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Scripture:

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

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew, we hear the beginning of Jesus proclaiming “woes” to the scribes and the Pharisees for being hypocrites in their leadership of the people. In the last several verses, Jesus criticizes the scribes and the Pharisees on how they determine the value of oaths: “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated…And you say, ‘If one swears by the altar, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gift on the altar, one is obligated.'”

Jesus points out to them that what they value is not what is important. I see this as a challenge to us because it is easy to bring the values of the world in to the practice of our faith. It is oh so tempting to try to manipulate the Gospel into justifying a desire for material wealth and possessions. As Christians, we are called not to let worldly values influence how we live our faith, but to let our faith influence how things are done in the world.

As we do our jobs, or seek employment, or attend school, or live out our retirement, we are to demonstrate forgiveness and mercy and compassion. Wherever we are, whether we are single or married, religious or ordained, we are called to love others as Jesus has loved us. Our trust is not in “gold” nor “gifts,” but in the God who has blessed us and given us the promise of everlasting life!

In the words of our first reading from 2 Thessalonians, may God “powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith” in and through our lives!

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Ezekiel 28:1-10
Matthew 19:23-30

Reflection:

“For God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

There are times when I open the Scriptures and read the readings of the day, I become quite agitated. The Mass reading for today is one of those times. They are quite challenging. The first reading talks about arrogance. It describes people who are well off thinking that their wealth and good fortune comes from having superior wisdom and intelligence. Soon, they think themselves superior than God!

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us of the great challenge the rich have in getting into the Kingdom of heaven. To make his point, he gives an example. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.

Needless to say, this teaching astonished the disciples. One of the great signs of God’s favor for them was the accumulation of wealth. They became concerned and went to Jesus with their anxieties. Besides, they saw themselves as the exceptions. They had left everything to follow Jesus. They had given up family, lands and wealth to become his disciples. They became concern that they would not be rewarded for their sacrifice. It just didn’t sound fair to them.

There are times when Jesus’ response is not so helpful at the moment. We usually want answers to our questions, and not proverbs. When Jesus told them: “For God all things are possible,” the disciples did not seem satisfied with that response. Peter goes on to tell him just how much they had given up in order to follow him, as if he didn’t know.

Jesus’ response should drive us to prayer. We will not understand it in a court of law, or in a universe where everyone is suppose to be treated with compensation. Our feeling is that if I do something good, then our earthly reward will be something good. But with Jesus, that’s not the way it works. Jesus asks us to look at life in a new way. Jesus wants us to recognize a new understanding of what constitutes family, blessings and God’s favor. It is not immediate gratification and it is not even what we deem is good. It is what God sees which God pronounces good. What we think is good is not always so good.

Being reminded that we are not god, that arrogance does not last and that our sense of reward needs to be rethought is not what we want to hear. But it seems to me that we cannot fully appreciate what God has done for us if we do not recognize our inability to see the role God has in our lives, in the life of the whole of creation and in the cosmos. Once we begin believing that only God is God, will we begin living as God’s loving children and realize our connectedness with the whole of creation.

Isn’t God great!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Micah 6:1-4, 6-8
Matthew 12:38-42

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is asked for a sign, ostensibly to demonstrate that He is who He says He is. But Jesus replies, “An evil and unfaithful generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.” Then Jesus offers a parallel between Jonah in the belly of the whale and He in “the heart of the earth.”

There may have been times in our lives when we asked for a sign, especially at times when we were trying to discern God’s will. Does that mean we are an “evil and unfaithful generation?” I don’t think so, but you can almost hear the frustration in Jesus’ voice as He tries to point out that He is the sign they are looking for.

If there are times when we’re not sure of what direction God wants us to go, I can’t see that it is wrong to ask for a sign. But if we are at a time in our lives when we wonder whether God loves us or not, all we need do is look at the Cross! We can read the Scriptures. We can observe the beauty of creation. We can look at our lives, and as it says so famously in “Footprints,” we can see when Jesus was carrying us through our most difficult trials. These are the signs that God has already given us to show us His love! And there are probably so many small signs every day that come to us, whether it is an encouraging word, a hand on the shoulder, or even just a smile.

Some of the Pharisees just refused to believe in Jesus, and it wouldn’t have mattered what sign Jesus gave them. But for us who believe, may we have the grace to see and hear the signs, big and small, that God sends our way.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8
Matthew 12:1-8

Reflection:

At one time during the First World War, a young British Army surgeon was accompanying his senior officer-surgeon around the wards of the wounded soldiers. They had completed the wards housing the British soldiers and were now making a round of the wounded German prisoners. They came to a man with a badly damaged hand, and the senior surgeon upon a quick examination remarked for the notes “We can probably save the hand itself, but the fingers will have to be removed”. And then he walked on to the next bed. But the prisoner understood some English and his eyes met those of the young doctor as he pleaded “Please, I am a watch maker”.

Watchmaking as a profession has probably disappeared from our world, but in 1915 it was still a viable occupation and one that required surgeon-like precision and the obvious use of one’s fingers.

The young doctor was moved by pity and hurried after the senior surgeon to plead for the chance to save both the hand and the fingers. His appeal was not appreciated in a situation of limited resources of supplies and time – and after all this man was an enemy – but by persisting he won permission to try to save all of the hand. After much effort he did so.

Perhaps not surprisingly,  after the war the young doctor studied for priesthood and was ordained and ended his ecclesial life as a Bishop in the Anglican Church.

It often takes great courage to act against social expectations or one’s peer group or indeed the law itself.

One does not readily set aside any of the above, let alone all three at one time. Yet today we read of Jesus standing up to the letter of the law, the criticism of the Pharisees and the long standing traditions that surrounded the Sabbath.

But it is the statement of Jesus “… I desire mercy, not sacrifice…” that seems to give us the sound interpretive principle for understanding the motivations and perspective of Jesus. The disciples are innocent of any wrong doing – they are merely picking corn because they are hungry, yet there are those willing to ignore compassion and to condemn them for a minor infringement of the law.

The young doctor in the story above had understood this – he chose not to see an enemy, but a fellow traveller on life’s journey. He chose not to see a problem too difficult to deal with, but rather to see a need and a future life either ruined of saved by his actions. The young doctor understood the words of Jesus  “What I desire is mercy”… (not a slavish adherence to the letter of the law, or to peer expectations or social conventions).

Let us make this principle of Jesus the one by which we judge, interpret and respond to situations of need and challenge. At times it will take some courage to do so, but we can act knowing that we follow the teaching and example of the Lord himself.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is a member of Holy Spirit Province, Australia.  

Scripture:

2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18
Matthew 7:1-5

Reflection:

At times when I get frustrated with politics and politicians, I find myself daydreaming about testifying to  Congress and giving them a good scolding about what I perceive that they are doing and not doing. If that ever came to pass, a good thing for me to do would be to read them our Gospel reading for today. In that reading, Jesus says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s [or sister’s] eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother [or sister], ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s [or sister’s] eye.” It seems that there are a whole lot of people with wooden beams in their eyes talking about the splinters in the eyes of others.

Of course, the problem with scolding others about that sort of thing is that I would be guilty of the very thing I am accusing them! Jesus calls us to humility about our sinfulness. When we recognize our own sin, we become more understanding of our fellow sinners.

A result of removing the wooden beam from our own eye before helping remove the splinter from the eye of another is that when we see clearly, we may see that the splinter we thought we saw was not there at all. Or it may be that we see something entirely different that gets in the way of our brother or sister. For example, because of my being judgmental, I may take your shyness as snobbery. But if I let go of that, I may see that you don’t need to be taken down a notch, but that instead you need to be lifted up. It’s amazing what can happen when we see clearly!

May God give us the grace to acknowledge our own sin, and see clearly enough to help one another!

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Sirach 48:1-14
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

“This is how you are to pray” Matthew 6:9

As a Passionist priest, I have given many a retreat conference on prayer, as well as some workshops on how to pray. There have also been many a conversation with people who wanted help with their prayer life. As I look back on these talks and conferences and conversations, I am not so sure how beneficial they were. So many times I approached this subject as a “teacher” and my objective was to help people learn how to pray in different ways.

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear Jesus winding up his comments on prayer. It seems that he must have been reflecting on his experience of how people around him prayed every day. First, he describes the way many people were praying. Then, instead of giving another lecture on prayer, he gave his followers an example of how to pray by praying. What a great example this is for all of us!

There are certain kinds of prayers that are easy to recite. We can memorize them and then say them over and over again. And there are certain kinds of prayers that are experiences rather than litanies of prayers. The Eucharistic Prayers of the Mass is an example of this. The New Sacramentary that came out a couple of years ago gives us an awareness of just how many ways there are to pray a sacred prayer. These Eucharistic prayers emphasize aspects of our relationship to God and with each other. They connect us with our God in special ways. Truly they are prayer experiences.

My own personal experience of praying, I suspect, is similar to the vast majority of people who try to pray daily. There are some days that are better than others. But having the “Our Father” as the example of how we are to pray is so helpful, because we can begin to reflect on Jesus’ relationship with his Father and his desire for all of us: God’s will be done everywhere. This is not an asking prayer for those things of life that have no major consequence for us. We are to ask for our daily bread and that is truly all of the material things we need to ask for. We are also to ask for grace, the grace to forgive, the grace to avoid temptation and the grace to be delivered from all evil. What more do we need in this life?

My experience tells me that we will never learn how to pray successfully. However, we can try each day to pray better. Each day is a day to acknowledge God as our Father and to praise his holy name. Each day is a day to seek the Will of God. Each day is a day to ask for our daily bread. Each day is a day to ask for forgiveness and to extend unconditional forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Each day is a day we need help in avoiding temptation and to be delivered from evil. That is why we need to pray each and every day.

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Scripture:

Proverbs 8:22-31
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

Reflection:

The Sunday following Pentecost is set aside in the church’s liturgical year to invite us to reflect on the essential tenet of our faith in God: The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.  It is, as the Catechism states, “the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself.”

We will never be able to grasp the reality of the Trinity – one God, three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit – until we experience the fullness of God’s love in our eternal life.  This has not stopped us, though, from trying to get our heads around this idea of the Trinity.  Church history is filled with attempts to tie down its meaning, all of them coming up short and many of them earning heresy status.

If we have failed to tie down the mystery of the Trinity through theological concepts, we moved to analogy and art.  Just a few examples include the equilateral triangle; three intersecting circles; circle within a triangle; St. Patrick’s shamrock; and the famous icon by Andrei Rublev depicting three identical persons around one altar.  Again, each comes up short.

But this should not surprise us. Imagine trying to perfectly represent love.  Imagine being asked to define in words or a picture a relationship that grips us at the very core of our life.  The love of a parent for a child, the bond of husband and wife, or the friendship with the one who knows us best are beyond words, beyond art, beyond poetry, beautiful as they might be.  They always come up short.

These profound relationships are what this Feast of the Holy Trinity celebrates.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the most real and profound relationship that exists.  The gospels tell the story of the Son of God sent by the Father to reveal the depth of God’s love for us, and how, through the Spirit, we are sent – in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – to love as we have been loved.

We enter the mystery of this Trinitarian relationship just as we do in any other relationship. We begin with a personal relationship, by coming to know the other and allowing the other to know us.  We begin by spending time with Jesus and opening ourselves up to him.  When this happens, all our other relationships begin to reflect – even if imperfectly – the perfect relationship of love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It all begins with the mystery of falling in love, and allowing ourselves to be loved in return.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and is the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.