Claire Smith

Scripture:

Haggai 1:1-8
Luke 9:7-9

Reflection:

Cost of Discipleship!

Jesus said to his disciples in relation to discipleship:

                        “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.”
                        “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

Today as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Lawrence (Lorenzo) Ruiz and his companions we reflect on the cost of discipleship.  St Lawrence Ruiz, also called Saint Lorenzo was born in Manila of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, both Christians.  He grew up learning Chinese as well as Tagalog, language spoken in the Philippines from his parents.  He studied under the Dominican friars.  He was a member of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary. He became a professional calligrapher and worked as a clerk for the Binondo Church.  He married and was the father of two sons and a daughter.  His comfortable life took a change after he was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard.  He sought asylum on board a ship bound for Japan with the help of the Dominican friars.  Upon arrival in Japan where there was a massive persecution of Christians, Lorenzo and his companions were arrested and thrown into prison.  Over the next two years they were underwent brutal torture which led to their death because of their refusal to renounce Christianity.

Saint Lawrence was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1987, making him the first Filipino saint.  He is revered throughout the Philippines as the country’s protomartyr.

Discipleship calls all of us to accept the challenges that may come our way when we commit to being a follower of Jesus Christ.  We may not suffer the consequences of the brutal martyrdom that Saint Lorenzo endured, but we are called to persevere in living out the gospel message in the way we live our everyday lives.  We live in a world where we are faced with injustice, violence, apathy, discrimination and many other isms that challenge our faith.

Jesus promises to walk with us as we strive to make a difference in small ways as we preach his message of love and peace in our faith communities, families and neighborhoods. May the faith that Saint Lawrence (Lorenzo)lived and died for continue to inspire us to ‘Keep on Keepin’ on as the faithful disciples we are called to be.  Saint Lawrence, Pray for us!  Amen.

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

Scripture:

Ezra 9:5-9
Luke 9:1-6

Reflection:

Our readings today give us a great summary of discipleship and what it means to be church. In our first reading Ezra is overcome with the guilt of his people, and acknowledges that guilt before God, describing what happened to the people in exile after the Babylonians conquered Israel and destroyed the Temple that Solomon had built.

But Ezra also acknowledges that even though the people were in exile as a consequence of their sins, God had not abandoned them! And so, after the Persians conquered the Babylonians, they allowed the Israelites to go home. As Ezra says, “Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of God and restore its ruins. God has shown mercy and given new life to the people to rebuild the Temple.

Even though God may let us suffer the consequences of our actions, He does not abandon us! God shows us mercy time and time again, and continually offers us new life. But this new life is not meant to be lived just for ourselves. In our first reading the Israelites were to rebuild the Temple. In our Gospel reading, Jesus sends out the Twelve to proclaim the Good News and drive out demons and cure diseases. He tells them to take nothing for the journey except themselves, and so rely on God for what they need. In a way, Jesus is sending the Twelve out to do what the Israelites did earlier. He sends them out to help people not rebuild the Temple, but rebuild their lives. If there are some who are not ready to be healed or refuse to have their lives restored, they are to simply move on and shake the dust from their feet as testimony.

God has given us not openly a second chance, but a third and a fifth, and maybe even a hundredth chance, and we are called to be instruments that God uses to give others another chance as well. May we be about building up, not tearing down, and may the Good News be always proclaimed through us!

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

Scripture:

Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14—20
Luke 8:19-21

Reflection:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Luke 8:21

Jesus praises his mother for “hearing and doing the word”.  In the original Greek text, the words “hearing and doing” are placed together. Mary was first presented to us as hearing and receiving the Word.  “Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”  Lk 1:38   Hearing and doing the word is at the heart of our following Christ.

The critical question is where do we hear the Word?  God speaks to us in many ways.  The overwhelming beauty of nature eloquently speaks to us of the power and wisdom of its creator. “Every creature is a word of God.” Meister Eckhart “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”  Rom 1:20  “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made”, Ps 33:6

God’s word is especially experienced in Scripture.  It is the most precious and authentic way of hearing God’s voice!   “Your words were found and I ate them” Jer 15:16  We must have a big appetite when we encounter His Word.  We must have a passion to digest His word by study so as to know what He is speaking to us!  The SS often speaks of our hard hearts.  Our hearts are hard like a rock which resists any saturation.  Prayer is the great heart softener.

Prayer is essential to hear the word.  At its best prayer is speaking and listening to God.  It is “pondering the word” as Mary did in the Gospel.  “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering (sumballō in Greek to put together) them in her heart.” Lk 2;19  Again in Lk 2:51 we find Mary His “mother treasured (diatereo to deeply and carefully keep) all these things in her heart.” The word must get into our hearts.  The word brings a deep intimacy with God.  “Through the word of God to the heart of God” St Gregory the Great

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

Scripture:

Ezra 1:1-6
Luke 8:16-18

Reflection:

There’s an old song entitled “God Bless the Child.” I think it was first recorded by Billie Holiday and later by Blood, Sweat and Tears, among many others. I sometimes think of the lyrics when I hear our Gospel reading from Luke or its parallel in other Gospels: “Them that’s got shall get/them that’s not shall lose/So the Bible said/ but it still is news/ Mama may have/ and Papa may have/God bless the child/that’s got his own.”

I think when we hear Jesus say, “To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away,” many of us follow the interpretation that the song seems to make; “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” But before Jesus says the verse mentioned above, He says, after saying that what will be hidden will become visible, “Take care, then, how you hear.”

I can’t believe that Jesus is advocating, or perhaps more accurately, capitulating to, the reality of poverty and inequality. What the Scripture scholars tell us is that Jesus is talking about a desire for a closer relationship with God, and a subsequent desire to follow God’s will in all things. As we get closer to God, we want even more, and God will grant this to us! As we seek to do God’s will, we receive more and more insight into what that will may be for us. As we seek to know God’s love and are willing to share it with others, the more we will receive to do just that. But if we try to interpret God’s will to match ours, instead of the other way around, we will grow less close to God.

We have been given the light of Christ’s love, and as Jesus tells us, we are not to hide it, but share it! Indeed, God bless the child who receives this light, and God bless the child who lets it shine to others!

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 55:6-9
Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a
Matthew 20:1-16a

Reflection:

Kindness of God

In today’s Gospel a kind owner of a vineyard gives workers a full day’s wage to people who only worked an hour!  In New Testament times, wages were given one day at a time.  Without a full day’s wage, a man could not feed his family.  We here see the kindness and thoughtfulness of the owner. Don’t you love a kind person?  

The landowner says: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’” Mt 20;15   The Landowner in the story is obviously an image of God “who is rich in mercy”!  “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” -Matthew 5:45 

We should never underestimate the riches of God’s mercy!  Most people are poor materially because of lack of opportunity, sickness, raising a family, or just plain lack of interest.   But today we see a far more threatening problem of lack of faith and religion!   Faith is a generous gift of God.  We are all workers of one hour in God’s vineyard!   We can never enter God’s kingdom with our merits alone, probably most of us don’t even put in a full hour at that!

But praise to God’s mercy we can reach the Divine embrace of Christ if we are children of God!   He loves us not so much because we are long hard workers in the vineyard but rather, He is exceedingly fond of us! I just love the quote of Pope St John XXIII.   “I live only on the mercy of God, everything I own is from it, everything I hope for is on it.”  

One of the most needed forms of love is kindness.

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

Scripture:

1 Timothy 6:13-16
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable about a sower who goes out to sow his seed. The seed falls in different places with different results. Later on, Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. The seed that falls “on the path,” “on rocky ground,” “among thorns,” and “on rich soil,” represent different responses to hearing the word of God.

Only the last-mentioned condition, falling “on rich soil,” represents a positive response to God’s Word, and Jesus explains it this way: “But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

It is that phrase “bear fruit through perseverance” that struck me as I read this Gospel passage once again. It is through perseverance that helps us keep faith, even when we are like the seed that fell on the path and are led astray by the devil. It is perseverance that helps us when we are more like the seed that fell on rocky ground, and we falter in times of adversity. And it is perseverance that helps us keep faith when we are like the seed that fell among thorns and get caught up in worldly anxieties and desires, only to realize that fulfilling those desires still leaves our hearts restless and discontent.

And it is by the grace of God that we are able to persevere, and so we are called to do. The world needs us to bear good fruit. May God’s Word find “rich soil” in us, so that others may witness the love of God in action.

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

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Matthew 9: 9-13

Reflection:

He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.  -Matthew 9:9

The Calling of Saint Matthew is a painting completed in 1599-1600 by the famous Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and illustrates when Jesus went into the custom house, saw Matthew the tax collector at his seat and called to him, “Follow me”. According to the gospel story Matthew rose and followed him. In the painting, Christ (on the right, behind Peter) points to Levi, the tax-collector (the bearded man wearing a beret and calls upon him to become the apostle, Matthew.

We can learn a lot from this painting. To begin with, when Matthew sees Christ pointing at him, Levi responds with a gesture, as if to say “Me?” indicating his uncertainty whether he is being addressed, or the younger man slumped on his right. Through the visual contrast between their reactions, Caravaggio displays psychological insight into two possible patterns of human behavior in the same situation of being called. (Famous Paintings: Analysis and Interpretation)

When God is calling us, do we respond “who me?” “You’ve got to be kidding.” “You can’t possibly want me.” Caravaggio shows us that miracles occur in the midst of our being called in the most mundane situations. In its capture of the exact split-second when Christ’s summons hangs in the air, and his listeners are still shocked and Levi himself is caught in suspended indecision. In another second, he will rise up, become Matthew the apostle and follow Christ out of the room. ((Famous Paintings: Analysis and Interpretation)

Prayer:

Lord, we are humbled that You call us as you called St. Matthew to serve, in ways big and small, to accomplish Your will here on earth. Help us respond without hesitation whenever we perceive Your voice calling us into action. In Your powerful and equipping Name, we pray, Amen.

Carl Middleton is a theologian/ethicist and a member of the Passionist Family.