Claire Smith

Scripture:

Revelation 1:1-4; 2:1-5
Luke 18:35-43

Reflection:

Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.” Luke 18:41

I think that I was in fifth grade when the school principle asked me to take a note to my parents, with the request that they come talk to her. That had never happened to me before, so I was very anxious about doing this. I even considered “losing it somewhere” on my way home.

It turned out that the school wanted to tell my parents that I needed an eye exam, because I was having trouble reading the blackboard. I had no idea that I needed glasses. Getting glasses that early in life was both challenging and life-changing. The first time I came to school with eye glasses, I was teased. I considered not wearing them. But, when I was in the classroom looking at the blackboard or reading a book, it was amazing how much better I could see. I have been wearing glasses ever since.

This beautiful Gospel account is about someone who knows he cannot see and wants to see. Living in a world without the faculty of sight is living in a world of darkness. There are people born blind, and probably know the world outside by only “seeing” it with their other senses: touch, smell or sound. I cannot image what kind of world they live in.

Others lose their sight by accident or disease or some other cause. They know what it means to see and be blind.

When we know that we are blind, whatever the cause, we long to see. We are just like the man in today’s gospel.

While there may be many levels of insight that we can gleam from this Gospel through prayer and meditation, the one that strikes me most today is my experience of not being aware that I cannot see clearly, while thinking that I can. We can be the “seeing” blind and not even be aware of it. We can live our lives seeing everything, but blind to the realities that make life meaningful, beautiful and worth living. We have not yet learned to cry out with full conviction, “Lord, please let me see.” We have not learned to cry out in faith!

When we hear Jesus say to us, “Have sight; your faith has saved you,” we will then be able to see and do what this blind man did: Follow Jesus. And for the Evangelist Luke, following Jesus means taking up our cross daily to follow him.

When we follow Jesus, we will see what Jesus sees: the tears of the suffering, the stranger or the refugee or the beggar shouting in the streets, the outcast women rejected by society, the leper, and so much more. It allows us to see injustice and become voice for the voiceless and friend of the downtrodden. It allows us to love unconditionally!

The sight that Jesus offers us changes everything!

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

Scripture:

Daniel 12:1-3
Hebrews 10:11-14, 18
Mark 13:24-32

Reflection:

Our gospel today provides an explicit and quite illuminating answer to these very human questions: “What are we waiting for?” “Are we on the lookout for anything?” “Expecting anything?” Many people today are waiting for nothing, expecting nothing, and on the lookout for nothing. They live their days, one after another as if nothing ultimately matters and life will go on forever.

Today’s gospel shows us how false and foolish such thinking is. As we move to the end of the liturgical year, Jesus’ words remind us that we are also moving toward the end of the world. This world, which we assure ourselves will go on forever, will come to a definitive end with a finale that will be impossible to miss. Jesus says, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

And yet, the world ends not in darkness and nothingness, not in absurdity and despair, but with the coming-into-fullness of the reign of God. Just when it seems that all light has forever gone out of the world, that impenetrable darkness will be shattered by “‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory.” He “will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky,” Jesus tells us. Truly, something grand and glorious awaits us, something breathtakingly dazzling and awesome, for at that moment all of creation will radiate the love, justice, and goodness of God.

And so, we need to ask those questions again: “What are we waiting for?” “Are we on the lookout for anything?” “Expecting anything?” As the late Passionist scripture scholar Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller wrote, considering today’s gospel, “There is no excuse for our not being people of overwhelming hope.”

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology & Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

3 John 5-8
Luke 18:1-8

Reflection:

In today’s gospel, Jesus offers a compelling example of faithful perseverance. It’s the brief but unforgettable parable of the pesky widow who won’t take no for an answer. For what Jesus hints must have been a considerable time, she has relentlessly beseeched the judge to resolve her case by giving her what she was due. The widow was looking for justice, but the infamous judge, whom Jesus said “neither feared God nor respected any human being,” didn’t want to be bothered. Eventually, however, her persistence wore him down. Knowing that she will never give up, the judge finally rendered a decision.

Sometimes we are tempted to give up because we wonder if what we do really matters. Day after day, week after week, year after year, we strive to be faithful to our commitments, to follow the way of Christ, and to live truly good and holy lives. But does it make any difference? We do our best to love the people God brings into our lives, we try to be just and thoughtful, generous and kind, but after a while can doubt whether the good we do will ever nudge the world to a better place. At that point, it is easy to grow disillusioned, replacing faithful perseverance with cynicism, hope with complacency, and love with a gradual turning in on ourselves.

This parable is the only one in the gospels that ends with a question, and a provocative one it is: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Through the story of this indefatigable widow, Jesus suggests that true “faith on earth” is exhibited not through spectacularly heroic deeds, but through the faithful perseverance by which we each day fulfill the commitments and responsibilities of our lives. What will Jesus find in us? We need to remember that the world is held together, and sustained in hope, not by the dazzling deeds of the powerful, but by the faithful perseverance of ordinary people like us.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology & Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family.

Scripture:

2 John 4-9
Luke 17:26-37

Reflection:

I’ll bet we have all seen pictures of hooded and robed people walking with signs that warn, “Repent, the end is near!”  Or, how about, “The world is going to end soon”?  Well, while their timing may be off, they are not entirely wrong, as a matter of fact.  And our reading for today, taken from the Gospel of Luke, reminds us of something that we almost never pay attention to that, one day, the world as we know and experience it will one day cease to exist.  There is an end time awaiting us all in one way or another, and the question is, are we ready for it?  Are we prepared to face this second coming of Jesus, whether that be in the world itself or even in our own lives?

In the 17^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is sitting with his disciples and talking with them about what is called “the end times,” i.e. the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus as the victorious and risen Lord.  It will be a time not only of vindication and the revelation of the glory of the Lord, but it will also be a time of judgment and accounting.  Jesus shares this truth with his disciples, there is no question about it.  He will come again and there will be a reckoning of how we, his disciples, have served the Lord and lived out his Gospel mandate.  In addition, we do not know the day nor the hour when this will take place.  But there is little doubt to be sure, it will happen!  And what matters is that we are ready for the moment and are not found wanting.

Now, there are other stories similar to the one we find in Luke.  For example, Matthew, chapter 25, uses the image of a bridegroom returning home and the warning that we must be ready for his return and not be caught foolishly without enough oil for our lamps to greet him.  These are reminders that we are all called to be prepared to meet the Lord and to give an account of ourselves and how we have lived out the teaching of Jesus.  How do we do this?  Clearly, we are called to pay attention to the Lord and not to the foolish distractions of the world.  But there is a gift in all of this, and that gift is that, if we choose day by day, to live as Jesus has taught us, to love our neighbor, to love everyone in fact, and to love God above all else, then we will be prepared for whatever is to come and need not live in doubt, worry, or fear.  I think this is what the dearly loved Gospel song means when we sing the words, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory divine!”  There is that great assurance that all will be well and that there is nothing to fear.  This is truly good news for us today, isn’t it?  We are all called to live in the joy of the Lord and not in fear of what is to come.

A closing prayer to one of the psalms in evening prayer says it all very well.  Let us pray:

You watch over heaven and earth, Lord Jesus.  Your death brought light to the dead; your resurrection gave joy to the saints; your ascension made the angels rejoice.  Your power exceeds all power.  Lead us to life eternal and watch over us with your love…Amen.

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Philemon 7-20
Luke 17:20-25

Reflection:

Consider reflecting on a quote from today’s Gospel: “The coming of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.”

Add statements from modern religious people about this very moment, like “I am helping to build God’s kingdom,” or “I am a co-creator with God.”

Yes, we are living in a kingdom that began eons ago and is an ongoing process of living in the now. In other words, yes, “the kingdom of God is among you,” as Jesus said.

If we open all our senses and perceive as deeply as possible the kingdom around us, we get to sense God’s call for us to think and act like infinite and divine entities, like emissaries from the kingdom of kingdoms. In an overly materialistic and selfish world around us, how might we best operate in God’s kingdom right here, right now?

Jack Dermody is the editor of the CrossRoads bulletin for the Passionist Alumni Association and a member of the Migration Commission for Holy Cross Province. He lives in Glendale, Arizona. 

Scripture:

Titus 3:1-7
Luke 17:11-19

Reflection:

We continue today with the gospel of St. Luke in the section referred to as Jesus’ “Journey to Jerusalem.” This is an important narrative, featuring several stories found only in Luke, today’s gospel is one example.  The Cleansing of the Ten Lepers is a familiar tale, and reading these verses, I find that my tendency to elevate and praise the one who returned glorifying God and to think of the other nine as ungrateful has often been my default reaction.

Taking a closer look at the text, “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned . . . (V.15), might suggest that the others had yet to realize their healing. How can we be sure that they may not have come back? We do know that the one who returned was a Samaritan—a foreigner. A motif of Luke’s gospel is that faith and salvation are not limited to the Jewish people but are universal and available to all.

Regardless of the circumstances, we are presented with a story that honors the virtue of gratitude. Realizing that he is healed, the Samaritan moves directly to glorify the healing God—in Jesus. Actions that bring about his salvation, as Jesus states, “. . . your faith has saved you.” V.19b.

Over the years, I have wondered how anyone could not return to say thank you for being healed of such a horrendous disease. I can fool myself into thinking that in the same circumstances, I would come back glorifying God in a loud voice! Amen, and so would you—right! We would shout it from the rooftops to imagine the liberation, the freedom to be back with our loved ones and walk the roads confidently, no longer having to yell “unclean” ever again! Fortunately, I won’t be put to that test.

Thanks to medicine, healing from leprosy is no longer necessary as in ancient times. Yet, seen or unseen, we all have some type of leprosy that needs God’s healing touch. Certainly, modern-day leprosy can take many forms. Those things in life that take us in the wrong direction and away from where we truly desire to go are very defeating. Being quick to judge can be one of mine—one among many.  That seems to be our human condition, yet one we can continue to work on in our day-to-day living as we become more aware.  

In St. Paul’s letter to Titus from our first reading, he suggests a pastoral approach to dealing with our various leprosies. Titus is to remind his community to “be open to every good enterprise” remembering “to be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness towards everyone.” (Vs.1-2) However, Paul is careful to point out that “we ourselves were once that foolish. . . deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures.” (v.3)

For Paul, the difference is God’s merciful and generous love in Jesus, our savior, who freely offers unmerited grace and the opportunity to inherit eternal life—regardless of our leprosies.

Therefore, let us be patient with ourselves and each other as we journey in faith, reflecting on how God has blessed us. Let gratitude be our aim in this season of Thanksgiving and every season. Amen.

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

Scripture:

Titus 2:1-8, 11-14
Luke 17:7-10

Reflection:

Legacy: “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.” 

A question that is asked periodically in our family is “What sort of legacy will you leave at the end of your life?”  It is obvious that each of us will leave a legacy by the way we have lived our lives.  That is inevitable.  Each of us has also received a legacy from our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and so forth, by the way they lived their own lives.  The legacies that we have received have helped form us into who we are today.  Legacies do not predestine us.  They help to guide and form us….for both the good and the bad.  We have a choice to determine how we will pattern our own lives based on the legacies that we have received in addition to those being transmitted throughout our lives from others we interact with.

Today’s readings remind me of this provocative question.  St. Paul’s Letter to Titus instructs the reader to be consistent with sound doctrine, temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love and endurance, reverent in behavior, not slanderous or addictive, etc.  We are instructed to be chaste and models of good deeds in every respect.  We are encouraged to guide the younger generations, and, in fact, everyone around us, to also be models of good deeds.  Would that not be a wonderful legacy to leave behind?  St. Paul has obviously succinctly captured the legacy question in his letter.    

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus focuses on the same question in his discussion of the attitude of a servant.  Here he teaches us to be obedient and humble servants in everything that we do.  He uses the analogy of servants who do their duty without expecting thanks or merit. “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”

Both of today’s readings remind us of the responsibility that we have to set good examples for everyone that we interact with.  This includes spouses, children, neighbors, fellow workers, extended family, etc.  In fact, in the context of our Catholic faith, are we not “servants” to everyone we encounter?  Jesus gives us the perfect example. 

Do we periodically pause to consider the type of influence we are having?  I find myself sometimes wondering whether one or another particular individual even realizes that I am in the room.  However, to assume anyone around me is oblivious to my attitudes or my behavior is fraught with danger.  We know that people are continuously observing and judging/learning from us by the things we say and do. 

The famed poet, John Donne, wrote a poem entitled “Meditation XVII” in which he penned the famous phrase “No man is an island”. The poem explores the theme of interconnectedness and the shared experiences of humanity.  It compares each person to a piece of a continent, emphasizing that the absence of even one person diminishes the entire human race….therefore indeed, no man is an island.  

So, I ponder what kind of legacy I will leave.  I pray that it will be one, as Jesus proposed, of an obedient and humble servant.

Bill Berger has had a lifelong relationship with the Passionist Family.  Bill and his wife, Linda, are currently leaders of the Community of Passionist Partners (CPPs) in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Titus 1:1-9
Luke 17:1-6

Reflection:

From Millstone to Mulberry Tree

Today’s gospel begins with a millstone and ends with a mulberry tree. It begins with the sea and ends with the sea. It begins with scandal and ends with seed. Luke’s gospel message, in other words, takes us across the broad expanse from sin to salvation in six brief passages.

With the parable earlier in the gospel of the rich man who ignored the starving Lazarus at the gate, Jesus exposes how one’s behavior, one’s sin, can lead others to neglect the poor. The word sin in the original Greek is skandalon, meaning a moral stumbling block.

And woe to the one who makes the “little ones,” stumble, that is the weak in faith, or those new to the faith. It is better that a millstone be hung on their neck and cast into the sea.

But if such a one who has offended us or harmed us seeks forgiveness, then we are to forgive that person — even if they offend us seven times a day, which is another way of saying over and over and over! We are likewise to forgive them over and over and over.

This is the challenge of Jesus to his disciples then, and us today. Are we capable of apparently such heroic forgiveness, especially with difficult people? The disciples didn’t think so. That’s why they begged Jesus for an increase in their faith in order to meet the steep challenge.

Jesus, however, calms them down. Even if all they have is faith the size of a microscopic mustard seed, he says, they can meet the challenge, they can forgive over and over. With such faith, they can tell the mulberry bush with roots deeply embedded in the ground, be uprooted and planted in the sea! That may sound like an impossible feat, but faith can do the seemingly impossible.

The faith we need, Jesus is tells us, has more to do with the kind of faith we have, rather than how much faith we have. A small amount of great faith can accomplish great things; can even forgive the hateful offenses others have inflicted on us.

Our small faith in so great a loving and forgiving God can accomplish great things.

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