wpengine

Scripture:

Isaiah 1:10-17
Matthew 10:34-11:1

Reflection:

Be willing to re-prioritize, shake up and surrender all.  Jesus’ tools of discipleship.  Palpable, inspiring, taken-to-heart messages when we are tucked away in the silence of a weekend retreat, in full out surrender on a pilgrimage in a distant land or swept up after an encounter in the communion line after the healing and heart opening prayers of the Mass.  And yet, will we continue to stand with Christ as we meet the challenges of a daily life grounded in the reality of relationships?  Will we stand firm in the face of family who may balk at any challenge to status quo or return to a less life affirming way? Will His Way become our new reality, our consistent way of being?  Our intention behind each action or word?  Will we meet each challenge set before us with the highest response of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, generosity and peace?

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls the first disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John.  We are told James and John were sitting in a boat mending nets with their father and that they dropped everything and left immediately.   They left, in a moment of inspiration, a spur of the moment prompting. much as we might experience the initial invitation to arrive on retreat.  In the ensuing chapters we are given a view of the days that followed as Jesus lays the groundwork for His fulfillment of the laws, awing and angering those around with His ability to compassionately cure and courageously challenge.  The disciples are steeped in the intimacy of their relationship with Christ away from their familiar ties.  Today’s reading arrives as Jesus actively prepares his disciples to be sent forth to act in all ways as He had.  He knows how easy it will be to lose sight in the face of their own internal and others’ external rejection of His ways, if not yet deeply rooted.

After decades of listening to, or reading the Word, it always amazes me when I hear a word or phrase pop out for the first time.   “When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve…he went away… to teach and to preach in their towns.”  There is something so endearing in those words rising from the page and into my heart.  A conscious journey by Jesus to places with our most intimate human relationships.

How many times have I prepared to leave a retreat, ready and inspired, enlivened and encouraged, with the question looming as I sense or fear my aloneness on return? “How? How do I return with Jesus in my heart? To truly bring him home?”  And then the narrative paves the way, “Jesus returns to teach and to preach in their towns.” The reality.  There is never a place or time we are alone.  Where Jesus has not actively entered or already laid the road.  We are never alone.  We are always walking alongside Jesus.   Jesus enters each situation before and with us.   It is only ours alone to change our heart and ways.  It is up to Jesus to do the rest.

 

M. Walsh is a retreatant of Mater Dolorosa in Sierra Madre and friend of the Passionist Retreat community.

 

Scripture:

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Matthew 9:9-13

Reflection:

We all receive invitations to dinner parties. Sometimes these invitations come from people we know, like family or friends. Sometimes the invitations come from someone we don’t know very well, like an invitation to a fund raiser. Maybe it’s an invitation that is part of a raffle: All we have to do is send in our fifty dollars for a raffle ticket for a chance to have dinner with the pastor or the retreat director or the bishop!

Would it not be amazingly exciting to receive an invitation to have dinner with Jesus! We would not have to send in fifty dollars or even one dollar. The dinner would be free. Well, not exactly. We would have to pass the qualification test to show that we are sinners.

In the Gospel today Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector and therefore a sinner to the Jewish people, to be a disciple. Immediately after that brief incident, we observe Jesus at a meal with Matthew and other tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees are scandalized that Jesus, whom everyone considered to be holy, is eating and talking with very unholy people. Jesus replies: I have come to invite the sinners.

Notice that the Pharisees are outside. They are not sitting at the dinner table. They don’t see themselves as sinners and would not want to be around sinners. They worked hard to be righteous. Every day they made sure they obeyed the Ten Commandments and all the other regulations. If God dared to call them sinners, they could produce their day’s activities and prove they weren’t sinners. We, like the Pharisees, don’t like to see ourselves as sinners. “It was only a white lie.” “I haven’t hurt anyone.” “Everyone else is doing it.” “I’m not as bad as that person.”

In many ways we excuse ourselves and rationalize our behavior. In so doing we actually distance ourselves from Jesus Christ. We don’t let him fulfill his mission: “Christ died for us while we were still sinners” Rom. 5:8. To be closer to Jesus we need to make that honest assessment of ourselves as sinners. When we do, that’s when we receive the invitation, perhaps many invitations, to dine with Jesus, with his three-course feast of forgiveness, grace and healing.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness for Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle

Scripture:

Ephesians 2:19-22
John 20:24-29

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas, commonly refered to as “doubting Thomas”. But wouldn’t you have been skeptical as well? To have seen your Lord crucified, died and buried? I don’t think his request was unreasonable at all.

The cool thing is that when Jesus rejoined them in the upper room, he didn’t say”Gee, Thomas, why didn’t you believe I was alive? Where’s your faith?” He said, rather, “Peace be with you.” Come and see, and believe!

I’m no different than Thomas. I know that God is with me and wants to use me, but I have doubts all the time. I keep thinking how could God use me? What can I say that will make a difference in someone’s life? But the truth is, we can all make a difference. We are on this journey together and we can help each other. Let the Lord use you to be a blessing to someone today. Whatever your doubts are, ask Jesus to show you the truth. Seek the answers in His Word and ask a trusted friend to pray for you and with you.

In the first reading, we are reminded that we are already a part of the communion of saints, and that we “are being built together into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.” If we really believe that, we can have a positive impact on the world around us! We can stand together, and fight to keep our religious freedoms. We can offer to help a woman in a crisis pregnancy rather than just saying abortion is wrong. We can truly make a difference! And as the responsorial psalm says, we can “go out to all the world and tell the good news.”

And what is this good news? That God is for us and wants the best for each of us . . . that He is crazy in love with us and that He will help us through any difficulty we encounter. . . that we can have a personal relationship with this amazing, loving, God so we are never ever alone. . . and that He sent Jesus to show us how to live and love in this life and how to follow Him into the next! Wahoo!!! Once we know Him and the great hope to which we are called, how can we not want everyone on the planet to know Him so that they too can experience the peace and hope and joy that He alone offers?

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Bainbridge Island, Washington,  and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 6. Janice also leads women’s retreats and recently published her second book: God IS with Us. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.janicecarleton.com/ or email her at [email protected].

Scripture:
1 Kings 18:41-46
Matthew 5:20-26

Reflection:
On the one hand, our readings this day remind us that we are called to be alert, to study the horizon and to see where the Lord may be leading us.  This takes patience, time, and a willingness to enter into silence.

On the other hand, our readings remind us that we are also called to be people who are even willing to let go of the anger we may have toward our own brothers and sisters.  We are called not only to trust in this unusual desire of God for his people, but we are being told that we must even act in a way that seems totally against our nature – to forgive and to let go of the anger that we carry within our hearts.

In my years of ministry as a priest I do not think there is anything that is harder for us as human beings than this demand of the Lord, to forgive and to surrender the anger that can easily dominate our hearts.

We know this is more than a single act of the will but it begins there, like a tiny cloud on the horizon.  One single act of the will to let go, to forgive, and to carry peace in our hearts rather than discord and resentment, will lead us to a victory within that we cannot even imagine.  This single, tiny act will bear fruit that will lead us to an inner peace that we could only hope for.

 

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:
2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12
Mark 12:18-27

Reflection:
The personality of Paul lunges out of the text at us as we read the words of 2 Timothy in today’s selection.  He claims his title as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, made so by the will of God so that he might achieve the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Because he was convinced of his divine vocation and the promise of eternal life which depended on his faithful obedience to God’s call to him, the struggles and sufferings that would mark his apostolic journeys were given meaning, and given a relatively secondary importance.

2 Timothy is set in a jail cell; to Paul is ascribed the certainty that he is soon to die, and thus his wish to be reunited with his co-worker for the Lord, Timothy.

This is the same conviction that any Christian can have when he or she is convinced that Jesus Christ has not only died for his or her salvation, but that He has also called each one of us into a life of grace and mission as members of Christ’s Body, the Church.  The struggles and sufferings of life do not go away, but they fall into place as expressions of our mission, to witness to the life of Jesus and to draw all people to a life of grace in the Church of Jesus Christ.

In the gospel of today’s lectionary, Jesus fields the question of multiple spouses and the afterlife.  Since the Sadducees were trying to corner Jesus into a contradiction in his teaching, we don’t take this question, or Jesus’ answer, as an example of good catechetical practice.  Nor do we expect to find the core teaching of Jesus on the subject of marriage in this exchange.

1 Cor 2:9 (But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,”) reminds us that we are responsible for giving our hearts and minds over to God’s truth in this life; but we can not even begin to understand how our life with Christ will be realized in the eternal Kingdom of God.  What a joy and fulfillment lies ahead for each us.  We can respond with the words of 2 Timothy, “…I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.”

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P.  is the director of the Missions for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Citrus Heights, California. 

Feast of St. Matthias 

Scripture:

Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
John 15:9-17

Reflection:

Today’s feast is the day when we remember St. Matthias, the faithful follower of the Lord who was chosen to be the replacement of the “apostate apostle” Judas.  Just imagine those early days after the resurrection of the Lord.  Surely the disciples felt deeply the reality of one of their very own, one who was so trusted and close to the Lord, who through his betrayal would both abandon the Lord as well as his brother apostles.  With his demise there was a hole in the ranks.  The empty seat could not be overlooked or ignored.  Even then, so soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was an awareness of “the Twelve” as signifying something special in the foundation of the developing Church.  Hence, there was the need to elect or cast lots and call forth another so that “the Twelve” could be whole and complete once again.  And so it was that Matthias was nominated, along with Barsabbas or Justus.  It was Peter who called for the election as he spoke with about one hundred and twenty persons, as the scriptures tell us, including both men and women.  First they prayed to the Lord who “knows the hearts of all” asking him to reveal by their vote who he had chosen!  How spirit-filled was this moment!  And the lot fell upon Matthias, one who had been a follower with the Twelve the whole time – which meant from the baptism of John until the day of the resurrection of the Lord.   The Twelve were again complete and the Church was ready for Pentecost!

Doesn’t the Lord continue to work among his people today in the community of the Church?  And isn’t it amazing the way the Holy Spirit continues to work through specially chosen men and women to bring life day by day to the Church.  Just look around you the next time you are at Mass or some special parish celebration.  Look at all the wonderful disciples, so spirit-filled, loving, selfless, and eager to care for one another and to serve!  The disciples are there in so many ways: lectors and Eucharistic ministers; members of the St. Vincent de Paul society and religious education teachers; companions in the RCIA and people who visit the sick, the incarcerated, and the elderly.  They are there! The Lord’s spirit is alive and among us today as it was so very, very long ago.  We have reason to rejoice and to open our hearts eagerly for the coming of Holy Spirit this Pentecost.

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Acts 18:23-28
John 16:23b-28

Reflection:

“He (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.” Acts 18: 26

Both readings that we have in today’s Mass remind us that learning what it means to be a disciple and a minister within our church is a life-long task. In today’s Gospel reading, we see Jesus continue to teach his disciples about the special relationship there is between The Father and Jesus and the need for the disciples to understand and believe in that relationship. These particular lessons, which began with the washing of the feet in Chapter 13, would not be fully comprehended until Jesus died, rose from the dead and ascended to His God so that He could send us His Holy Spirit. That Spirit would anoint them with powerful gifts on the day of Pentecost.

This was no longer a moment of initial faith for the disciples, that is, the moment when they first met Jesus and were called to believe in him and follow him. Rather it was a moment of deepening that faith in the person of Jesus, as He revealed himself more profoundly with each passing day and with each passing moment. It was a reminder that his disciples, which includes us, were to be life-long learners in deepening our relationship with God and with Jesus and all of God’s people.

However, the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, adds another dimension to this call to be life-long learners of our faith. It is a dimension that continues to challenge us even to this day. This reading clearly says that the accurate teaching of the disciple Apollos, an authority on Scripture, needed to learn a more accurate understanding of the preaching he was proclaiming from a married couple, in particular, from Priscilla, who took the lead in this teaching. If we are not open to learn about our faith from the women who surround us, then we will never attain the level of holiness that the Apostles and the disciples attained in their life-time. It was a woman, Mary the mother of Jesus, who first announced that Jesus was to the Savior of the world, it was Mary Magdalene, who first announced that Jesus was raised from the dead and now we have a woman, Priscilla, who was instructing an authority of the Scriptures. There are many more examples from our Scripture.

Today’s readings should challenge all of us to be constant learners of our faith and to be always open to those who can teach us that faith more accurately, especially from all of the women in our lives. We pray for the humility of the Scripture scholar, Apollos.

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California. 

Scripture:

Acts 14:5-18
John 14:21-26

Reflection:

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name – he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Acts 14:26

The Scriptures we read for today’s Mass gives us two snapshots of the historical development of the early Church.

The first snapshot that I want to reflect upon comes from the Gospel passage. Jesus had just finished washing the feet of his disciples when he begins a long discourse on our relationship with God, with Jesus himself and with one another. Jesus was well aware that this was the last time he would be with his disciples. He wanted his teaching and legacy to be clear. Jesus wanted his disciples to firmly believe that the Way to God was only through his Person, through Jesus himself. The test of discipleship would be fidelity to Jesus’ Word, to the Gospel Jesus so eloquently preached throughout his life. He told them: if you are faithful to His Word, you will be faithful disciples. If you do not keep His Word, then you are not true disciples. For Jesus, it was as simple as that.

Jesus wanted his disciples to have clarity on this. But he also wanted to assure them that an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would be guiding them, reminding them of his words and teachings, and they would receive new insights when they encountered new situations in their lives.

The second snapshot comes to us from the Acts of the Apostles, from the first reading for today’s Mass. There is a proverb in Spanish that goes something like this: we make paths by walking. This was what the Apostles were doing after Pentecost. They were creating new experiences of Church by just doing, by going out and preaching and teaching and loving one another. Sometimes bad things happened and sometimes good things happened. But they never wavered. They believe in the Person of Jesus, in His Gospel and in His Promises. In the good times and in the bad times, they were faithful to His Word.

And so it is with us. How do we know if we are Jesus’ disciples? If we are faithful to Jesus’ Word, then we are his disciples. If we surrender our selfish ways of doing things, then we are truly his disciples. If we let our good works go to our heads and begin to believe that we are like the gods, more important than anyone else, then we are not Jesus’ disciples. Being a disciple of Jesus takes constant vigilance, commitment and prayer. Can we do this on our own? Not on our life! Jesus said, by following His Word, we experience the indwelling of God. We allow God to be present in our lives. We get the grace to go beyond our human weakness. We receive the forgiveness we need to go forward. We become like those first Apostles who witnessed to Jesus’ Resurrection.

Jesus demands much of us. But he sends us his Advocate: The Holy Spirit. Alleluia!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California.