Claire Smith

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” John 17:6

A theme for today’s Mass is belonging. We long to belong. Yet, life does not always makes it easy for us to know where we belong and to whom we belong. Today’s Scriptures invites us to reflect upon these questions.

At this point in time in the Gospels, Jesus is getting ready to leave his disciples. He has to leave them twice. Once, as he prepared to take up his cross and suffer death by crucifixion, outside the walls of Jerusalem, as a common criminal. The second time, as he prepared to Ascend into Heaven, to take his rightful place at the right hand of God, his loving Father. Before he leaves his disciples, the people who loved him most in this world, he leaves us a testimony of Word and Sacrament, which we celebrate to this day. He left us the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Orders before he died. He left us the Sacraments of Penance and Confirmation, after he rose from the dead. Finally, he sent us his Spirit as he commissioned us as missionaries. We are to go out and baptize in his Name, preach in his Name and establish the Church in his Name. Jesus clearly knew that he belonged both to God, his Father, and to us, the people he died for, with love in his heart.

At the same time, the disciples had trouble understanding to whom they belonged, especially as they experienced Jesus die and Ascend into heaven. What does it mean to belong to Jesus, the Christ? What does it mean to belong as a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean to go out into the whole world and baptize and preach in Jesus’ name? These, indeed, are foundational questions of belonging.

One reason why these important questions are so difficult to answer is because our own life is a story of belonging, of coming to grips with questions as: where do we belong and to whom do we belong. Way before we became aware of our thoughts and feelings, we experienced belonging and rejection. We were learning the difference between belonging unconditionally or belonging only because of conditional love, a love that depended upon pleasure and mood of another or of others. Both life scenarios need the Grace of God to make us whole and holy. This is what Jesus was telling us in his farewell speeches. This was the experience of the disciples, from Peter to John to Paul.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel, as he prays to his God, his Father, “They (the disciples) belong to you.” Once we accept that we belong to the God who loves us unconditionally, then we can move forward in life. This is the ultimate act of Faith we are called to make. We, then, can leave behind our human origins and become a new people, a holy nation, a people set apart, a royal priesthood, to paraphrase St. Peter in one of his letters to us. St. Paul took another path to belonging Jesus. He found a way to belong and become a disciple, proclaiming the name of Jesus, baptizing in Jesus’ name. We can leave our old way of belonging and commit to belonging only to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

What a beautiful thought this is: that we belong to God who loves us unconditionally! We are, indeed, children of God, brothers and sisters to one another, anointed by the Holy Spirit. May we always belong to God!

 

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Chicago, Illinois. 

 

 

Scripture:

Acts 19:1-8
John 16:29-33

Reflection:

In one episode of the gospel story of Jesus, but unrelated to today’s readings, a father upon seeing Jesus heal his son, cries out “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

Perhaps his example is one we could take to heart as we read today’s gospel story.

For John presents Jesus as both acknowledging the faith of the disciples and yet warning them of the troubles to come, times when their faith will fail them and they will desert him.

I wonder though whether in fact it is faith that fails us in crisis times or indeed if it is courage that fails us. By this I mean that faith is a deeply resolute part of our lives, it may be challenged but is rarely completely extinguished. Rather it is often courage that fails us when we encounter opposition, strife and even persecution. When confronted with a moment in which the ‘fight or flight’ tendency takes over, it is often flight that people choose. This is not to say they no longer believe in God, nor that their faith is extinguished, but they flee to safety rather than standing tall and strong and living as a witness to deeper values in the moment.

But let us not forget that over these past few years we have also seen wonderful examples of Christian men and women standing for their faith and suffering for it too. Faced with all kinds of evils, in too many troubled lands, Christians have faced opposition even to the point of martyrdom for the sake of their faith and for no other reason than they believe. We sadly see this on our nightly news services, and it echoes a theme reflected again and again from the Vatican itself that Christians are amongst the most persecuted peoples in the world today.

Perhaps this is the sense of Jesus concluding words in today’s gospel – “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Of course our trials and tests come to us disguised as daily events, small and large, and each and every one has the potential to scatter us, to send us to our own ‘home’ (that place of safety where we are not confronted by the challenge before us). Faced with daily moments like these, let us pray that we will place our lives continuously in the hands of Jesus and stand with him in those moments of trial.

Let us believe he has conquered the world and that he will always be for us.

 

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.

 

Feast of Saint Gemma Galgani

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Whenever Jesus uses the phrase “very truly” he is presenting us with a new teaching. In this case Jesus is assuring us that he will not be speaking to us in “parables” but directly in plain truth.  The truth he shares is that the Holy Spirit will be with us and will teach us plainly.  The Father loves us because we believe that Jesus came from the Father and will return again to the Father.

Jesus assures us because we believe we will have a new understanding in the power of prayers.  To act on this understanding is to find the “fullness of joy.” The loyalty of Jesus’ disciples insures God’s loving interest in their prayers.

The disciples share fully in Jesus’s relationship with God.  The disciples can pray like Jesus and have full confidence God will hear their prayers. Just as the Trinity is a relationship of love, so too is the life of the disciples. Their community is shaped by love, intimacy, and mutuality.  This is the core of Jesus’ teaching. Just as Jesus and the Father are friends, the disciples and the Father are friends united in love. Thus the disciples will be aware of the Holy Spirit and have a direct line of  communication with the Father.

One who understood this teaching of Jesus to his disciples is St. Gemma Galgani.

Today is the Feastday of St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903).  She was born in Lucca, Italy.  By the time she was nineteen years of age, both of parents had died, and she was left without a supportive family.  In 1898 she was struck with a life threatening illness. In a vision, St. Gabriel Possenti , C.P. told her she would be cured, and that she would be a Passionist.  In 1899 she received the stigmata on her hands, feet and side.  Although she sought entrance into the Passionists Nuns she  was refused. However, when she died she was allowed to be buried in the habit of the Passionist nuns in Lucca.

Gemma holds a fascination for people today.  In 2003, the University of Chicago published a book entitled “The Voices of Gemma Galgani:  The life and afterlife of a modern saint.  In advertising this book when it was published the publisher said: “Gemma was a model for modern women.”  She is the first person in the twentieth

century to be beatified (130), and canonized (1940).

 

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

 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

To better appreciate our reading from Acts you should realize that Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. The glory days of Athens are long past. Corinth sat on a long narrow strip of land that connects northern modern Greece to southern Greece. If you were travelling east to west by ship from Italy to Asia Minor you could save many days of sailing around Greece by going to Corinth, unloading your cargo, and transferring it across the narrow peninsula to another ship.  Corinth was a cosmopolitan commercial hub of the Roman Empire.

Paul settled here for a year and a half. Paul’s two letters to this community give us give us a flavor of the early church and the challenge in establishing the gospel in a pagan and gentile environment. In this passage we see Paul protected by Roman law and justice as the governor, Gallio, dismisses charges against him brought by the Jews.

Paul finishes his second missionary trip and sets sail for Antioch in Syria. It is for us to admire the energy, courage and persistence of Paul in preaching the gospel.  We need to recall that our baptism gives us the same Spirit that inspired Paul to witness to Christ. Each Mass ends with the command to go out, to go forth and to live Eucharist in our daily lives. Pope Francis exhorts us not to hug our faith to ourselves, but to share it. We are all missionaries.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Mark 16:15-20

Reflection:

In a time of the year when we celebrate graduations and milestones, we can all think of a few pearls of wisdom we learned from our parents. Some lessons or words to live by that stuck with us throughout our lives. For me the lessons of hard work, integrity, helping others and treating others with respect, were strong messages from my childhood. I certainly haven’t been perfect at them, but they have been guiding lights throughout my life that I believe are at the core of who I am.

In today’s Gospel, I believe The Lord gives us one of His many pearls of wisdom, “remain in my love”. He even tells us how and why. How? By keeping his commandments with an emphasis on loving one another. And, as if we need a reason beyond His asking us, He provides a reason why, that we might know His joy. This reading seems very tender to me, with The Lord telling us very specifically how much He loves us. It has taken on special meaning for me as we entered into 2015. Early in the year, when spending time in front of the Blessed Sacrament after confession, the words came to me in a very special and personal way…”remain in my love”. Numerous times since, that phrase has manifested itself in my life, at interesting points, not the least of which is that my day to write the reflection lands on the day it is part of the Gospel. It has become a constant prayer for me ever since, “Lord help me to remain in your love”. A few weeks back, while praying through John Paul 2’s consecration to Jesus through Mary, he encourages the reader to listen to Jesus’s soft voice in the depth of their heart that they might know what they need to do to “remain in His love”. I know the answer to that, follow his commandments. But in prayer over the next week, that soft voice in my heart, clear as day, gave me more advice on how to “remain in His love”. “Remain close to my Mother.”

As we prepare for Ascension Sunday, it is good to remember The Lord did not leave us orphans. He did not leave us alone. He has given us himself in the Eucharist. He has sent the Holy Spirit. He has taught us to pray and given us so much instruction in the way He lived His life. And He has given us His blessed Mother, not in a general sense, but as with the apostle John at the foot of the cross, very specifically to each of us, all to help us to be faithful that we might, “Remain in His love”.

 

Steve Walsh is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre ,and a good friend of the Passionist Community.

 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

In Acts, Paul gives us his only fully developed speech to a Gentile audience. Absent from today’s proclamation are verses 16-21 in chapter 17 where we read that Paul is speaking  to Stoic and Epicurean philosophers who have actually requested he come  so that they may learn about this new teaching. Although skeptical, Paul has their interest ……..until he started moving too far beyond their world view—what they were capable of absorbing.

Aware of his audience, prior to this event, Paul, “walking around, looking carefully at (your) shrines”   finds an acceptable place to begin.  Starting with an “altar to an Unknown God” he shares all he understands about this God who is known to him. He even quotes the ancient Stoic poet, Aratus, “for we too are his offspring” as well as a sixth-century B.C. author, Epimenides of Knosses,  “In him we live and move and have our being” the latter verse having become one of the highest theological understandings in the New Testament.

Like Jesus in Gospel encounters, Paul meets the Athenians where they are –he carefully finds a common thread. Yet, far from diluting the message, he fully communicates his understanding of the risen Christ.

In a switch from the first reading, Jesus explains that he has more to share which they cannot understand now. With the benefit of hindsight they come to believe in the power of his presence with them through the Holy Spirit—and they act on this belief.

Sometimes we are challenged to stretch our understanding of the movement of God in our lives, to find that deeper reality and grow in spiritual maturity rather then ask to be told some other time.

Then, taking careful steps to understand our own motives in line with God’s will, we are invited to look for that common thread, to share the Good News to a world not always receptive to hearing the message, and trust the Holy Spirit will bring us all to experience God’s Glory—eternally.

 

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

“I have told you this so that you may not fall away.”

The community of the evangelist John lived during turbulent, polarizing times when their faith was severely tested.  John wrote his gospel sometime after 85 AD, likely to a community undergoing a painful rejection and separation, exclusion from its life in the synagogue, from the broader Jewish society to which its members belonged.  This gospel may also have reflected a time of inner-Johannine community conflict, a controversy in which some disciples who had once believed in Jesus as Messiah were now abandoning the community.  In Jn 8:31, Jesus addresses “the Jews who had believed in him.”  Could they be the same followers who in Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:2) had walked away in large numbers?  Whatever the state of affairs, the Johannine community was suffering through a severe crisis of faith.

In today’s gospel, John reminds his community of what Jesus said to his disciples.  Jesus warned that just as he would be rejected and put to death, they too would suffer similar trials.  Jesus quickly adds, however, that he would send the Holy Spirit — the Advocate — to bear witness to his salvific ministry.  His departure will signal for his disciples, not that his work has come to an end, but that it is now to be continued by them.  He will send the Advocate to be their strength, so that they too will bear witness to Jesus during times of trouble.

Jesus offers these words of comfort to the disciples standing before him, to John’s fragile community, and to us.  For most of us, our trials may not resemble the violent extremism of many parts of the world.  Ours may be a more subtle poison, an insidious wearing away at our faith through indifference, moral relativism, societal ridicule — especially those who have walked away from the faith.

But Jesus wants not only to comfort us.  He is exhorting us, inspiring us to hold to our beliefs, to continue witnessing to our faith, especially during troubled times.  The work of Jesus didn’t end 2,000 years ago.  That was only the beginning.  We are called to continue his work today.  The Advocate, the witness, will show us how to witness to the world.  And if we get shaky knees, if we slip and begin to lose our step, Jesus will say to us: “I have told you this so that you may not fall away.”

 

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Priest, Altar and Lamb of Sacrifice

During the days of Easter the Risen One is present with us and his wounds are often  visible. The fifth preface for the Easter season describes Jesus as priest, altar and lamb of sacrifice. Words of the Passion, but words that also describe us because we share the life of Christ.

As branches upon the vine we delight the Father by bearing much fruit, and what we ask shall be done for us. This will happen because we abide in God. One with God we know the Father’s will; what we ask is discerned through the will of the Father. And we bear fruit because the Lord is working with and through us. Listening to the will of the Father and open to the guidance of the Spirit we do the work of Jesus, and like Our Lord we will carry the Cross. Can we see our being priest, altar and lamb of sacrifice as flowing from our being one with the Father and doing the Father’s will?

In Acts we have an example. The first missionary journey of Barnabas and Paul ends in Derbe and Lystra where they are pelted with rocks. Paul says, “It is necessary to suffer many trials to enter into the Kingdom of God”. When the disciples retrace their steps back to Antioch they see again the people they had first visited. What do they find? Among these disciples they see joy and the Holy Spirit, signs and marvels, those who suffer for the faith and the Kingdom of God.

Paul and Barnabas have suffered for the Kingdom of God, they have followed the guidance the Holy Spirit as they fulfilled their commission of carrying the Good News to the gentiles, and they have borne much fruit. Acts will become narrower now, following only the story of Paul’s listening to the Spirit. The Macedonian who appears in Paul’s dream and calls, “Come over and help us”, is the new summons of the Spirit.

Being priest, altar and lamb invite us to see in the lives of Paul and Barnabas, and our own, rich ways that the Paschal Mystery is alive in us. Jesus is priest of the New Covenant; like the missionaries of the New Testament we bring the Good News to light through our faith. We hear the altar is not only the table for a meal or place of offering sacrifice, it is Jesus. What might be an object is personal intimacy. Our priesthood is something we exercise in intimacy. And the lamb of sacrifice gives its life without resistance for many reasons – forgiveness, thanksgiving, praise of God – and these reasons are ours as we touch the cross at different times.

Our celebration of the presence of the Risen One will end soon. We are invited like the first disciples in John’s Gospel to abide with Jesus and to be one with the Father. Like Paul who once again follows the summons the Holy Spirit, we bear the symbols of priest, prophet and lamb of sacrifice as we continue to present the Paschal Mystery to the world through our lives.

 

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