wpengine

Scripture:

Galatians 1:13-24
Luke 10:38-42

Reflection:

"You kids are not like Jesus, he would be in church saying the Rosary, but you raise a riot and keep your pastor awake!" Not a true story, but it ought to be! The Rosary came in as a devotion around the year 1000 and has taken different forms in the course of time. Most recently, Pope John Paul II suggested the addition of the 5 Mysteries of Light.

From the early origins until now, the Rosary has been a way of viewing the life and meaning of Jesus through the mind and eyes of Mary his mother. The Gospel for today’s feast takes us to the first joyful mystery, the Incarnation of God’s Son when the angel Gabriel brings God’s proposal to Mary.

The universe was more than 13 billion years developing on that day. The beautiful planet we call our home was some 5 billion years circling our sun – but now God wanted to actually become physically a part of it in becoming flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Just how far in the past the human race lost its way, we cannot be sure. But the Annunciation is the joyful news that God Himself has come to our rescue. The Son of Mary is Son of God come to redeem us.

This is a universal gift, it is meant for all human kind – this is a personal gift to each one of us. As we turn to Our Father to begin the first joyful mystery, we can express our joyful thanks that God does love even me! Our Father loves us and offers us his very Son! The Son of God loves me and delivers himself for me. He begins his mission by becoming our brother in the flesh.

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

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Scripture:

Galatians 6:14-18
Matthew 11:25-30

Reflection:

As the month of October continues to unfold and the lives of many religious founders are shared with us, today’s special scripture selections for the Feast of St. Francis help us recognize and celebrate the Franciscan "roots" of our Passionist family, and our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross. 

In writing to the Galatians, Paul the Apostle could truly "boast" in Jesus Crucified and look to the Cross of Jesus as the means of salvation.  Matthew today relates the priestly prayer of Jesus, praising the Father, and inviting one and all to leave everything, come to Him and be refreshed and enlightened.  St. Francis of Assisi heard that call of Jesus in the 12^th Century, gave himself wholeheartedly to Jesus and began an exemplary life of praise and sacrifice; then some 6 centuries later, St. Paul of the Cross was called to build upon that blessed foundation.

To "boast" of Jesus Crucified; to praise God in all aspects of creation; to "rest" in the Lord and "learn" what it means to really love God and neighbor:  Jesus offers a transformation of life through joyful love, poverty, humility, and simplicity.  How needed that transformation in our 21^st century, with today’s experience of short-sightedness, selfishness, suffering and individualism!

The Scriptures came alive for Francis of Assisi.  His carefree youth was changed by the call of Jesus, and he thus renounced his personal possessions and changed his life to one of evangelical poverty and preaching.  Francis was truly charismatic, compassionate, and in love with all God’s creation; others were attracted to his style of living, and Francis was blessed to compile a "rule of life" and establish a number of religious communities of both men and women.  In the short 44 years of his life, he sparked a spiritual renewal that continues to thrive even today.

Today, in reflection:  how do I respect God’s presence in people, nature, created things?  How are simplicity and humility part of my life?  How am helping build up the Church?

Francis invites us to join him today in "boasting in Jesus Crucified", and praising God in our simplicity and respect for all manifestations of God’s Life.  O Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Brother Francis, Paul Daneo:  let us rejoice in the Lord, and as Passionists boast of the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ! 

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Feast of Blessed Isidore DeLoor, Passionist

Scripture:

Galatians 1:6-12
Luke 10:25-37

Reflection:

If a person does a good deed for someone, that person is referred to as a "Good Samaritan."

That phrase has worked its way into our common language. But it is not a phrase used by Jews of Jesus’ day. For them there were no "Good Samaritans." Samaritans were bad, unclean people who were to be avoided. When Jesus used the Samaritan as the hero of his parable, it would have caused raised eyebrows and resentment. The parable was even more shocking to the ordinary Jew because Jesus described the priest and the Levite as having religious flaws. The priest was considered the holiest person among the Jews. Levites assisted in the Temple worship and were highly regarded. If anyone reflected the character of God, it would be a servant of the Temple.  But both the priest and the Levite crossed to the other side of the road, ignored the man lying on the side of the road, and went on their way.

It was the Samaritan who obeyed the Law, not the holy priest or Levite: "Love your neighbor as yourself." The priest and Levite were moved by fear and therefore could not love. The Samaritan "was moved with compassion." The word ‘compassion’ might be equivalent to what we mean when we say "gut feeling." A gut feeling is one that comes from the deepest part of who we are. ‘Compassion’ is usually used in the New Testament to refer to the love of Jesus or of God for others. It is a deep and inescapable compassion, a gut feeling that insists on taking action. When that Samaritan looked at the victim lying half-dead by the side of the road, something happened in his gut, making it impossible for him to walk away. He didn’t decide to help this guy on the basis of how worthy the victim was. He helped him because of how needy he was. Not only was the Samaritan’s compassion based on need, it also was expressed in action. He didn’t just say, "Boy, that’s tough! I’ll pray for you." He didn’t just say he cared, he showed he cared. Even though it cost him time, energy and money.

Mother Teresa, when asked how she had accomplished such great things in her life, said this: "None of us can do anything great on our own, but we all can do a small thing with great love." Real Christians display real love to those who need it most to those traveling the same road.

Today is a special feast day for Passionists. Blessed Isidore De Loor (1881-1916) was born in Flanders on the family farm. He joined the Passionists in1908. Among the Passionist religious, and among the laity, he was admired for his charity and simplicity, his dedication to work and his spirit of recollection. His right eye had to be removed in 1911, because of a tumor. Having suffered through several months of intense pain, he succumbed to cancer and pleurisy on October 6, 1916. We ask Blessed Isidore to strengthen all those struggling today with cancer.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P. is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

Reflection:

Welcome back to the vineyard!  Did you notice that this is the third Sunday in a row that Jesus has been telling parables about vineyards?  I think this is significant, because vineyards are places where grapes are grown to be pressed, fermented and aged.  Finally, the enjoyment comes in the consumption.  Wine is used in banquets, parties and celebrations.  Backing up, to work in the vineyard is work of initial preparation for a future banquet, party or celebration.  Matthew uses these vineyard stories because it is part of the strong Jewish tradition.  It comes right out of Isaiah’s prophecy.  Isaiah does a parallel between his understanding of the disappointment Israel is to the Lord compared to the disappointment that his friend had over a vineyard.  He begins by getting people’s attention by putting it into a song.  "Let me sing of my friend’s song concerning his vineyard."  Well this should be a very joyful kind of song, but as the disappointment grows, Isaiah boldly declares, "The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel."    How disappointing.  You can certainly feel this sadness, even now after so many years. 
 
Jesus certainly would have known the writings of Isaiah. So it is quite understandable how Jesus would speak of vineyards to make his point.  Notice who he is talking to.  He is speaking to the chief priests and the elders.  We readers of the gospel frequently project our religious garb onto these men, but we forget that they were also parents and we forget that they were also the vineyard owners.   So when Jesus throws this parable to them, they are listening to it on two different levels.  First, as vineyard owners.  But to take the story deeper, not only are they the owners of their own vineyards, they are also the owners of the vineyard of the Lord.  And this is where Jesus has such difficulties with them.  He is calling their grapes sour. 
 
Perhaps the most terrifying part of this gospel is what is NOT said.   Jesus takes this situation to the front steps of his enemy’s house.  He is not in a safe secure location.  His conviction of the truth cannot allow him to remain quiet.  He stirs up the conflict right in the temple area on the very home turf of the religious leaders.   The conviction of speaking the truth out of justice, whether we witness it in Isaiah the prophet or in Jesus, is a dominant theme for the readings today.
 
This is the 21^st chapter of Matthews Gospel.  This is after the turning over money changing tables in the temple.   By this time he has predicted his passion and death three times and both he and his disciples know this is end for Jesus.  That is why he came to Jerusalem.  Now he doesn’t come to play it safe and hide out.  Instead of hiding Jesus locates himself in the temple area every day.  He is in plain sight and begins a lengthy confrontational challenge to the religious leaders. 
 
In telling them a story about the owner and son of a vineyard, Jesus asks them to make a decision on his story.  It all seems fairly non-threatening and certainly in line with the day to day sparing that men would do.   For Jesus to get this group of people to acknowledge that the farmers would kill the son, is a clever technique of self judgment.  Recall how all the gospels build up the plot of the arrest and execution of Jesus.   This story of the vineyard then becomes a prophecy of what will happen to Jesus, and in carrying this out the religious leaders, through their actions, will acknowledge Jesus’ sonship.  This is something they never would have been capable of through the spoken word.   Therefore the judgment comes back upon them.  The prophetic voice could have easily spoken to them saying, See, by your actions you confirm his role as Son and acknowledge he was sent by the Father.  Yet your religious allegiances leave you listening to voices which do not originate anywhere near the Father nor the Son.  In fact, through your actions and in light of this story, you place yourselves in the role of the wicked tenant farmers.  You even pronounce your own sentence.      
 
Perhaps it did because in Mt 21:45 we read that the Pharisees realized that Jesus is speaking about them.  Sadly, rather than finding repentance, they plot to arrest him and they are left with fear.   Instead of choosing something good, right or virtuous, they again follow their own instincts. 
 
Isaiah asks to sing a song of his friend’s vineyard.  Rather than a place of joy and gladness, where people are preparing for celebrations, here we find people filled with jealousy, and fear, incapable of hearing truth.  

 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is on the staff of Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California. 

 

 

Scripture:

Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5
Luke 10:13-16

Reflection:

To follow Jesus, and take up His Cross means "I take responsibility." Luke 10 begins with Jesus sending the seventy-two disciples to the harvest. The harvest is people finding their own "call" and responsibility because we are faithful to our commitments. No matter in which situation I find myself today, is not the cause of much of our pain and suffering due to the results, when I do not take responsibility? So we are sent, in the wake of  so much chaos due to irresponsibility, to make a difference through living the Christ-values which counter the self-centered attitudes, that perpetuate "the way it has always been done." Going against the grain of the way things are in our society, we will know that it is the Will of God being done. When we face into "the storm" from which the voice of God addresses Job, who has lost everything and is powerless, we will know that even though we may be acting out of weakness, we still choose to do something. The condemnation of the cities of Chorazin and Beathsaida are that they did not respond, in the face of their own storms, and did not recognize God’s voice and power in their midst.

Today, we will be lead to those for whom the promises of God were made: abundant generosity, life, mercy, compassion and justice. Yes, like the Seventy-Two, He sends us out on mission to make a difference in the lives of those for whom there is no apparent hope. Yes, we meet the usual obstacles caused by the fear of the unknown in answering the call to serve "the poor" who cross our path.  

 

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is President of Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus 

Scripture:

Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Luke 9:57-62

Reflection:

Much has been written about St.Therese of the Child Jesus, but I suggest that the best source to come to know this young woman is her own autobiography written in her own words at the direction of her religious superior, who was also her older sister.

The ninth child in her family, she lost her beloved mother in death when she was only four and a half years old; she entered the Carmelite Cloister at 15, and died at the age of 24. Canonized in 1925, she was named Doctor of the Church in 1997.

Quite a ‘Vitae’!

The first reading today from the Book of Job calls us to reflect on the sufferings of a good man whose friends were trying to convince him that his sufferings are the result of his sinfulness. Job is confident that he has not sinned, yet he is unwilling to say that God is unjust, or causing, or allowing the innocent to suffer.

Therese too knew suffering, yet she teaches us that God’s love is infinite.  Throughout her story we see a young woman who loved and trusted deeply in God’s love for her and for all those with whom she came in contact throughout her "Little Way of Love". Her complete surrender and fidelity to God in the small and ordinary daily tasks and her faithful offering of all her sufferings and illness was ‘… to save souls… those who did not know or love God as she knew and loved God’.

Today’s Gospel from Luke calls us to trust and say with the disciples of Jesus and with St. Therese, who’s life and spirituality we reflect on today, "I will follow you wherever you go,"  and mean it!

"Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealized    desires. I can then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.  It is impossible for me to grow up and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short and totally new."  St. Therese of Lisieux.  "A Story of a Soul,"  207

If Therese’s religious superior and blood sister had not asked her to reflect and write her life and spiritual experiences, we would never have come to know this great saint of extraordinary grace in ordinary times. To those of you who read and reflect on the life of this great woman today, may I suggest that you reflect on your life and write your own spiritual autobiography as did Therese!  Then share your story with your loved ones.

 

Sr. Marcella Fabing, CSJ, is on the staff of Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

Feast of Ss. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

Scripture:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Revelations 12:7-12ab
John 1:47-51

Reflection:

Today I find we as Catholic Christians are rather reluctant to speak about angels, at least in public. We may believe in them, and some of us, no doubt, have actually encountered them at one point in our lives. But to speak about them is something we would rather not do publicly. Like the scholar Dr. Stephen F. Noll is quoted as saying: "…one good reason for this: angels are marginal figures. They never appear center stage: they are always in the wings!"

Yet the Church in its wisdom celebrates today the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In this feast, the Church reminds us that angels and archangels are part of God’s creation, like ourselves. But unlike we who are "created in the image and likeness of God," the angels are spirits who were created for a purpose, a function. Indeed the Greek word angel means messenger. And as Saint Gregory the Great reminds us in the Office of Readings: "the word ‘angel’ denotes a function rather than a nature."

Angels deliver messages; archangels deliver messages of great importance!

Think back to the Archangel Gabriel’s salutation to Elizabeth and to the Virgin Mary. Think of Michael who is sent to express God’s complete victorious power over evil, and Raphael, who is sent to Tobit to heal his blindness. The names of the archangels themselves are also rather telling: Michael means "Who is like God?." Gabriel means "the Strength of God" and Raphael "God’s Remedy." Angels are messengers and should never be confused with the message…angels simply point to God.

In the gospel today we hear of the call of Nathanael and his encounter with God. Jesus calls him a "true son of Israel." There are echoes here of an earlier son named "Israel" from the book of Genesis -Jacob-who experiences a bridge to God through the messenger angels ascending to and descending from God’s throne. But it is in the person of Jesus that we encounter the ultimate bridge to God – Jesus who brings those on earth to heaven and unites heaven to earth!

Make no mistake, faithful Christian, while archangels can carry the important messages of God, they only point to the ultimate reality. Only we who possess Christ Jesus can encounter and actually carry within ourselves the ultimate God Himself!

 

Patrick Quinn is the Director of Planned Giving and works in the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

Scripture:

Job 19:21-27
Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Reflection:

Today’s feast of the Guardian Angels points to a surprising intersection between ancient belief and a central feature of modern, popular spirituality.  In the contemporary religious scene, angels are definitely "in", as TV shows, websites and blogs, pins and T-shirts indicate. What are we to make of this?

For one thing, this popular focus on angels tells us that, even in our seemingly secular culture, people experience divine presence and activity.  There is a mysterious, positive power that is felt and ‘seen’; it is found active in all dimensions of human existence.  Popular belief is echoing the Gospel story – God is for real and is active in our world.

And, popular attraction to angels is focused on our need for protection. Life is sometimes tough, unkind or cruel; we need more security than we can muster by ourselves.  Here, contemporary spiritual experience is catching up with the meaning of today’s feast.

In both Old and New Testaments, God’s provident care and compassion is often expressed through the activity of angels. An angel protects the three young men cast into the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:49); an angel counsels Joseph to protect Mary and the Infant Jesus (Mt 2:13); an angel supports Jesus himself in his garden agony (Luke 22:43); an angel frees Peter from prison (Acts 12:6 ff). And these examples just scratch the surface!

May today’s celebration deepen our trust in God’s protective compassion. Let us live in the conviction that our lives and destiny are cloaked in God’s invincible love.

 

Fr. Jim Thoman, C.P. is the Director of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center, Detroit, Michigan.