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Scripture:

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

Reflection:

I can imagine people along the East Coast, especially those on the Jersey and New York coastline, reading today’s gospel story. Hurricane Sandy rolled over their coastal towns and destroyed houses and buildings, even those that had strong foundations. Some homes were built on pilings, legs going down through the sand to a solid foundation. The pilings lifted the homes up five to ten feet above ground to protect the house from flooding. Even these precautions didn’t defend them from the monster hurricane. Sandy came on shore with several feet of surge and during high tide.

John Steinbeck wrote in "Of Mice and Men" the often used quote: "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." No matter how well you plan something, expect the unexpected. George and Lennie, characters in Steinbeck’s novel, were always making plans to get out of their hopeless situation, but the plans, whether big or small, seemed to go wrong for them.

We know that Jesus was not actually talking about houses built on sand or rock. Jesus was speaking about how we set foundations for our lives. What values guide us; what goals are important to us; what motivates our decisions? It is better to build a house on rock rather than sand, but it is more important to build our lives on lasting values.

We can have well thought-out plans for our life, the best of advisors and consultants to talk with, but no plan or person can defend us against the unforeseen, the unfairness of life, or a tragedy that we never even imagined could happen.

Put your trust in Jesus. Make Jesus the fundamental foundation of your life. Violent winds can blow away your dreams, surges can quickly destroy your plans and high tides can drown you in fear and anxiety.  Our Advent prayer is, "Come, Lord Jesus." We pray that Jesus blesses our plans and our dreams. When they fail or are destroyed, we pray that Jesus strengthen us that we not become pessimistic or cynical. We pray for the encouragement to continue on, to look for a Plan B or a Plan C, never giving up on God’s love for us as expressed in the birth of Jesus Christ.  "Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock."

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

 

Scripture:

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

 

 

 

Reflection:

Advent  Openness

Today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah paints quite a picture:  visual images abound and invite us to embrace the season!  Shoots sprouting from stumps, flower buds blossoming, the Spirit of God, wolves and lambs, little children – and more!  The prophet stretches our vision, our hearts, to embrace the gift of salvation from God.  God’s redemptive love is unfolding in our midst.

Jesus’ Gospel message is a prayer of rejoicing and gratitude, for God is alive in our midst and offering us the personal experience of God’s Life and Love.  Jesus encourages childlike simplicity and openness — and joy.  He offered this encouraging message to his disciples, reminding them that they were blessed in their experience of Jesus, and responding to the call to follow Him.  At that time, little did those disciples realize where Jesus’ call would lead them…

Today’s two scripture readings are to become part of our lives as 21^st Century followers of Jesus, as members of the Passionist family embarking on the season of Advent.  How blessed we are!!  Many magnificent persons were born before the time of Jesus — prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, kings like David and Solomon; many great people personally witnessed the life and ministry of Jesus, such as our Blessed Mother, Peter, James, John.  God has blessed us like the prophets and kings and disciples of old, with the person of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

We ordinary people live now in "the age of Jesus."  God’s love is revealed in Jesus; we are saved, we are loved.  We have been blessed with faith and a call to discipleship in our needy world. 

These days of Advent are a tremendous help to kindle in us the fire of the Spirit:  Jesus lives, and loves, today!  Let’s carve out some times of quiet, simplicity, and openness during these Advent days to deeply ponder the Scriptures, to quietly delve into the deeper meaning of the sights and sounds and smells of these Holidays — and enter into the unfolding mystery of God’s Love shared with us and our world.

May Advent blessings fill our hearts and lives!

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 2:1-5
Matthew 8:5-11

Reflection:

Messages filled with joy greet us as we begin the Advent Season of our 2012 liturgical year.  In the beautiful Old Testament reading we hear a message of hope.  Jesus, the Word of the Lord, will bring peace and will lead all of us to the mountain of God.  No more war, nation no longer rising against nation – Jesus is coming and he will bring peace.  Isn’t this the message we all have been waiting to hear even in our day?

The psalmist tells us to rejoice!  "Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord."  I spent Thanksgiving with family in Texas and as I hear the words of the psalm, I think of my six year old granddaughter, Erin, who ran with unbridled happiness to greet me when I arrived.  That’s the way I picture us going to the house of the Lord, spinning and twirling and so filled with joy that we break into spontaneous running to see our God.

In the Gospel, the Centurion expresses faith that is so deep that he knows that Jesus has only to say the word to heal his servant.

Hope, rejoice and have faith!   That is the message of Advent.  This is how we are to get ready for the birth of Christ – with the heart of a child.  Do we fill our lives with hope, do we rejoice and do we have faith in the coming of Christ?  Let us pray for the heart of a child- untethered by anxieties and concerns for it is with the heart of a child, filled with hope, rejoicing and faith that we can truly be ready for Christ.

The readings also tell us that the Kingdom will be made up of more than the people of Israel.  All nations shall stream toward the mountain of the Lord.   We hear Jesus saying, "many will come from the east and the west."   Sometimes we find ourselves thinking that only people who look like us, think like us, pray like us will enter the Kingdom.  These readings clearly tell us that the Kingdom of God is for everyone!

As we journey toward Christmas, we are called to work for peace, to live in hope, to rejoice daily and to act with kindness and generosity to all – because all are beckoned to the mountain of the Lord and all are called to have the heart of a child.   

 

Mary Lou Butler is a former staff member and a longtime partner of the Passionists in California.

First Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

 

 

Reflection:

What a way to start our season of Advent!  These readings begin with the promise of God made to the "house of Israel and Judah", that Jerusalem and Judah will be "safe" and "secure".  However, in the gospel passage, Jesus speaks to his disciples of a cosmic catastrophe, felling people from fright alone.

How are they linked?  Does God abandon the promises made to a people whose historical memory lives from these promises, this covenant?  Does Jesus intend to predict an ultimate catastrophic end to the human experience?

Jesus cannot proclaim anything less than the redemption/salvation that is his Mission.  He cannot speak of the mortality of human existence ("what is coming upon the world") without adding, "stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand."

This is truly the pattern of a Christian existence.  If not even the most global and earth-shaking events can keep us from our Redeemer, then we need to live our lives with that conviction, expressed in the often quoted and powerful words of St. Paul: "nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rm 8:39)."

These readings come to us against the backdrop of world events, global events not unlike those mentioned in the readings.  Israel seeks to keep its cities and civilians safe from the incursion of missiles, and Palestinians daily live with embargoes, restricted access to their homes and lands, and threats of war.

Across the middle east and in the heart of Africa, refugees and refugee camps mark the places where war has become a way of life for more than a generation of a people’s memories. 

Into this world a child has been born, whose name is "Emmanuel", "God with us."  Where has He gone?  What difference did His coming make?  It is up to His ongoing presence in the world today to answer that question.  That "ongoing presence" is in the soul of each baptized person, each one of us who declares that "Jesus is Lord" must provide the answer.  During this advent, let us try a little harder to put into practice what is expressed in the second reading: "Brothers and sisters: May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…"

 

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P., is the director of the Office of Missions for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 29:17-24
Matthew 9:27-31

Reflection:

It was time again to prepare for the Christmas pageant. Stephanie and Karen, two of the youngest members of the faculty were assigned the task with little direction and no previous experience. They decided to have Santa and Mrs. Claus working up North with their elves preparing for the trip south this coming Christmas Eve. They needed a Santa. Just then, I walked into their LD (Learning Disabilities) lab, coming to pick up my students. Ah, Mr. OD (that’s what the kids called me), "Would you play Santa this year?" I told them I was busy this Christmas Season and besides, my 160 pound frame, hardly fit the image. They said we were all busy and they had a pillow and some stuffing for my other excuse. Reluctantly I agreed. Then, they gave me the script, little of which I remember today, the exception being that I’d be on stage with Mrs. Claus who would be played by Andre (we were an all boys school).

Practicing our lines together over the next couple of weeks, I got to know Andre. That was just the beginning. I really got to know Andre, when I later heard at school that he was in a local hospital recovering from gun shot wounds inflicted by a rival gang member. I decided to visit him after school one day. This was back in the 70’s and I didn’t know, that hospitals wouldn’t let just anyone in to visit a minor, especially a minor recovering from a gun shot wound. Eventually, they let me in past the police guard and I got to spend sometime with Mrs. Claus. Andre was eventually released to his grandparents’ care where I again had the privilege of visiting him in their home.

My final visit with Andre was a couple of years later, when I visited him in St. Charles Illinois Youth Detention Center. I don’t remember what he was there for, but I do remember him taking me around showing me his room. He had that room all to himself-he had never had his own room. He took me out to the recreation room and introduced me to the adult supervisors (guards) and he and I played a game of ping-pong together. He excitedly told me about the classes he was taking and how he was learning to swim. I never saw Andre so happy-not in school, not in the hospital and not at his grandparents’ home.

My life would never be the same. Truly, like in the gospel reading today, Andre touched me and my eyes were opened. I would never again be afraid of any "gang member". How could I be? Beneath that hard exterior there would always be a Mrs. Claus.

 

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:

Living in this modern age with our refrigerators, hothouses ready to deliver fresh vegetables year-round, grocery stores filled with all manner of delights, it is hard to remember that winter used to be a time of need. Nowadays it seems the winter season is filled with bustling from one feast to another. Christmas parties follow quickly upon the heels of Thanksgiving, followed by the New Year’s celebrations. In this context the first reading from Isaiah almost seems like too much: "A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines." Hold on! I’m trying to watch my weight!

And yet, there is that line tucked in between the feasts. "[H]e will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations."

Although I’m not wealthy by American standards, there has never been a point in my life when I did not know where to find my next meal. Growing up there was always enough food in the house. After moving out however, I didn’t always make the best financial choices. There came a time when I found myself living alone, with nothing more than two eggs, a frozen pie crust, and half a box of cereal in my larder. With a week to go until my next paycheck, I pondered my choices. Swallowing my pride, I called my parents and asked if I could come across town and join them for dinner. My mother was delighted! The circumstances that brought me to their house (and asking for a care package to take home) were never discussed. The evening was filled with laughter and sharing. The veil that I had drawn between myself and my parents in an effort to "grow up and make it on my own" was pulled away.

As shown in the Gospel reading, God wants to feed us, in whatever way we are hungry. Jesus cares for all of those who need healing. Then, out of pity for the crowd, he feeds them although the physical resources available are meager.

In this season of feasting, no matter what our circumstances, may we find the veil that covers us destroyed. May we reflect the risen presence of Christ to those we sit with at table. And may we have the courage and blessing to accept God’s grace that is offered to us in abundance.

 

Talib Huff is a volunteer at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights.

Scripture:
Revelation 22:1-7
Luke 21:34-36   

Reflection:
Today is the last day of the liturgical year.  Tomorrow we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, the season to prepare for the entry of God’s own Son into our human life.  Tomorrow we celebrate the beginning of a new church year.

Liturgically for some days now we have been looking at the end of time, for the readings have been giving us many varied apocalyptic signs of that end.  And in the gospels Jesus has been speaking, sometimes ambiguously, of the second coming of the Lord and how we should meet that second coming.

Today, on the last day, the church chooses to present us first with a beautiful symbolic picture of the new heaven and the new earth in the new time to come.  From the very throne of God and the Lamb we see a sparkling stream running straight down the center of the street.  Each side of the street is lined with trees bearing fruit and food to sustain us and medicinal leaves to cure, heal, and protect us.  Trees of Life and a River of Life-giving Waters – beautiful, sparkling, and beckoning.

Then in the gospel Luke presents Jesus telling us to be ready to enter and to dwell in this new heaven and new earth.  Jesus encourages us to prepare for our own "end time," so that we may gladly take hold of the new time that will begin with our death.  He cautions us against missing that new moment through inattention, sleepiness, and stupor brought on by high living, drinking and carousing – or through over-worry and anxiety about the daily cares of making a living, anxieties that tend to choke the heart and stifle the real purpose of life.

I ponder how I may best follow Jesus’s warning, "Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy."   What comes to me is the practice and the counsel of St. Francis de Sales: To give birth to Jesus in my heart each morning in my prayer – to make my heart the stable into which Jesus is born, the manger in which this new-born Child is laid.  Letting him be born anew in me each day, I can then tend to him in my heart.  Throughout the day I can care for him, love him, and ask him to grow and become strong.  I can ask him to prod me to extend his love and care to everyone I meet this day and to all who meet me.  And at night I can beg him to show me how he grew in my heart that day, expanding my own heart.  Likewise, I can ask him where and how I ignored him, or where I tried to shut him up when he asked me to do something, shrinking my own heart in doing so.  In the course of such days, then, will he not begin to make my heart his own? 

"Jesus gentle and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine."  Murmuring that prayer to him, may I be ready to meet him in the new time when he comes for me.

 

Br. Peter A. Fitzpatrick, CFX, a Xaverian Brother, is a Passionist Associate at Ryken House, across the creek from the Passionist Monastery, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle

Scripture:

Romans 10:9-18
Matthew 4:18-22

Reflection:

In 1972 I was assigned to be an associate pastor at a very large parish in Chicago.  I was young and it was a challenging assignment.  Right from the start I was very busy celebrating Masses, doing weddings, funerals, baptisms, preaching, visiting the sick, counseling, etc.  It was a lot of work and I thought I was doing it all pretty well.

But after about six months, something happened, something I wasn’t expecting.  I found myself falling in love with the people.  And after a while, my ministry to them was no longer a job but a relationship.  I was no longer doing holy things for people.  I was being present to them.  I was sharing life with them.  I was a companion with them on their journey with the Lord.

That has continued down through the years.  And I hope it shows to the people whom I serve today. I hope it shows that it is a joy for me to know them. It is a joy for me to be with them.  It is a privilege for me to preach and to minister to them.

Today we honor the apostle St. Andrew.  I’m sure he too loved the people he was sent out to serve.  In reality it is God’s love that flows through us priests.  Our vocation is to be instruments of God’s love for his people.  Then they in turn can be instruments of that love for those in their families, their schools, their places of work, indeed to all those to whom God sends them.

Jesus says, "Come follow me." (Discipleship). Then he says, "Go, teach others how to follow me." (Apostleship).  Jesus is the center and focus of all ministry.  His love makes us one.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.   http://www.alanphillipcp.com/