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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.

Scripture:

James 3:1-10
Mark 9:2-13

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading for today, we hear the account in Mark’s Gospel of the Transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of the apostles Peter, James and John. These three get a glimpse of Jesus’ glorified self, and see the promise of what will happen after His Passion and death. In seeing Elijah and Moses, they are made aware of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. And in hearing the voice from the heavens say, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him,” they get an affirmation that not only is Jesus the Messiah, He is both divine and human. In other words, they get a glimpse of Jesus’ total self, as the Son of God, as the fulfillment of the Law, and as the One foretold by the prophets.

It is in faith that we can open ourselves to be transformed by God’s love in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is in faith that we can reveal God’s compassion and love in Jesus Christ to others. To show compassion and mercy in these times of division and hostility definitely takes trust in “evidence of things not seen,” but by the grace of God, it is being done all over the world, and it can be done by us!

May we live out our faith in Jesus Christ as instruments of God’s love, and work together for the transfiguration of the world.

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

Scripture:

1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34
Mark 8:1-10

Reflection:

Jesus tested his disciples.  For three days, the crowd of 4,000 had followed him, listening to his teaching.  But now they were in the wilderness and hungry.  So what was Jesus to do?  “If I send them away hungry, they will collapse on the way.”  Yet, all they have for so many are seven loaves.

But is Jesus testing his disciples solely on how to physically feed this hungry throng, or does he have more in mind?  The word “collapse” provides a clue.  That word is used elsewhere in the New Testament to mean “losing heart” or “getting discouraged in the face of trial.”

Could Jesus be challenging his disciples, coaxing them to see beyond the physical needs of people; to see, more importantly, the need for spiritual nourishment of those who, in following Jesus, may grow discouraged or weakened in the faith?  Will their easy solution be to send them away?  Or will the disciples, in faith, give their meager gift of bread to Jesus who can multiply it, enough to feed everyone?

In fact, Jesus takes the bread and gives thanks (eucharisteo).  Then he directs his disciples to distribute this eucharistic meal, making them his co-workers in feeding the hungry.  All ate, the gospel tells us, “and were satisfied.”  Indeed – with seven baskets left over.

Perhaps in testing them, Jesus gave his disciples a lesson in what will be their future pastoral ministry.  And he gave us a lesson, too, on the vital necessity of feeding of the Bread of Life, especially when we’ve traveled a long way and sometimes feel discouraged in the face of life’s trials.

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

Scripture:

2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
Mark 5:1-20

Reflection:

Today’s Word gives us an opportunity to reflect on “God’s Providence.” Simply put, the same God who gave being to the world continues to govern its affairs, including yours and mine. When this reality of “providence” comes to mind, “obedience” is immediately associated. But may I suggest the word “creativity?” John Macquarrie sums it up well:

“Faith in providence asserts that creativity has a positive character…Creativity is not just a random creativity, or one that might be overcome by dissolution and annihilation, or even halted and held steady by these. Rather it is an ordered movement into fuller and richer kinds of being. Faith in providence asserts this definitive movement in the creation, an overcoming of deficiency and distortions and a fuller realizing of potentialities…” (Principles of Christian Theology, p. 219)

Yes, God’s Providence is evident in King David, whose family history is complicated, pathetic, sordid, brilliant and successful, yet burdened with blotches of adultery and homicide in the case of Bathsheba and Uriah. Now confronted with a son in revolt and seeking his life, David advises restraint (that the clansman related to Saul should not be executed for cursing David) and he attributes the situation to God’s Providence. He declares, “Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord has told me to. Perhaps the Lord will look upon my affliction and make it up to me with benefits for the curse he is uttering this day.” (2 Sam. 16:12)         God’s Providence shows itself in this “crazy” incident whereby Jesus encounters a demoniac, “man out of the tombs,” a “legion” of evil spirits inside of him. “No one could restrain him anymore, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountain he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.” (Mk. 5:5) Jesus meets this chaotic reality with patience and compassion, and the man ends up sitting calmly, fully clothed and in his right mind. But, evil looks for evil. Among the native Jewish Gerasene people, the Gentile influence had them earn a living in a manner that was against Jewish law, herding swine. “Legion” begs Jesus “not to send them out of the country.” So Jesus gave them permission, and the “unclean spirit came out and entered some 2000 swine who rushed into the sea and were drowned. Take a moment to ponder this whole scene, including Jesus sending the restored man back to his home territory and to the Decapolis to publicly announce what Jesus had done for him, and, Jesus being asked to leave the region, which he did.

Can I recommit in prayer today my trust and cooperation in the Will and guidance from God? St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter; “Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.” (The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, Ed. Elizabeth F. Rogers)

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.

Monday of the Third Week of Advent 

Scripture:

Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a
Matthew 21:23-27

Reflection:

Spirit-filled Balaam cries out his oracle and portrays for us the image of a great person called forth to speak on behalf of the Lord:

…One whose eye is true, the utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled.

Balaam sees Israel in its most pure state, and praises it, likening its tents and encampments to gardens beside a stream, like cedars that were planted by the Lord himself.  You know something amazing is about to flow from the mouth of this servant of the Lord!  And then he says it:  “I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near:  A star shall advance from Jacob, and a staff shall rise from Israel.”  Imagine, Balaam looks upon the stronghold of Israel but announces the coming of a messiah who comes not from the encampments but a child to be born in a stable!

But we see him!  We see this “star advancing from Jacob”, this “staff rising from Israel” for it is Jesus, the Lord.  We see him in the temple area preaching and teaching with great authority.  But the chief priests and the elders do not see what Balaam saw; they do not see what we now see.  They wonder at his authority instead of the truth of his words.  Their eyes are veiled and not clear.  They are lost in their own power!

How fitting that these days we await the coming of the Lord, a coming that is pure and simple, not veiled with power and authority, but in the unexpected and amazing birth of a little child.  Is this not how the Lord works in our lives?  He catches our attention by drawing us to a newborn babe, vulnerable and innocent, carefully avoiding the mighty and powerful rulers and kings!

Fr. Pat Brennan, CP is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.