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Scripture:

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

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." I have to confess that I struggle with these words from Jesus. What I struggle with is the seeming implication that the Father’s love for us comes after the demonstration of our love for Jesus. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that it is God who loves us first. In our reading from Acts, where the people of Lystra mistake Paul and Barnabas for Greek gods because of the healing of a man lame from birth, Paul tries to explain to them that it is God who has bestowed blessings upon them, even though they did not believe in Him.

So I don’t believe that our love of Jesus affects whether God loves us or not. God loves us no matter what. What makes sense to me is that when we observe Jesus’ commandments, in loving God and loving our neighbor, Jesus reveals more and more of Himself to us. The more we strive to love as Jesus loves, the more Jesus reveals to us how much He loves us and how much He loves the world, which better enables us to follow Him. Instead of a vicious cycle spiraling downward, perhaps we could call it a virtuous cycle spiraling upward.

After Jesus has spoken the words mentioned above, Judas, not the Iscariot, asks Him, "Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Judas is confused because Jesus seems to be speaking about a personal revelation rather than a universal one. Jesus responds by saying similar words to the ones He has just spoken. Perhaps the answer is that Jesus reveals Himself to the world through us. The more God is all in all for us, the more we reveal His love in Jesus Christ, and the more the world hears the Good News. May we follow Jesus’ commandments, so that His love is revealed to all.

 

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

Memorial of St. Philip Neri 

Scripture:

1 Peter 1:18-25
Mark 10:32-45

Reflection:

Today, the Church recognizes the life and contributions of Saint Philip Neri.  Not everyone is familiar with Philip Neri, but he is a special favorite of mine.  First, he is the Patron Saint of Rome–one of my very favorite cities in the world.  Secondly, he is a Patron Saint of pilgrims–at least for pilgrims to Rome.

During his lifetime, Philip Neri encouraged many individuals on their spiritual journeys and he set up "Oratories" to gather seekers and to provide them with spiritual direction, and opportunities for prayer and renewal.  My favorite Philip Neri story is how he sought to counteract the temptations of Carnivale by gathering youth to set out on a pilgrimage to visit the Seven Churches of the city by foot.  After walking many miles throughout the day, the young people were too tired by evening to indulge in the frivolity of Carnivale!  But, he was not a complete kill-joy.  Instead, he is also known to as the Patron Saint of joy and humor–qualities he exhibited in abundance.  We can all use a Saint that makes us laugh!  Appeal to St. Philip Neri if you need a smile or some lightness in your life.

Clearly, not all Catholics will have an opportunity to visit the Seven Churches of Rome in person.  While a pilgrimage to Rome under the inspiration of St. Philip Neri may not be in your summer plans, it is possible to make a "virtual pilgrimage" by watching a wonderful video produced by Passionist Father Victor Hoagland entitled "Pilgrim Churches of Rome."  (Order form @ crossplace.com/catalog-jan-2009.pdf)  In an age of "staycations", we can still be active spiritual pilgrims–through reading, prayer, contemplative walks, and interesting audio visual aids. I highly recommend Fr. Victor’s production as an informative way to experience the richness of our Church history as told by this very insightful Passionists priest. 

Finally, in the spirit of St. Philip Neri, consider organizing an "Oratory" of your own.  Perhaps you might invite some friends and/or young people to gather in your home, retreat house or parish to talk about what they are experiencing on their spiritual journey.  We have much to teach each other!

Pilgrim blessings to you and yours!!

 

Angela Howell is a retreatant and volunteer at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

Acts 6:1-7
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

Reflection:

"In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be." John 14: 2-3

It’s fun to think about heaven. Of course I can’t wait to meet the Lord face to face and see my parents again and my sister who died when I was 13! But I also imagine meeting and hanging out with people like Pope John XXIII; St. Francis and Padre Pio (just to name a few J). I want to experience Pope John’s humor first-hand; kick off my sandals, lay down in a field and look at the stars with St. Francis; and hear what it’s like to bi-locate from Padre Pio! Who do you want to see?

I’m also hoping to get a front row seat for a re-enactment of the parting of the Red Sea. Or maybe I can just go back in time to be there for the real thing? Anyway, I’ve heard some scholars believe that the sea was actually very shallow, so the Lord didn’t have to do such a grand miracle, but then there’s the little boy who says, "That makes it even more of a miracle, to drown an army in just a few inches of water!" I’m holding out for a tall wall of water, but either way, I just want to see it for myself!

But back to Jesus saying He’s going to prepare a place for each of us…  When our daughter Sister Cecilia is coming home for a visit (which I think will be one year from August when she finishes her Novitiate; or possibly the year after that) we get really excited! I enjoy getting her room ready for her and making sure we have her favorite food on hand. I put little notes around the house for her to find saying welcome home, or we’ve missed you, or an affirming scripture verse that I think will bless her. We also plan a home mass and dinner where friends and family can reconnect and hear the latest stories of life in the convent. It’s a way for us to celebrate God’s goodness to us.

So, now imagine arriving in heaven yourself. The Lord will have done all of this and much more for you because He loves you so much and He knows you so well! Never lose your hope of heaven. It is what helps us get through all of the trials down here. Look me up when you get there, and we’ll go on an adventure together.

 

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, OR and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. Janice also leads women’s retreats. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 4. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.jcarleton.com/ or email her at janice@frcedric/org

 

Scripture:

Acts 13:44-52
John 14:1-6

Reflection:

As we make our way through the manifold unfoldings of the Easter event, we continue to encounter the numerous ways in which God reveals Himself by the gifts He bestows on us.  In times past we may have preferred to speak of God’s infinity as a way of manifesting our perception of the rich potential residing in Him.  At present we prefer to approach the overflowing abundance within God in terms of the many gifts He bestows on us.

While we can legitimately lament, as we did at the death of JFK ("Johnny, we hardly knew ye"), so short was his presidential style among us, all the more can we grieve that, so far as Jesus is concerned, we barely had time to know Him.  But 33 years of age at His earthly departure from us (with only 3 years of His life spent in the public forum, so as to be available to others), we were struggling to get a handle on this stupendous mystery of the Incarnation: God becoming flesh among us.  We readily identify with Philip’s fumbling attempt to grasp Jesus’ remarks in today’s gospel: "If you know me, then you will also know my Father."  Jesus was already broaching the mystery of the Trinity.  We empathize with Philip’s fumbling effort at responding appropriately: "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."

Jesus is here unfolding the lavish richness of God’s beneficence with us, incarnated before poor Philip in Jesus’ own person.  As Philip is striving to keep his head above water whose depth is beyond him, Jesus tries another tact, which magnifies the generous gift-giving that is at the heart of this conversation: "If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it."  This has the appeal of being concrete and practical.

There is more to this saga of God’s dealings with us: there is the death of Jesus on the cross-for us.  The humanity He early on took from Mary to manifest Himself to Philip, and to all of us, is seemingly destroyed on the cross.  But then, exceeding our comprehension, He rises from the dead in that self-same humanity, though different, enriching us, who had hardly mastered the meaning of the Incarnation, with a further dimension of mystery in the Easter event.

Again, this risen Christ is with us too short a time, as He ascends to heaven, while living on in the preaching ministry of Paul and Barnabas, as we hear in Acts today.  Paul and Barnabas further witness to the largesse of God toward us, by empowering them to gift us with the mystery of Christ now abundantly present in the word they preach, not just to the Jewish community, but to the whole world (the gentiles): "…the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region".

Christ is this word of the Lord, born of Mary, dead but risen from the tomb, preached by the apostles and empowering us today as the ongoing mystery of the richness of God’s gifting us, in so many different and unexpected ways.  It penetrated the lives of the Mexican martyrs we commemorate today, Christopher Magallanes and his companions, more than compensating their loss of life with a generous new level of life.  Mystery permeates our Christian faith, marveling at the many ways God gives Himself to us.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. 

 

Scripture:

Acts 13:26-33
John 14:1-6

Reflection:

What’s troubling you?  What are you anxious about? What do you fear? What are your worries?

 

Jesus tells us today, "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Have faith in God and faith in me." 

Yes, we have faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and second Person of the Trinity.  But when Jesus tells us to have faith, I think he is talking about more than our intellectual assent to the creed.  I think he is telling us, "Have faith and understand how much I love you."

In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, Peter proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah.  But that intellectual belief didn’t help Peter during Jesus’ passion.  Peter denied that he knew Jesus and then hid.  It was only after the death and resurrection of Jesus when Peter and the other apostles grasped how total was Jesus’ love for him. But grasp it they did.  They become fearless.  Most of them died as martyrs.

How fear is conquered?  In the words of Sigmond Freud, "How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved."

After the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, the apostles were sure of being loved. In the Acts of the Apostles we read, "When they saw the boldness of Peter and James and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered: and they recognized that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13)

When we are troubled, we need to look at the crucifix of Good Friday and believe in Jesus’ absolute, unconditional and forever love for us.  Then we need to look at the empty tomb of Easter and realize that Jesus is alive and with us right here, right now.  St. Paul might have said it this way: "Trouble, where is your victory, where is your sting?  We have Jesus."

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 14:19-28
John 14:27-31a

Reflection:

PEACE IN BOLDNESS

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27    A wise person once said that sadness looks to the past, and fear to the future, but faith to the present.    Christ is the Prince of Peace.  His peace extends to our past, present, and future.  

Peace in the New Testament is treated some 92 times and is often found in the words of Christ.  Some scholars feel that the root meaning of peace in the Greek is "to join".    One of the basic meanings of peace is that we experience harmony when our relationships are right.  "Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" Ps 85:8

A deep association with Christ brings great peace.   We find peace with our troubled past because of Christ’s forgiveness.    We find this same peace in future anxiety because  He will never leave us: "I will be with you all days".   

As for the present  Jesus says don’t let your hearts be troubled or literally, be shook up.  Jesus often exhorts his apostles to be bold: "Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid. "Mt 14:27   The word for courage in Greek NT is tharseó.   It has a strong connotation of boldness, "bolstered because warmed up,"  Jesus uses this term seven  times in the Gospels.   As strange as it seems peace is often the result of boldness.

Jesus tells us "don’t be afraid".    The word for fear in today’s gospel is deiliaó which means to be timid (fearful), living in dread.   The word never has a positive meaning.    Jesus is saying we will truly have  peace only if we are bold and without timidity.  Thousands of years ago the psalmist said: "In peace I both lie down and seep, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in bold confidence." Ps 4:8

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 13:13-25
John 13:16-20

Reflection:

"Amen, Amen I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." John 13:20

 

I am very aware that I have been sent by Jesus by reason of my priesthood, my vocation in this life. I have truly been blest because I feel that I have been received with great hospitality in all of the places I’ve been sent, whether it has been in the Philippines, where I am now, or in Vietnam or Korea or Venezuela, to only name a few countries I’ve visited. No matter whether I speak the language or not, I am welcomed into homes, Churches and assemblies and feel that I am being welcomed as Jesus is welcomed.

When I started praying the Scriptures that we read for today’s Mass, I began to ask myself how welcoming am I of other people, those people who enter into my life for some reason or another? I am not so sure that I always welcome all the people who come into my life as I welcome Jesus. And more importantly, I question, sometimes, whether it is Jesus who is really sending these people into my life. Some of these people are truly offensive. I have sat down next to individuals on long flights that were so smelly that I had to turn my face in another direction in order to breathe some fresh air. I’ve had people approach me in the street that demanded that I give them something in ways of alms. I’ve been at some meetings (very few) where the ones attending were so irritated and upset with the Church or with the Passionists that they raised their voices in anger to make their point. These are just some examples of when I have felt that I didn’t welcome people as if they were sent by Jesus.

When I reflect upon those moments, I can reason that Jesus really doesn’t send people into my life to make my life more uncomfortable or miserable. An easy way to deal with these kinds of people is to dehumanize them, to say that they are not really human beings, they are really not my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I can create within my Spiritual frame of reference an image of the type of people who Jesus should send into my life. They will always be clean-cut, they will always be respectful and courteous, they will always obey the law, they will always behave like "proper" human beings. If they do not conform to my understanding of the kind of person who Jesus sends my way, then I don’t have to receive them, I don’t have to pay attention to them.

Unfortunately for me, the Scriptures do not leave me much choice. I either believe that everyone that God has given life to is sent by Jesus or else, I can believe that there are two kinds of people in this world, the ones I can accept and the ones I can reject. I can reason that Jesus was using a metaphor, a figure of speech, or else truly believe that He laid down his life for all people, for those who accepted Him and for those who rejected Him and offered each one of us redemption, that is, Everlasting Life.

Alas, I also have to come to terms with something else that Jesus said in today’s Gospel: "Amen, Amen I say to you, no salve is greater than his master or any messenger greater than the one who sent him." Please, Lord, give me the grace to receive you in all those you send into my life.

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 12:241-13:5a
Responsorial Psalm 67
John 12:24-13: 5a

Reflection:

"Jesus cried out and said, I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. "  (John 12 :46)

Remember the incident of Jesus with the disciples when He spoke to them of his future:  "He  began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised."  Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "God forbid, Lord!  No such thing shall ever happen to you."  Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are not thinking as God does, but as human beings do."  (Matthew:  16: 21-23)

Jesus‘ words are very clear.   It is interesting that these very words of Jesus predicting His passion and death would come to mind  as I read those words of His referring to …"I came into this world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness."  We all need light to see the whole picture of life which includes a loving Jesus who would never dream of abandoning you or me.  Sickness can be a veil of darkness if we let it.

I have as part of my priestly ministry to celebrate Mass and anoint the sick at several Nursing Homes.  I don’t begin to vest for Mass without first going to each person and giving them a "hello" and "I’m so glad you are here with us this morning!"  It is such a delight to see them smile and return the greeting.  Mind you, most of them are in wheel chairs.  I will kid with them during my homilies.  Most of all I try in different ways to let them know that they are loved at this time in their lives.  One of my favorite reminders is:  You are loved for who you are.  Many of us see our worth in what we can do.Family members still remind them about their great gifts and talents.  Darkness could block out those gifts simply because they can’t do those things anymore.  Well, who says that that means they are bankrupt.  Oh, how precious is their gift of "thanks" for the many kindnesses shown them by family and fellow friends in the Nursing Home, along with the staff, the doctors and nurses and  even the priest who loves to celebrate with them. 

I’ve shared with them some of my limitations now, too.  I love watching tennis  on T.V.  But I have to admit it was a sad day a number of years ago when I had to give up my own tennis racquet.  I laugh now as I can recall when during a tennis match my eyes told me when and where to get over quickly to a spot to hit the tennis ball, but my legs simply said, "Huh…?"I used to be so proud that I was in good health and needed no pills.  Hmm, now I think I keep a few pharmaceutical companies in business at this time in my life.

Where can Jesus bring you light to overcome your darkness?  Do you find yourself looking back at the "good ole days" when you were able to do so much and were in control?  Are you finding peace in being loved at this very moment for who you are?

 

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