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Scripture:

Genesis 9:1-13
Mark 8:27-33

Reflection:

There is nothing quite as striking or stunning as a rainbow after a deluge of rain that brings life to a standstill. Even while dark clouds still threaten more rain and there is only a promise of sun, the rainbow becomes a sign that the storm is finally over and life can begin again. It is at these moments that we are reminded of how great God is and how fragile we truly are in this life.

The Scripture readings for today’s Mass continue to remind us that God always looks for ways to prod us to acknowledge the power of God to save. In both readings, God initiates the grace and is the One to take the first step and is the One who clearly shows us what life is all about.

The first reading describes the covenant that God makes with Noah and his descendants after the devastating floods that almost destroyed the first creation. In the Genesis stories these last two weeks, we find a God who is good, life-giving, long-suffering, revising original plans for us, indeed, a God who never gives up on us, even when we have given up on God.

In the Gospel reading, we have a Jesus who has preached to all kinds of people, healed the sick, driven out unclean spirits, fed the hungry, opened the eyes of the blind, made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, and has yet to hear from his disciples a declaration of who he is. He finally has to ask them, "Who do you say that I am?"

Our faith is ultimately a realization that we are in a very personal relationship with God, especially with each of the three Persons of the Trinity, God Creator, Jesus the Savior and the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier. Our faith gets tested when we experience the storms of life, when the cares and concerns of this life threaten to drown us and overwhelm us and when we think of ourselves as irredeemable and without salvation. Even the best of us can point to moments of darkness in our lives, bad choices made, and wrong decisions embraced.

And then there is a sign from God, a rainbow that says to us that God is good, God is life-giving, God is forgiving and merciful and that Jesus is Love Incarnate. That is when the Spirit is truly present in our lives. Do you not hear God asking you, "Who do you say that I am?"

 

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

Scripture:

Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22
Mark 8:22-26

Reflection:

Both of today’s readings today remind me of the role that time plays in coming to new life, new wisdom, new action.

 

Thinking about Noah’s journey on the waters, hunkered down for what must have seemed an eternity of days, he weathered the storm surrounded by all that had meaning in his world. How he must have longed to have his previous life restored! His life "adrift," however, would only be ended…when it was ended, and by a force greater than himself and his own desire.

Similarly, the blind man in the Gospel does not have clear sight instantly; his initial vision is cloudy and he cannot even interpret properly what he first sees. It is only when Jesus lays hands on him a second time that the world comes into focus.

How many times in the Bible are we shown that we don’t always understand, speak or see the truth our "first time out of the gate." False prophets abound. Peter denies Jesus Himself three times; a weary Jesus must constantly remind the disciples of the Father’s will. There is a long arc to our spiritual history.

The coming to truth–or coming home–is a process that unfolds often quite mysteriously. It can take time and spiritual discipline to "get it." We are an active participant on the journey to be sure, but sometimes, like Noah, the most we can do is choose to live and tread water faithfully until the moment arrives when our vision is changed and new life is possible.

As I write this, President Mubarak in Egypt has stepped down. Here in our midst is the story of a people waiting 30 years to speak their personal and collective political truth. And now, in a "moment," life is dramatically altered and, whatever happens next, their reality will never be the same.

Our spiritual truth is hard won, too, and its development requires time, patience and surrender so that when the right moment comes, we can truly respond with the fullness of our being. But lest we think we can play "fast and loose" with our newfound insight, all we need to do is remember Jesus cautioning the sighted man to "avoid the village." It is a precious gift, and one to be cherished.

 

Nancy Nickel is director of communications at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

 

Scripture:

Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10
Psalm 29
Mark 8:14-21

Reflection:

Our readings today put up a yellow caution light. In the pre-history account from the book of Genesis the human family is depicted as a failed project. God regrets the crowning of his creation that occurred on the sixth day: Adam and Eve. Judgment is given: "I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created."  However, God gives the human family a second chance with Noah, the only just man on the earth.

We are a part of the second chance. How difficult it is for us to live up to our calling to give glory and praise to God, to shout with every fiber of our being "Glory" (Ps. 29).

The gospel is another yellow caution light. Already earlier in the gospel Mark made it very evident that Jesus’ own people did not accept him and that their spiritual leaders, the Pharisees, were plotting to kill him. Now it is the disciples turn not to understand him. "Are your hearts hardened?" he asks in frustration. "Do you still not understand?"

These readings are a challenge to admit our own weaknesses in giving God his due. Often our hearts are hardened and closed, rather than receptive and open. In a thousand little ways we hold back and betray the gifts of grace that God extends to us. In my freshman year at Loyola Academy in Chicago

I was introduced to the motto of the Jesuits: "ad majoram Dei gloriam." I have tried to make it the motive and direction of my life.

 

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

 

 

Scripture:

Genesis 4:1-15, 25
Mark 8:11-13

 

Reflection:

"Show me the money," the line in the movie goes. It’s a comedy, so we laugh. But how many other times in life do we act out of a sense that nothing means anything until the bottom line gets met, the payoff happens, the results are in, we get the proof we feel entitled to?

Can’t you just feel the weariness when Jesus, in today’s brief Gospel, "sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation seek a sign?’"

The truth is, at some point in our life most of us want something. We want love, we want health; we want money, we want control; we want assurances, we want affirmation. We want God to smile upon us, and, if it’s not too much trouble, we want the side dish of a sign so that we know we are loved and valued. We test God often.

St. Paul of the Cross, Passionist founder, and Mother Teresa, are two visionaries who lived lives of astonishing goodness and heartbreaking questioning. They were given signs of their paths early on, and then groped in spiritual darkness for decades. Somehow they clung to their faith and remained true to the work God had called them to. They "knew their place" before God, and foregoing all human demands and expectations, surrendered themselves to His will and to His love.

In these tough times as we feel clueless, frightened or forgotten, that’s the real deal.

 

Nancy Nickel is director of communications at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Sirach 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37

Reflection:

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 5:17-37), Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount. In our passage, Jesus says many things that are challenging to us. After He exhorts the people to go beyond the letter of the Law when it comes to killing and to adultery, He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have the whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna." Jesus is not telling us to maim or dismember ourselves. But He is telling us that where we spend eternal life is more important than anything we have here on earth.

That is a radical message. In a way, that should not surprise us. Jesus’ words are often radical to us. But if we think about it, Jesus is no less radical for us. As St. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah in our second reading from 1 Corinthians (2:6-10): "’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,’ this God has revealed to us through the Spirit." God has revealed His love to us. God has shown us time and time again that He has not given up on us! He has not "thrown" us "away" as a lost cause. Instead, Jesus "threw" Himself away on the Cross in order to free us from the power of sin!

What are we willing to "throw away" for the sake of following Jesus? I think we are often tempted to throw away those parts of the Gospel that make us uncomfortable or that we find inconvenient. We may be tempted to throw away those parts that talk about love of enemies or mercy or forgiveness. We may wish to throw out the parts about turning the other cheek or going the extra mile. We may want to dispose of the words about denying ourselves and taking up our crosses. And yet, these are the words Jesus put into practice in order to save us!

At the same time we are tempted to dismiss parts of the Gospel, we are also tempted to hold on to things and attitudes that keep us away from God. Listen to what Jesus says about murder: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." Perhaps it is better for us to lose our self-righteousness than to hold on to our resentments and take them with us into hell. Listen to what Jesus says about adultery: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Perhaps it is better to lose our feeling that all of our desires should be fulfilled, than to hold on to our lust and take it with us into hell.

For some of us (maybe most of us?) these attitudes and behaviors are hard to let go of. We may even be addicted to them. But even in our weakness and limitations, God loves us and wants to hold on to us! And even though we may be weak, God is not, and He will give us what we need to throw away what needs to be discarded. He is even willing to guide us, through the Holy Spirit, about what we need to keep and what we need to throw away. As Sirach says in our first reading (15:15-20): "The eyes of God are on those who fear him; he understands man’s every deed." Thanks be to God!

 

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

Scripture:

Genesis 3:9-24
Mark 8:1-10

Reflection:

Genesis 3 presents the story of how evil entered the world. After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve’s tranquil garden comes unraveled and God’s initial dream was destroyed. The ensuing chaos damaged relationships and alienated one from another. He blamed her ("she made me eat it"); she blamed the snake ("he tricked me"); the serpent was penalized; childbearing becomes a pain; the land was cursed; thorns and thistles lined the prickly path of the future; and the gates to the peaceful garden slammed shut.

Amidst the catastrophic repercussions of their sin, as Adam and Eve were being evicted from the tropical garden there is a beautifully tender moment when "the Lord God made leather garments with which he clothed them."

Soon after their initial sin, Adam and Eve realized they were naked and vulnerable. Their response was to stitch together fig leaves to protect and defend themselves. God, however, realized that in a sinful world fig leaves would not provide sufficient protection. So God gave them animal skins: "Here is my array of animal skins to shield you, take your choice."

Each of us has chosen a skin to cover our nakedness. In the realm of symbolism, the leather clothing represents the ego personality. Clothes symbolize our personality. It is the way we selectively present ourselves as we show-up and walk through the day.

The disastrous repercussion of sin is that we tend to define and identify ourselves with our animal skin (ego). Before sin, Adam and Eve were not ashamed to be naked. Now, the result of sin is a life of pretense or clothing. Eventually we become encrusted in layer after layer of skins.

The goal of the spiritual life is to recover our nakedness. Stripped of his clothes, Jesus hung naked on the cross. Before entering the baptismal font, the child’s clothes are removed. Nakedness represents our initial state of oneness with God in the garden. Naked is our birthright and naked is our true stance before God.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP is the director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, KY.

See his website: www.earthandspiritcenter.org

 

Scripture:
Genesis 2:18-25
Mark 7:24-30

Reflection:
At first glance, today’s readings seem an odd coupling.  What does God’s creation of humans and their subsequent joining as one flesh have to do with the Syro-Phoenician woman begging for her daughter’s healing?   Allow me to offer my thoughts. 

Love is a creative and generative force.  Choosing to unleash it, God’s loving power flowed out into human form and created a "we" that did not previously exist.  Another entity (God plus humanity) came into being.  This new entity, this new "we", was larger and more significant than either "me" by itself.  Yet God’s love was so deep and so complete that it desired more.   God chose to make the "we" visible by becoming incarnate, truly becoming "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh".  As one of us, God was willing to undergo anything for our sake, including the worst type of death imaginable in that day.  God demonstrated in clearest terms how love acts when it is enfleshed.

Humans are created in the image of God and are called to follow, to be visible images of the creative and generative force of God’s love.  This force draws us to each other, and often prompts the deepest commitment possible this side of death.  When humans commit themselves to each other in love, whether in pairs or in community, they create a "we" that is greater and different than the "me’s" that came together.  There is an entity there that did not exist before, and that would cease to exist were the love of either side to be withdrawn.  This incarnation of "we", this "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh", never lets us rest and always calls us on to new depths.  It challenges, stretches, and grows us in ways we cannot even imagine when we walk away from the ceremony.

In my experience of marriage, our love longed to be enfleshed in an even more visible way, to create yet another "we".  Thus came the incarnation of our sons.  When I look at the three wonderful young men who are literally bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh – – those I bore in my womb, nursed, taught, and raised – – I understand the Syro-Phoenician woman confronting Jesus, even arguing with him, risking everything for the sake of her sick child. 

These sacrifices are what we have come to expect in healthy relationships – the committed spouse or the loving parent being willing to do anything, even to die, for their beloved.  That makes sense, it connects the readings, and it feels comfortable because it challenges us to do only what we believe we are called to do.  Any time the Gospel feels comfortable, though, we have to look farther.  The Gospel and the law of God are always more demanding than that.   

Jesus presents our comfortable position at first.  He tries to limit his responsibility.  He says he was sent only to "his" kind, and implied that God’s "we" stops there.  But the Syro-Phoenician woman jolts him out of that idea.  Through her, he learns anew that God’s salvation and love reach to all people, not just the ones with whom we choose to be associated or those who are like us.   Every human being is chosen.  Every human being is precious.  And every human being is connected to every other human being through the "we" that God created in the beginning. 

I may be willing to die for my son.  What am I prepared to sacrifice for my neighbor?  How willing am I to risk my own financial security for those writhing in poverty?  What am I able to give away or live without so that people in another country may have the basic resources of life?  How high are the walls I build around what is "mine" and what I "deserve" to have and who is enough "like me" to merit my attention?  Perhaps we, like Jesus, need to be relieved of our assumptions concerning to whom we are connected.  We are truly the Body of Christ, the "we" of God, and when one part suffers, we all suffer.

It seems that I need to re-examine some things about the way I live, how I spend, what I say, and to whom I pay attention.  I need to honor the "we" that connects all of us together in, through, and with God.  And in whatever ways I am able, I need to reach out in love, care, and yes, sacrifice.  With all people, not just those of my choosing, I need to act the way love acts when it is enfleshed.

 

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/.

Scripture:

Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17
Mark 7:14-23

Reflection:

I’ll Make Me a World

Can any word express what it means to be present at an act of creation? Reverence or wonder are words we us. Such beautiful things as holding the newborn, seeing the delicacy of infant fingers. Two personal events that evoked wonder were standing at the beginning of a river. At the base of a mountain water welled up out of the ground, formed a crystal clear pool, and then began to flow through Honduras as the Rio Linda. Another ‘creation experience’ was attending a symphony of Hayden’s "The Seasons" that was to be accompanied by an another composition on the theme of creation. The conductor surprised everyone by placing the unknown composition first, telling us it had not yet been recorded. Its author described how her music expressed passages from the writings of Teilhard de Chardin. Surprise accompanied wonder. Can’t we go on an on with the unrepeatable, new wonders that we meet: the peak of a sunset, a formation of geese accompanied by their honking, pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope…

The thoughts and words of the writer of Genesis make us present to see creation happen, but we also see that it is the work of Our Loving God. We see our special place, we are made in God’s image. It is, ‘very good’.

This month of February is Black History Month. It is the black poet, James Weldon Johnson who died in 1938, who wrote his poem, ‘The Creation’ in "God’s Trombones." In his images we hear a lovely retelling of the story of Creation. Here is a sampling.

"God stepped out on space and looked around, and he said, ‘I’m lonely, I’ll make me a world’….darkness covered everything, blacker than a hundred midnights down in the cypress swamp. God reached out an took the light in his hands and God rolled the light around until he made the sun….with the light that was left from making the sun, God gathered it up into a shining ball and flung it into the darkness, spangling the night with the moon and the stars. And God said, ‘That’s good’.

"God saw that the earth was hot and barren, so God stepped over to the edge of the world and spat out the seven seas….he clapped his hands and the thunders rolled….

"As God walked around, he looked at the world with all his living things, and God said: ‘It’s still lonely here.’ By a deep river he sat down, with his head in his hands God thought and thought, till he thought, ‘I know! I’ll make me a man!’

"Up from the bed of the river, God scooped the clay, by the banks of the river he kneeled him down and there the great God almighty who lit the sun, who flung the stars, who rounded the earth in the middle of both hands, this great God, like a mammy bending over her baby, kneeled down in the dust toiling over a lump of clay, until it was shaped in his own image. Into it he blew the breath of life and man became a living soul. And God said: ‘He’s good. He’s very good’."

 

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