Claire Smith

Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Scripture:

Isaiah 41:13-20
Matthew 11:11-15

Reflection:

For this day in the second week of Advent, the Church has asked us to remember a Spanish reformer, St. John of the Cross.

An introduction to St. John of the Cross is available at the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association website.

Saint John of the Cross was a Doctor of the Church. From Notre Dame’s website, an excerpt from his long poem “Spiritual Canticle” stands out.  It interfaces with some of the messages in today’s biblical readings:

Quench my troubles,
For no one else can soothe them;
And let my eyes behold You,
For You are their light,
And I will keep them for You alone.

In today’s readings, Isaiah laid out a robust list of promises by God to quench our troubles. “Fear not, I will help you,” the list began.

The repeated response to the Psalms is, “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.” And in the first psalm of the day, “the Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.”

Sometimes, finding one crucial thing to reflect upon from all the readings on a given day is challenging. Today was no exception. There is a bucket of theology to consider, from Elijah to John the Baptist to St. John of the Cross. However, the divine helpfulness emphasized among these readings and John of the Cross poetry might move us to imitate God’s behavior around “quenching people’s troubles.” For this alone, there are plenty of verbal phrases to take action on: soothe, deal with fears, help, be gracious, be merciful, be slow to anger, be kind, be good to all, and be compassionate toward everyone and everything.

What might we do in our next encounter with someone to quench some troubles?

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:

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Reflection:

The season of Advent always provides us with a great opportunity to come to a better understanding of the prophet Isaiah.  Who was this person?  What was the passion that drove him so deeply to write?  And most importantly, what is he trying to say about God?

Isaiah is gathered with a community of people who are in a hopeless situation. They are trapped, feeling helpless without a tangible way of escaping their desperation.  Having resigned themselves to believe there is no way out, Isaiah begins speaking about the reality of their exile, yet he’s filled with conviction that God is about to do something about their situation.  Why? Because God is the God who saves. 

Isaiah frequently contrasts images that usually don’t fit together: lions and lambs, blind eyes seeing again, dry deserts overflowing with flowing streams. Not surprisingly we get some of that in today’s first reading.  Isaiah recognizes that only God does the impossible.   Most of us believe that God can do the impossible. We frequently would call that a miracle.  Yet, in reading Isaiah this year I get the sense that Isaiah is trying to say that God is much more than one who occasionally breaks through the laws of the universe for some greater good or personal request. Isaiah is saying that the very ground we all stand on is shifting sand.  If there’s one thing these last three years have taught us is that life doesn’t stay constant, it’s always shifting and changing.  There are always forces at work beyond us.  Our lives are filled with blessings, challenges, and the confrontation of evil.  Undoubtedly, living with the unpredictability of life is challenging.  Faith for us provides some kind of vision beyond whatever difficult situation we find ourselves.  And it’s out of this energy that Isaiah speaks. 

As we move through the images of this text trying to rectify in our minds how some of these items begin being put together, we realize this is not a human plan.  This is part of God’s plan.  And God doesn’t create chaos for amusement or entertainment. The sands beneath our feet continue to shift requiring us to keep moving. 

Most intriguing to me is the line that says, “a highway will be there, called the holy way.”  As an adventurous hiker I know what it’s like to be lost off the path for quite some time.  And I know there’s a certain relief which comes when I stumble across a road. The challenge is that the road doesn’t mean that I have reached my destination.  It means I found a road and I’m still a long way from the car.  Isaiah says a highway will be there called the holy.  Are we willing to walk down the road?

And isn’t that the question for the man in the gospel?  Most of us are quite familiar with this story of the paralyzed man who was brought on a mat by his friends before Jesus in a crowded room and lowered through the roof.   But I’m sitting here asking what was it like for him?  Did he have any desire to see Jesus or was that the desire of his friends who brought him?  What is going through his mind when Jesus says to him rise and walk? How long had it been since he had used his leg muscles?  Did he even believe he could stand? Everybody staring at him.  What happens if he makes a fool of himself, and he falls?  He probably didn’t trust himself; how could he ever trust a person he’s never met challenging him to do something he thought was impossible?  Yet somehow in that moment he goes beyond merely walking out of the crowded illumined room.  He bravely he picks up his stretcher and carries it. He’s no longer a prisoner to the stretcher, he now holds the stretcher’s destiny in his arms. 

Isaiah reminds us that stability and predictability are the illusion.  And the encouragement we receive is a particular freedom given to us that the highway or holy way may bring deeper trust in God’s faithfulness and generosity to us.  And understanding this is something which need to grow within us this Advent season.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P., is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
2 Peter 3:8-14
Mark 1:1-8

Reflection:

Isaiah tells us to prepare the way of the Lord in the desert and in the wasteland. He didn’t say to do it through a calming wood or beside a gently running stream. Isaiah knew that we don’t prepare pathways for God when we don’t feel like we “need” God. We’re doing just fine on our own, thank you.  

In fact, sometimes it is only great suffering that forces our hand and prompts us to create that path. It’s when we feel unworthy of divine attention, when we are hurt and in despair, when we are in the desert crying out “How long, O Lord?”, that’s when pathways get built either to or away from God. That’s when we need to understand that God comes on God’s timetable rather than our own, but we can hasten that coming by preparing the way to our hearts, making straight the paths.

God is never going to force the way in. Yet God is always inviting, always ready to come. It is we who are not ready, who block the path with obstacles or curve it around to our liking rather than building a straight line directly into our hearts. It is we who can’t let go or trust completely, who want to direct how and where God acts. It is we who close our ears to the voice of the prophets in our midst because we don’t want to hear that message. It is we who won’t admit our sins and failings, or turn away from judgments and jealousies, white lies, harsh words, harmful anger, impatience, and hardness of heart. Can we commit to going into our personal and societal deserts and wastelands and building a new and straight path for God?

That is, after all, the work of Advent to which we are called. And it is even more necessary in our world today – a world of power-grasping violence, abuse, self-righteousness, and denial of another’s dignity and rights. Please join me as together we pave our God’s path. Find a way, no matter where you are and no matter your level of resources. Repent and allow God into your heart. Then walk that path out of your heart, hand-in-hand with God. Gather the lost in your arms, spread the love that is the only thing that can save us, and bring the light of Christ to the world. Forgive. Offer aid. Defend. Advocate. Act. Just think of the difference we could make if all Catholics, all Christians, did the same.

Now is the time. Let’s take seriously our baptism with the Holy Spirit’s fire, and help Christ be born again this season for all people. God longs to work in us to give birth to a better world, individually and communally, and God just needs a path. Can we build it?

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:

Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26
Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Reflection:

Announcing the Three Comings of Jesus

There is a little girl whom I’ve known since before she was born. She was a latecomer to her family, her brothers all teenagers. I’ve followed her from Baptism through an occasional hello to the family on Sunday or her mom and her at a daily mass. Over the years she has become the main person to whom I regift from my stash of chocolates. Small bits with an occasional reminder to share. She is now a first grader. This Advent she got a bonus. I gave her a tree with little windows that you open, one for each day of Advent and behind each window is a chocolate! I wonder if her mother passed on the instruction, ‘one window a day’? Or if her daughter will simply chop down the tree with a chocolate binge before the week is over? Will this somewhat exercise in torture and delight, speak something of anticipation and patient waiting to a six-year-old?

Advent brings us to the unfathomable mystery of the Incarnation. Lukes’ ‘fullness of time’. Madeline L’Engle describes it beautifully: this is “the irrational season when love bloomed bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason, there would have been no room for the child.”

Not only do we celebrate Jesus’ birth among us, we look to a final coming of Our Lord.

What we know will pass but we have the vision of our gathering at the banquet table of eternal life. These were the words of Isaias the first Wednesday of Advent,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples
a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is
woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. (Isaias 25: 6-7)

Or as C.S.Lewis describes it when the children in the Chronicles of Narnia are told they have left the Shadowlands (died): “School is over: the holidays have begun”.

And there is the ‘third’ coming of Christ, Christ among us now. It is like playing hide and seek. God hiding, our searching, or our hiding and God seeking. It is a game where those who play are meant to be found. Then the laughter begins. Advent reminds us that finding Jesus among us may have us looking into darkness still. We may not see him clearly, it may be surprisingly hard to accept what we find, and obstacles appear unsurmountable at times. An Advent prayer from mass sums up the three ways that we find Jesus coming to us: May we who have shared the sacrifice of Jesus, the gift of the Last Supper, receive strength in this present moment and may it help us along our journey to eternal life.

In our gospel the apostles announce, “The reign of God is at hand”. Jesus has come to us, he is with us, we look to our being together in God’s presence for eternity, this is what they proclaim. It may seem to be a jumble or mix, and it is. But each part of this mystery helps us to better see the others. How coincidental it is that a Willie Wonka movie will be out during the holidays. He is Willie Wonka who has the magical chocolate factory! I imagine a trip with my little friend. After waiting, enjoying but sadly running out of her Advent chocolates, perhaps in this move we will find something of the hopes and joys of Advent fulfilled, a vision of the banquet table of heaven?

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38  

Reflection:

Open Our Hearts and Bear Christ to the World

It is God’s grace that allows us to do anything. We have a choice to use or not use the grace of God to bear Christ to the world. Mary was graced to be born immaculate and without sin. Mary was not forced to bear the Son of God. Mary was asked and she gracefully accepted. God does not force us to do anything. We always have the freedom to choose. Adam and Eve chose to sin, and this is where death entered into the world. Mary chose to bear the Son of God, and this is where life entered the world.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived immaculately, and so is unstained by original sin. In the second reading today, Saint Paul reminds the Ephesians that God chose us to be adopted as God’s children, holy and loved. We all received a call in our baptism. That call is remarkably similar to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s, whose calling we recall in today’s Gospel. Like Mary, we are called to bear Christ to the world. We are called to be the voice of Christ in what we say and the hands of Christ in what we do. We are called to put this into practice every day, allowing ourselves to be the vehicle for Christ’s ongoing uplift of the world. Let us respond as Mary did: “May it be done to me according to your word.” Mary opened her heart to hear God’s word from the lips of the angel. Let us open our hearts as well as we hear God’s word.

Deacon Peter Smith is a member of the Passionist Family. He resides in Arizona.

Scripture:

Isaiah 26:1-6
Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Reflection:

…Trust in the LORD forever!
For the LORD is an eternal Rock.
He humbles those in high places,
and the lofty city he brings down;
He tumbles it to the ground,
levels it with the dust.It is trampled underfoot by the needy,
by the footsteps of the poor.  -Isaiah 26:4-6

One of my favorite TV programs which ran during the late 1960’s was “Green Acres” starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. It was about a couple who move from New York City to the rural countryside.  The opening scenes, flash between Oliver played by Eddie Albert in his suit and tie behind a plow, working his fields, and Lisa, Eva Gabor singing the praises of city life in their luxury Park Avenue apartment. They both end up on the farm and the struggle rages on in each of the episodes.

My great, great grandfather coming from Ireland, a land that couldn’t support him and his family, settled in Illinois, about forty miles west of Chicago in a town called Gilberts and worked as a milk farmer, daily bringing the milk from his cows and land to a railroad stop along the nearby Fox River. There he loaded the gifts of mother earth onto the relatively new, technology, the railroad which carried it into Chicago where it provided nourishment to some of the nearly one million people already living the city of Chicago.

Today as I look around the city where I live, the home of the skyscraper, I am humbled by the wonders of the architectural marvels and the abundance surrounding me. I also often struggle with the same desire so well expressed by Lisa and Oliver above, a yearning for the realness of nature found in the country. I wonder what, if any, role I have to play in this creation or if it’s all beyond me, and I should just drop out. Maybe those children of the ’60s had the right idea.

God, help me recognize You in this world around me. Help me see the gifts you’ve bestowed upon us, are gifts for all of us, not just a few who claim ownership. If we are not all winners, as my father used to say, we are all losers.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 25:6-10a
Matthew 15:29-37

Reflection:

It is good to remember, when reading Matthew’s Gospel, that it was not written with Twenty-First Century men and women in mind. The author or authors, guided by the Spirit, wrote the Gospel for First Century Jews after the year 70 CE when the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem leaving the Jewish community scattered.

If the Jews saw the Temple as the sacred spot that centered their lives, what happens when it is destroyed? If they had hoped to overthrow the Roman rulers, how could God have permitted such devastation?

Following the destruction the Jews broke into several factions, each trying to reinterpret their identity and mission. One faction was the followers of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew is written to strengthen this group’s resolve to live entirely different lives with an entirely different

understanding of what God wants. God does not want empire building, political dominance, or pride in the Jewish people as set apart from non-Jews. God welcomes everyone, including Gentiles.

Matthew thus bolsters his narrative with quotes from ancient Jewish literature, what we call the Old Testament.

In today’s first reading from Isaiah, we see the universality of God’s love and promise. “…the Lord of hosts will provide for all people…” We are promised a spectacular banquet and, in poetic terms, the destruction of what all people fear most: death.

Jesus models how God’s reign is to be. He heals the lame, blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others.

Then, in his compassion, he recognizes the physical hunger of the “great crowd” by having his disciples practice their life mission by feeding the people themselves. God worked through these disciples to make sure there was more than enough food for everyone.

What does all this mean for us Twenty First Century humans? Each of us, in our personal and communal discernments, are asked to listen to one another and to the silent God to understand what we must do. There is more than enough food for everyone, but we must share it with one another. We might financially support those who feed the poor, it might mean regularly working in a dining room feeding the poor, or working to change public policies that favor the corporate agricultural interests over local farmers growing healthy foods for their neighbors, especially the more needy.

If you gave to a soup kitchen a match of your tips from every fine meal you ate in a restaurant, think of how you could expand opportunities for healthy diets for the most vulnerable.

The Corporal Works of Mercy are our way to God. Choosing which ones match your talents, interests, and opportunities are the work of discernment in long silence, sittings with God.

The New Jerusalem is not in Jerusalem. It is right where you are right now. Opportunities abound to serve the lame, blind, deformed, mute, hungry, lonely, and many others all around each of us.

We take seriously our discipleship. Daily prayer deepens our awareness of where God is at work in our lives.

Take time to be still today and listen for God moving within you.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Luke 10:21-24

Reflection:

As we are beginning our Advent journey, we are gifted with two really rich readings.  First, we have the prophet Isaiah speaking about sprouts, roots and stumps, all imagery relating to the lineage of David.  Biblically, it is very important for the blood line of Jesus to be linked to David.  Even though it has been many generations, God’s covenant to David promised that David’s throne will last forever. 

Generations after David and his father Jessie’s death, Isaiah’s prophecy announced that God will honor the sacred lineage.  It may have seemed improbable, for after the Babylonian Exile, very little of King David’s dynasty remained.  But there was enough to bring forth the long awaited one, the Messiah.  It is yet another example of how God works in the improbable.  Even at the beginning of David’s monarchy, the story of the anointing of David as king was improbable.  He was the 8^th son of Jessie.  So excluded was the lad that he wasn’t invited to the sacrificial celebration.  He stayed home to take care of the flocks.   God overlooked the oldest seven sons and chose the youngest. 

Moving to the Gospel of today, have you ever noticed how many times Jesus invites people to see things in a new way?  He does this by inviting people to change their perspective.  As an example, in Matthew 12, the Scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus to show them a sign, and Jesus quickly mentions two of their heroes, Jonah and Soloman.  And after each he proposes there is someone greater than Jonah and Soloman right here in front of you, and they can’t see it.  They ask to see something; Jesus shows it to them, and they can’t see it.  

The other side of the coin are those who actually do see it and tell Jesus what they see and understand. We are all familiar with stories where people in deep need of some miraculous healing approach Jesus, reverence him either in word or deed, and plead their cause.  Think of Bartimaeus who calls out, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” These are people who see who Jesus truly is.  They stand in awe before his authority and know that his authority reaches beyond disease, illness, and death.

That same theme reoccurs in today’s Gospel.  Jesus asks his circle, do you have any idea how many people would want to see what you see?  Jesus could have said, do you know how many people would give anything to be able to walk in your shoes?  It isn’t about just seeing with physical sight the signs and the miraculous events.  It isn’t about the walk or having a front row seat to Jesus’ ministry. It is far more about being present to a greater awareness.  It is more about coming to a consciousness of who Jesus is and less about what Jesus does.  It is about attentiveness to what Jesus reveals about his Father and knowing we are invited into that intimacy.  That gift is freely given.

Beyond seeing or walking, today’s Gospel reveals the intimate prayer Jesus has with his Father.  We could say how blessed were the disciples for being able to walk with Jesus and be with Jesus.  Yet I would suggest how blessed we are when we have been given the words of Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel.  For Luke’s account transcends time, placing us in Jesus presence to help us understand this intimacy.  This invitation into God’s divine intimacy is a profound and rich gift so appropriate for Advent. 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.