Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Daniel, 9:4b-10
Luke 6:36-38

Reflection:

The author of the Book of Daniel lays it on thick in today’s first reading: “We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets…who spoke to all the people.”

These words are not addressed just to God’s people thousands of years ago. They are addressed to us, God’s people in the Twenty-First Century. To us. Now.

The message of today’s prophets is clear: we are on a self-destructive path, completely contrary to God’s will.

These living prophets, like Bill McKibben and Al Gore, cannot be blunter. To keep emitting fossil fuels into the atmosphere results in deadly consequences. We are destroying God’s amazing gift of creation in the name of immediate convenience and comfort. We transport ourselves in vehicles that cloud our blue skies as we heat and cool ourselves with similar CO2 poisons. We enjoy a world of petroleum-based products, from asphalt to plastics to automobiles at our own peril.

Consequently, the predicted environmental doomsday is happening as your read this. Droughts, floods, storms, and melting ice caps are altering our world in tragic ways.

But another deadly sin threatens us as well. Arming ourselves with enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on earth multiple times over is the work of the Devil, plain and simple.

The third major social sin of our lives is the scandalous wealth gap. As the population of the world mushrooms, billions are left struggling to keep body and soul together while the idle rich waste their wealth on silly extravagances.

As a counterforce to these evils, these sins, we are called to conversion of heart by God’s grace. “But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness,” the first reading assures us.

The greatest prophet of our time is Pope Francis. In his preaching and writings, he calls us out as Daniel called out the people of his moment in history. The pope tells us now is the time of conversion of heart to turn away from fossil fuels, nuclear weapons, and greed.

Taking seriously his wisdom, we are invited to listen in quiet prayer for the Holy Spirit to lead us to live more simply and in total dependency on God.

In doing so we follow our own consciences and don’t personally judge others, which is the message of the Gospel today. No gossip, no badmouthing others, no shunning or discrimination. We are to be merciful as God is with us, which is a tall order.

By God’s grace, we will be saved from ourselves. Let us beg for this grace.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Genesis 12:1-4a
2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Matthew 17:1-9

Reflection:

The LORD said to Abram:
‘Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.’
-Genesis 12:1

And he was transfigured before them…
Matthew 17:2

Anyone who is raised in the Christian faith knows that we are called to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Additionally, those of us who are Catholic are called to follow the teachings and traditions that have been handed down to us through the millennia by the Church. And yet, today’s readings remind us that us being called is something even greater than simply following.

Consider Abram. He was called by God to leave everything he knew, his family, his land, his culture, his entire way of life. Yes, he was still to be a herdsman, but if you have ever done any traveling, you know that when you go to a foreign land, even the seemingly normal can be transformed into the unknown. Abram wasn’t given any instructions beyond, “Go!” and still he went. Yes, the rewards he was promised were great. But Abram was no spring chicken. (We’re told he was 75 years old). I still have a few years before I reach that milestone, and already I find myself deeply resisting change in my life.

In the gospel we hear of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The three disciples that are with him,] are at a loss as to what to do. Peter, bless his heart, wants to set up camp! But I am reminded of what Jesus said in John 14:12: “…whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these…” Are we called to be transfigured as Jesus was?

This is the call of Lent. To be transformed, to leave behind our old ways, to allow God to transfigure us so we can see ourselves as His beloved daughters and sons. This Lent it is my prayer that we be responsive to, and participate in, the transformative power of God.

Talib Huff is a retired teacher and a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You can contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Matthew 5:20-26

Reflection:

Each of us has what we might call ‘deep story’ – a narrative that tells the world who we truly are. Of concern is that often our story is unspoken, unrevealed to the world of relationships around us and sometimes not even known to ourselves. Yet our truth, our story, is written in the language of wisdom and grace, is familiar to God and indeed is authored by the indwelling Spirit of God. It is the story of not only our capacity to give life and light to others, but is the revelation of our true nature, as one loved by God, created in God’s own image, and nurtured each day by the Spirit of our risen Lord.

From such an inner space we often hear verses of our story ‘whispered’ to us in that soft voice of God offering gentle encouragements, quiet refrains of advice and directing us towards love in all we do.

God reveals to us over a lifetime who were truly are. However, the development of our capacity to hear God’s voice and to know ourselves is achieved by accepting the need to be guided in this endeavour.

Jesus offers such guidance to us in today’s gospel. He stresses the need to ‘go deeper’ to reach into our true nature if we are to face life and live it as a child of God. To follow Jesus is to live from inner motivations and values, values that are God given and lead us to behave in deeply human ways and not merely external compliance with the minimum standards of civility and law.

Rather, we are to strive to tame angry moments, embrace good relations, and allow forgiveness to surface and guide our actions. Virtue and righteousness are deep values and inner treasures, and to live by them allows God’s reign – a reign of love – to grow in our world.

Someone once shared with me how he’d been helping at a soup kitchen and was ladling out the stew – thin and watery as it was on top since the meat had by now sunk to the depths of the pot. As one homeless person approached, he asked the server, ‘Dig deep brother, give me some of the good stuff”. He wanted to be nourished by what lay deep within the stew pot. We have a similar capacity to bring light to the world from our very depths.

Let us dig deep into our values and live from them as Jesus asks.

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

Scripture:

Ester C:12, 14-16, 23-25
Matthew 7:7-12

Reflection:

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the three traditional Lenten practices. And today’s readings are about the practice of prayer, specifically, prayers of petition (for ourselves) and intercession (for others).

In our first reading from Esther, we find the young queen begging God for her own life and interceding for the life of her people. The Jews are a minority group in Babylonia, and at the mercy of a capricious king. And in our Gospel reading for today, we have Jesus’ assurance that “your heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask him.” Mt 7:11

Esther lived in a community of exiled Jews in Babylonia, far from her homeland of Israel. She was an orphan, raised by her older cousin Mordechai, who was prominent in the Jewish community. When Esther was in her late teens, King Xerxes held a mandatory beauty contest to find a new queen, and Esther, who was very beautiful, was chosen. When she was moved into the palace to live in the king’s harem, Mordechai warned her not to tell anyone that she was Jewish.

A few years later, Mordechai refused to bow to the prime Minister, a man named Haman. To get revenge, Haman ordered all the Jews to be killed. When Mordechai heard of this, he went to Esther and asked her to intercede for the Jews with the king. Esther risked her life by revealing her identity as a Jew and going to the king to plead with him to have mercy on her people. Before she did this however, she fasted and prayed for three days.

Today’s first reading gives us a snapshot of Esther’s prayer: “ Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness, and our sorrows into wholeness.”

Esther’s prayers are answered. Not only are she and the other Jews in Babylon saved from death, but her cousin Mordechai becomes the new Prime Minister.

We may pray for the deliverance of a group of people from genocide, as Esther did. Or our prayer may be for ourselves: we may pray for the strength and insight to navigate a health problem or a difficult relationship. Sometimes the prayers are answered in dramatic ways, through the web of relationships in a community, as happened with Esther. Sometimes the gift we receive is the quiet and sure awareness that we are never alone.

This Lent, as we pray for ourselves and others, let us pray with confidence. Today’s responsorial psalm from Psalm 138 sums it up: “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.”

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.

Scripture:

Jonah 3:1-10
Luke 11:29-32

Reflection:

Deuteronomy 7:7 gives the breath-taking words of God spoken to Moses: ‘Moses, do you think I chose this people because they are the greatest of nations? No, quite the contrary, they are the least among the nations of the world. I chose them because my heart has fallen in love with them’. This chosen people will be a light to all people. God’s Word does not return to God empty. It bears fruit; it fulfills its mission.

What a strange prophet is Jonah, God’s word bearer sent to the people of Nineveh. He boards a ship going in the opposite direction to flee from God! Was he afraid the Ninevites would kill him? Perhaps not, because he asks no less than three times for death! Fear of death doesn’t seem to be a problem. Poor Jonah, he sleeps through God’s response to his desertion, and then how he must have cringed at the reverence of the pagan crew who cannot believe that he would do such a thing.

The whale spits Jonah on the shore and for a second time he is given his commission as prophet to preach God’s word of conversion to the Ninevites. We don’t know what Jonah says really. I imagine after asking the people on the beach for directions, he told them their whole land would soon be destroyed by God. His unhappy and unwilling presence, his uninviting personality did not bring hellos and smiles from the Ninevites, but to his surprise conversion was totally embraced. Even the king says, ‘let everyone renounce evil behavior and the wickedness they have done’. 

Could Jonah have skipped his short walk, his overreacting to God’s never-ending mercy, which triggers a new wave of anger and another request to die? Could it have been the people on the beach who saw Jonah come forth from the whale and who went to the King saying someone eaten by a fish just came out alive on our shore? Did they interpret his damp arrival as a sign from the God of Israel: Behold my best prophet Jonah who is for you a ‘sign of life’ if you change?

Jonah will ask only one more time to die. Then he gets it together enough to realize that he has a long walk back home. No ship would dare take him. ‘Jonah’, the captains said shaking their heads. His story traveled fast, and so it goes even to this day. But he really didn’t ever want to go anywhere on a boat again.

In the end Jonah, perhaps an old, grandfatherly figure matured in faith who can laugh, realizes he was the indeed the message, God’s sign of life. God even enjoyed his ‘creative alternatives’ and his acting out. Apparently, they invited God’s playfulness with a prophet in the true Spirit of Israel, one of the least who was chosen. “How better to demonstrate to the simple Ninevites that God is a God of life, a God who brings life from the dead. What better way to show hope than for God choice of this hopeless prophet”? Jonah laughs. “God said he enjoyed praying with me. I said, ‘playing with me’? God said, “no, Jonah, all was prayer between you and I. Ours is a story of lavish mercy, of new life. Thanks for playing!” Jonah concludes: “I tell you as a prophet, my story only points to a greater story yet to unfold”. God’s Word does not return to God empty. It bears fruit; it fulfills its mission.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

How do we pray?

We are all familiar with the Our Father as Jesus gave us in today’s scripture.  It is a prayer most of us learned as a child.  In a trip to the Holy Land many years ago, I visited the Church of the Pater Noster (Lord’s Prayer).  Constantine had this church built on the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, foretold the terrible destruction of Jerusalem and revealed his last coming and the end of the world.(Mt. 24:1-3, Lk. 21:5-7).  Over the years, the Church of the Pater Noster was destroyed several times.  In 1868 Princess Aurelia de Bossi de la Tour d’Auvergne, purchased the land and donated it to France.  In 1875 she built a convent for the order of the Carmelite nuns.  Inside the church and on the walls of the cloister the Lord’s Prayer is written in 62 languages.  It is a moving experience to realize the vastness of the Kingdom of God at prayer!

How do we pray?

As I prepared to write this reflection, I call upon the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and guidance that my thoughts and words may inspire and nurture those who meditate upon this message. She never fails!  Over the past several weeks and continuing to the present, we are witnessing a profound experience of the Holy Spirit at work in our area.  The site is Asbury University located in Wilmore, Kentucky.  Several weeks ago students gathered for a routine morning chapel gathering, but rather than head to class afterward, students stayed and continued to worship.  As the weeks go by people of all ages, from near and far have joined in this celebration.  For those who come they say they are experiencing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit!  Hundreds and thousands are tuning in on social media and in person to spend time in prayer! Wow!

How do we pray?

During this season of Lent, we are called to spend more time in prayer, to enter into the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We don’t necessarily have to travel to Asbury University or the Church of the Pater Noster, to experience life-changing prayer experiences.  During this season of Lent, we can set quiet time aside each day for personal prayer, we can attend Stations of the Cross, we can meditate on the Lenten scriptures, we can make a retreat or attend a parish mission.  We can fast from social media, playing games, texting, etc., and instead make a personal visit or place a phone call to a lonely or grieving person.  Whatever we choose to do this Lent, may it be a time of personal transformation, opening us to the Spirit who walks with us through the desert, stands with us at the cross, and ultimately joins us in celebration at the open tomb.  Have a Blessed and Challenging Lent!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Matthew 25:31-46

Reflection:

I was sitting in a parking lot late the other night, waiting for my husband’s vehicle to be towed. He had been trying to deliver a work van to a store, and the van died at the top of a ramp, so he coasted down into this parking lot. We were in a part of town that wasn’t familiar to us, with several people loitering around the area. As he talked with the wrecker driver, a man in a wheelchair rolled up to the passenger side of my car. He had this beautiful smile and was asking me if everything was ok. I nodded yes, smiled back, and figured he would roll along. But instead, he came to the driver’s side where I was sitting. He had a kind face (I know, those of you who are safety-minded like I usually am are now cringing). But he started talking to me about his name – they called him Futt (pronounced foot) – he said it was because he didn’t have any toes on one foot. I rolled my window down, as I tried to follow his story.

And then, he started singing this beautiful melody, and after a few seconds I started harmonizing to him. I prayed that I would remember the tune, but I cannot. And then he stopped singing and he said, “I wish everyone could have a Christian spirit like you. I wish everybody would stop seeing black and white people and just see people. I wish we could just all be one together.”

When my husband got back into the car, I shook Mr. Futt’s hand. He asked if I could spare a couple of bucks so he could get a burger, and I obliged. I shook his hand again and thanked him for the few minutes we got to talk to each other and share some music. I couldn’t stop smiling as we drove away – and I didn’t feel happy because I did something nice. I felt honored and blessed – honored and blessed that someone shared themselves in such a beautiful way with me and trusted me to be kind to them for just a few moments.

“For I was hungry, and you gave me no food, …  a stranger and you gave me no welcome.” Be Christ to others. Don’t worry about their color, their wealth, or their clothes. Let God bring people into your path who you can share even a moment’s joy with and give yourself the opportunity to feel the blessing of kindness to another human being.

Patty Masson is the Director for Adult Formation and Evangelization at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Spring, Texas.

Scripture:

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

Reflection:

In our first reading for Sunday (Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7), we hear the account of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. When the serpent asks Eve, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” Eve replies, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent says, “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.”

The serpent was right that Adam and Eve did not die on the spot when they ate of the fruit. But their sin, as St. Paul writes in our second reading (Romans 5:12-19), did lead to death. In the book of Genesis, after God realizes that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit forbidden to them, God casts them out of the garden, and prevents them from eating of the tree of life, so that they could not live forever (Genesis 3:21-24).

As I have reflected on this, I see how knowing what is good and what is evil has led to the death of many in other ways. Instead of trying to discern what is good and what is evil in certain situations, we human beings have often fallen into the temptation to play God, and have decided to take it upon ourselves to decide who is good and who is evil, and have felt justified in taking the life of others.

In our Gospel reading (Matthew 4:1-11), we are told that Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. As was the case with Adam and Eve, the devil tempts Jesus to play God, but not God as God is, but God as according to a twisted notion of what it is to be God. This twisted notion of God has to do with a worldly understanding of what to do with power. Worldly wisdom says to use power to force others to your will and thus benefit yourself.

So, since Jesus is hungry after fasting for forty days and forty nights, the devil tempts Jesus to turn the stones into bread – bending nature to His will. Then the devil takes Jesus to the top of the temple, and tells Him to throw Himself down, knowing that the Father will rescue Him – bending the Father to His will. Then the devil takes Jesus to the top of a mountain overlooking all the nations of the world, and promises Him dominion over it all, if only He would prostrate Himself before him – bending others to His will.

Thank God that Jesus resisted these temptations! Instead of forcing us to do His will, Jesus offered Himself up for our salvation! Again, from our second reading: “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned…But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”

How much does the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ overflow for us! If we get in touch with that, we can just be grateful. We can let go of trying to play God, and instead try to please God, lifting each other up instead of hoping to bend others to our will.

May we let God be God. May we open ourselves to God’s love, and may we share God’s love with all.

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