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Scripture:

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
1 Peter 2:20b-25
John 10:1-10

Reflection:

At this moment of the Easter season the question to us is do we hear the voice of the true shepherd? Do we hear Jesus calling us by name? Do we see him walking ahead of us? Do we follow him? Do we realize that only he is the gate to God’s blessings? Have we come to know that he leads us to green pastures and restful waters?  Yes, he spreads the table before us, anoints our head with fragrant oil, and our cup overflows.

Even when there is pain, disappointment and struggle (the dark valley) he gives us the courage and strength to get through it. By his wounds we have been healed. There is nothing to fear for he is always at our side. He is the guardian of our souls.

All this is summed up when Jesus said: "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.  

In twelve more days, May 27^th, I will thankfully remember fifty years of priesthood. It will be a quiet and reflective day. Yes, there will be public celebrations on other days, but this day will mark the milestone. So many times preaching God’s word, so many Masses offered, so often being an instrument of God’s forgiveness, administering baptisms, celebrating weddings, and the anointings of the sick.  Truly, an abundant life is offered to all. Count your own blessings.

 

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

Feast of Saint Matthias, apostle

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Matthias, the apostle who, after an election by about 120 women and men, was chosen to take the place of Judas, the betrayer.  Matthias must have been deeply admired.  Certainly he was well known since, as the sacred scriptures tell us, he was one who had accompanied the apostles the entire time that the Lord Jesus was present among them, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which Jesus ascended into Heaven.  Matthias was elected and is now recognized as one of the Twelve Apostles.

When I think of St. Matthias on this day, however, my thoughts fall to another person with the same name and the very same love for Jesus Christ.  As a young and very impressionable novice I was privileged to live in our novitiate house in St. Paul, Kansas.  There was not much in St. Paul, mostly cattle, a few hundred people, and a very brown, muddy river that ran through it called the Neosho.  Our life was extremely regimented, a veritable boot camp for aspiring young religious, and one that tested us in many ways.  We fasted frequently; had a very demanding horarium (schedule) of prayer and meditation; and, most of all, lived in a cloistered environment, all of which was designed to lead us to the ultimate moment when we would be privileged to take the four vows that all Passionists take, namely, poverty, celibacy, obedience, and a firm desire to keep alive in the hearts of the Faithful the sacred memory of the Passion and Death of Christ Crucified.  I loved this novitiate year, I really did, huge extrovert that I am.  I found the regularity and solitude to be one of the greatest gifts I could have ever hoped for.  The other great gift was Fr. Matthias.

Fr. Matthias was originally from England but somehow or other ended up in the United States where he met the Passionists and became a priest.  He was one of the "senior professed" in our novitiate community and possibly chosen to live in this desolate Kansas town in order to inspire and edify the young novices, myself included.  And this he did, especially at the end of the day when he would practically float into the Chapel!  (We novices were quietly saying private night prayers before turning in to our beds.)  Eyes fixed on the beautiful, life-sized Crucifix above the altar, Fr. Matthias would reach the first step below the altar and would drop to his knees.  Anyone watching him was convinced that in just a moment he would surely levitate and be raised up in an extraordinary and miraculous manner!  All the time his eyes were fixed on the Crucifix with an amazing look of love, almost as if he and Jesus were forever the very closest of friends.  Though I almost never had the chance to speak with this remarkable man, just the image of his nightly visit inspired in me a desire to seek the same passionate, intimate love with Jesus Crucified.  Fr. Matthias is now with the Lord, has been for many years.  But on this, his feast day, I will always be grateful for that dear man who so loved the Lord and who quite unknowingly implanted in my heart a deeper love for the Crucified Lord.  Thank you, Fr. Matthias, and a very happy feast day to you!

 

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

Scripture:
Acts 9:1-20
John 6:52-59

Reflection:
Fine, I’ll admit it. I have always been a skeptic of so-called "miracles." Marian apparitions: I’m skeptical. Unexplained recoveries from illnesses: I’m skeptical. Destiny/fate: I’m skeptical. Yeah, go ahead and say it, "You are a scrooge!"

The logic of my skepticism has always rested in a belief that our God does not need extravagant miracles. In other words, I have always been content in knowing that our God must remain somewhat invisible to us.

Why? The answer is rather simple. If the existence of God was made absolutely certain to us, then where would our freedom go? Where would our faith go? Would we not become slaves to God?

Now, despite the fact that I am such a doubter of miracles, the miracles embedded in today’s readings cannot help but stir my heart in an incredible way. I simply cannot brush them aside. Sure, many of us have read about Saul’s conversion hundreds of times, and sure, many of us have become quite familiar with the notion that Jesus’ flesh is "true food" and his blood "true drink." But have we really experienced the miracles present in each of these readings? Allow me to reflect a little bit.

In regards to Saul’s conversion, the miracle appears to be quite obvious

– there is a flash of light, someone being thrown to the ground, and a mysterious voice. Sounds like a rather extravagant miracle, does it not?

But was that really the miracle that led to Saul’s conversion? Is it not possible that the actual conversion took place deep inside Saul’s heart?

Is it not possible that the blinding light Saul experienced was the light of Jesus shining forth through another person – a person in love with Jesus? Is it not possible that Saul was thrown to the ground in awe when he witnessed an act of service done in the name of Jesus? And is it not possible that the voice Saul and the others heard was Jesus speaking through the loving words of someone else? After all, isn’t this how we are called to experience Jesus after his physical departure from this world? Why would it have been any different during Saul’s time?

In regards to the miracle present in today’s gospel, I am also very much in awe. Jesus, in his foreshadowing of the Eucharist, illustrates exactly how we can and always will be able to intimately unite with our

Creator- through real food and real drink. Indeed, the idea that we can consume our loving God through simple bread and wine is a miracle in itself. Is it an extravagant, attention-seeking miracle? Not at all. In fact, it is a miracle which demands our deepest reflection and contemplation. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" This is the question we must all ask when we process up the aisle at Mass to receive our Lord. The answer will knock you off your horse.

 

Tony Cortese is the Youth and Young Adult Minister for Newman Catholic Community at Sacramento State University, Sacramento, California.

 

Scripture:

Acts 8:1b-8
John 6:35-40

Reflection:

We hear the first of seven "I AM" sayings in today’s Gospel.  It reminds us of the Burning Bush story.  When Moses asked God his name, God replied: "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you."  The Israelites hungered for freedom from Egyptian slavery.  But Moses didn’t want to go.  He wanted stay home and tend his sheep.

Today’s first reading in Acts describes two starkly different events.  In the first, the community is lamenting the death of Stephen, the first martyr.  Men and women are being dragged from their homes and imprisoned for their faith.  The church is suffering persecution.   The scene then shifts to those who are proclaiming the word of God, healing the paralyzed and crippled amid cries of joy.

I know what I’d rather do.  I would rather tend to my job and family than deal with stubborn, ungrateful people.  I would rather preach the good news than face mourning families or persecution.  Wouldn’t we all rather stay in our cul-de-sac of safety and familiarity than to face the discomfort of struggle?

But Scripture reminds us over and over again that it’s not a matter of our choice.  It’s a matter of God’s choice.  It’s not a matter of our comfort.  It’s a matter of the needs of others.  The same "I AM" who called Moses is the same "I AM" who declares himself to be the Bread of Life to a hungry people – hungry for comfort when loved ones die, hungry for companionship when they’re frightened and lonely in a hospital room, hungry for the Word of God that gives them meaning in life, hungry for the spiritual nourishment that only the Bread of Life can satisfy.

"I AM’ calls us to go, not where we want to go, but wherever people are hungry.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 6:8-15
John 6:22-29

Reflection:

How to celebrate the Fifty Days of Easter is a challenge. It seems impossible to celebrate in isolation from daily life. The disciples, filled with new life and energy, bring the joy of the Resurrection into their daily lives, using the opportunities of the moment to share their good news. Also, the Scriptures of the Easter Lectionary are the treasures that make our celebration rich.

All this week we read the 6^th Chapter of John’s Gospel, the discourse on the bread from heaven that began with the multiplication of loaves and fishes. John’s outline follows the Jewish feasts: the Sabbath, Passover, Tabernacles and Dedication. Just having celebrated the Passover of Our Lord from death to life, and his completion of the work of the Father, we hear in John many connections to the Passover celebration, which becomes the background for this section of the Gospel.

We are reminded of God’s deliverance: the blood of the lamb place upon the door posts, the unleavened bread food for the journey. The traditions of the Israelites, the shepherds and nomadic groups along with the settled farm groups, blending together the rich symbols of God’s rescue and care during the time of the Exodus. John tells us when the bread was multiplied for the group they sat on the green grass, the place where a Good Shepherd pastures his flock. And the question of the apostles to Jesus, ‘where will we get food for this crowd?’, is the question of Moses to God as the grumbling of the people comes to him. John blends for us the traditions of Israel and now the emerging celebration of the community that follows Jesus.

We hear the question, "What must we do to be devoting ourselves to the works of God?" Jesus is doing the work of God. His work is to make the Father known. The law is not the way. To do the work of God then, we must now join ourselves to the work of the Son. While John alludes to the Passover he is bringing us also to the Eucharist. The crowd has had their fill of the perishable bread, but the Son of Man (a title associated with Jesus’ suffering) will give a food that endures to eternal life. Believing in the one whom God has sent will produce eternal life. [The Gospel of John, Francis J. Moloney, OSB, Sacra Pagina Series]

I went to Honduras several years ago and in my first few days celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart in a very poor area. The procession that consisted mostly of women and children ended in the little chapel where we celebrated Benediction and read from John 6.  A teenager sitting next to me asked in a hushed voice, ‘what is Manna’? In John we meet the crowds, those who are asking, who are hungry, but who do not know the food that will satisfy them. Jesus wants to give them the bread of life. I struggled to answer the question about the Manna because of language. We all hunger, many search. Let us come to the Word these Easter days to be with Jesus, our nourishment. One with Jesus we can do the work of the Father to bring all to intimacy with Him, to satisfy the hunger of those seeking the Bread of Life.

 

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

  

Scripture:

Acts 2:14, 22-33
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35

Reflection:

I’m in the final editing stages of my newest book, The Sacred Walk. The theme is that our journey is not a solitary one, but a walk charged with the divine. We see this truth illustrated in the Gospel as Jesus walks alongside the dejected disciples. Their assumptions about the Messiah were dashed by his death. They were in despair and hopeless. After conversing with Jesus, they turned and went in a new direction. Suddenly their disappointed turned to reappointment.

Easter is a fifty-day-long season of journeys and opportunities. It is easy to become overwhelmed by what goes wrong and the trials we all encounter. In the midst of our real life episodes, the Scriptures remind us that we do not walk alone. Our companion is the Risen Lord. Jesus comes to bring us new turnings. We can experience resurgence and rejuvenation in every area of our life. Resurrection comes to us when lethargy and passivity turn into passion and creativity. Spiritual sameness can suddenly pulsate with new vigor. Negative thoughts and attitudes can be revolutionized. The disciples’ "eyes were opened" to a new hope. They suddenly changed direction and headed back to the place of mission, Jerusalem. I pray we will all have the insight to know how sacred our walk truly is so our hearts may burn more passionately.

 

 Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 14 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:
Acts 6:1-7
John 6:16-21

Reflection:
The  Lord’s  prediction that his followers would accomplish greater things than he did came true with the coming of the Holy Spirit in conversions of 3,000 and growing to 5,000 with the cure of the crippled man.

The continued growth of the Jerusalem Community soon created new problems for the Apostles.  Jerusalem had long been the site of two distinct Jewish groups.  The native, who spoke   Aramaic, and the Greek-speaking Jews from the diaspora.  Christian converts came from both groups.  The majority, a better organized group of Aramaic speakers, took good care of widows and other needy members, but were not reaching out to the Greek-speaking widows and providing them with food.  Complaints reached the Apostles.

As a result 7 leaders from the Greek-speaking Christian Community were deputed to take care of the problem. 

It became clear that leadership and service needed to be broadly distributed.  Stephen and Philip proved to be eloquent preachers and gifted with the grace of healing.  This may be the original instance of the need for and the function of collaborative ministry in the Church.

It became a patter across the world.  Paul recruits Timothy, he has Aquila and Prisca. Chloe in Corinth. Epaphras and Onesimus in Colossae have been slaves, but they were also lay ministers for Christ.  At the conclusion of his Letter to the Romans, Paul mentions 25 coworkers!

So it definitely was not something new and strange that the Fathers in the Vatican II Council issued many statements on the calling of the laity to be about the work of Christ in our time!

No special imposition of hands is required.   Lay people’s right and duty to be apostles derives from their union with Christ their head by Baptism and Confirmation.  (Cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3)

In the two millennia the Church has functioned, the world has gone through many stages.  The Church was there to meet many a crisis.  We live in the most advanced and complex civilization that ever demanded attention.  The Council insisted the baptized Christian has many duties toward the secular world and these are Christian duties, moral duties.  God and the Church are concerned about human welfare, human freedom.  This area belongs more to the laity than to priests and bishops.  The laity are needed to do more than make sure all its widows are provided with food.  Christian Politicians, Christian leaders in business and human affairs are needed.

Lay missionaries, living their vocation in service to the Church, have given their lives for justice and are true martyrs.  Such heroism is not demanded of all. 

The need for lay help was clear in Jerusalem in the year 35.  The needs of God’s Church in the 21st century are much more evident.

It was only after the Polish laity rallied to the presence of Pope John Paul II by the millions, did the power of Communism shatter and crumble, even in Russia.  The Pope could lead but without the following laity nothing good would have happened. 

Christ is still with his Church and he is certainly with his laity. 

 

Fr. Fred Sucher, C.P. is retired and lives in the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky.  For many years he taught philosophy to Passionist seminarians.  

Scripture:

Acts 7:51-8:1a
John 6:30-35

Reflection:

In today’s readings, Stephen is stoned to death although he is innocent of any wrongdoing.  In his final breaths, he commends his spirit into God’s hands and asks God to forgive those who are killing him.  The psalm refrain reinforces Stephen’s words – "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"- and the verses claim God as rock and fortress. In the Gospel, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life and all who believe in him will neither hunger nor thirst.  As we read these words we know that Jesus, too, will soon commend his spirit into God’s hands and forgive those who have betrayed, abandoned, and killed him. 

These readings present for us the ideal toward which we are to strive – total surrender into God and unmerited forgiveness.  Today, I struggle to live up to that ideal and I don’t think I am there yet.

My niece’s 9-month-old baby died last week, a victim of "shaken baby syndrome" so violent that it fractured her skull.  Little Chelsea never regained consciousness, slowly slipping away as her brain swelled, until she died.  The daycare babysitter, a family friend, was arrested and charged. This bubbly, smart and active baby girl was betrayed by the woman into whose care she was entrusted.  Though innocent, she endured torture and death. 

My niece and her husband are heart-broken and enraged.  They, too, were betrayed.  Their precious child was ripped from their lives unfairly and unjustly by someone they thought was a friend. They have the crib, high chair, clothes, car seat, and all the trappings that go with having a baby, but now they have no child to use them.  The void is unspeakably huge.  We who loved Chelsea are nailed to the cross, with no indication that the resurrection could possibly follow.  Can we so easily commend her life into God’s hands and forgive the woman who killed her?

It is far easier to preach the charism of the cross and proclaim the Gospel than it is to live them when your heart is breaking. I want to scream "No!" from heaven to hell. I painfully realize anew that human beings are wonderful but sometimes terribly flawed creatures, that life on this earth is worth living but ultimately transient, and that while our desire to hold and heal each other is boundless, our ability to actually do so is limited.  Human hands cannot hold the immensity of this pain, heal these wounds, nor give the capacity to rise above the anger and betrayal to forgiveness. Only divine hands, those tender and infinite hands of God, can do that.

So when I have screamed and sobbed and poured out my anguish, when I am emptied and hollowed out, what is left to me? Nothing of this world remains, my own power and control is vanquished, and there is nothing to which I can cling, except God. And this foundation holds me fast. I cannot run to a place where God’s love doesn’t reach. The bread of life comes down from heaven for us who hunger and thirst for justice, for healing, and for peace. Our tears are but one current in the river of tears flowing from the aching heart of God, pierced again by the most horrific of human actions.  Jesus is nailed to the cross with us, walking us into the darkest of tombs while holding out the promise that eventually we will emerge. It is only into these divine hands that I can commend Chelsea’s spirit and my own.

I am not there yet. I still fight and rage and bounce back and forth. I pray for the grace, for myself and for all of us, to surrender our spirits into the steadfast, everlasting hands of the God who suffers with us, who knows our pain, and who has promised healing and peace.  I pray that although we seek the justice that is due, we may not be held bound by hate, anger, and vengeance.  I pray that we may free our hearts by forgiving, and move on to live a life enriched and made full by Chelsea’s memory.

Over and over again I pray: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend Chelsea.  Into your hands, O Lord, I commend the woman who killed her.  Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

 

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s  website: http://www.amyflorian.com/.