Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Matthew 9:9-13

Reflection:

Today is the Feast of St. Matthew apostle and evangelist.  The painting is the “Call of St. Matthew” by the famed artist Caravaggio based on this scripture passage:  “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.  He said to him, “Follow me” He got up and followed him.”  (Wikipedia, The Calling of St. Matthew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_St_Matthew)

A number of writers assume the bearded man is Matthew pointing to himself and saying “Who Me”?   A  more modern interpretation is that the bearded man is pointing to a young man slumped over the table.  Some tax collectors had the reputation of being dishonest.  Jesus is calling Matthew “to come follow me”.  Jesus calls all of us, young and old alike, to come follow Him.  The Pharisees question the disciples about Jesus’ behavior.  Jesus responds: ”Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

So many of us can be self-righteous thinking all we have to do is go to mass on Sunday and we have done our duty.  However, Jesus’ words could be paraphrased I desire mercy and forgiveness not just participating in rituals as important as they are.  When I rise each morning do we hear the call of Jesus to Matthew: “Come follow me throughout your entire day.”

“Come follow me” embracing each person you meet,  each problem you solve, each meeting you attend or each child or elderly parent you care for is done with love and compassion. “Come Follow Me” is our vocation call.  Have you and I responded as St. Matthew did completely?  Lord, give us the strength and grace to respond to your call daily.

Carl Middleton is a theologian/ethicist and a member of the Passionist Family.

Memorial of Saint Andrew Taegon and Companions

Scripture:

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13
Luke 8:19-21

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions.  For many of us, St. Andrew is a “new” saint, canonized by Pope John Paul II.  Though new to the liturgical calendar, St. Andrew and his companions are fellow Christians that we need to know because they are powerful witnesses to living the Gospel in real life.

St. Andrew is tied closely to the foundation of Christianity in Korea.  He wasn’t the first Korean Christian by a long shot.  By the time he was born in 1821, Christianity had been growing in Korea for about fifty years.  It is believed that Christianity had been brought into Korea by some Christian Japanese soldiers in the latter part of the 18^th century.   The Christian Japanese soldiers baptized the first Korean Christians and the Christian community began to grow quickly.  By the time the first foreign priest arrived in Korea in 1836, there was already a substantial Christian community flourishing there.  It’s the only known Catholic Christian community that first developed completely from the witness and work of lay Christians.

The rulers in Korea were not at all pleased to have this foreign religion thriving in their country.  At first, they just discouraged it but soon enough outlawed this practice and began to actively persecute anyone who took it up.  As Christians were arrested, tortured and put to death the Church quickly moved underground

St. Andrew’s parents, members of the Korean nobility, were an important part of that early community and secretly remained faithful to their life with Christ.  Andrew was baptized at fifteen and soon expressed his desire to become a priest.  He traveled to Macau to attend the seminary and was ordained in 1845.  He was the first Korean to become a priest and returned home shortly after his ordination to help organize the Church and bring the sacraments to the faithful.  He ministered in Korea only a year before he was arrested and put to death.

There were intense persecutions of Christians in Korea in 1839, 1846, 1866 and 1867 and 103 Christians were martyred for their faith.  We celebrate these heroic martyrs on this day.

May their faith and courage inspire us to live our lives faithful to the Gospel and have the strength to be fearless witnesses for Christ in our everyday lives.

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of retreats at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Proverbs 3:27-34
Luke 8:16-18

Reflection:

Shine

The Lord shines ever brighter in you.

Your life is filled with the light of a beautiful heart…one that is touched by the grace of God’s love.

Celebrating the special person He created in you. HAPPY, Blessed BIRTHDAY

I asked myself, am I living my life in such a way that I have placed my lamp “on a lampstand

so that those who enter may see”?  Who do I know that “shine”?

In the past few years, my family would meet individuals that had graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Every single one of them had a “joy” that just seemed to “shine” with authentic love for Christ. There is something happening there, besides people graduating with degrees. FUS is focused on their mission of forming “men and women to serve God and one another so they can be a transforming Christian presence in the world.” This was one of the many reasons our two youngest chose to attend there. And perhaps moving forward we too can “shine” and think of everyday as a “birthday” a chance to be God’s presence and celebrate with a new beginning – to begin again in love, action and deeds so that God indeed may be the one praised and glorified.

Lori Kananen, LMC, is a lay Pastoral Associate at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Amos 8:4-7
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16:1-13

Reflection:

In the Gospel reading for Sunday (Luke 16:1-13), Jesus tells a parable about a dishonest steward whose master is about to turn him out to the streets. In order to make sure that he doesn’t become homeless, he approaches several people who owe produce to his master. The steward foregoes what he would have charged extra (to pocket for himself) and rewrites the promissory notes to reflect that the people really owe.

Now here is where we can have difficulty with the parable. Jesus says, “And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” Does this mean that Jesus is praising dishonesty? If we look at the corresponding footnote in most editions of the New American Bible, we see that the answer is no. The dishonest steward still stole from the master. What is commended is acting prudently.

For me, there are three lessons in our Gospel reading. And I think it is helpful to begin with the last lesson. Jesus says: “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” We cannot serve both God and material wealth. To make sure that we know Jesus is not promoting dishonesty, the Church has accompanied this Gospel reading with our first reading from the prophet Amos (8:4-7): “Hear this, you who trample on the poor and needy and destroy the poor of the land! … The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!”

Jesus is promoting acting prudently and, I think, ingeniously: “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Think of how ingenious, and persistent, whether they are honest or dishonest, some people are in trying to get your money, either through paying for something, or through a scam. We are called to be just as ingenious and persistent and “street smart” in spreading the Gospel and helping others in need. And so we see people using technology and social media for good. We see others finding new ways to help people get the necessities of life and helping them get a start in some measure of being able to provide for themselves. That to me is the first lesson: to be just as prudent and ingenious in sharing the Good News as others are in making a lot of money.

The second lesson has to do with a proper perspective with regards to material wealth. Wealth is a means and not an end. Some people do use it as a means for acquiring power and dominance. But we are to use wealth for the sake of helping others and giving a concrete expression of our faith. But if we get caught up in having a lot of money, i.e., “dishonest wealth,” our perspective gets skewed, and we can wind up being “dishonest” with ourselves and lose sight of what’s really important.

I think there are people in history, and perhaps even now, who delude themselves into thinking, “It’s okay to pollute this river. It’s okay to underpay our workers, and disregard safety. It’s okay if our products are unsafe. As long as we make money.” Now, that may be an extreme. But it is also tempting to think, “The system works for me. I’ve got mine. What I do doesn’t really have consequences for anyone else. I got mine.” We’re being dishonest with ourselves.

When Jesus says, “The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?” If we don’t have a proper perspective on material wealth, and think only in terms of what we can get, how can we understand the really important things, such as love and sacrifice? How can we understand the mercy and generosity of God? How can we understand the sacredness of creation? How can we understand the Cross?

Money is a tool that if we are prudent, we can use for the sake of the Gospel. May we be honest stewards with all the tools God gives us.

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection:

If you want to know the secret to a good and happy life—a life you cannot possibly regret—today’s gospel is for you. In the famous parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus reminds us that God’s Word is planted in each of us. If we let that Word, that is Jesus, take root and grow within us, we will become the unique person God created us to be, and therefore know a life much better than anything we could ever imagine or fashion for ourselves. This suggests that who we are meant to become depends not so much on what we make of ourselves, but on what God makes of us when we allow God’s Word to go to work within us, shaping us into the truly good and beautiful person God wants us to become. As Jesus says in today’s gospel, our fundamental vocation is to let God’s Word “yield grain a hundredfold” within us.

And yet, as this parable soberly reminds us, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the seed of God’s Word dies within us because we allow it to be snatched away from us. Other times we attend to it for a while, but then, misled by temptations, neglect the Word until it withers away within us. Or, as Jesus suggests, often the Word dies in our hearts because we are lured off course by a captivating desire for wealth and possessions, pleasures and comforts. But we should pray this never happens because to be cut off from the Word is to be cut off from life. It is truly to cease to exist no matter how healthy or wealthy or comfortable we might be.

Still, it’s never too late to move from death back to life. God, the Sower, offers us his Word at every moment of our life. As this parable testifies, all we have to do is open our hearts to receive it.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family.

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35

Reflection:

Mary, our Mother. This morning I struggle with the image of you suffering at the foot of the cross. 

Having become more at home and accustomed to your heavenly presence. The gift is that you are here.   Present.  Mother.  Always ready to show us the way.  His Way.   Your life and light shining as we hold a rosary.  To listen, to learn and be changed by the fullness of your story that we will come to know. 

Experiencing the ebb and flow, of suffering and Grace, that leads us into the deepest spaces of our own humanity.   Our own place in the suffering.   

Your courage was grown throughout your life.  Your strength.  Your confidence.  Never reactive. You were one to move within and to ponder.  You who bore the Word made flesh inside of you.

If I return again to the story of your teen motherhood, will I find you on this day?   So young.   Barely a woman.  Setting out on the hillsides alone.  Moving towards the witness of another miracle so many said was not possible.  Elizabeth is pregnant.  You are moving towards.  Never running away.  And that remained true your whole life. As you stood with your baby at the temple hearing Simeon’s words.  As you grew in your motherhood always engaged, guiding, witnessing, hoping amid your daily life.  Then along the sidelines as He ministered.   Never losing sight of your own unwavering “yes” to love.  From His conception to His death. From death unto life.  And as witness again to the Spirit descending in the fullness of promise alive in the world.

You, as the young woman riding a donkey, trusting your husband’s faith in a dream, nine months pregnant in the darkness of the night.  A baby not yet born.   After His birth fleeing only for His protection.   Three decades later your Son would ride a donkey in His entry into Jerusalem.  And you would be called to fully enter the sorrow of the cross.     Your mother confidence having been grown through the ongoing conditions of deeply trying times, the work, the hardness of life.   But also, in the joys of life.  You who invited the opening of His mission at a wedding feast.  Who came to intimately know his friends, the men and the women that followed?   Who watched in amazement as the crowds surrounded him in need and in awe?  Yet also knowing the more who jeered, rejected and scorned Him.    In the retelling of the Gospel, you seem to speak so few words.  Yet remain striking in the depth and strength of your enduring presence.   Even now.

Your heart will be pierced.   Showing us, that if we focus too much on the harsher moments of what might lie ahead, we can lose sight of every gift of God in our path.  We can lose sight of all we are called to do, to be, of Christ in these times.  In ways only possible when we trust in His promises.  He promised He would be there.  He promised you would be ours.  Your fiat.  Continuing through time.    With your own closeness with God, you did not lose sight of the One entrusted to your care, spilling your heart open to all suffering. Opening the room for Grace to pour forth in Spirit.  Showing us Love comes in all forms.   Some more painful than others.  Yet all leading to the Way. 

What did you ponder in these times?  As so many times I can unravel in the worry of what might be or happen in life rather than moving towards His abiding Presence which allows me to bear the unfathomable costs of suffering held alongside His promise of Hope.  A hard space to trust from our own wounding.   But a way that allows our hearts to be carved more deeply with a truer Love.  His Redemptive, Transformative Love.  In the light of His Mercy.  That shares the wonder of those first sightings of Jesus, Risen, outside the tomb.   Restoring what had been lost.

Just as Peter sank into the water when he turned His gaze from Christ.  We too can fall into the depths of suffering when we lose sight of God’s unwavering Love.   The Hope that held you so deeply at the foot of the cross.  Having nurtured that truth throughout your life, in all the ways you moved inward to ponder in prayer, the Word and His incarnation.  Opening your heart to the One that would teach you never to let go.   Showing us on this day maybe, that there is a difference to be found in the tears of one who trusts in God.  

M J Walsh. In gratitude for the witness of the Passionist community through each vocation.  For the sacred grounds dedicated to Mary’s seven sorrows at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31a
Luke 7:11-17

Reflection:

Our Gospel reading for today comes from the Gospel of St. Luke. The widow of Nain is a well-known story and the only story told in the four Gospels. Another reading of this Gospel highlights a pre-figuring story of Jesus’ final moments on the Cross when he gives his mother to the Disciple, John (John 19:25-27). In this story, as he encounters this funeral service and feels immediate sorrow for the widow who has lost her only son. He gives the risen son to his mother. This is one of Luke’s Gospel motifs, demonstrating the mercy and compassion of Jesus. This act heralds so much rejoicing in Israel as “God has visited his people.” A great prophet is with the people (chapter 7:16). This phrase is no doubt an ancient ritual of expectation.  Imagine for a moment, when the people come to realize their blessing, God is among the people! And he still remains, even today.

As I reflected on this Gospel, I couldn’t help but feel for Jesus, his compassion for people as he went around Galilee brought hope for the future of the Hebrew people. They were all well familiar with the stories of the expected Messiah, can you imagine the way news spread of his miracles and presence among them? Sadly, he desired to heal and teach the people that ended up getting Jesus crucified. Not for the first time, I am grateful for Jesus’ love of the people. What a lonely life he must have experienced. His desire to love, heal and show mercy to all those whom he met. Two Thousand years later his life and spirit still inspire us.

In our first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul touches on a theme of how the body works. A common theme in the ancient Mediterranean world. Order must be observed and respected for our future. We are the body of Christ and members of that body. We ALL count and make a difference and Jesus came to give us exactly this message.

On this feast of St. John Chrysostom may we be consoled in the sure hope of God’s presence among us.

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.