Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Ezekiel 37:21-28
John 11:45-56

Reflection:

Today’s readings, woven together on this final day before Holy Week, portray a compelling portrait of our salvation history as a people of God. 

In the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel, God gathers his people (us) together as one “to bring them back to their land” (Heaven).  He proclaims that he will “make them one nation upon the land”.  “There shall be one prince (Jesus) for them all.  “Never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms” (good and evil).  He will “cleanse them so that they may be his people, and he may be their God”.  God appoints his servant David as the temporal prince and shepherd of his people.  However, 1,000 years later, Jesus will supersede David as the eternal Prince of Peace.  God goes on to proclaim that his people will live on this land forever.  That will include not only current generations but also their children and their children’s children forever…. Therefore, ultimately all nations and all peoples of the earth, even those yet to be born for the rest of time.  God says that he will multiply them and put his sanctuary among them forever.  He will make an everlasting covenant with his people through his son.  His sanctuary shall be set among us forever.

In John’s Gospel reading the anticipation of the imminent arrest, torture and death of this Prince of Peace and Shepherd of God’s people is real.  Some of the Jews had gone to the Pharisees to tell them what Jesus had done.  This presents a dilemma for the Jewish hierarchy.  “This man is performing many signs.  If we leave him alone, all will believe in him and the Romans will come and take both our land and our nation.  However, from the first reading we know that no one can take the land from God’s chosen people.  God’s sanctuary has been set up among us forever. 

Caiaphas, the high priest, becomes instrumental in salvation history.  He chastises his own people: “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”  The gospel proclaims that Caiaphas himself “prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.”  Isn’t that precisely what God had promised in the first reading.  Caiaphas could not have known how impactful his own words were.  “So, from that day on they planned to kill him.”  The wheels had been set in motion.   Jesus was going to come to Jerusalem for his final feast to offer himself up on a cross to fulfill what his father had proclaimed 1,000 years previously.  Still there were skeptics among the people: “They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”.   How could he not come to the feast?  It was, after all, his own feast that had been set in motion from the beginning of time. He was going to give up his life for the salvation of his people.

One week from today we will again be mourning and simultaneously celebrating the death of this Prince of Peace, the eternal Shepherd of God’s people.  He has come to fulfill the promise that his father had given to the Israelites 1,000 years before his birth.  In his final moments on the cross, Jesus expresses his own sentiment: “It is finished”.  By his own passion and death he has fulfilled that promise that his father had made to all of us so many centuries ago.  Thank you, Jesus.

Have a blessed Holy Week.  May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts.

Bill Berger has had a lifelong relationship with the Passionist Family.  Bill and his wife, Linda, are currently leaders of the Community of Passionist Partners (CPPs) in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 20:10-13
John 10:31-42

Reflection:

“The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?’”

This was Jesus’ response to their charge of blasphemy against him, that he is making himself God. Christ pointed to his works as the basis for faith in him as the Son. “Even if you do not believe me,” Jesus told his opponents, “believe the works…”

Furthermore, Jesus continued, it is God who has consecrated him as God’s son. His mention of consecration revealed the relationship between Jesus and the Feast of Dedication, which the people were celebrating.

The “rededication” was an eight-day festival commemorating Jewish independence under Judas Maccabaeus from Roman rule and the consecration of the temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C.

As the incarnate word, echoing the prologue in John’s gospel, whose body is the “temple,” Jesus is the one consecrated by the Father.

Nevertheless, instead of pressing the claim that “I and the Father are one,” Jesus pointed to his works.

Actions speak louder than words, Jesus was telling them. Jesus urged his opponents to believe his works, which bear witness to who he is. But they remained blind in their stubbornness.

In the case of Jesus, however, his actions as well as his words should have revealed his true character to them. Why? Because the actions of Jesus clearly aligned with his words.

Together, they should build trust and demonstrate reliability in Jesus.

Even so, Jesus emphasized his works. Works are always more powerful than words.

Words may convince the mind but works move the will to action.

Jesus continues to do the work of the Father today in us, Christ’s mystical body, as we serve one another as we build up the Body of Christ.

We see the work of Christ revealed to us most powerfully in the Eucharist. There, in the breaking of the bread, Christ gives us the grace to make our works match what we profess to believe.

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

Scripture:

Genesis 17:3-9
John 8:51-59

Reflection:

If I lived in Jesus’ time and heard him say some of the things that John reports, I would have joined the questioning and skeptical voices. After all, he was just a young man from Galilee who claimed that he existed before Abraham and that he knew God in a way even the elders and religious authorities didn’t. Besides, if what he said was true, it would change everything, even requiring those in power to bow before and serve others rather than the reverse.

In our present day, though, when we read Jesus’ claims, we think nothing of it, having gotten so comfortable in our Christianity that we barely pay attention to such statements. Yet, I wonder if we too blithely shrug our shoulders, too easily dismissing his statements and the accompanying challenges. I fear that God’s voice is crying out all around us, and we harden our hearts to the message. How seriously do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who has existed since before time? And what does it mean if we do? Has our Christianity become more of a set of cultural beliefs and familiar rituals instead of giving ourselves over to a supernatural, ever-living God whom we follow and worship above all else?

I know I sometimes catch myself shying away from God’s word because I know it requires changing my life. Giving up chocolate like I did as a kid doesn’t hold a candle to what Jesus asks of me now. What about giving up my own privilege and security – physical, financial, and social – in service to others? What about standing up for those without a voice rather than throwing stones from the comfort of my cushy recliner? What about taking the risk of speaking out against the injustices happening today?

These are the questions of Lent, especially as we approach the Passion. Jesus is crying out in our lives. God weeps that we stray so far from the divine covenant. When we hear God’s voice trying to break through in our hearts, in our lives, in our world today, I fall on my shaking knees and pray that we don’t harden our hearts. Let’s take Jesus seriously, reflect ever more deeply on his mission and mandate to us, and follow his teachings even if they lead to the cross.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
John 8:31-42

Reflection:

Coming to Believe

We meet the three young men who will not worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Bound tightly by the strongest men in the army they are thrown into a white hot furnace. But the God of Israel sends his angel to deliver those who will not serve or worship any other god.

Despite the red face of the King and the raised eyebrows of those at court, there is no emotion. Simply, young men will be faithful to their God; they are in for all.

John’s gospel shows us people coming to believe in Jesus. There are the great Lenten gospels of those who profess their belief in Jesus as the Son of God – the woman at the well, the man healed at the pool of Siloam, Martha and Mary at the raising of their brother Lazarus. We meet others searching, like Nicodemus, and Jesus’ apostles and disciples who listen and follow Jesus teaching.

Jesus, who is sent by the Father and is one with the Father, will do the will of his Father. Unlike Isaac, the son of Abraham, whom God prevented from being sacrificed. Jesus, the Son of the Father, embraces suffering and death on the Cross. The Father’s love for us is shared by the one who does the Father’s will. Like the young men who enter the furnace even if God should choose not to save them, Jesus does the will of the Father, drinking from the chalice of suffering, trustingly laying down his life that all might be saved in this act of love.

The nails of the cross do not yield, Elijah does not come, but the bonds of death do not hold Jesus bound.

John’s gospel is the story of coming to life in Jesus. Those we meet in the Gospel who did not believe, those who do not believe now, all are invited to the mystery of God’s love at work among us. From the Cross, John’s Gospel says that the last breath of Jesus breathed over his Spirit upon those gathered beneath the Cross. That is all of us.

Pope Francis offered a prayer during the days of Easter celebration. He shows us the Risen Lord, his mother Mary, kneeling before the Father, present too is the Holy Spirit. Jesus shows his wounds to the Father and says, ‘Father, remember how much we love them’.

John’s Gospel is a love story. One of sacrificial love for all of us. It draws us to God’s love for us.

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

Scripture:

Numbers 21:4-9
John 8:21-30

Reflection:

In our first reading from Numbers, the Israelites, out of frustration and exhaustion and impatience, complain against God and Moses, and God punishes them by sending saraph serpents who bite the people, and many of them die. The people repent, and ask Moses to intercede for them. And in response, God tells Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, mount it on a pole, “and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover.”

In our Gospel reading from John, Jesus is again trying to tell the people who He is. Finally, Jesus says to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.”

When we reflect on Jesus on the Cross, can we believe that the love and sacrifice demonstrated there really come from God? Can we believe God really loves us that much? I ask the question because if we really do believe in God’s love for us, then we can look at Jesus on the Cross, and, like the Israelites in the desert bitten by the serpent, we, too, can “recover.”

We can recover from despair and anxiety. We can recover from anger and bitterness. We can recover from prejudice and hatred and fear. We can recover from weariness and apathy and complacency.

Jesus is I AM for us. Jesus is God’s love revealed to us. May we look upon Him and see His love and sacrifice and be healed.

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

Scripture:

Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62
John 8:12-20

Reflection:

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
‘Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?’
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.’  -Matthew 18:1-5

This morning entering the local restaurant where I was meeting a friend for our regular Friday morning breakfast, I passed a booth with a mother and two young children, three and five years old, or something like that. The youngest, a little girl, caught my eye, so I waved and smiled. Immediately, her older brother joined in on the meeting and I waved at him too—a delightful encounter. I winked at mom and then on to securing a booth and waiting for my friend.

Such an encounter often reminds me of my first-year English class where we read and discussed George Eliot’s “Silas Marner, The Weaver of Raveloe”. George Eliot was the penname of Mary Anne Evans for women wouldn’t be considered serious novelists in 1861 when it was published. Briefly, the plot is a marginalized weaver in the early 1800’s finds a child at his front door, takes the child in and raises the little girl all the while trying to find her parents. The child grows up, the parents are eventually discovered, but the young lady stays with the poor weaver. The poor weaver in the process gets involved in the community, gives up his infatuation with money, and reenters the life from which he earlier fled because of false accusations made against him. All this because of a child, a needy child, a needy abandoned child.

Jesus, help me heed your above admonition to your disciples in today’s gospel selection to receive the needy, child or adult, into my life and trust in your promise that truly I am receiving you.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Scripture:

Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8: 1-11

Reflection:

In Paul’s letter to the people of Philippi, the remarkable apostle to the Gentiles captures what I feel in moments of deep connection to Christ.

These moments can come when I spend extended time in prayer. But I also feel this connection in surprises, like when the entire family stands around the dining table before a holiday meal to hold hands in thankful prayer, or when I am absorbed in a beautiful Sunday Mass, or sit in my garden and pull weeds, feeling the cool breeze wash my face in the sun light.

There are other times when I experience a great chasm between Christ and me. Without warning, these occur when an idea, a worry, an object, a feeling, or another person, becomes more important than my love of Christ. I am then beholden to “rubbish”, in Paul’s words.

Ignatius, in his profound Spiritual Exercises, tells us an indifference sets the stage to experience to Christ’s presence in our lives:

In our everyday life . . . we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a  more loving response to our life forever with God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me.

One remarkable Jesuit spiritual director, the late Mike Brophy, SJ, called this “poised freedom.” We are free to meet Christ every day in people, places, and events.

Jesus reveals his own poised freedom in today’s Gospel. The top-flight Jewish leaders want to catch him messing with Mosaic law to justify his expulsion from their faith community. Bringing to him a woman caught in adultery, Jesus is Mr. Cool. He bends down and doodles in the dust. It is like playing with one’s cell phone while someone is trying to get your attention on a life-or-death issue.

Jesus is confident, at peace with himself. The men in authority don’t ruffle him, nor does the legal issue at hand disturb his inner serenity. He doodles. He waits. He makes a comment at the right moment. He is totally aligned with his Father’s will. He experiences poised freedom.

Cultivating poised freedom in ourselves requires the total commitment to Christ of which Paul speaks. It is something that grace alone permits.

To ask for this grace is appropriate during this time of Lent.

I certainly welcome moments when Christ breaks into my life with surprises. But entering periods of prayer with a detached mind can make space for grace to elevate daily routines to be foretastes of heaven.

Pull away from all that distracts you today. Place yourself in the presence of God. Experience poised freedom that gives you peace and joy. It is there for the asking.

Jim Wayne is a member of St Agnes Catholic Community in Louisville, Kentucky, a Passionist parish. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives for 28 years, is the author of the award winning novel, The Unfinished Man, and is a clinical social worker.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 11:18-20
John 7:40-53

Reflection:

As we journey through this Lenten season, the daily Scriptures increasingly reveal the growing conflict that will ultimately lead to Jesus’ crucifixion.

Today’s Gospel highlights deep divisions in the group of people who surround Jesus from its opening verses to its final line. First, we hear how the crowd is split. Some declare Jesus to be a prophet, while others insist, he is more than a prophet, calling him the Christ. Following this, disputes arise over his origins. John sums up that section with these words, “So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.”

The division extends beyond the crowd. The Pharisees clash with the guards, who are hesitant to arrest Jesus. Even among the Pharisees themselves, there is conflict and division. Some are quick to condemn Jesus without even following their law. Others caution against judgment without following the law.  

The final line is brazenly symbolic of this division; “Then each went to his own house.” It is a striking image of separation. In a sense, John has mapped out a picture of how diabolical divisions can be.  The divisions John has named have torn the fabric of their community.

Remember, this passage comes from the Gospel of John, nicknamed by some the Gospel of Belief.  Throughout John’s Gospel, we see a sharp contrast between believers and unbelievers. Every sign, every encounter is an encouragement leading people to believe.  Layered through this whole gospel is the great division of believers and non-believers. Scripture scholars remind us of how this reflects the troubles that existed within the post-resurrection Johannine community.

Listening to John’s Gospel, the author creates a duality between believers and unbelievers much like the “us” and “them” language of today’s reality. Do you see the numerous parallels between John’s divided community and our modern divided world? A significant difference is how John’s divisions were centered on religion, not politics. 

In today’s divided world, we have become overly cautious about everything we say, knowing that it will inevitably be viewed through a political lens. Almost everything is interpreted as a political statement. Sadly, we have lost the ability to see actions and motivations through other equally valid perspectives, such as economics and religion. So, when people ask me to help sift through it all, I merely say we have to be true to our discipleship. Jesus was pretty simple. He told us to love people and care about people.

Using the lenses of politics to pollute Jesus’ instructions is sinful. It doesn’t get more basic than Matthew 25: When I was hungry you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink… To summarize, when I was a person in need, you helped me. And Jesus sums it up by saying, “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me.” These simple and basic words continue to challenge us two thousand years later.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P., is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.