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Scripture:

Samuel 24: 3-21
Mark 3: 13-19

Reflection:

What do you think of shortcuts?  That was the question that arose in my mind as I was reading this morning’s very exciting account of the confrontation between David and King Saul.  David was on the run because King Saul, convinced that David was trying to bring him down, was after him with 3,000 hand-picked men.  As you recall, the prophet Samuel had been instructed by God to anoint David as King of Israel, which, of course, he did.  Saul, the current king of Israel, did not look kindly upon this judgment on his kingship.  In fact, he was convinced that David wanted to do him harm and depose him as king.  So he fully intended to end the threat by killing David.

David, however, had no intention of deposing Saul.  He had a deep love and respect for Saul, and Jonathan, Saul’s son, was David’s closest friend.  So, David had fled with a few men loyal to him and was hiding in the deepest part of a cave.

As fate would have it, it is that very cave that Saul used to take care of his personal need.  It was the perfect chance for David to kill the unsuspecting Saul.  But, David would not kill his good friend so he just cut off a small piece of Saul’s cloak.

After Saul left the cave, David confronted him, showed him the piece David had cut from his cloak, and assured Saul that he was loyal to him and would never harm him.  Saul, realizing that David could have killed him had he wished, became convinced of David’s loyalty.  The wound between them was healed.

David chose not to take a short cut.  He decided to keep his integrity, remain faithful to his good friend, Saul, and trust that God would accomplish His will at the proper time. 

What about us?  Are we willing to be patient and wait for God to set the timetable for us?  Or, are we often looking for a short cut to accomplish our goals?  This story about David and Saul invites us to think about our own willingness to wait for the Lord.  As you know, David didn’t always avoid taking a short-cut.  But, in today’s reading, David shows us how important it is to wait for the Lord.

 

 Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director the Development Office for Holy Cross Province  and is stationed at Immaculate Conception Community  in Chicago.

Scripture:
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Mark 2:23-28

Reflection:
"Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart." 
1 Samuel 16:7

"This is why the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Mark 2:28

There are times when God really frustrates us! The first reading for today’s Mass describes the frustration that Samuel, the prophet, is feeling. Samuel is one of God’s favorites from birth. As a young boy, Samuel confronted his mentor, the prophet Eli, and then grew up to become God’s primary spokesperson in Israel. God charged him with anointing Saul as the first King of Israel and then becoming Saul’s advisor. Saul did well at first, but later allowed his personal failing to overshadow his obligations to God’s people. Then God had Samuel seek out David to succeed Saul as King, but Samuel was afraid of Saul and was reluctant to do what God asked of him. Samuel made excuses, but eventually found David in the small city of Bethlehem. Samuel was ready to crown several of his brothers because he was judging by appearances but not by God’s standards. By the time Samuel got to David, I am sure he was feeling very frustrated with God.

Most of us are good people, and if you are reading this reflection, chances are that you take the Spiritual Life very seriously, especially the task of discerning God’s Will. If you are like me, God frustrates you because my tendency is to allow my opinions, my viewpoints and my feelings to get in the way of God’s plan of salvation. We can work things out to our satisfaction, only to discover that this is not what God had in mind. The same thing happened to the Pharisees in the Gospel reading. They had figured out how to live the perfect life before God and translated that conviction to a series of behaviors that took the heart out of living life.

The heart of the matter is what God wants us to focus our attention on and God will frustrate us until we do so. It is possible to make our religion a heartless exercise of outward gestures and not a life that flows from the heart, the source of love and compassion. It is such a comfort to know that God truly sees the heart and does not judge only by appearances. Our God teaches us to love our enemies, to forgive those who do us wrong, to help those who are living without the basic necessities of life, to heal the hurting, to welcome the stranger and to love one another as Jesus, God’s Son, has loved us. If we do that, then we will not only appear to be good, we will be good. Our heart will give humanity to our appearance and allow our faith to be life-giving.

Throughout Samuel’s life, he had to learn the lesson that God was truly in charge and not him. Even into his old age, he struggled with this reality. Yet, he did not abandon God’s Will and God did not abandon him. It is a good thing that we struggle to discover God’s Will. It means that God is still in charge. Let us ask our God, who sees our hearts, for the grace to beyond appearances, even our own.

 

Fr. Clemente Barron, C.P. is a member of the General Council of the Passionist Congregation and is stationed in Rome. 

Scripture:

1 Samuel 18:6-9; 19:1-7
Mark 3:7-12

Reflection:

"O Lord, I trust in your merciful love. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me." Psalm 13:6 (Entrance Antiphon)

Many of us are familiar with Clare Luce Booth’s saying: "No good deed goes unpunished." Many of us want to believe that life should be fair. Many more of us become upset with God when we are not dealt with fairly in life. We cry out in pain, "Why does God do this to me!" The pain becomes even more painful when we are trying our best to be good people. We may even go out of our way to do something heroically good. Then tragedy befalls us. We lose a loved one to death, someone we love dearly becomes gravely ill, and we have a set-back on the job or even lose our job. Instead of our family becoming more united, they seem to become for divided, more alienated from one another. All these kinds of things seem to happen when we have made up our mind to be "good," to be even more faithful, more loving. It is difficult to see this as fair treatment on the part of God.

"No good deed goes unpunished." In the first reading, the young man David is called from the fields where he is watching sheep to lead an army led by Saul, the king. He defeats Goliath, and the people rush to praise him and to extol him as even a greater warrior than King Saul. Saul becomes jealous and begins to plot against him. At this point, I am sure that David is thinking, "What did I do that was so wrong, that the king now wants to kill me?" David did his best, won the war but lost the love of his king. That did not seem fair at all!

"No good deed goes unpunished." In the gospel reading, Jesus is caught up with doing good. In the preceding chapters of the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus preaches with authority, cures the mother-in-law of Simon his disciple, drives out an unclean spirit in a man inside a synagogue, cures a leper, cures a paralytic, heals a man with a withered hand and preaches the Good News to big crowds. Soon, he is followed by the Scribes and the Pharisees. They team up with the Herodias to plot against him. The last verse of yesterday’s Gospel reads: "The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death."

When we truly embrace the Person of Jesus, as Son of God, the Christ, and Son of Mary, we begin to strip aside the many assumptions which lead us down the path of earthly justice as the sign of God’s love. As God’s Love is unconditional, our love is called to be unconditional as well. That is not a truth that we learn easily. Nor can we learn it just by using our humanly resources. St. Theresa of Avila is quoted as saying to God, "If that is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them." She knew that God’s favor did not consist of the absence of trials or sufferings, but in the way we embraced them. Neither David nor Jesus allowed the immediate dangers to their person to prevent them from fully embracing their calling. We eventually come to Paul the Apostle’s insight: God’s grace is enough. Let us continue to trust in God’s merciful love.

 

Fr. Clemente Barron, C.P. is a member of the General Council of the Passionist Congregation and is stationed in Rome. 

Scripture:

1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51
Mark 3:1-6

Reflection:

Saul answered David, "Go!  The LORD will be with you." (I Samuel 17: 37)

 

Reading the story of David and Goliath leaves me with just a little concern!  A young man with a shepherd’s bag with five smooth stones and a sling shot, watching a huge, overpowering man, walking toward him, carrying a long sword, a spear and a short curved Oriental sword on his hip.  There is no doubt that Goliath is intent on killing David.  Saul is afraid for David.  Saul tells him not to fight Goliath.  David will be killed.  David, however, does not run away.  He is confident that God is on his side.    Saul changes his mind: "Go!  The Lord will be with you."   

I wonder as we look backwards in our lives, whether you and I have sensed proof of God’s promise of being with us always.  We all have had some challenges that were threatening us.  But we made it.  Looking back at the year 1991 and waking up in the intensive care unit after suffering a heart attack was a surprise for me.  I was still alive.  Since then it’s a rare night that I fall asleep without first thanking God for the present day in 2012 and all the good things that have happened.  Life is a very real gift.  There seems to be nothing trivial happening in the course of a day. 

Interestingly enough there have been times, too, that my and your prayers were not answered.  That’s where we find ourselves resisting our trust.  What we are praying for seems to be the exact answer to what we are going through.  Yet what proves to be the saving factor is to spend time with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  His plea to the Father was to ask that his impending death be spared.  Yet Jesus put his life and his future in the hands of his heavenly Father, "Not my will but yours be done."  It was Jesus’ conviction of the love of his Father that kept him focused.  He would trust his heavenly Father.

Trust doesn’t always give us clear answers.  Being rooted in love does keep us from wavering.  It certainly brings peace.  Are you able to trust?  Can you and I put our life in the hands of God with no exceptions? 

 

Fr. Peter Berendt, C.P. is on the staff of Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center, Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19
Psalm 40: 2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
John 1:35-42

Reflection:

The theme of our scriptures today is how a disciple should respond to God’s invitation to better know him. The young Samuel was learning the ropes as it were of how to serve in the liturgy of temple where the ark of God reposed. As far as the priest Eli was concerned Samuel was just a helper and a gofer. Eli had two sons he was grooming to take his place. However, he was able to give his young apprentice the wisdom of his experience: "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply: speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."  I do not expect the LORD to speak so clearly to me. So if I am to listen to the LORD I must reflect on what is happening in my life and read the signs of the times in my personal situation.

Andrew was a disciple of John. We can be almost sure that he heard the message of the John the Baptist, underwent a deep spiritual conversion and was baptized by him in the River Jordan. When John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, Andrew and a companion must have wondered what that title meant. They were curious enough to follow Jesus and stayed with him for most of the day. Spending those hours with Jesus turned their lives in a new direction. They were certain that they had found the Messiah! Andrew finds his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus who immediately accepts him and gives him a new name, the Rock. I need to be always ready to undertake new commitments. I should never be so attached to what I am doing now, that I never see new opportunities to serve the LORD.    

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.    

Scripture:
1 Samuel 15:16-23
Mark 2:18-22

Reflection: 
"Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?"

"New wine is poured into fresh wineskins."

Jesus is criticized because his disciples do not fast.   It was a practice very close to the hearts of John’s disciples and the Pharisees.  Fasting is indeed a very helpful spiritual practice: gets us to cut down on the amount or even the quality of our food.  The emphasis doesn’t stop there.  Rather it heightens our awareness that "less food" can help us to become aware that we have been gorging ourselves, pampering ourselves in many ways and failing to deal with reality. 

Reality begins with me.   Joy, happiness, laughter are good for all of us: weddings, birthdays, graduation, recuperation from sickness, coming to grips with addictions, etc., etc.  Jesus makes a good point: "Can wedding guests fast while the bride and bridegroom are with them?"  Rather, let the bigger picture of the wedding celebration teach us that the love that is seen in the couple is going to be the source of growth and strength.  This growth will come through:  "…for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in health and in sickness."   Reality gives us the whole picture:  better & worse, richer & poorer, health & sickness.  

Each of us has experiences that put us in touch with challenging people, situations and things that reveal the worse, the poverty and sickness in our lives.  It doesn’t help to use the old ways and means to deal with them.  Jesus’ image of putting a new piece of cloth that hasn’t shrunk onto an old cloth is going to bring trouble: in the first wash the new cloth is going to shrink.  That could tear or cause an unsightly crease.  And then I love his example of pouring new wine into old wineskins.  It isn’t going to work because the new wine will continue to ferment and burst the old wineskin.  No, he says, you need to put new wine into new wineskins.  The new wineskins will stretch.   Wouldn’t it be a sight to see someone still wearing clothes that no longer fit.  To refuse to accept this simple physical fact becomes a serious problem when I cling to childhood values that do not fit my life today.

So what I learn is that I must live for today.  There have to be those joyfilled, happy, moments and times that help me to realize how fortunate and blessed I am.  And there are also those painfilled, challenging, in-my-face moments that tell me that just cloaking them with externals isn’t going to work.  It’s my attitude, my reactions, my willingness to accept the new insights, along with insights that I have refused to accept that are now calling for a new wineskin.  The old wineskin isn’t going to work.   The disciples of John and the Pharisees are holding on very tightly to the practice of fasting.  Their wineskin is old.  Their view of life, of holiness is stunted.  They need to get a new wineskin that can stretch with the input that Jesus is offering them. 

My faith and hope and love at this stage of my life are calling for me to let go of my childhood wineskins.  They can’t stretch to receive the wonderful and challenging ways that my faith and hope and love are hoping to grow in this year of 2012. 

 

Fr. Peter Berendt, CP, is on the staff of Holy Name Retreat Center, Houston, Texas.

 

 

Scripture:

1 Samuel 4:1-11
Mark 1:40-45

 

 

Reflection:
Our readings today take us from a battlefield where Eli, a priest of the Lord, loses his two sons with the Ark of the Covenant being captured by the Philistines to a serene setting of healing and compassionate love as Jesus heals a man afflicted with leprosy.

What connection can there be between these two very diverse places?  And what message can each event teach us today?

We all know that Israel was dearly loved by the Lord; yet, the Philistines soundly and overwhelmingly defeat them in battle.  The Ark of the Covenant is taken from the Israelites through the death of Eli’s two sons and now resides in the hands of the enemy Philistines.  As one narrator puts it, "the glory has departed from Israel!" and it will not return until the Ark is taken to Jerusalem.  This is a tremendous transition in Israel’s history and Israel is now to enter into the age of the prophets, the first of whom is Samuel.  It is Samuel who will introduce the reign of the great Kings, Saul and David.  Through all of this, Israel is called to trust and to be faithful to the Lord.  Out of a battlefield of defeat and apparent despair comes a new moment in the life of God’s people if only they will place their trust in Him.  Certainly all of us know those "battlefield" moments when we feel loss, confusion, even despair.  It is at such times that we are called to draw closer to the Lord who alone is our hope and our salvation.  We are called to move beyond apparent defeat and to know through loving trust the peace that comes only from the Lord.

But why should we believe this is possible and how can we so confidently put our trust in the Lord?  It is here that we look carefully at the second place that draws our attention in today’s readings, the place where we see the Lord so lovingly heal the man whose life was so devastatingly torn asunder by leprosy.  When Jesus cured this man not only did he heal him of a terrible, terrible disease but, in the very same instant of healing, Jesus makes it possible for him to return to home, family, and loved ones.  No longer is he an outcast but now is part of all that he holds dear in his heart.  How could he remain silent?  As the scriptures tell us, "The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter."  So great was his joy that it was impossible to remain silent even if it was Jesus himself who requested it!

The Lord in whom we place our trust at times of darkness is the very same Lord who is present to us in those battlefield moments of our lives.  It is Jesus, the Lord, who is with us as he was with the Leper in today’s Gospel.  It is Jesus who reaches out in caring, compassionate love.  It is Jesus who leads us beyond moments of darkness and discouragement to the experience of new life, hope, and healing.

 

Fr. Pat Brennan, CP is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Mark 1:29-39

Reflection:

The Gospel of Mark begins abruptly:  "The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."  This is how it happened.

 

Simon’s mother-in-law lies ill with a fever.  Jesus promptly takes her hand and helps her up.  She is immediately cured of her fever and she begins waiting on Jesus, Simon, James and John.  Can we perceive the good news in this episode?

First, Jesus breaks a cultural barrier by touching Simon’s mother-in-law.  In that culture and time, men did not touch women, except family members.  Jesus then breaks a Mosaic barrier.  He heals the woman on the Sabbath.

Second, the Gospel tells us Jesus "grasped her hand and helped her up."  The Greek verb for helping her up is "egeiren."  It means literally to "raise," the same word used to describe Jesus’ resurrection.  And she waited – in Greek "diekonei" – more accurately, she ministered to them.  We get the word "deacon" from it.

Jesus immediately dramatizes for us the beginning of his good news.  There are no barriers, no obstacles that will prevent Jesus from entering our house, our soul, where suffer spiritual illness.  By his healing touch, he will raise us to new life and restore us to our community.  And in that new life, we are called to minister to one another.  That is how the good news happens.

 

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.