Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Wisdom 11:22-12:2
2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2
Luke 19:1-10

Reflection:

I remember a story about St. Teresa of Avila. She said that the devil had appeared to her disguised as Christ. Because of her deep faith, St. Teresa knew immediately that this vision was not Jesus, so she dismissed him. Before he left, the devil asked her, “How did you know that I wasn’t Christ?” She responded, “You didn’t have any wounds – Jesus has wounds!” The moral of this story – know your source!

This reading reminds me how much I don’t like gossip, or that horrible telephone game where you start a phrase, and by the time it gets to the end, it is a perfectly senseless statement because people just can’t always seem to disseminate information clearly. 

In this second letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul is telling the people to not jump to conclusions – verify your sources before you begin to talk about the “coming judgment”, especially if there is a misunderstanding or misinformation from false teachers who really didn’t know what they were talking about. It wasn’t yet time for the day of judgment! Paul wants them to understand that the time must be in the future for the day of judgment because certain events had not yet happened, and it could therefore not be fulfilled as yet.

This reading is also a reassurance to us of God’s endless supply of grace to us through his Holy Spirit, and that in order to retain and continue to receive these gifts we must remain holy. He is so kind to us, and we give him the great pleasure of receiving and retaining his salvation. His son died for us to save us, and when we remain faithful to his grace and mercy, he will manifest his great love in us.

In Christ’s dying for us, through his passion and death, we must remember that we honor his sacrifice in the way we live our lives with joy and service, and we offer our sufferings to him.

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Scripture:

Philippians 1:18b-26
Luke 14:1, 7-11

Reflection:

                      “For to me life is Christ . . .”

In Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul seems to be wrestling with remaining on earth and continuing the work that Christ commissioned him to do; spread the Gospel to the Gentiles or moving on to eternal life. It’s the wrestling that is most interesting. His reasoning for staying and going and then finally realizing that it is God’s will that he continue his own journey.

We wrestle with decisions every day. When making a decision we look at the pros and the cons and decide what is in our best interest. We think of our family, career opportunities, living situation and other factors. Saint Paul was doing this as well and he included Christ in the process. Christ, being the center of this process is Saint Paul’s way of giving his life over to Christ and the will of God. This is a process called discernment, where we take time to look at all the factors and then take it to prayer and ask for the grace to be open to where God is taking us. A way of letting go of what we want and looking to what God wants. Saint Paul was open to whatever God asked of him. He was ready to continue working for God on earth and at the same time ready to let go of his earthly life and embrace eternal life. 

In the Gospel of Luke another decision is given to a group dining with Jesus at a Pharisees house. Jesus tells a parable about choosing a place at the dinner table. Again, Jesus challenges the Pharisees with his ending, telling all, that those who think themselves better than others and take the highest place will be humbled and those who have chosen the lowest may in turn be asked to move to a higher place. The goal is to make choices that lead us to the heavenly feast. The feast of eternal life comes through our choices to become the person that God created us to be. Through our choices we may also participate in the building of the Kingdom of God now. Through our own suffering we share in the Kingdom and the eternal feast that awaits us.

Saint Paul’s wrestling and Christ’s parable calls each of us to take time to reflect on how we invite Christ into our lives and the choices we make. Do I invite Christ into all aspects of my life? Do I take time in prayer to listen with my heart to where Christ is leading me? 

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

Scripture:

Ephesians 2:19-22
Luke 6:12-16

Reflection:

I find a lot of hope and promise in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  He is speaking not only to the people of Ephesus, but to all of us who call ourselves Christian as well!  It is comforting to be reminded that we are sisters and brothers in Christ, members of the household of God and part of something bigger than we can even imagine! Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Simon and Jude.  They were faithful apostles of Jesus who preached the Good News throughout the Middle East and gave their lives in service to the Gospel.

In a few short days we will celebrate the great feast of All Saints!  We give thanks for all those holy men and women who like Simon and Jude have gone before us in faith and call us to follow in their footsteps as we seek to live out our call to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

Luke shares the gospel message wherein Jesus, after prayer and discernment, gathers the disciples and appoints the twelve to be his apostles.  We all have a ‘call’ story or many stories of how God calls us time and again to serve as members of his household.  This call to serve takes us down many paths in our lifetime. We are confronted daily with the joys and struggles that surround us as we try to live out that clarion call to be disciples of Jesus in a world that often seems to turn a deaf ear to the good news!

May we continue to answer the call to live the Gospel message, to work towards a more peaceful and just world, to spend time in prayerful discernment and above all, give thanks that we are, fellow citizens and members of the household of God, blessed to have a place at the table of the Lord.  Amen!

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 6:10-20
Luke 13:31-35

Reflection:

Today’s gospel is a reading from Luke 13:31-35:

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

Jesus wasn’t afraid of Herod – I don’t believe Jesus feared anyone; the closest thing may have been the feeling of separation from his heavenly Father as he hung on the cross and was hit by the realization of all of the sins being laid upon him. But Jesus knew what his purpose was going to be in these last three days, and he knew he had things to do before the third day. He knew he was surrounded by pain and suffering, and his mission was to heal, to share his beautiful mission with those in his path. Jesus cannot be swayed from his role as he enters into the last stages of his journey here on earth.

Reading on,

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you.”

Jesus loved Jerusalem, and he wanted to protect those who lived there. The Jerusalem of today is not far different from then – there is still a need for his loving protection in that place where so much of our faith history was experienced firsthand.

Jesus so easily could have run away, fled from the hands that would take his life. But he knew there was a plan. He knew these would be the last days on earth for him, and nothing and no one could force or reason with him to escape from the inevitable. That is faith, trust, and love. 

I think of Saint Pope John Paul II as we celebrated his feast day this past October 22. How he suffered in the throngs of World War II, how he worked so hard to open the paths of communication through socialism, through the Nazi persecution, even as he became a Priest and continued to fight for the less fortunate. He was a voice for the people, and he, like the hen, and like Jesus himself, did his best to gather his children as the hen gathered her brood under her wings.

And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Scripture:

Ephesians 5:21-33
Luke 13:18-21

Reflection:

Jesus said “What is the Kingdom of God like?”

What a wonderful question!  How often do we take the time to ponder what the Kingdom of God is like? Today’s reading is an opportunity to imagine into a future not dictated by the front-page headlines or our current political leaders, but by who and what God calls us to be, both individually and collectively.  

Walter Brueggemann writes in The Prophetic Imagination,

The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined…Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing….[E]very totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.

And this is exactly what Jesus is modeling for us today: a ministry of imagination, conjuring images that will open us into what we already are in God’s eyes, and propel us toward that which together we are called by God to be: the Kingdom of God.

It’s hard to miss that both images that Jesus “conjures” are transformative processes, grounded in mystery.  We may have observed a seed growing or maybe even studied the scientific process of a seed growing into a bush.  We may have experienced baking bread or even analyzed the chemical reaction which occurs in the process of adding yeast to flour and water. But we really do not know how the generative mechanism actually works.  The mystery of becoming precisely what God has intended from the first moment of existence—whether for a seed or a human being–is God’s alone.

And then there is the surrender.  There is a surrendering to the process of becoming that a mustard seed fulfills so effortlessly.  There is a surrendering to its purpose that the yeast performs so gracefully, leavening the whole batch of dough. It is, perhaps, for a mustard seed or yeast organism, not really even a question of surrender but rather of a natural, inevitable fulfilling of its nature. Yet for us human beings, our lives can become a conscious practice of surrendering, of listening to the Spirit within us and among us, and surrendering to its movement and invitation.

I like to imagine that each of us can be yeast for the whole. There may be times when any one of us is tired or discouraged. Yet within the whole, when even some of us are listening for the Spirit and surrendering to its movement, the entire batch will continue to leaven.  Together, we are part of an inevitable process of becoming what God has intended: the Kingdom of God.  That seems to me something worth imagining into being.

Lissa Romell is the Administrator at St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:32-5:8
Luke 13:10-17

Reflection:

Precious Love of God

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. EPH 15:19      Ps 36:7

Psalm 139:7 states one of the most beautiful sentences in the Scripture.  “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!  And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.”  One of the most romantic scenes in movie history, Casablanca, is Humphry Bogart’s words to Ingrid Bergman “here is looking at you, kid”!  Could you even in your wildest imagination see God taking you by the chin and saying this to you?   Saint Augustine describes our relationship with God: “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”  

The ultimate word about God’s love for us is that He gave His Only Begotten Son to die for us.  We must never stop being startled that we mean so much to God!  We must be humble enough to realize we are not in the loving eye of God only because of our good looks.

There is the story of a little girl I saw when visiting her parents.  I asked her to show me her favorite doll.   She had lots of beautiful dolls, but the one she showed me was the ugliest one I ever saw!  It was old and wore out.  The hair was mostly gone and an arm was missing.   “Why is this your favorite doll?”  She answered: “If I don’t love this doll, nobody will.” 

I think the little girl’s answer was very insightful.  Nothing attracts God’s mercy like humility.  Pope St John XX111 has a beautiful quote on our need of God’s merciful love.  “I live by the mercy of Jesus, to whom I owe everything and from whom I expect everything.”  God loves us with merciful love. “Pope John continues “There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy – that love, which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God.”  “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!”

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

Reflection:

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus addresses a parable “to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.” Do we know anyone like that? Have there been times when we’ve been someone like that?

I would like to focus on the prayer of the tax collector because these words can lead us to a consideration of our whole lives.

First, these words lead us to humility. The truth is that we are all sinners. No one can claim perfection or total righteousness before the Cross of Christ. We are sinners, and we need the love and mercy and grace of God in our lives!

Second, this prayer can lead us to gratitude. Acknowledging our sinfulness need not lead us to shame and despair! Instead, we can be grateful, because while we were still sinners, Jesus died for our sins on the Cross! Not only do we need God’s love and mercy and grace, God pours out these things for us time after time after time! As I often say, God is not just the God of the second chance, but of the fifth chance and the tenth chance and the hundredth chance! There’s no way we can pay back God for all God has done for us, but the remarkable thing is that God has done and continues to do all these things for us, simply out of love! All we can do is be grateful and respond, which leads us to the next two things.

If we acknowledge our sinfulness and our reliance on God, how can we look at anyone else with judgment and condemnation? It is true that we determine that some things are wrong and unjust, but we cannot presume to say that someone is out of the bounds of God’s love and mercy. The tax collector was not beyond God’s love. No one is beyond God’s love, even when they go against God’s will. They may suffer judgment in the next life, but that is God’s decision to make. There is nothing we can do to make God stop loving us, even though we may have made the choice to stop loving God. We are called to look on others with compassion, love and mercy, just as God looks on us.

And finally, the prayer of the tax collector can lead us to testimony. Probably the best testimony I can give to the Good News of Jesus Christ is to say: “God did this for me in Jesus Christ. I did not deserve it. I did not earn it. But God loves me, and I know God loves you;” and to treat my brothers and sisters, and indeed the whole planet, accordingly, so that others may not only hear the Good News but see signs of it in our lives.

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

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:7-16
Luke 13:1-9

Reflection:

Lord, I strive to understand. 

In today’s Gospel, you are presented with the dilemma of why a loving God allows evil to happen, even to the most innocent.

Pain and suffering are neither deserved nor inflicted by God. The story of Job is a Jewish morality theme in which Old Testament suffering is seen in direct ratio to one’s disobedience of God’s commandments. 

I cannot understand your ways, my Father. It’s as if I were a sentient fig tree which would feel the pain of the gardener shears without understanding that pruning does not diminish, but rather increases the productivity of life.

Our global village, born of instantaneous worldwide communications, makes us aware of every suffering in every corner of the globe – hurricanes, school shootings, forest fires are presented incessantly, so much so that we become immune to suffering or even lose the ability to bear it long enough to understand it’s significance.  Today’s headlines are truly Yesterday’s news.

Understanding should not be my goal as it is surely unattainable for us to understand the mind of God.  WHY something occurs is not the right question, but whether my goal ultimately should be grasping HOW I can better know, love and serve you, no matter what the world presents.

Ray Alonzo is the father of three children, grandfather of two, and husband to Jan for 45 years. He is a USN Vietnam Veteran, and a 1969 graduate of Mother of Good Counsel Passionist Prep Seminary. Ray currently serves on the Passionist Alumni Council.