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Scripture:

Acts 4:1-12
John 21:1-14

Reflection:

Peter figures prominently in two of our readings today. However, the events are out of order chronologically. In the first reading from the Acts the Apostles, we see Peter after he has fully integrated the Christ event. Here he is "filled with the Holy Spirit," healing and teaching as a member of the body of Christ.

In the Gospel, Peter is still in a period of discernment. A better word might be confusion. This simple Galilean fisherman had left his work and old life behind. He had been with Jesus through difficult times and had seen Him perform signs and wonders. He had followed all the way to Jerusalem and had seen Him taken prisoner, tried, and executed. All of Peter’s preconceived notions of God, the Messiah, and of Jesus riding triumphantly into the Holy City, declaring the new Kingdom of God, and wiping away the Roman rule had vanished. It’s easy to imagine the Peter’s tears in the courtyard of the high priest had been not only for his betrayal of Jesus, but for all that he had lost as well.

Here we find Peter sitting with his companions and friends. Still the impulsive, decisive, Peter, he declares, "I am going fishing!" And off he goes. Now, we must remember that fishing to these men was not a leisure activity. They didn’t go fishing when they wished to sit quietly in a boat and think about things. Fishing was their livelihood. It was hard work. It was the way they earned their daily bread. And at this point in his life, it was probably the only thing that had remained unchanged for Peter.

It seems to me that I often do the same thing when confronted with something new and wonderful by God. There’s a period of confusion, of wondering if what I have seen actually took place. Disbelief and wonder, fear and joy, all dance around in my heart and head. In times like these I will often turn to what I consider "normal."; those activities which comfort me in their ordinariness. Occupying myself with something I know well helps me make space for the new and transformative to work within.

And so it is with Peter and the other disciples. They fish all night and yet catch nothing. And then at dawn, Jesus is there standing on the shore. And what does Jesus do? He cooks them breakfast. Again, an ordinary, everyday task. It is almost as if Jesus himself is saying. "Find Me in the everyday. Find me in the ordinary. Find me within yourself and within those around you." 

May I find Jesus not only in the glory and spectacle, but in the simple and plain.

 

Talib Huff works and volunteers at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You may contact him at [email protected].

Easter Sunday of the
Resurrection of the Lord

Scripture: 
 Acts 10: 34-43
Colossians 3: 1-4
John 20: 1-9

Reflection:
"…the other disciple also went in (to the tomb)…and he saw and believed."

Easter is a wakeup call – to a beautiful day and a wonderful way of life.   I often reflect on the Easter experience.  One thing that I find intriguing is that Jesus’ disciples, who were in hiding…totally disappointed…totally lost…suddenly changed. Not just one of them, but all of them. When they had an experience of the risen Lord, they came out of hiding, and looking back, finally understood what Jesus was all about.

The resurrected Christ was not the same as he was before. He could appear and disappear, he could change his looks so he wouldn’t be recognized, yet he could eat and be touched.  The followers of Jesus recognized him, believed in him and changed. They went from a group of frightened and scattered followers to a group of excited men and women, anxious to share their joy, their insights, and their love. That is the miracle of Easter.

In today’s Gospel, John talks about the "other disciple" who ran to the empty tomb with Peter and upon entering it, "…he saw and believed."  Some scholars believe that this unnamed disciple could be you or me.

Many years ago, I experienced the Risen Lord in a most profound and powerful way.  For me, Good Friday was the end of my long and painful journey into alcoholism.   In the depths of my hopelessness and despair, I cried out for help …and instantly, Jesus heard this cry…the cry of the poor…and I was immediately touched by the Risen Lord.  I became that "other disciple."  My life began to change at that moment and has continued to change even as I write this reflection.  What began as a feeling that my life was "falling apart" evolved into a realization that it was actually "falling into place."  I began the process of becoming the person that God created me to be.  The past thirty years have been an exciting journey, one filled with peace and gratitude and a joyful willingness to pass on to others what was freely given to me.

Today is the day of Easter joy. Yet, even as we celebrate, we are painfully aware that for many people it is still Good Friday.  Every day it seems there is something to remind us of the poverty, injustice, and violence of our world. 

My true faith journey began in a cemetery. Not in a stable. Not at the river Jordan. Not in an upper room. The first resurrection appearances happened in a cemetery garden.  Cemeteries are holy ground. Easter places.  And Easter tells us that Jesus’ tomb is empty and so is his cross. He is not there. He has gone ahead of us. He is among us…HAPPY EASTER !!!

 

Deacon Brian Clements is a retired member of the retreat team at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California

Holy Thursday 

Scripture:

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

Reflection:

Holy Thursday, in times past, has been referred to as Maundy Thursday.  Why "Maundy"?  Maundy is an anglicized version of the Latin "mandatum", which means "command".  And this is closely allied with the Lord’s remark: "I give you a new commandment: love one another" (Jn 13.35).  So today, Maundy or Command Thursday, is love day.

The church spells this out for us in the Eucharistic liturgy today, with its selection of historical words and actions.  She presents us one of the most significant events in the history of the Jewish people: the Exodus.  This was the Hebrew flight to freedom, after having been slaves in Egypt for the better part of four centuries, but now we find them poised, under the leadership of Moses, to escape this land and make their way to freedom in a new place.  This was not to occur by dint of amassing arms and weapons, but by gathering choice lambs from their flocks, and slaughtering them as part of a (paschal) meal, daubing their blood on doorway lintels, to escape the passage of the avenging angel.  This was a love feast, one of fellowship among them as each family looked to its neighbor to make sure everyone was able to partake of this last meal in bondage.  This all took place under strict orders, minutely detailing a command performance.

The church then jumps many centuries, to select a reading from the time of Paul the apostle, instructing the Christian community in Corinth about details of another meal (the first eucharist), carefully orchestrated to present the memory of what Christ Jesus did the night before He died: arranging a love feast of fellowship among those closest to Him, whose center-piece was bread and wine.  Like the Exodus meal, this too was eaten within hours of another journey to freedom, leading to the Garden of Olives, to mock trials before a procurator and high priests, and through the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary, where, as we proclaim at eucharist: "Lord, by your cross and resurrection you have set us free."

To accentuate the love dimension of this last evening on earth, the church then presents us John’s memory of Jesus going to His knees before each of His disciples to wash them.  The import of this deed was not lost on Peter, who quickly saw the significance of what Jesus was about.  It is in the combination of these biblical memories about the foot-washing, the last supper and the paschal meal in Egypt, that the church formulates the theme of fellowship on the journey to freedom, as an enriching revelation of God.  For God is a fellowship of Persons calling us to the sense of freedom that is at the heart of  the Paschal mystery.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. 

 

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
 John 18:1-19:42

Reflection:

Today, Good Friday, we all stand together in community at the foot of the Cross.  We are not here to analyze or think; we are here to feel and experience the love only a crucified Jesus can bring us in the midst of suffering and death.  We are here to live the intimacy of a relationship founded in the simple, sure truth only a crucified Jesus can bestow in our world.

We are here with the "good thief", the man crucified with Jesus who was embraced with the words of Jesus assuring him of a place in paradise.  We are here as people who have sinned and yet now, next to a crucified Jesus are assured of how much we are loved by God.  The arms of Jesus embrace each of us with love.

We are here with Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We are present as Jesus entrusts Mary and John with the loving care of each other.  Jesus asks us to care for each other in community at the foot of the Cross.  The arms of Jesus are extended as He entrusts us to include everyone in our community with love.

We are here with the centurion who recognizes the presence of God in the ultimate act of love, the death of Jesus.  We are present as Jesus extends love to a world longing for the embrace of God. 

We are here at the foot of the Cross, joined by the good thief, Mary the mother of Jesus and a Roman centurion.  We are all, along with every person in our troubled world, indeed with all creation, joined in a loving embrace with each other and God at the foot of the Cross, with Jesus our life and our joy!

 

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of our Passionist Family who volunteers at the Passionist Assisted Living Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Wednesday of Holy Week

Scripture:

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Matthew 26:14-25

Reflection:

Oftentimes I focus on the wrong elements in the narratives of Sacred Scripture. Take the parable of the Sower and the Seed, for example. It’s easy for this preacher to thrash the congregation for being the kind of seed that is choked by thorns, burnt by the sun, or eaten by birds. It is much more difficult to speak of our God, who lavishes us with love the way the sower in Jean Millet’s painting, spreads seed… extravagantly, unconditionally, even wastefully. Or we sermonize about the profligate son or self-righteous older brother, and often ignore the compassionate and caring "prodigal father" who seems to waste his love on two self-absorbed, self-indulgent sons.  

When I was a kid we called today "Spy Wednesday" because of Judas’ role in the passion and death of Jesus. A better focus might be to call this day "Reassurance Wednesday" because of how Jesus ministers to those around him. Refocus. In today’s first reading the words of Isaiah, words of self-assurance and encouragement for the suffering servant, almost sound like we are trying to encourage Jesus as he begins his darkest hours of Passion. But Jesus is the one who, in the midst of excruciating emotional and physical pain, will be healing others – the centurion’s ear after Peter severed it. This Jesus speaks kindly to the grieving women instructing them to weep for themselves and their families. And it is Jesus who forgives his executioners from the cross, and informs a thief that he will share paradise with him. Blessed assurance.

As we conclude Lent this year and begin our Triduum journey, Pope Francis motivates me to follow this Jesus of reassurance. Our new pope declines places of honor and prays with Pope Emeritus Benedict in the same pew, or he waits for blessings of other Cardinals and then kisses their rings, and he will wash the feet of young inmates at Rome’s Casal del Marmo Jail.

Perhaps I could drop a note to someone who is enduring a difficult protocol of chemotherapy and encourage them, someone who struggles through the first weeks of widowhood, or divorce. May you have a really good Reassurance Wednesday!

 

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. is the director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness.  He is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Tuesday of Holy Week

Scripture:
Isaiah 49:1-6
John 13:21-33, 36-38

Reflection:
It is Tuesday of Holy Week.  We have begun the observance of the most sacred days of our faith.  But the journey we’re asked to travel this week is not really Jesus’, but ours. 
He’s traveled this journey once and for all.  No, this week is about our journey.

During a retreat some years back, my spiritual director asked me to describe the scene that emerged during my meditation on the Passion.  His forehead furled as I described the scene.  "What’s wrong?" I asked.  "Where are you in this scene?"  I was standing at the very fringe at a great distance.  I was only an observer, it seemed.  I was watching in a detached sort of way Jesus’ abandonment, condemnation, agony and death.  My director suggested that I begin to enter more fully into the Passion that is not someone else’s, but mine.

This Passion Week must be our journey. It’s a journey we take with Jesus at our side, with Jesus who has been down this road already.  The Stations of the Cross might well be a prayer that could help us enter the scene more profoundly.  In a quiet moment by ourselves at home or during a visit to a church or chapel, pray through the journey that takes us from insults, abandonment, and death to new life.  Let Jesus take that journey with us.

We recognize in our journey the way of the cross long ago trod by Jesus. We have been misjudged and maligned (I).  Our cross comes in many different sizes and shapes – an illness, poverty, abuse, a failed relationship, or a secret too horrible to share (II). The road is uneven and full of potholes (III).  There are those who are "mothers" to us but who can’t do much more than be with us along the way (IV).  There are those – a friend, co-worker, brother or sister – who seem to show up at the right time to help lift the burden a bit (V) even as the sweat and tears nearly blind us along the journey (VI).

We often don’t think we can go on (VII), but then we seem surrounded by those who love us no matter what (VIII), no matter how many times we fall (IX).  We recall the experience of being stripped, of being humiliated or shamed (X).  Whatever our cross may be, Jesus knows it and is willing to be there with us (XI), even in the midst of very real losses and deaths in our lives (XII).  As his mother held him, so Jesus now holds us (XIII), and whispers to us when we think all is lost (XIV), "I promise you, you will live!"

 

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and is the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

Monday of Holy Week 

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-7
John 12:1-11

Reflection:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation."  Psalm 27

You country folks might laugh at this city kid.  I find that driving on country roads at night is a bit scary.   And, of course, there is that very familiar experience of walking down a hallway or into a room in which there is no light only to bump into things that I couldn’t see.  Light is critical for sight.

This Monday of Holy Week has a very clear message for us in Isaiah’s reading.  It is God’s desire that His Servant bring justice to all the nations.  The recognition of the dignity of every man, woman or child is His goal.  It begins with me: "The Lord is my light and salvation."  Am I willing to bring that truth to others.

So many things get in the way of seeing and recognizing that dignity.   Without much thought or attention there can be an automatic judgment that someone isn’t worth much because of racial background, the area of town one lives in, the status of a job, the religious faith one lives by, the external appearance emphasized by style of dress, or tattoos, or pierced lips, ears or belly button or hair styles.  There are more.  We lump individuals into groups.  Very easy then to avoid having to deal with the individual person.

The individual person is the focus of God’s attention.  "Love one another as I have loved you."  Our journey with Jesus during this Holy Week will help us to see.  "The Lord is my light and my salvation."  There is no stranger in His eyes.  Externals will not blind Him.  There is always the individual.  Jesus would ask you and me to respect each individual.  Interestingly enough, to respect a person we need to "look back, take a second look" which is the root meaning of respect (re-aspicio…to take a second look).  Quick looks end up in quick judgments.  If you and I ever have light to see individuals it is by Jesus’ own example.  He was challenged with "Why are you eating with sinners?"  "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."  Oh, He knew whom He was dealing with.  He saw deeper.  He loved more deeply.  His patience was longer.  Can you and I accept this and share it with others.  Especially during this season of love and grace that has lead us to Holy Week and the awesome truth: "Greater love than this no one has but to lay down his life for his friends." 

Will you be my light?  Help me to see?  

 

Fr. Peter Berendt, C.P. is the senior priest at Immaculate Conception Parish in Chicago, Illinois.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Scripture:

Luke 19:28-40
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56 or 23:1-49

 

 

Reflection:

And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Jesus passionately desired to celebrate that first Eucharist with his own.  The Greek word for earnestly desiring to eat the Passover is epithumea. It is a word filled with warm emotion. It is repeated twice in this sentence to emphasize an already emotional feeling of desire to a strongly expressive one quite surpassing anything else in the New Testament, The Eucharist was of overwhelming importance to Jesus!   Why was the Eucharist of such prominence to Jesus?

The answer is a few lines later when the Lord says: "This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Notice the word soma or body. This is not a dead corpse, but the living Body of Christ! It is Himself!   It is also the eternal and timeless act of giving Himself over for us.

The Greek word for given is dedomenon. It is in the present tense.  The Eucharist puts us into the eternal now of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.   What a remembrance we have of the greatest act of love the world has ever seen.  Devotion to remembering the Sufferings of Christ can never be too distant from the Eucharist. The Sacrifice of the Mass puts us into the real time of the Passion by placing us in the eternal act of Christ giving Himself to the Father and to us!

 

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