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Scripture:

1 Corinthians 2:10b-16
Luke 4:31-37

Reflection:

In this season of feverish political activity we daily view candidates for office seeking dramatic ways to communicate their ‘platform’.  They compete for our attention seeking a claim on our minds and emotions.  The vast sums of money and time expended in these endeavors remind us just how high are the stakes!

Today’s Gospel reading is an opening moment in Jesus’ salvific campaign!  Situated at the very start of his public ministry, we see how his public teaching electrifies the crowd and seizes their hearts with joy.  We can scarcely imagine the follow-up: the Lord confronts and vanquishes a demonic power that has held a beloved son of God in bondage.

By highlighting the amazement of the crowd, St. Luke points to the dynamic freshness of Jesus’ Gospel.  Bearing God’s own Spirit, his personality and action create something brand new – the assurance of victory over evil and a description of God-given direction that will not fail.  This moment opens the ongoing battle between the Lord and the powers of human sin and demonic violence that will climax on the Cross.  In that ultimate power struggle – the stakes could not be any higher – Jesus will prevail.  And we are free!

Staying amazed at the words and deeds of Jesus is vital for quality Christian living.  Just like gazing on the face of a loved one or hearing again a favorite song, attention to the Lord’s ‘platform’ can both energize and comfort us.  May our daily prayer dwell upon his Gospel and enable us to live His holy will.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 20:7-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27

Reflection:

All of our Scripture readings for today speak to us about how we as Christians are to follow God’s ways and not those of the world. In our first reading from Jeremiah, as much as the prophet wants to resist proclaiming God’s Word, because it brings him "derision and reproach," he cannot resist, and God’s Word is proclaimed.

In our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts his fellow Christians to "not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God…"

In our Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus predicts His own Passion and Resurrection, but Peter will have none of it. Just after he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, Peter shows that he does not understand what it means to be the Messiah. For him, the Messiah is not to undergo any suffering or what seems to be defeat at all. And so Jesus has to tell him, "Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Then Jesus continues with a description of the conditions of discipleship: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Talk about being counter-cultural! Deny ourselves?! The wisdom of the world tells us to indulge every desire. Take up our crosses?! Our society usually runs away from pain at all costs. Follow Jesus?! The world often considers Jesus to be a nice man who had no understanding of the real world.

But if we believe with Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, we must be willing to accept the wisdom of the Gospel, and not the wisdom of the world. The more we do that, the more we will see for ourselves that it is the wisdom of the Gospel that is most in touch with reality, and that it is truly life-giving. May we take the risk, and follow Jesus so we can "come after" Him and return to the Father.

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is pastor of St. Mary’s parish, Fairfield, Alabama.

 

Memorial of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:17-25
Psalms 33:1-2, 4-5, 10-11
Mark 6:17-29

Reflection:

The story of the martyrdom of John the Baptist as related by Mark could be one taken directly out of a Hollywood movie (and yes, I know, it has been part of many of them!)

It is a colorfully tragic story filled with intrigue, deceit and duplicity. The early church historian Eusebius of Caesarea confirms the story, not only by referencing the Gospel of Mark, but also by invoking the ancient Jewish historian Josephus. Josephus adds to our knowledge of the tale by telling us that Herod Antipas’ lawful wife was the daughter of King Aretas IV of Petra (located now in present day Jordan) and that due to this unlawful divorce, King Aretas went to war with Herod. As a result of the turmoil, the Romans overseers stepped in and forced Herod and Herodias into exile, stripping Herod of his kingdom, and installing a Roman governor instead.

However while on the surface all of this is interesting, I think Mark, as the recorder of this incident, wanted to express a deeper truth than just laying out the facts bare. One of these insights might be that telling the truth is far different that embracing the Truth!

It is obvious from the all the sources we currently have available that John the Baptist told people the truth about life, their lives. And he did so in an exceptionally challenging way! However, it wasn’t just enough for John to tell people the truths about themselves. He also asked them to embrace the truths about themselves, the good and the not-so-good and to do something about the latter. His call to baptism – a ritual cleansing of sin – committed the person to a new, more positive direction in their lives, opening them up to the message of Jesus. Truly John was the forerunner to Jesus – a Jesus whose proclamation of God’s reign inaugurated a new relationship between God and humankind as well as among humans themselves.

The sad and tragic part of today’s gospel tale then is not necessarily John the Baptist’s martyrdom, but rather Herod Antipas’ inability to embrace his truth and accept the Truth.

He found John’s words interesting and even listened to him after John’s arrest. But could not, would not, effect the change needed to bring his life back into relationship with God.

As Bede the Venerable says in today’s Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours: "blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer…His persecutors had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth…Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ."

The challenge for us believers today is to embrace the truth of the totality of our whole lives and offer this to Christ, knowing that by doing so, we embrace the Truth, Christ himself!

 

Patrick Quinn is the director of Planned Giving, Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago.  

 

The Feast of St. Augustine

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Matthew 24:42-51

Reflection:

Matthew’s Gospel boldly proclaims the words of Jesus:  "Stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come."  What a dramatic warning:  could the Lord come to us today in fear or terror, or with a message of love, joy, and peace?  Oh the challenge to be a faithful and prudent servant!

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Augustine, a great figure in the history of the Church.  In his 76 years of life, he began with a very "pagan" lifestyle (oh, how his mother St. Monica prayed for her wayward son) and ended with dedicated service of the Faith as bishop of Hippo.  His conversion and later baptism by St. Ambrose in 387 set him on a road to service and greatness in the Church, especially in his writings and sermons…his "Confessions".

Our 1^st reading, Paul’s 1^st letter to the Corinthians, begins with thanks to God for the grace bestowed on the Corinthians:  gifts of discourse and knowledge, lacking no spiritual gifts.  The response of Psalm 145 then draws us into the praise of God forever.  Both selections from Scripture tie into the life of St. Augustine:  the truly human, gifted man of God, whose eloquent discourse and down-to-earth wisdom has impacted the lives of other disciples…you and I, sinners and saints-in-process.

Today, we 21^st century disciples are encouraged to "stay awake" and receive the Good News of Jesus, plus the Good News of our older brother St. Augustine — even the Good News of God calling each of us the events of our day.  We’re challenged:  How can we more faithfully tune-in to Jesus working in our lives?  How can we serve our brothers and sisters, the Church? 

We may not have the talents of the evangelist Matthew, or the bishop and Doctor Augustine, or the persistence and love of the mother St. Monica……but we do have Jesus Himself, challenging us to be awake, to be grateful, and to say "yes" to His presence and action in our lives.

We will praise your name forever, Lord!

 

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

The Feast of St. Monica

Scripture:

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
Matthew 23:27-32

Reflection:

Readers of the daily Scriptures have another "woe" to contemplate today.  This is the sixth of seven harsh words Jesus has for this particular group of scribes and Pharisees whom he calls hypocrites and blind guides.  The Jesus of gentile compassion also has a side of righteous indignation as he denounces these so-called religious leaders of his day.  They are like whitewashed tombs-beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones.  One would not want to be downside of Jesus’ anger!  Matthew presents Jesus as a fiery prophet equal to any of his storied ancestors who spoke in the name of the God of Israel.  In our bones we know the cry of the Psalmist, "Blessed are those who fear the Lord" (Ps. 128), and, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 111). 

But those who remain with Jesus and allow themselves to be called his disciples come to know, as well, that all it takes is a turn.  A turn on the inside, that is, where it counts.  Leave the whitewashed tomb and the dead man’s bones behind and allow the Spirit of God to work anew. 

Today the Church asks us to remember St. Monica, the great model of patience and intercessory prayer, and her call to turn away from sin.  Monica was the mother of St. Augustine and because she nagged him into the faith by her prayers and perseverance, her feast is rightfully celebrated the day before his.  It was not just her famous son whom she brought to the Lord by her prayers, but also her husband and her mother-in-law.  Truly, Monica was a woman after the heart of Jesus.  To her family, to the people of her day and to the church now she speaks the challenge of conversion and fidelity to the promises of God.  "If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts."

In our first reading we are given the consoling words of Paul’s 2^nd Letter to the Thessalonians.  Words with which the great sinner-to-saint says he ends every one of his letters to the churches.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.

May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you."

Fr. Jim Strommer, C.P. is on the provincial leadership team and lives in Chicago.

 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Matthew 16:13-23

Reflection:

The first reading speaks of great changes coming to Israel’s people, changes that will come from God and will be established in a new way, not in fear and retribution, but in love. "I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts."  What a beautiful gift we have been given to be able to witness how the relationship between God and humanity is evolving and growing; how the sins of the past are being forgiven and a new covenant, initiated not by a punitive master but by a God who will reveal Himself in love and in relationship to us, is being created.

Then in the Gospel, we  read of Simon Peter speaking a great insight that God has indeed written upon his heart: About Jesus he says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus is aware that this knowledge has come from God Himself and that Peter, in allowing himself to be the vessel through which God can speak, is the rightful shepherd of Jesus’ flock when He is gone.  The bond between God and humanity is evolving yet again to an even greater place of depth and trust, evidenced in the building of this new Church: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This is not a God who is disinterested, uninvolved or merely observant of us. This is a God who loves us enough to give us His only Son, who allows us to be heard and engaged in the workings of heaven itself.

Later in the Gospel Jesus returns to a painful reality.  He knows that the time is coming when He will suffer and be taken from the disciples and they are beginning to understand it more fully, too. Peter speaks once more, this time not with God’s words but with words that are based in a rejection of God’s truth, a truth that is painful and fearsome. Jesus reacts to Peter’s dismissal, "Get behind me, Satan!..You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Jesus cannot be more clear in responding that the fears that cloud our thinking, or our desire to reject God’s truth and make it something other than it is, take us farther and farther away from Him and from all that is good. 

Of course we know that despite Peter’s faltering in that moment, and despite his later denial of Jesus, God remained faithful to Peter and Peter to God. As God had promised in the first reading, a new covenant was being given to us; a covenant in which wrongs could be forgiven and trust would endure if only we would be willing to hear God’s word written lovingly upon our hearts.

 

 

 

Scripture:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3a, 14-17
Matthew 23:23-26

Reflection: 

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. In the first part of our passage (Matthew 23:23-24), Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for paying attention to the minutiae of the Law, while at the same time neglecting "the weightier things…: judgment and mercy and fidelity."

This attention to trivial details while neglecting the larger issues is a temptation for us as well as it was for the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. In some newspapers, for example, the latest gossip about celebrities is near the front of the paper while international news, for instance, is put somewhere in the middle, or even further back. I think the temptation is so great because it is a lot easier to get caught up in things that don’t matter than struggling with the things that do. This can happen in the church as well.

And so we need to take heed of Jesus’ words. We have to be careful that our attention to small things does not blind or deafen us to the plight of our brothers and sisters in the world. Yes, constantly grappling with the problems of the world can make us morose and even lead us to despair. But we need to make sure we have not become numb to the pain of those around us. We need not despair, for we are not alone. As St. Paul writes in our first reading from 2 Thessalonians: "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word."

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is pastor of Holy Family parish, Fairfield, Alabama.

 

Scripture:

2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12
Matthew 23:13-22

Reflection:

This is one of the longest and harshest passages by Jesus in the Gospels directed against the Pharisees.  They impose heavy burdens on the poor and do not do anything to alleviate their suffering.  Matthew’s community is being expelled by the religious leaders from the synagogues, and is considered suspect by the Roman authorities.  The opprobrium vented against some of the Pharisees is that they have not been faithful to the Law of Moses.  Matthew reminds these leaders that God gave the Law to Moses. Moses passed it on to Joshua and the elders.  Joshua and the elders passed it on to the prophets, who passed it on to the Pharisees.  Matthew is reminding the Pharisees and his own community that things were different in the old days.  In the Book of Numbers a widow could inherit her husband’s estate.  Daughters could inherit from their parents along with their brothers.  The Pharisees changed this and left marriage and remarriage as the only alternatives for women.

The Rabbis in the time of Jesus used to have a saying: God cried over three things: 1.) Those who did not study the Torah and should.  2.)  Those who did study the Torah and should not.  3.)  Those who sought power merely to lord it over others.  Some of the Pharisees did not study the Torah well enough.  Some others never had a pastoral heart and should not have studied the Torah.  And, most abominable is that some became experts in the Law, Pharisees, in order to use their power to abuse those entrusted to their care.  Cod continues to cry over these same issues. 

In Greek mythology, when Hermes wanted to establish the perfect society he went to Zeus, the greatest of the Greek gods, and asked what he needed to establish this society.  Zeus gave him two things: first, Zeus gave Hermes justice, to remind people all were to be treated equally.  Then Zeus gave Hermes reverence to remind the leaders that they were not gods, but should treat all citizens of this society with respect. 

Two recently published books: The Kite Runner , and A Thousand Splendid Suns, are set in Afghanistan.  The first is about the abuse of power by the Taliban toward their people, especially young boys.  The second is about the same abuse but directed toward young women.  A movie that was produced a couple of years ago, Osama, also deals with this latter issue.  These works attest to the abuse of power, and lack of respect suffered by peoples throughout the world.  We are reminded of the need to select good leaders, and to pray for those, both religious and the secular, that they administer their authority with justice and reverence. 

 

Fr. Kenneth O’Malley, C.P., is archivist at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.