Claire Smith

Scripture:

Daniel 7:2-14
Luke 21:29-33

Reflection:

We are one month away from finishing another calendar year. In the coming weeks, we will hear reflections on the events of this year in the worlds of news, music, entertainment, sports, and so forth. Those reviews are almost always followed by talk of New Year’s resolutions.

We are also in the final days of the liturgical year. Our readings today, and recently, are focused on the end times. Certainly, a focus on the long view of our salvation is important to keep in mind. I recommend that we borrow from the calendar year traditions and take a closer look at our current relationship with God.  

The close of the liturgical year is an appropriate time to reflect on our spiritual journey over the past year and prepare our new liturgical year resolutions. There is no formula to follow, no right or wrong process for your reflection. Just sit quietly with God and open your heart to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

Here are some starter questions to assist your reflection. How have I grown spiritually? How have I fallen short in my growth? Have I made time in my life for meditation and conversations with God? In what ways did I follow the two greatest commandments:  love God and love my neighbor…and how and when did I fail to do so? How have I, as a member of the Passionist family, kept alive the memory of the Passion of Christ?

The act of remembering our past is a powerful way to connect with God. This is our opportunity to give thanks for the blessings we received, to ask forgiveness for our shortcomings, and to pray for the wisdom to carry forward the lessons we have learned into the new liturgical year.

Mike Owens is coordinator of the Passionist Alumni Association and a member of the Migration Commission of Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28
Luke 21: 12-19

Reflection:

By your perseverance you will secure your lives. -Luke 21:19

In this last week of the liturgical year, we are reminded of many things. In the reading from Daniel, we are challenged to look at what our focus is in life. The King was so caught up in his party that he became carried away and brought the sacred vessels from the Temple to use for his own pleasure. This time of the year it is so easy to be caught up in the frenzy of Black Friday or Cyber Monday! Sale! Sale! Sale! Catch our eyes as we try and look for the bargain on those Christmas presents we are shopping for. Not that gift giving is a bad thing, it is just our focus and keeping ourselves focused on the true meaning of the coming season of Advent and Christmas. Are we focused on material things or the people and events around us? Are we using objects to assist us in our daily work or to help us become a better person? Saint Benedict reminds us to keep all things in moderation. It’s all about keeping our balance.

In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that it is not easy being a disciple. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we will do in our journey through our life. It requires daily attention to what we are doing and why we are doing it. It requires us to daily feed our spiritual life through our thoughts, words, and actions. We travel this journey with Christ by our side, protecting us and guiding us on both the smooth and rough paths.

May the new liturgical year bring many blessings and graces to you and your family.

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Daniel 2:31-45
Luke 21:5-11

Reflection:

We are in the closing days of Ordinary Time with the season of Advent right around the corner!  The days have been busy with the celebration of Thanksgiving, a time when we pause to reflect on our many blessings.  Last Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  The scriptures on that day reminded us of our call to take care of the less fortunate among us and to share our wealth with those who have so little.  Today we hear Jesus warning us to stay focused on the new life we will enjoy in the Kingdom of God if we are faithful.  Jesus warned his followers and us as well, to watch for the signs that will lead us to the Kingdom.

Jesus talks about the importance of the signs all around us that can either keep us on the kingdom path or lead us away.  I was thinking about how we are inundated by signs, billboards, news feeds, commentaries, technology, etc.  I think that because there are so many signs and so many diverse messages with which we are inundated, we pretty much tune them out or prioritize a specific few we want to follow. 

The Five Man Electrical Band introduced the song SIGNS in 1971 which became very popular even to the present day.  The chorus goes like this:

                                    Sign, sign/Everywhere a sign/Blockin’ out the scenery/Breakin’ my mind.
                                    Do this, Don’t do that/Can’t you read the sign?

The artists tried to point out how society, especially at that time, imposed unhealthy and unjust restrictions on those persons unwilling to become part of the ‘in’ crowd.  When this happens, one becomes a puppet on a string, controlled by those around us who do not have our best interests at heart.  This is what Jesus was preaching against in the gospel.

In 2023 artist Michael W. Smith introduced a song by the same name, SIGNS. The lyrics in the chorus go like this:

                                    Follow the signs/open your eyes/Read between the lines of what you see
                                    Look into the soul of reality/open your mind/look at the signs/
                                    Never look back at yesterday/keep your gaze steady on the narrow way.

Michael W. Smith said that ‘Signs’ is a song about paying attention to the little things that often go unnoticed.  It reminds us to appreciate the moments that shape our existence and to be open to the signs that guide us along the way.

As we move through these last few days of the church year, let us remember to read the signs of the time, reject the temptations of the ‘in’ crowd and keep our gaze on the narrow way that Jesus sets before us.  Remember Jesus tells us ‘Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Advent Blessings!

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

Scripture:

Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20
Luke 21:1-4

Reflection:

Lord, I understand the message of Your parable of the poor woman tithing; that whatever gifts we are given we must share with a humble heart.  But surely someone with authority would have intervened to ensure that the poor woman had at least the essentials she needed before she gave to God what was left!  I mean, right? (?).  I mean, You were making a point but every sacrifice, every work in done Your name, is an attempt to thank You for Your love and the intent is always greater than the gift.    

I was a seminary freshman at the beginning of Lent 1965, full of pious devotion and attempting to find a suitably reverential penance to mark each day until Easter.  After due consideration, my bet thought was at first that I could give up lunch every day.  But then I brilliantly came to the conclusion that I should give up dinner each evening because that way it would be so much longer between meals!

As advised by Father Director, I shared my vision of saint-like self-denial with my spiritual advisor.   Fr. Randal Joyce, CP, listened patiently to my ambitious plan, then sat with his fingers clasped into a steeple pointed at his chin as he silently thought. Softly he asked a question; “What happens here, every day, at 3 p.m.?”  

   I was stumped. That was the middle of afternoon recreation, everybody was scattered everywhere and there generally were no scheduled activities.  But then I saw it… “The lunch cart?”

“Right.  And what are you entitled to from that cart?”    
           This was getting nowhere.  “Um… a carton of milk and two cookies”.
     Randal smiled and said, “Then you may give up one cookie each afternoon for Lent”.
      “Oh, come on Father!   That ain’t nothing!   I want to do something hard”. 

Still smiling, he nodded.  “I know, and it will be.  You trust me for one week then come back and tell me how little that one cookie is.” I left his office feeling pretty dejected. 

That first afternoon with one cookie was nothing, of course.  The next afternoon I remember thinking I hope we had something good for dinner because I was already hungry after snack.  By the end of the week, I meekly sank into one of Father’s two overstuffed English club chairs (which are still the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever sat in).   

 “How is Lent so far?” he asked grinning.    That second cookie each day had become more and more desirable as each afternoon passed.   I can’t believe how hard it was not to just reach in and grab a second cookie.  And it got tougher all through Lent until finally I didn’t take anything but a carton of milk, because that way I didn’t have to touch the cookie packages.  

I understand Lord. It wasn’t what the poor woman did, it was how she did it.  Others, with much more than she, made grand shows of giving money or dressing to appear piously suffering. 

We sometimes wear our Catholicism like a blazer emblem, giving to Catholic Charities, serving on non-profit boards, even working with St Vincent de Paul or inner city soup kitchens.  They’re good, corporal works of mercy, but you get something out of the giving: self-esteem, the admiration of others, the gratitude of recipients.   Giving is easy. Giving anonymously, without thought of return is difficult. 

So, I’m still learning from Fr Randal, (rest happily, Father).  And I give thanks for whatever I’ve been entrusted with, full knowing I will have to account for the gifts I’ve received.   Rest In Peace, President John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963.

Ray Alonzo is the father of three children, grandfather of two, and husband to Jan for over 45 years. He is a USN Vietnam Veteran, and a 1969 graduate of Mother of Good Counsel Passionist Prep Seminary. Ray currently serves on the Passionist Alumni Council.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Scripture:

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Matthew 25:31-46

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading for Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus gives a description of the Last Judgment. The people are separated into two groups. The ones who are welcomed into the kingdom of God are those who met the needs of others.  They fed the hungry and welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked and visited the sick and those in prison. They are welcomed into the kingdom, because, as the king says, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did for me. Conversely, those who did not do these things for “one of these least ones,” are condemned to eternal punishment.

Basically, the message is that if we are to follow our King, and enter eternal life, we are to minister to the needs of those who are the “least,” or for me, those who are considered “least.” But I also thought about what Jesus did, according to the Gospels. Besides the miraculous feeding of the thousands by the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, there are few, if any, more instances where He directly answers someone’s material needs. But He does give of Himself to those considered “least:” lepers, tax collectors, sinners, those possessed by demons, foreigners, the sick, the disabled, women, children, and others.

And then, the challenge hit me. Are we to minister to the ones we consider the “least?” Are we to minister to the ones we feel deserve our contempt? I can’t help but think the answer is “Yes.” Considerations like this do not mean we are free to ignore those in material need. Very often, when we meet someone’s material needs, we meet deeper needs as well. When Jesus feeds the thousands with the multiplication of the loaves and fish, He has been meeting their hearts’ yearning for Good News.

So, how do we answer the challenge? By doing the best we can in following Jesus, who gave of Himself for us. In Jesus, God makes good on the prophecy spoken by the prophet Ezekiel in our first reading (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17): “I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.” We follow God’s mercy and generosity, but leave to God the condemnation.

There is a quote from St. Louise de Marillac, which I think is appropriate: “To share what one has is nothing if one does not give oneself.” Again, an almost impossible challenge, but God will give us what we need to do it, in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. May we follow our King, who in the words of the hymn, “looked beyond” our faults and saw our need.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

1 Maccabees 6:1-13
Luke 20:27-40

Reflection:

Throughout my ministry, I have to confess that I haven’t really preached on either 1 or 2 Maccabees. These books are indeed filled with feats of heroism and victories on the battlefield against oppression, but I never warmed up to the readings. In today’s first reading from 1 Maccabees, however, I found something that spoke to me about what is going on in the U.S. and around the world.

In that first reading, King Antiochus IV, a Seleucid king, is defeated in his campaigns against the Israelites who rebelled against his rule. He had persecuted the Jews and tried by means of torture to get them to forsake their faith. In his defeat, Antiochus declines in health and knows that he is near death. The author of Maccabees writes: “So he called in all his Friends and said to them: ‘Sleep has departed from my eyes, for my heart is sinking with anxiety. I said to myself: ‘Into what tribulation I have come, and in what floods of sorrow am I now. Yet I was kindly and beloved in my rule.’ But I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem …, and for no cause gave orders that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying, in bitter grief, in a foreign land.’”

I’m not sure how “kindly and beloved” Antiochus IV really was, but it wouldn’t be the first time in history that an otherwise solid leader had some fierce antipathy towards a particular group. One person that comes to mind is Woodrow Wilson, the President of the U.S. during WWI. After that war, he had come up with a blueprint for peace that called for the self-determination of peoples. Although his plan never came to complete fruition, due at least in some part, to the thirst for vengeance among the victors, the dismantling of some empires did give many peoples in Europe their first taste of self-determination.

But in the U.S., Wilson is pretty much seen as a racist. The champion of self-determination of peoples could not envision that same self-determination for African-Americans.

How we relate, not only to those who are like us, but also to those who are “other,” may be one of the criteria by which we are judged. In our Gospel reading, at the end of His debate with the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in resurrection, Jesus says “…he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” I believe that we can safely say that to God, all are also precious, even those we may consider enemies.

May God grant us the grace to extend love to all, not just some.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.

Scripture:

1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59
Luke 19:45-48

Reflection:

Jesus had a very intense concern about prayer. ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” Nowhere in the Gospels is there such an emotional and physical expression of anger at the absence of prayer. ‘And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.’ Mk 11: 15. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen.”  John’s Gospel is even more animated “And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.” John 2:15

We can hardly miss and are surprised to see how important prayer was to Jesus! The most used word for prayer in the Greek NT-inspired text is proseúchomai i.e., a deep mutual desire between God and man. Both the noun and verb together are mentioned like129 times in the New Testament! There are many other words for prayer!   How often we see Jesus at prayer! He spends all night in prayer before He picks his Apostles!  He prays in the Garden. The last prayer of Jesus before He dies on the Cross is in Luke’s Gospel.  “Into your hands, I commit my Spirit.”

Here are some inspiring quotes about prayer from the saints:

• To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.  -St Augustine      
• For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.  -Saint Theresa of Avila
• Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.  -Billy Graham
• Quicken your faith in the Divine Presence and remain immersed in God, sunk in that immense sea of Love.  -L 1 73 St Paul of Cross
• What has a person to fear who lives in the arms and Bosom of God.  -1 154 St Paul of the Cross
• Big sign billboard: WE NEED TO TALK -signed God.

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

Thanksgiving Day (USA)

Scripture:

Sirach 50:22-24
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Luke 17:11-19

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day, ten lepers approach Jesus, at a distance, as He is traveling through Samaria and Galilee on His way to Jerusalem. Jesus hears their plea for help, and tells them to show themselves to the priests. On their way, they are cleansed, and one of them comes back, “glorifying God in a loud voice.” This man was a Samaritan. Jesus then replies, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then Jesus says to the one who returned, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

Where were the other nine? If we think about what it meant to be a leper, maybe their actions may be a little better understood. To be a leper meant that you were an outcast. You couldn’t be with your family or at work or at the synagogue. Then this miracle happens, and you get your old life back, and it’s all you can think about, and you forget to thank God. For me, what is different about the one who came back to give thanks, is that he realized that he got more than just his old life back. He was given the gift of seeing God’s love at work in a dramatic way. His life was actually changed.

We may not have our lives changed in such a dramatic way, but we can always give thanks. Having an “attitude of gratitude” puts us in a better relationship with God and with each other. In our first reading from Sirach, the author writes, “May he [God] grant you joy of heart and may peace abide among you.” Giving thanks and letting go of envy can lead us to joy of heart and peace among us. May we marvel at the generosity of God, and give thanks.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.