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Scripture:

Amos 5:14-15,21-24
Mathew 8:28-34

(optional readings for Independence Day):

Isaiah 57:15-19
Philippians 4:6-9
John 14:23-29

 

Reflection:

Celebrating United States Independence Day 

Today the liturgical guidelines encourage us to use the special prayers for Independence Day, and to chose from a variety of Scripture selections related to "public needs" and "social justice".

Interestingly, the "regular" readings encourage us to abandon our evil ways, to seek justice for all people – following Jesus’ example of sacrificial, redemptive love.  These Scriptures call out to us today to be Christ-centered messengers of justice and freedom…founded in true gratitude for our many blessings as 21^st Century citizens of these United States. 

The optional readings chosen for Independence Day highlight another dimension of our American heritage and our mission:  peace.  Isaiah calls out for peace, especially for those struggling or dejected in spirit; St. Paul writing to the Philippians reminds us to have no anxiety, but to daily turn to God in prayer for our personal and communal needs; Jesus at the Last Supper gifts his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you".  True reason to rejoice and celebrate!

Jesus gives us his peace – not simply the experience of total tranquility or the absence of suffering or the absence of uncertainty.  He offers His peace that comes from the experience that God is with us, here and now and in all things and with all peoples — loving us unconditionally.  As contemporary disciples, we look to the Cross of Jesus, seeking peace and freedom from our hectic pace of life, our uncertainties, our personal and communal suffering, and even the violence and death which is so much a part of our culture.  And the unconditional love of Jesus showers each of us with his peace, with a sense of presence, freedom and redemption that transforms the challenges of each day into blessings for both today and tomorrow.

May today’s celebration of our United States "independence" help us be grateful and share our God-given blessings with all people!  In Jesus, may we live at peace with our sisters and brothers worldwide.  May God bless America!

 

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

Scripture:

Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Matthew 8:18-22

Reflection:

Today’s gospel selection is very brief.  In the context of Matthew’s narrative, Jesus is establishing his credibility as "Son of Man", as the expected Messiah, as someone whom the people can approach for wise teaching ("Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."), and for the miraculous signs of God’s favor (the preceding cures, including that of Peter’s mother-in-law).

As a young boy, I can remember my reacting to the harshness of Jesus’ response to the anonymous disciple’s entreaty, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."  It did indeed seem un-caring of Jesus to insist on fidelity to himself against the fidelity one owed one’s own parents.  "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead" seemed too binding a command to be followed by someone with genuine affection for his father."

Even then I could remember when my parents received word that my great-grandmother had died in El Paso, Texas.  I was only about 9 years old, but my parents pulled the kids out of school, and loaded up the 1938 Plymouth (leaking gas tank considered a peril to be endured because of the urgency of the trip) with kids and sandwiches and sodas, as we headed east through the desert to El Paso.  It was a witness of the family ties that could not be ignored or dismissed.

But Jesus said: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

My eyes began to open to the meaning of Jesus’ words when later in my elementary education, shortly before graduating from Resurrection School, the father of my Franciscan Sister classroom teacher died in Switzerland.  There was never any question but that she would continue teaching us day after day, and her father would be buried without his missionary Sister daughter’s presence.  As a matter of fact, I still remember that her family sent her a photograph of her father in his casket, and she shared that photograph with us.  It was the first time I’d seen such a photograph.

Long afterwards, as I began to have more contact with missionaries-Passionists and others, I realized how common it was for many family events to pass by without the missionary’s coming home to share in the family grief, or the family celebration.  The commitment to the missionary life, the commitment to the community in which one served, the desire to follow Jesus wherever His path would lead one, these are the priorities of the Gospel and of the disciple of Jesus.

The parallel passage in Luke 9:57-62 ends with the familiar admonition, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the kingdom of God."

This is the message of today’s Gospel passage: Jesus, who has no place to call his own, calls us to follow him, to take on the mission of announcing the Kingdom, and we are not guaranteed that our life will have the conventional dimensions of one who picks and chooses his engagements.  To follow Jesus is to embark on a life-long following of Him who is our life’s purpose and completion.  The true disciple does not look back because he has already discovered that life lies in the direction he has taken in the following of Jesus, the Christ.  God will not disappoint.

 

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

Scripture:

Wisdom 1: 13-15;  2: 23-24
2 Corinthians 8: 7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5: 21-43,                                                   

Reflection:

Today’s  readings are all about God’s great healing love for us, everyone of us, and God’s call to us to do the works of love for each other. 

The gospel opens with Jairus stepping forth from the crowd and begging Jesus to heal his daughter: "Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live."  Jairus begs Jesus for his healing touch of love, not for himself but for his daughter.   And Jesus goes off with him.

But before we can get to Jairus’s house, we have the strange incident of the hemorrhaging woman.  As I begin to get into this incident, I am moved with compassion.  For twelve years she has suffered these hemorrhages.  Doctors have just made her worse.  After spending all of her money on them, she has nothing to show for it.  Moreover, she is filled with shame, for this is not just a health problem.  She has an ailment that defiles her – according to the law she is ritually "unclean."  It is unlawful for anyone to touch her, and it is unlawful for her to touch anyone.  As long as the flow of blood continues, she remains "unclean" according to the law – an object of pity, but also an object of scorn and revulsion.  She moves hidden in the crowd, a non-entity.

But "she had heard about Jesus."  Still hiding in the crowd she comes up behind him and touches his cloak.  "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."  She has such tremendous faith in the power of Jesus – just furtively touch his cloak.  She has such tremendous faith in the love of Jesus – that it exudes from his very presence, without his willfully directing it.  He lives and moves in his love for others, with a power that promptly answers the needs of love.  She is immediately cured.   "She felt in her body that she was healed."

When I turn from this woman to look at Jesus and his disciples, I am again caught up in the mystery of this incident.  He knows that he has been touched in a special way, a different way, and he doesn’t know by whom.  He stops, turns, looks, and asks, "Who touched me?"  The disciples are incredulous, and practically say to him – "Everyone’s jostling you, and you ask us who touched you? Who touched you? In this crowd?"  

But the woman knows, and despite all her fear of the scorn of the crowd, she comes and falls down before him, pouring out her whole story – her twelve years of uncleanness and bleeding and misery and shame .  .  .  her desire to touch his cloak to receive his healing power.

Let us glorify this very human Jesus who realizes that his Father has given him such loving power to respond to every call of faith even when he is unaware of the caller – and that moves him then to seek her out.  And let us glorify this very human Jesus who responds directly to every call when asked, and lovingly touches the daughter of Jairus who pleads for his healing power.  May Jesus touch us all with his healing power of love.

 

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

Scripture:

Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
Matthew 8:5-17

Reflection:

The sixth century B.C. was a time of much sorrow.  Our first reading from Lamentations gives us a taste of the people’s pain.

 

We can identity with the people of old, for we too have much to lament.  Our world, our church and our country are struggling with many trials.  However, someone more important than us is also lamenting.  It is the Lord Jesus.  We know he once shed tears over Jerusalem.  What does he see now?

He sees countries ravaged by wars, people killed by terrorists and millions living in political oppression.  He sees starving children, homeless families and battered spouses.  He sees innocent babies aborted, teens hooked into drugs and the elderly neglected.

He sees those struggling to survive with little food, unclean water, no sanitation and no schools.  He sees the unemployed, the physically sick and the emotionally distraught.  He sees those who are insulted, betrayed and unloved.  He sees the fearful, the broken-hearted and those who feel no hope. 

He sees all this and tears stream down his face.  His arms reach out, stretching all around the globe and embracing every hurting man, woman, and child.  His mouth opens wide and a mighty sound comes forth. 

It is a mournful shout, piercing through the night.  It ascends the mountains, echoes through the valleys and rumbles down the streets of every city and village.  It bounces across the oceans, thrusts out into outer space and resounds throughout the universe.

The voice of Christ cries out:

"These people — this is my body!
And their suffering — this is my blood!"

The words of Isaiah come to mind.  "It was our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured."  (Isaiah 53:4)

At Mass Jesus invites us to come to the altar and eat his body, and drink his blood.  To receive the Holy Eucharist is to enter into union with the Lord.  And with the Lord comes all his people.  We are one with Jesus and one with the human family, lamenting its pain and sorrow.  Compassion is the way of holiness.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:
2 Kings 24:8-17
Matthew 7:21-29

Reflection:
What does it mean to be a Christian?  Today’s words from Matthew and the preceding verses and chapters, give a clear definition of our role as Christians- followers of Christ and heirs of the Kingdom.

Today Jesus tells us that you can’t just proclaim the name of the Lord, you can’t even perform miracles in God’s name and expect to get into the Kingdom.  You must do the will of the Father.  And in the preceding verses and chapters, we hear what is the will of the Father.  Starting with the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us clearly that being a Christian means it is not enough to just love God; being Christian always has to include the dimension of loving and caring for our neighbor (and our enemy).

Throughout the New Testament, we are told over and over again that Jesus is most disturbed by the sin of hypocrisy.   As we read today’s words, what comes to mind is someone who proclaims God’s name loudly and tries to impress with miracles performed in God’s name but who doesn’t live out the message of the Gospel.  This was the way Jesus often depicted the Pharisees.  And, of course, today’s world is also peopled with modern "Pharisees."   Those who make a show of their devotions and loudly proclaim their belief but fail to care for others– these are not living the life of a Christian. 

It’s pretty easy to fall into this way of life. It is nice weather and it is delightful to sit out on the patio to read my Bible.  Then I may pray a bit and talk to God about my life and some of the things I need.  But if I do this and avoid helping at our parish’s food drive or ignore the neighbor who is ill or don’t reach out in the ways we are called, I am not being a follower of Christ.  

Today is the feast day of St. Irenaeus.  While we don’t know too much about him, we do know that he was a pastor, a Bishop and a martyr who was born in the first half of the second century.  Undoubtedly, he understood his role as a Christian, caring for the church and the people of God, even to the point of sacrificing his life.

May we too be Christians – especially when it takes us out of our comfort zones.

 

Mary Lou Butler is a long-time friend and partner in ministry to the Passionists in California. 

Scripture:

2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3
Matthew 7:15-20

Reflection:

Each generation and each culture of religion has been plagued by "false prophets" – people who mistakenly claim to have a special relationship with God, or a special message from God. Early Christian documents also show that the first followers of Jesus struggled with the problem of authenticity, or how to evaluate the genuineness of their proclamation.

Today’s readings and today’s feast (St. Cyril of Alexandria) remind us that the path to holiness and wholeness is often zigzagged! King Josiah was in his twenties when called to reform ancient Judah, and get the people back on track. And Cyril served as the pope’s representative at the Council of Ephesus (43l), defending the cause of orthodoxy. Some historians and theologians insist that, had he been more patient and diplomatic, softening his opposition to those who sided with Nestorius, the painful split would not have been so severe. But even saints must grow out of immaturity, self-absorption, narrow-mindedness.

None of us can claim the final judgment, for we can all be artists of self-deception. Entering into a dialogue with other members of the wider faith community, and being attentive to the rich and full voice of Tradition are essential. That is why we Catholics believe that the gift of Revelation, the Truth of God’s love, comes to us through the Spirit, in relationship: 1) the Magisterium (a hierarchy, a collegiality of pope and bishops), 2) theologians (prophets and visionaries who help us dream), and 3) the sensus fidei (the rich and profound experience of the People of God). Remove one leg from this "tripod" of authority, and the structure collapses.

How am I being called to participate in the necessary reform or conversion required of the Church, the Body of Christ, today? St. Paul of the Cross, St. Francis of Assisi, and many others were called to "repair my house" – Shall we follow?

 

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. ministers as a preacher of parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:1-6
Acts 13:22-26
Luke 1:57-66, 80

Reflection:

Today is the feast day of the birth of John the Baptist.  The memory of John the Baptist has been important in Christianity starting with Jesus. "Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet."  "I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; Mt 11:11 He is mentioned some 92 times in New Testament.

In today’s gospel there is importance given to his name: "His name is John."  We know in ancient times how a child was named was his description.  For example, Nathanael (‘God has given [this child]’), and Shemaiah (‘Yahweh has heard [the parents’ prayer]’ Ichabod (‘where is the glory?’ 1 Samuel 4:19-22  Ark captured when born) Menachem (‘comforter’).

The name John means God (Yahweh) plus gracious (chanan).  Yahweh is gracious. John was a gifted man. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  The early word for prophet in Hebrew was seer or roeh.   We must all act as prophets at times in our lives.   We must have a deep insight into God and communicate it to those around us. Prophesying is among the hardest things we will ever be asked to do.

 

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

Scripture:

2 Chronicles 24:17-25
Matthew 6:24-34

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading from Matthew, we hear Jesus make two statements, almost at the outset: "You cannot serve God and mammon;" and "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear." The second statement flows from the first. When we get caught up with what is not of God, it is easier to worry.

When we rely on things or our own devices to give us happiness or security, we realize that they cannot give us what we really need. Only God can do that. It can be hard to trust in God, when we are having difficulty making ends meet. It can be hard when God seems to be far away. But God is there with us and for us, and as Jesus says, God knows that we need things like food and clothing and shelter. But we are to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," so that we know what is really important.

The more we trust in God, the less worries we have. We get less concerned about what others have that we don’t. We get less concerned about putting on airs or having people think a certain way about us. Instead, we will be more concerned about serving God and God’s people in such a way that no one needs to worry about where their next meal will come from or where they will sleep the night. May God who knows all our needs fill us with His grace, and take our worries away.

 

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