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Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Scripture:

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Matthew 16:13-23

 

 

Reflection:

Let Us Go to Die with Our People

There are three Carmelite saints who share the name Teresa. Today we celebrate Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Saint Edith Stein. Born Jewish, she became Catholic and a Carmelite religious. She is a martyr who died in Auschwitz on this date, August 9, 1942.

Sr. Catherine Fitzgerald of the Carmel in Baltimore, MD speaks of ‘spiritual generativity’ quoting from a writing of Edith Stein: "[people] bear fruit by nature of the atmosphere which radiates from them on their environment…" (From Impasse to Prophetic Hope, CTSA Proceedings 64/2009). We say that the blood of the martyrs nourishes the faith. This spiritual generativity of martyrdom is fleshed out in Edith Stein.

Edith had many experiences that are far from life giving. A renowned and brilliant philosopher she was dismissed from her field of study because she was a woman and a Jew. She found life in her faith in Jesus and then the Carmelite vocation. An event at the end of her life that captures the sense of ‘spiritual generativity’, is related by a man serving in the German army. He is in the railway yard at night when a train of boxcars arrives. It is en route to Auschwitz. The prisoners are listed as mentally deficient and will be ushered to the gas chambers upon arrival there. For those aboard, no appeals are to be permitted. As he listlessly wanders among the trains he sees a boxcar with its door open, reeking of unwashed people. He describes a woman standing in the open door. She asks him to get water for those with her. From his account I see a woman very much in charge, her request is compelling, she places herself between the suffering victims behind her and those on the outside who would harm them. She bears fruit by nature of the atmosphere that radiates from her on her environment.

This week of Edith Stein’s feast we have celebrated the Transfiguration of the Lord.   Moses who embodies the People of Israel talks with Jesus. Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, whose ministry included those outside the Chosen People, is also in the dialogue. Elijah captures that part of Israel’s vocation to be the light of the nations. Edith’s words to her sister Rosa, as they go to their death, "Let Us Go to Die with Our People", are words of spiritual generativity. Moses and Elijah respectively bring the Chosen People and Israel’s vision fulfilled to the overshadowing light of Christ’s Paschal Mystery foreseen in the Transfiguration. Edith carries that Paschal Mystery with her into those gathered in the horrors of the shoah, her people.

Sister Teresa Benedicta has as her religious title, ‘of the Cross’. Planted in the earth it blossoms. How much this philosopher must have pondered the Cross. Her final book is ‘The Science of the Cross’. The second letter of Peter calls us to keep our attention on the experience of the Transfiguration, "Keep your attention closely fixed on it, as you would on a lamp shining in the dark place until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your heart." The Exultet of the Easter Vigil proclaims that Christ is that Morning Star come back from the dead who will shed his peaceful light upon us.

Edith Stein, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pondered the Cross in the light of Jesus Resurrection, his victory over the Cross. She is a woman of spiritual generativity for us.

 

Fr. William Murphy, CP is pastor of St. Joseph’s Monastery parish in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 31:1-7
Matthew 15:21-28

Reflection:

The O.P.s (Order of Preachers) and the C.P.s (Congregation of the Passion) get confused sometimes. Both are communities founded to preach. St. Dominic loved to proclaim the Gospel and founded a community that centers on preaching. His community’s motto is, "To praise, to bless, and to preach."

I was asked to preach at our diocesan "Café Catholica" on Monday, July 30^th. That night I spoke to some 600 18-35 year olds about living with passion. I was worried that cell phones would be ringing and other distractions would ensue. What I encountered was one of the most open, hungry, and enthusiastic crowds I have ever come before! I was touched by the glow of goodness emanating from this group of young people. A recent Barna survey said that some 3 out of 5 young people lose touch with their religion at some point in their journey. Fewer may be coming to Church, but the ones who are coming are hungry for something more and deeper.

I was so encouraged by these young people. I continue to be encouraged by those who attend my missions and by the people who support my media outreach. As Passionists, we are on the cutting edge of the new evangelization. Young and old alike hunger for God’s life-changing message of truth. God has anointed us to inspire others with his mercy and "age old love."

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 16 books and creator of television and radio programs airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

Scripture:

Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-15, 18-22
Matthew 14:22-36, 15:1-2, 10-14

Reflection:

I carry what looks like a large coin and is really a token to remind me of how grateful I am for an organization I reluctantly joined and have continued to participate in these past twenty-nine years. I carry it with my change and sometimes when I go to pay for something, a clerk will notice it and ask what it is. This happened yesterday when I went to McDonald’s for what has become my daily indulgence (not religious) of a hot fudge sundae.  I gladly shared with the clerk my twenty-nine year involvement and he in seeming awe of the length of time, responded: "Wow, I was only three then." I laughed and said I was thirty-eight when I first joined. This really seemed to surprise him and he said: "You don’t look that old."

The next morning, I got up as usual and after a little internal wrangling, I did my yoga exercises and meditation. That young man’s comment, "You don’t look that old." was the deciding argument in favor of doing my yoga and hopefully of my continuing to do it each day now for the rest of my life. LOL

In today’s scripture passage from Matthew, we read about Peter walking on water. I believe it was Jesus’ encouragement that allowed Peter to walk on water, just as it was the young man’s encouraging words to me that got me to resume my, miracle of miracles, yoga.

Back in the ‘70’s we used to sing a song that went:

"Easy come, Easy go; through summer and through snow,
Up and down, all around, this universe I’ll go.
I’ll walk upon your waters, move mountains from your path,
With a smile for my companion, I’ll teach you how to laugh."

Jesus encouraged Peter and those he loved to perform miracles. Help me Jesus to encourage everyone I meet today to be the walking miracles they truly are.

 

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

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

Scripture:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 2
Peter 1:16-19
Mark 9:2-10  

Reflection:

Peter, James and John must have felt like they won a gold medal when they were invited by Jesus to accompany him up a high mountain "apart by themselves." To be with Jesus without the crowds pressing in, without religious leaders trying to cause confusion, and without people crying out or demanding miracles must have felt like being gold medal winners. This was going to be some peaceful, quality time with Jesus. What could be better? Well, better was the fact that they were going up a high mountain. Throughout the Old Testament, amazing things happened on mountains: Abraham and Mount Moriah, the Ten Commandments and Mount Sinai, Elijah and Mount Carmel, and one of the temptations of Jesus took place on a high mountain. The apostles were thrilled as they hiked up the path with Jesus in the lead.  

On the mountain Jesus "was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white…" What does that mean?  The Greek word for transfigure is meamorphoo. In English we use the word "metamorphosis" or transformation, rebirth, change. We commonly understand activity in terms of a caterpillar going through a transformation to become a butterfly. Peter, James and John are witnessing a transformation that is happening to Jesus. To communicate this event, Mark says "his clothes became dazzling white." It wasn’t that Jesus was changing clothes. Transformation means that the inside changes the outside. The glory of God was revealing itself through the human body of Jesus. In the first reading, Daniel describes the presence and glory of God as brightness and fire, and he tells us this glory was given to the "Son of man." Fire, light, dazzling white are images used to express divine glory or presence. The glory of God that was contained or "housed" in Jesus reveals its presence to the three disciples. This transformation tells us that within the person of Jesus was the very presence of God, so complete and overflowing, now bursting forth.  

The word "transform" appears in Romans 12:2. "And do not be conformed to this word, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." We too are to be transformed by a radical overhaul such that the original is no longer seen, like the caterpillar to butterfly image. The old person of sin is put to death. Instead, we are to be new creatures in Jesus Christ. Again, this is not simply changing clothes and putting on virtues or taking on spiritual disciplines. "We all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" 2 Corinthians 3:18. The glory of God, planted at Baptism, is to grow within us so that it can shine forth. As we fix our eyes on Jesus and "listen" to his word and obey, transformation takes place within our hearts and minds. To be transformed now is to prepare for the ultimate and complete transformation in the end into the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the gold medal for which we should be single-mindedly seeking.  

 

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

 

Scripture:

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
John 6:24-35

 

 

Reflection:

True Bread

In our first reading from Exodus (16:2-4, 12-15), after the Israelites complain to Moses about the lack of food in the desert, God sends quail and also something that appears as "fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground." The people ask, "What is this?" because they do not know what it is. Moses tells them that it is "the bread that the Lord has given you to eat."

As we continue reading from the "Bread of Life" discourse in Chapter 6 of John for our Gospel reading (John 6:24-35), perhaps we can ask a question similar to the one posed by the Israelites: "Who is Jesus for us?" When the people listening to Jesus ask for a sign, they refer back to the time when their ancestors ate manna in the desert. But Jesus replies, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Jesus is the "true bread from heaven." Another question that the people pose to Jesus is, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"And Jesus says, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

What does it mean to believe in the One God has sent? It means that we put our trust in Him to fill that spiritual hunger that we all feel. In our second reading from Ephesians (4:17, 20-24), St. Paul tells us that we should "put away the old self" of our former way of life, "corrupted through deceitful desires," and "put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth." It can be easy for us to be deceived by worldly desires. We can be fooled into thinking that wealth or power or selfish pleasure is what will fill our deepest needs. But anyone who has lived life for any amount of time realizes that even though we may feel good for a short time having a lot of money or using someone to satisfy our desires, that the feeling doesn’t last. Again, Jesus in our Gospel reading says, "Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."

Can we believe that Jesus will give us what we really need? Can we believe that we will be truly satisfied being fed by His grace and love? So often people will look anywhere else but to God to find the peace and serenity for which they are looking! Often our addictions convince us that they alone can give us comfort.

Don’t be deceived by what the wisdom of the world says is important! Don’t be deceived by what an addiction says is necessary for survival! Listen to Jesus, who is the "true bread!" Believe in Him, who says to us: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

 

Feast of St. John Mary Vianney

Scripture: 

Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24
Matthew 14:1-12

 

 

Reflection:

Ministering God’s Love:  Zealous Charity

In today’s Gospel, St. Matthew recounts the death of John the Baptist at the crazy whims and jealousy of both Herod and Herodias.  John the Baptist gave his life for Jesus and His proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  God gave John the Baptist the power even to die as he witnessed to Jesus in his preaching and public ministry of the Good News.  What zeal, what strength, what love!

The reading from Jeremiah also tells of another earlier prophet who witnessed God’s love to the people of his day – and was threatened with death!  Jeremiah continued to be firm in his statements and prophesies, and God changed the hearts of those seeking to kill him; his life was spared and he continued to minister God’s love to even more people.  Again, what zeal, what strength, what love!

Today another example of faithful ministering of God’s Love is given us in  the example of the 19^th century saint, St. John Mary Vianney.  He was a simple man with a humble background, an unsophisticated theology – and a zeal to spread God’s love!  He is especially known for his gracious and generous ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation at his parish in Ars, France — regularly spending hours sharing God’s love through the Sacrament with thousands of penitents who traveled great distances for those few graced moments with him.  His loving ministry flowed from an intense spiritual life based on prayer and mortification.  St. John Mary Vianney truly witnessed the age-old love of the Lord witnessed in the lives of both Jeremiah and John the Baptist.  In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named him patron of all priests worldwide.

Jesus and St. John Mary Vianney pose some questions for our faith journey:  How zealous are we for our faith?  Do we offer forgiveness to those who threaten to hurt us?  How do we really listen to those who come our way?  Do we zealously and tirelessly give of ourselves in service to our sisters and brothers?  We have many great examples of zealous, charitable love of God and neighbor.

As we honor the "patron of priests", pray this day especially for priests — active, retired, deceased — and for those discerning a priestly or religious vocation:  for a deepening faith — and a greater, zealous love.

 

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

Scripture:

1 Jeremiah 18:1-6
Matthew 13:47-53

Reflection:

There are many perspectives in Christian spirituality that attempt to make sense out of the perennial question, why does a loving God let suffering coexist with a world we say is created by God, saved by the Son of God, and is destined for an eternal participation in the Kingdom of God?

This summer, while spending my summer vacation at home with my brothers and sisters, I am also doing double-duty, filling in for the hospital chaplain at the Catholic hospital where my sister is an RN, because their chaplain is on vacation.

Daily, I am asked to visit a patient or patients who ask for the sacrament of the sick; many of them are quite conscious and want to share their feelings with me.  For many, the question is there, perhaps not "up front," but in their doubts, their fears, and in their uncertainty about the future. Why me?"

Reading today’s scripture text from the prophet Jeremiah, I hear echoes of the question-"Why me?" and I sense that God not only wants us to ask, to question, but also to glean wisdom from the response God makes to our hearts.

We need to remember that asking a question in response to God’s action in our lives is not a sign of lack of faith, or of a refusal to accept God’s will.  The incarnation, Jesus’ becoming human, taking on the form of an unborn child in the womb of Mary, follows on Mary’s question to the Angel Gabriel, "How can this be…?"  Mary’s question is posed in order to be able to respond generously to God’s will as presented by the Angel Gabriel. 

I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done’ says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

God instructs Jeremiah to see in the rise and fall of the fortunes of the chosen people a necessary re-forming, re-shaping, re-modeling of the people who are no longer faithful to the image first seen in the eye of the potter, and then fashioned into clay on the potter’s wheel.

I am reminded of two other examples used by the Prophet Malachi to describe the purifying work of God, the refining of gold and silver, and the whitening of the cloth by the work of the fuller.

Thus says the Lord GOD:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
the LORD whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye.
He will sit refining and purifying silver,
and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. (Malachi 3:1-4, 23)

It has been two days since the historic achievements of United States’ swimmers and gymnasts in the London Olympic games.  What an achievement, for which we can stand in proud amazement.  They would be the first to say that were it not for the hours of dedicated practice, practice and more practice, with coaching and parental support, they might not be there on the victors’ podium.  That regimen of practice is like "the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye".

When we struggle against our illness, our aging bodies, or our fading memories, we are in a process of purification, submitting ourselves to the refiner’s fire, to the fuller’s lye, and to the potter’s wheel.  God will create in us a new experience of life, better than anything we’ve yet known, and ready to be presented before the Divine Majesty on the last day.

 

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

Scripture:

Jeremiah 15: 10, 16-21
Matthew 13: 44-46

Reflection:

In this first reading Jeremiah continues to be the living parable of God.  In love with the Word of God,he devours the Lord’s words to him, feeds on them, and becomes God’s word himself.  And he suffers in himself what the Lord is feeling and suffering.  The pains that Jeremiah moans about are the pains of God himself, suffering from the treatment shown him by his faithless people.  Jeremiah is called to continue to be the voice of the Lord to these faithless and selfish people, preaching repentance from a saving God, despite what they do to him and the way they treat him.

When we move into the gospel, Jesus himself speaks to us directly.  We are his disciples and he teaches us about the kingdom of heaven.  We can recall from the opening of Mark’s gospel, that Jesus began his public life by calling us to the kingdom: "The time is near.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the good news."  (Mark 1:15)  Now, that we have believed and have become his disciples, he continues to teach us about this kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.   And like Jeremiah, he teaches us in parables. 

These parables given in Matthew are short, pithy little comparisons, unadorned with questioning or further explanation.  Today Jesus continues with them, offering us simply two: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, . . ." and "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls."  How shall we deal with these parables?

I suggest that we just sit with them – sit with Jesus speaking them to us.  This is my Lord who loves me personally, unconditionally, who wants me to be one with him.  What is he saying to me  through these two little parables?  What does he want me to dwell on?  If I am quiet, attentive, keeping my eye on him and my heart open to him, listening, he will tell me – and tell me perhaps without using any more words.

 

Br. Peter Fitzpatrick,CFX, a Passionist Associate is a Xaverian Brother, dwelling across the creek fromSacred Heart Monastery in Louisville, KY, in Ryken Retirement Home on the St. Xavier H.S. property.