Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Isaiah 40:25-31
Matthew 11:28-30

Reflection:

Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint. -Isaiah 40:30-31

Recently, a good friend sent several visuals that spoke to me and to many of the people to whom I forwarded them. One picture of an abandoned, emaciated two-year-old child being coaxed to take nourishment from a woman of a different tribe especially spoke to my heart. Alongside that visual was another picture of that same child sometime later who was now healthy and in the arms of that same beautiful compassionate woman who eventually adopted him.

What I find so mesmerizing in this vision is that it’s not a big powerful healthy, beautiful, well-clothed, prosperous, executive (something I once thought I wanted to be) who moves my heart. No, it’s the (and I’m crying as I write this) weak, needy, malnourished, little baby reaching out for love that moves me. Hallelujah! God sends this woman, an aid worker, who responds with love, and voila, we have new life. In all our great deeds (no doubt there are many), and with all the money our world spends on weapons of mass destruction and instruction (trillions and trillions) I never have felt so much hope.

God, help me gratefully respond to the gifts (the poor, the needy, the marginalized, the powerless…) you send me today and “to run and not grow weary” as Isaiah tells us to do in today’s scripture selection and as the lady mentioned above so well demonstrated.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 40: 1-11
Matthew 18:12-14

Reflection:

Advent invites us to ponder deeply who we are in light of God becoming one of us, flesh and blood in real time and space… the Incarnation.  No other faith tradition even attempts to claim this as truth in the way Christianity does. In the first century, the Incarnation set the disciples and others in the Christian communities apart from the Jews, the Samaritans and other Middle Eastern neighbors as well as from the Greeks and the Romans. It still sets Christians apart.

Why did God become a human? To do something that was foretold, in retrospect in Isaiah, that answers every human longing, every human fear: Jesus liberates us from all slavery, especially the enslavement caused by our fear of the great unknown, death.

Today’s Gospel emphasizes the tender outreach of Jesus to everyone who is lost and scared. The lost sheep is another metaphoric way Jesus tells us how God loves us and how we are to love. This Good Shepherd spends time and energy to risk finding the one sheep who has gone it alone. He goes to the margins to find the animal, save the dumb creature from multiple threats in the wilderness, including the threat of death, and places it in the protection of the flock (i.e., the Christian community) and the Shepherd.

To imitate the Good Shepherd, we need look no further than our families, parishes, neighborhoods and cities to find people lost, excluded, threatened and scared. Jesus asks us to notice them, seek them out, listened to them, extend a hand, and pay attention…to value them.

Today’s first reading Isaiah addresses those returning from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem. It adds to our understanding of tending to lost sheep: “Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” And “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, leading the ewes with care.”

In our abiding in Jesus, in John’s 15^th Chapter, we are commanded to do something. Let that doing be to find lost sheep all around us who need comfort, feeding, carrying and to be led. This is the fruit of our union with our Good Shepherd.

Taking time today to listen to our Shepherd and then do what we are instructed to do is glorifying God. There is no greater work in the world today. This work, done in union with the God-man, offers comfort to us in our own fears, worries and doubts.

Take a few quiet moments to ponder abiding in Jesus the Good Shepherd and letting him abide in you.

Good will result.

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

Second Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12

Reflection:

The “Best” Is Yet to Come!

Today’s Gospel presents the great Advent figure of John the Baptist, boldly making his appearance as an ardent and eccentric preacher in the desert of Judea.  He attracted large crowds, proclaiming “…repent!  The Kingdom of heaven is at hand…”.  Yes, the best is yet to come…Jesus!

John the Baptist seems a very serious person, lacking a sense of humor – a no-nonsense guy.  He has been characterized as a Bible-thumping, fire and brimstone preacher, eccentric as he wore his simple camel hair clothes and fed on locusts and wild honey…likely not the kind of person you’d invite home for dinner with your family.  He openly proclaimed that the One to follow him was more powerful than himself, and that now is the time to get ready! 

And, when you think about it, that’s the way that God often works:  God often surprises us with something more than we could have hoped for or imagined.  We can be confident about the future, about better things to come, because we can look to the past and see how God has been at work.  In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear the prophecy of a “shoot sprouting from the stump of Jesse” – new and luxuriant growth – after the destruction brought about by King Ahaz in his weak and unfaithful rule over the country.  Isaiah looked for a human king, but we have the fuller picture in the person of Jesus who proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven…more than we could have ever hoped for!

Today we look forward to a better future for ourselves and our world.  World-wide challenges exist:  health pandemics, violence and mistrust, prejudice and racism, a lack of the basics of life, selfishness, major environmental issues, etc.  This Advent John the Baptist points us to Jesus and reminds us that “better things are to come…repent, change…the Kingdom is at hand!”  Don’t stay stuck in the past; have a change of heart, let Jesus and the Kingdom of God transform our world.

During this first part of Advent – up to December 16 – the Church helps us focus on the 2^nd coming of Jesus, when God will bring all creation to “perfection”.  Today we’re in touch with our need for a Savior, both now and in the future.  John the Baptist challenges us to be hope-filled, confident in God’s ongoing love and mercy.  God does much more than make promises – the best…Jesus… is yet to come!

Together, as God’s family we pray:  Come, O come, Emmanuel!

Fr. John Schork, C.P. serves as the Province Vocation Director and also as Local Superior of the Passionist Community of Holy Name in Houston, Texas.  

Scripture:

Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26
Matthew 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8

Reflection:

A starting point for our reflection on today’s gospel might well be the phrase ‘summoned and sent’. That is, the dynamic movement of being called to come close to the Lord and in turn being commissioned by him to go out to others, seems to be at the heart of discipleship. Furthermore, discipleship itself seems to be at the heart of the growth of God’s reign in this world.

While Jesus inaugurated and announced the ‘kingdom’, today’s gospel is a powerful reminder that the growth of this same kingdom comes about through human effort. Of course, our efforts must be modelled on Jesus own life and mission, but nevertheless we play a vital part in keeping alive that mission today.  In this context we might better understand the passion and urgency Jesus expresses in his own prayer, a prayer he asks us to make our own and continue praying – “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest”.

If the sight of Jesus being moved by the plight of the people, and his deep desire to respond to their need as seen in his healing actions, was not enough indication of our worth, then his language in assigning ownership of the harvest (our world) to God makes it quite clear. The harvest, perhaps a similar image to that of the ‘field’ in many of the parables, is God’s own possession. We are God’s people and God’s focus, and the Lord’s desire is to shepherd us and hold at bay from us all evil or illness.

So, to be a disciple in our world, is not just to seek the company of Jesus, but to listen to his commission and to go out in his name.

The themes of movement, proclamation, and compassionate response to suffering fill out the role description for discipleship even more. We may not have to travel to distant places, but we do need to be able to move and change and adapt ourselves to new situations and challenges. We may not have to preach in a public sphere, but we do need to illustrate by our lives and values that which we believe. We may not have the skills to cure a particular illness, but we are all capable of healing situations or relationships.

We have all received unique gifts and talents from the Lord, we are only asked to spend them in service of the growth of God’s reign in hearts, minds and our world itself – “You have received without cost, give without cost”.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 29:17-24
Matthew 9:27-31

Reflection:

“And out of gloom and darkness,
the eyes of the blind shall see.” Is 29:18

In both of today’s readings, we hear about God healing physical blindness. In the New Testament, Jesus frequently made a comparison between those who were physically blind and those that were spiritually blind. The Scriptures also frequently use the analogy of being blind to being spiritually lost. One of our most beloved hymns, “Amazing Grace” also expresses this experience of being spiritually lost as a form of blindness:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound/
That saved a wretch like me/
I once was lost, but now I’m found/
Was blind but now I see.

The author of “Amazing Grace,” John Newton, was born in 1725 in England. Following in his father’s footsteps, Newton began his life searching throughout the African coast for slaves to capture and sell for profit. On one journey, Newton and his crew encountered a storm that swept some of his men overboard and left others with the likelihood of drowning. With hands fastened onto the wheel of the boat, Newton cried out to God saying, “Lord, have mercy on us.” After eleven hours of steering, the remainder of the crew found safety with the calming of the storm. This experience was the beginning of Newton’s conversion. Eventually Newton quit the slave trade, studied for the ministry, and became active in the abolitionist movement. Newton’s literary work against the slave trade encouraged abolitionist William Wilberforce to continue his legal fight against slavery. And in 1807, British Parliament voted to abolish the Atlantic slave trade.

Like John Newton, we too can free people from slavery. For those near to us enslaved by loneliness, we can give our presence and care. For those enslaved by pollution and poverty, we can care for Earth and the poor. We can use our power as consumers to purchase sustainably, and our power as citizens to promote policies that protect vulnerable lands and people. Each Advent is another opportunity to “take the blinders off” in our lives, pull out of the gloom and darkness, and turn to the light, to the amazing grace that is offered us in Jesus.

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:

Romans 10:9-18
Matthew 4:18-22

Reflection:

Imagine being a fisherman – your livelihood, your family’s future, everything depends on the catch of the day, and without that you have no income, no way of feeding and supporting your family.

But that is exactly what they did – the fisherman gave up everything to follow the call of this man, this Messiah, and it would change the course of their entire lives.

Jesus knows what we are capable of – our specific gifts and talents are to be shared with everyone, to show them the power and the many graces we receive from our loving God.Those gifts and talents are shared, and by the grace of God, those who receive your gifts will also share their gifts. We pray that, in the end, everyone will bring people to the loving arms of Jesus.

Your gifts are valuable and precious. Don’t hold them to yourself, but share them with those who are hurting, in need, lonely, frightened. There is so much opportunity in this world to make a difference, to share the love of God with others. You won’t have to look very hard to find someone who needs love. Be a fisher of all people, throw out your nets and marvel at the gifts you will receive in return!

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Scripture:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Luke 10:21-24

Reflection:

Radical Hope:  The Advent Challenge

As we move into the spirit of Advent, today’s Scripture passages invite us to enter this special season with radical hope:  God’s Love is greater than we can imagine, even in our wildest dreams!  The challenges, the limitations of daily life are transformed by God’s activity in ways both big and small.

Our first reading from Isaiah is “classic” in the prophetic tradition so fully witnessed by Isaiah himself.  A budding shoot from a dead stump; the Spirit of God transforming life; God’s involvement with the least / the last / the lost – all life is a gift from God to be both treasured and freely shared.  With God, all things are possible…Life rises from the least likely sources…and we have reason to hope!

The Gospel passage from St. Luke invites us to be “the fly on the wall” as Jesus prays to His Father His heartfelt words of praise, gratitude, openness, service, Jesus then turns to his disciples and encouraged them to be generous and diligent in their discipleship…they were privileged to witness first-hand the Love and Life enfleshed in Jesus’ every word and deed.  They – and we – have reason to hope!

Today our world is challenged by repeated graphic experiences of violence, mistrust, bullying, poverty, prejudice, etc. – challenging our belief in God who is greater than we can imagine and who lovingly reaches out to us in daily life.  This season of Advent serves to spark renewed hope in our lives that love triumphs over evil, that Jesus comes to share transforming love for all of creation.  In Jesus, we have reason to hope…in our homes, our parishes, our cities, in our world.

The Advent season is young; society calls us to feverishly embrace the Christmas event “right now”…and skip the Advent opportunities for deepening our faith, bolstering our hope, and renewing our discipleship.  May we join the Prophet Isaiah and those early disciples of Jesus in opening our eyes and our hearts to the Hope and Life shared in the person of Jesus.  We pray that in Jesus justice shall flourish…and fullness of peace…forever!  Come, Jesus.

Fr. John Schork, C.P. serves as the Province Vocation Director and also as Local Superior of the Passionist Community of Holy Name in Houston, Texas.