his family.  In the quaint scene depicted in our reading, Tobit is enjoying a “fine dinner” celebrating the feast of Pentecost.  Reflecting Tobit’s goodness, he tells his son Tobiah to go out and find a poor man with whom Tobit can share his feast.  However, the son returns with a very different report—he has discovered the body of a fellow Jew who had been executed and left lying in the street.  In accord with Jewish piety, Tobit immediately leaves his dinner table and goes to bury the man—earning the wrath of his neighbors who preferred that this executed man would suffer the indignity of not even being buried.

As the story of Tobit continues—beyond the passage we have today—we learn that despite Tobit’s goodness he continues to suffer calamities in his life, including being blinded (from bird droppings while he is asleep!).  A parallel account in Tobit is that of the beautiful Sarah who has seen seven of her newlywed husbands in succession die on their wedding night!

Ultimately the story of this righteous suffering receives comfort and relief.  The Angel Raphael (the name in Hebrew means, “God heals”) works to heal Tobit’s blindness and to break the cycle of death that engulfs Sarah’s life (she will successfully marry Tobiah, Tobit’s son!)—all through the healing powers drawn from the entrails of a fish! [Read the whole book to get the amazing details!]

Like ourselves, the original readers of this great biblical fable may have chuckled at some of its outrageous features.  But the underlying message contains sober truth.  Living a devout and righteous life does not necessarily protect one from acute suffering.  I think of the innocent Christians of Iraq and Syria who are suffering terrible persecution and death itself at the hands of hate-mongers who use the cover of religion for their treachery and violence.  All of us can experience suffering of a less dramatic sort that makes us ask where is God at our time of need.

But the book of Tobit in its winsome way, also reminds us of the deepest wellsprings of our faith, particularly in this Easter season.  Ultimately, God will heal us and bring us home, despite the mystery of evil and the suffering it can inflict on us.  We pray today that, like Tobit and Sarah, like Justin Martyr and all of the contemporary unnamed martyrs who suffer around the globe, that God would send the Angel Raphael, God’s own comfort, to sustain us.

 

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Scripture:

Sirach 44:1, 9-13
Mark 11:11-26

Reflection:

Sometimes a reflection is simply a reflection.  It is not an attempt to make another person accept my point of view or a “soap box” opportunity to preach about my favorite theme.  Today’s story from Mark’s gospel regarding Jesus and the temple is an opportunity to simply reflect.

“They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus looks angry.

One of the desert fathers, Abba (father) Poeman says, “If your brother plucks out your right eye and cuts off your right hand, and you get angry with him, you are angry without cause.  But if he separates you from God, then be angry with him.”

Jesus did not want people to be separated from God’s presence in the temple or anywhere else.  Deliberate separation from God was the worst form of injustice.  Separation from others and our world also is unjust.  We are one.

Jesus got angry when He saw this injustice.  Today’s reflection is simple.  Am I angry enough to “turn over the tables” when I see divisiveness in the sacred temple of our world?

 

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of the Passionist Family in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17
Mark 10:32-45

Reflection:

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be handed over.

Today’s Gospel concludes one of the “framing” or “sandwich” technique examples in Mark’s Gospel. The evangelist skillfully applies this method to induce the reader to pay attention; but our temptation is to get lost in the bread and not get to the meat! You see, back in the eighth chapter of Mark’s narrative we read about Jesus healing a blind man at the pool of Bethsaida; remember, when Jesus asked if he could see, the man replied he could, but people were like trees walking, and Jesus had to come back and heal again! After that, at three different times, Jesus predicts his own Passion. Today’s Gospel is the third and final scenario. In tomorrow’s Gospel, from the latter part of Mark 10, Jesus will heal another blind person, Bartimaeus, the man who kept shouting, “Son of David, have pity on me! What Mark is trying to do by framing the three Passion narratives with the stories of the healing of two blind men is to remind us that the disciples were blind, unable to see Jesus’ destiny and their own.

How many times am I reluctant to hear or see what God is trying to communicate to me? To grow in holiness is not so much about concluding a significant prayer time, or taking my moral temperature on self-perfection, or giving myself a report card on good behavior. It is much a more about a growing sensitivity to God’s presence in my life. It is sort of like fine-tuning an old-time radio, trying to get on God’s wavelength. Commenting on Moses’ call in Exodus 3, when God spoke from a burning bush, the poet Elizabeth Barret Browning, penned these words,

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” (Aurora Leigh)

How patient the Lord was with his Twelve in their “blindness” and inability to see! How patient with me when I just don’t pay attention.

 

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. 

Pentecost Sunday

Scripture:

Acts 2:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Galatians 5:16-25
John 20:19-23

Reflection:

He breathed:  on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:22           

Years ago when I was trained in CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation ) the common practice was to breath into the patient.   This is no longer encouraged.  But it strikingly shows how important it is for us to breathe.   We cannot stay alive for much more than three minutes without breathing! On the average a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute.   We are air guzzlers using about two gallons of air a minute.  At that rate I could only drive about 10 minutes before I would have to stop and refuel my pick-up truck!  We need a tremendous supply of fuel of the Holy Spirit to stay alive spiritually.

The Holy Spirit in its etiological roots means both in Hebrew and Greek wind or breath.  We are no less depended on the Holy Spirit than we are on the air we breathe.  “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Gen 2:7      The Holy Spirit certainly is the “breath of life”!  Devotion to the Spirit can never be reduced to an optional private choice but is the power source of our spiritual life.   Paul reminds us in the second reading: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by Holy Spirit.”1Cor 12:3   I find it interesting that we describe our life with Jesus as “our Spiritual life”.

“And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.  Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” Act 2:2  There are some 400 references to the Spirit in New Testament.  Just about every spiritual gift we can think of is attributed to Holy Spirit, this “divine wind”.

The Spirit is called “the life maker”.  “It is the Spirit who gives life” John 6:63  In the Greek New Testament He is called: zōopoieō Literally life maker.  May this “divine breath” recreate us in the image of Christ!

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
John 21: 20-25

Reflection:

In our reading from the conclusion of John’s Gospel, Peter sees the disciple whom Jesus loved, and asks Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” This is after Jesus has told Peter “by what kind of death he would glorify God.” Jesus answers, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” By Jesus’ response we see that Peter is probably not asking out of idle curiosity, but perhaps trying to compare himself with the beloved disciple; to see whether the beloved disciple is going to get some special treatment or a better prediction of his fate. Have you ever encountered anyone who did the same thing, always checking to see what other people get and how it compares to what they have received? Perhaps you have fallen into the same trap yourselves. I know I have.

Checking to see how much others have and how much we don’t, or trying to determine whether they should be loved by God or not, is not our purpose as disciples. If we follow Jesus, when we ask “What about him?” or “What about her?” or “What about them?” we are really asking “How can I help him?” or “What is her story?” or “Is there a way we can meet their needs?” We are to look at the choices we make and ask, “How does this affect others?

When we find ourselves asking, “What about him, or her, or them?” Jesus has answered our question by His Cross and the empty tomb: They are beloved by God. May we share Jesus’ answer with the world.

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is on staff at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

 

 

Scripture:

Acts 25: 13 – 21
John 21 : 15 – 19

Reflection:

In the marvelous movie “Lion in Winter” in which Peter O’Toole and Catherine Hepburn depict King Henry and Queen Eleanor at Christmas time with their three sons, all of whom are anxious to replace Daddy on the throne of England, there are constant sets of circumstances which give life to the euphemism, “Don’t look now, but…”  They are forever plotting and contriving to make their desires become a reality but something always happens to change directions and possibilities, moving them along entirely different pathways.

“Don’t look now but…” is a phrase which invites us to move more deeply into our Sacred Scripture for today.  In the Gospel of John, the Risen Lord is taking care of a few final but important details having to do with Peter.  In the Acts, Luke is moving us headlong toward the final proclamation of the Gospel  at “the ends of the earth”, i.e. the city of Rome.  Let’s stand alongside Peter and  the Risen Lord for a moment.   Don’t look now but the effervescent, blustery, and impulsive Peter of old is gone.  He has been humiliated and has failed to the extent that he betrayed Jesus three times.  Peter has returned to the only job he knows he can manage, given his circumstances.  He is fishing again.  He can be  low key and safe on the sea and along the seashore.  Then the Risen Lord appears and Peter has one of those moments : don’t look now, but this seaside life is not what I have in mind for you.  Three times Jesus asks, “Do you love me ?”  Three times Peter surrenders his heart to the Lord.  Peter is forgiven.  Peter is rehabilitated.  Peter learns a depth of compassion and mercy which only one who has experienced it can understand and provide for others. Don’t look now, but you are not to be a fisherman, you are to be a Pastor of Christ’s people – feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.  God’s direction will guide you to your destiny.  Peter, you are to be a witness of the Risen Lord “to the ends of the earth”, i.e. in Rome where others will determine how you will give your final and most profound witness to the Risen Lord in your heart, your life and in our world.  Don’t look now, but the Risen Lord has shifted everything you expected out of life as you cast your nets into the sea for the last time.  The shift is the action of the Holy Spirit and it is marvelous in God’s eyes.

Don’t look now, but Paul, in this scene from the  Acts, has coupled his own ingenuity with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in his life to create a completely unexpected turn of events in his journey of witnessing to the Risen Lord.  Governor Felix has left the new governor, Festus, with a conundrum – namely Paul and the accusations against him. When he decides to send Paul to Jerusalem, a hot bed of hostility against Paul, the Apostle appeals to Caesar.  Don’t look now, but Paul automatically guaranteed himself a journey to Rome at the government’s expense which is where he wanted to go in the first place.  He will spend several years living comfortably in Rome while freely preaching the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Don’t look now, but Paul will not only found a vibrant faith community in Rome but will provide an unshakeable foundation of faith, hope and courage by his final and profound witness to the Risen Lord through martyrdom.

Don’t look now, but the Holy Spirit moved through the circumstances of the lives of both Peter and Paul to bring about unexpected, wondrous, and lasting fruit through the shepherding, nourishing, and affirming presence to the faithful of their day in ways they never imagined for themselves.

This is the Holy Spirit we wait to celebrate at the conclusion of our Easter season.  The Risen Lord continues to stir things up in our own circumstances of life.  How do we respond when we have one of those moments – and we all have them from time to time – “don’t look now but…”  Are we able to open ourselves up to the movements of the Spirit in ways we do not expect and cannot even imagine?  Are we able to count as blessings those moments of life when we are called to experience a deeper faith, a more trusting heart, healing for a fractured relationship, mercy for the sinner, rehabilitation for the betrayer?  Don’t look now, but we are all called to surrender to the direction of the Risen Lord in our lives.  We are asked to avoid hesitation, fear, and excuses in order to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth today, beginning with our own families.

At the end of the “Lion in winter”, Eleanor asks Henry, “Will you let me out (of my castle prison) at Easter?”  Henry responds, “You will rise with the Risen Lord!”  It is our destiny to rise with the Risen Lord.  He has asked us to be his witnesses every day in every way, to conform our minds and hearts to His so that our lives preach His Good News of salvation every moment until our own final, profound witness as we move into eternal life with Him.

 

Fr. Richard Burke, CP, is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province and also serves on the Provincial Council of Holy Cross Province.  He lives at St. Ann’s Monastery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

 

Scripture:

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
John 17:20-26

Reflection:

One of the wonders of the quilt-making craft is how scores, possibly hundreds, of quite differently hued and shaped pieces of cloth can be brought together into a bed-sized quilt, so that, seen covering a bed, it becomes a thing of artistic beauty.  At first sight, it would have seemed impossible to work with such diverse pieces of materials, and bring forth symmetry and harmony: harmony out of diversity—indeed, harmony by way of diversity.

When Jesus completed His mission on earth, suffering death on the cross as a disgraced criminal, then rising majestically from the dead, and returning in glory to His Father in heaven, He was leaving behind Him, despite three intense years of formation and instruction, a motley group of followers none of whom demonstrated any significant signs of leadership or organizational and inspirational skills.  They resembled so many different pieces of cloth as they went their way preaching the gospel, across the borders of disparate countries, without the benefit of cell phones or any other mode of communication with one another, likely never reassembling together again, in the remaining years of their lives.  And yet, they offered a cohesive pattern of religious faith in the person of the Lord Jesus, comparable to the way a quilt acquires the status of an artistic masterpiece, from so many distinct pieces of cloth.  How do we account for this?

Today’s gospel contains the secret of this wonder: it is embedded in Jesus’ final prayer for His twelve closest followers: a prayer for harmony and unity.  This was a prayer of petition for a very unlikely outcome, that harmony and unity would prevail among the twelve, and with Jesus Himself, despite His absence from them as He returns to His Heavenly Father.   His prayer for their harmony and unity amid so many factors militating against any success in preaching the Good News, such as their disarray, incompetence and ignorance, seems as unlikely to succeed as the multiple squares of multi-colored pieces of cloth coming together into a charming bedspread of beauty.  But Jesus had confidence in the success awaiting His apostles, so He confidently departed their company to face His imminent arrest and crucifixion.

Now, granted the efficacy of Jesus’ prayer that harmony and peace would prevail among them, we note a very different tactic resorted to years later, by the versatile and clever Paul, the Apostle, while the other apostles, during these years following Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, spread out across the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin, exhibiting the harmony of purpose and achievement, prayed for by Jesus at the Last Supper.  But Paul, for his part, was doing something equally marvelous, in his own way.  Today’s reading presents a coy and clever Paul, arraigned before the Roman authorities for the disrupture of the public order he had caused, at least within the Jewish community, by preaching the saving mystery of the dead and risen Jesus.  On this occasion, the clever apostle, anticipating the disharmony and disagreement among segments of the Jews assembled against him if he introduced the topic of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, instigating a furious argument among them, which worked to his own advantage, since he knew the Roman authorities would have to turn their attention away from him in order to restore law and order among the combative factions of Pharisees and Sadducees, arguing over this very topic.  This is exactly what happened.  Paul made clever use of disharmony among his opponents to secure his escape from them so he could carry on his preaching ministry with his customary success.

And so today’s scripture shows both harmony and disharmony working in equally effective ways among the apostles, in their efforts at advancing the message of Jesus.  And the same factors play out in our contemporary church as we recall today the martyrdom of contemporary (1937) Christians such as SS. Christopher Magallanes and his companions for their support of a Mexican Christian protest movement against an anti-Catholic government, or as we celebrate this Saturday (May 23^rd), when Pope Francis’ beatifies Archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated in El Salvador (1980) for his opposition to governmental  persecution of the church because of its support of the poor and disenfranchised—a step Pope St. John Paul II earlier on hesitated to take, fearing it to be more a contentious political issue than a religious one.

Both harmony and disharmony, each in its own way, work themselves out, each in their own way, can promote and advance the gospel message about Jesus Christ.  So, different ways of presenting the gospel can prove as effective as different patterns of quilt material coming together into a bedspread pleasing to the eye.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.