Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Zephaniah 3:14-18a
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:10-18

Reflection:

For your meditation this weekend, do not miss the importance of God preparing within you the “birthing” of his Son. We are other Christs and nothing less. This time is deliberate preparation for Christ being reborn in you and through you. Reading the signs of the times, as Scripture urges us, and one of the Prefaces reminds us, directs the purpose of Christ presence within us. Take time to think about that.

That birthing is modeled by our blessed Mother in the birthing the Son of God and continuing to nurture him into adulthood. Do not miss God dwelling within you these days. Do not miss the importance of Advent. Do not miss the message that unfolds during this journey towards the birthing of Christ within each of us for the sake of people who live around us.

This weekend, we celebrate the presence of our Blessed Mother in her apparition to St. Juan Diego, amidst the massacre of a whole people. The signs of the times in the 16^th Century centered around world domination by a “super-power” of the day. Namely, Spain which hungered for gold and domination. Genocide of the native peoples of Mexico, as it would come to be known, was tragically being played out in the conquering of the land. The heart of Mary for the poor, especially children, would be nurtured into the heart of her Son. “Bring the little ones to me.” The heart of Jesus would be for the poorest of His Creation.

That is the priority of the heart which is being reborn in us this Advent.

It is easy to miss it. It is so easy to get caught up in the deadlines of Christmas. We are preparing, first and foremost in this sacred season of Advent, for Christ, to enter and dwell with us, which is divinity within our humanity. Ponder that the rest of Advent.  What are the implications of accepting the divinity of God within our person, body and soul? Christmas sends our all kinds of messages that we are called. Try to discover them in your prayer, contemplation and reading the signs of the times.

Speaking of reading the signs of the times. I observed through the communal celebration of the Sacrament of Penance for a Catholic grade school, that many children were confessing that they were “missing Mass on Sunday.” I pointed out to each, “so was it your fault you could not get here?” I made my point, I think. It was not their sin to own.

We are living in “mission times.” Let’s not be afraid the address the heart of the issue. It is up to all of us.

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11
Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13

Reflection:

The Jewish belief in first-century Palestine was that Elijah did not die, according to Hebrew Scripture, but was taken up to heaven by a chariot of fire, and that his return would signal the coming of the Messiah, of the House of David.  This messiah would vanquish the despised occupying Roman forces in Judah and restore the kingdom of Israel to its former Davidic glory.

In that context, Jesus told his disciples: “…I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they (the Jewish leaders) did not recognize him…”  The gospel episode continues: “Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist” (Mt 17:10-13).  By implication, of course, Jesus was the true and long-awaited messiah of a different, heavenly kingdom.

The so-called “Christmas season,” as commercials, advertisements, and shopping malls, relentlessly beckon us to shop till we drop, can distract us from the true nature of the season.  We are in the Advent season, a time of spiritual preparation for the coming of the Messiah.  With apologies to Santa, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, they are not the heralds of Jesus.  They may be fun and Christmassy, but they are diversions from the true spirit of the season

That is where John the Baptist comes.  With ear-piercing shouts, John declares: “Reform your lives!  Repent!  Behold the Lamb of God!”  His message will not give us the warm fuzzies, nor is it supposed to.  Advent is the season that calls us to prepare for the triple coming: his first coming at his birth, his coming to us soon on Christmas day, and his final coming either at the end of our lives or at the Second Coming. 

Advent is the time to prepare the way of the Lord, to clear away every obstacle that may prevent Jesus from coming to us.  Elijah has already come, Jesus tells us, if we can recognize him.  He is the forerunner announcing the Messiah.  John’s mission 2,000 years ago and today, is to keep us focused on Jesus as the pivotal point of Advent, Christmas, and to a kingdom already bursting forth into our world.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 48:17-19
Matthew 11:16-19

Reflection:

I’ve read so much about profiling – when another’s character, motivation, or worth is assumed by external characteristics like skin color, hairstyle, clothing, etc. It’s easy to condemn anyone who profiles. Yet it’s wired into our brains as a survival mechanism, and it’s overcome only with conscious effort. That’s because our ancestors had to quickly “profile” to determine levels of threat and ensure their personal survival. Given any hint of danger, that person was assumed to be malicious until proven otherwise. Trust came slowly.

Jesus encountered profiling. He didn’t meet the authorities’ expectations of a religious teacher. He didn’t act or speak as they wanted, nor offer them the deference they felt they “deserved.” They called him a glutton and a drunkard, and his message was dismissed outright.

I witnessed profiling in my hometown – an almost exclusively Catholic and Caucasian rural community. When our small-town hospital desperately needed a resident doctor and a Filipino answered the call, people were wary. He was even Catholic, yet many refused his services, driving 30 miles to the nearest alternative. His children were teased for their darker skin and “funny” accent. Eventually, the doctor’s competence and kind manners won over the town, but it took a long time. If he hadn’t filled a vital role, or if he’d been bold and outspoken, I doubt he ever would’ve been accepted. This incarnation of the healing power of Christ in our midst didn’t fit the rules of inclusion.

Profiling is rampant these days against those of a different political party or opinion, resulting in vicious attacks, name-calling, and rejection of persons themselves. Our church is splitting into “camps” of ideology and beliefs. School board meetings are blowing up (sometimes almost literally). Opportunities for housing, employment, and physical safety are deeply affected. Across the board, we’re becoming increasingly exclusionary, refusing to listen to, be around, or know each other.

This is clearly not what Jesus calls us to, nor a good model for discipleship. It needs to be rejected at all levels. I wish I could achieve that, but I can’t control others. What I can do is change myself, and awareness is the first step.

What am I saying to myself when I see someone begging for money or food?  What are my assumptions about a person wearing a MAGA hat or an LGBTQ equality slogan? What do I believe I know about a Black or Latino person’s family and life? What runs through my head when I see a hijab, turban, or yarmulka?

I’m trying to do a better job of noticing and writing down my profiling of those who are not like me. Then I take those to prayer and ask the God who created all of us to open my mind and heart, to see them with the eyes of Christ, and to change not only my attitudes but my actions and reactions. They are, after all, my brothers and sisters whom I am called to serve.

This is my goal for Advent, a way for me to give birth to the Christ Child in my life. May I (and all of us) nurture the healing, inclusive, loving power of God in this fractured world.

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:

Isaiah 41:13-20
Matthew 11:11-15

Reflection:

Advent, a Mother’s Love, and Juan Diego

Today we celebrate the feast of Juan Diego of Mexico, “hermit”. The Ordo says ‘he devoted himself to the pilgrims who came to see the image of Mary on his tilma’.

I think of a hermit as one who has encountered God’s love and wants nothing more than be with that love. Since love affairs can be tempestuous, the love affair of a hermit must have it ups and downs (probably off the chart?).

Pilgrims going to see the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe conger up in my imagination the crowds at the Shrine in Mexico today. Proportionately perhaps there was a crowd of people in 16th century Mexico? Who knows how many? But what did Juan Diego do as the welcomer of pilgrims? Can we describe his day as beginning in this fashion:

First, he shared with those whom he welcomed his surprise. ‘She was beautiful, so gentle to me, her skin not white like the Spaniards, and she smiled, what a smile’.

I heard her say to me, “My little Juan”. She knew my name. I can still hear it.

Then he shared, I was very shy! Wouldn’t you be? The bishop wouldn’t listen to me when I told him what the lady said to me. I was embarrassed and tried to avoid the lovely woman taking another route to visit my sick uncle. There she was. Big smile, ‘My little Juan’. She put me at ease and told me my uncle was well, and he was.

She knew the bishop did not believe my story or her request. So she sent me up the hill to gather roses to take to the bishop to help him believe her. I did just that. Beautiful roses! The bishop wanted to know what I had wrapped up in my tilma so I opened it and let all the roses fall before him. And the bishop and all the  priests in the room fell down before me! I said, ‘what’s happening’? When I saw my tilma it was covered with the picture of my friend, the most beautiful woman.

Let’s go inside now and I’ll show you the church the bishop built. You can see for yourselves my tilma and the picture of the Little Dark One, Mother Mary, the Mother of Jesus, that she gave us.

The Advent words of Isaias today sound like a mother’s love for us: ’Take hold of my hand; don’t be afraid. I will help you’. Your helper is the Holy one of Israel. The thirsty seek water in vain; their tongues are parched. I will not forsake you’. Could a mother forget the child of her womb? Oh, console my children.

The Lord did not forget his children in Mexico. How lovely that his Mother had the joy of being a mother again to so many of us! She leads us as she did Juan and the bishop to the love of her son. No wonder Juan Diego became a hermit, (except when he gave tours to pilgrims), just to savor the sound of his name of the lips of Mary, to describe again that meeting, to see in her warm, dark flesh love, and to know the love of her son that she brought as a special gift to him and to all who would listen to his story.

Father William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
-Isaiah 40:11

“Go right home now, no dawdling on your way.” Sister Lawrence Marie, SP, admonished me as I walked out of our fifth-grade classroom heading home for lunch that Friday morning. That was strange I thought. Sister had never said that before. I hooked up with my brother and along with a few friends, we headed home. We got to the busy corner where Mrs. Lacy, our crossing guard,  helped us maneuver the traffic. As she kept us waiting for the light to change, our friend Dan noticed and pointed out that there was a hearse sitting in front of our house. As soon as Mrs. Lacy let us go, my twin brother Dave and I took off running. We arrived in front of our house just in time to see our mother’s remains neatly wrapped in a body bag being rolled out on a two-wheeler hand truck.

All of a sudden, the Assistant Pastor, Fr. Casper’s visit to our home the night before made sense. “You know your mother is dying,” said Father as he sat with us in the living room. “Oh yes, I know that,” I assured him. What I didn’t know was that he had just given my mother “The Last Rites” which in 1956 meant that one truly was at death’s door. Nor did I know the trauma that would result from that day that truly remains with me sixty-six years later.

I don’t remember much more that Friday afternoon in February. The next morning, however, I remember as if it were yesterday. I went to Mass where Fr. Casper was the celebrant. He came up to me afterward and invited me to join him for breakfast at the monastery. Now I grew up across the street from that mysterious building, often hearing chanting coming from the windows and wondering what it was like inside. I accepted, and Father took me into the monastery through the busy kitchen and into a small parlor where we had breakfast. I had a bowl of cereal as I recall.  Leaving and heading home, I felt cared for. I didn’t know it, but looking back I realize now that the Church in the person of Fr. Casper became my new mother on that day.

I wonder what would happen if I, imitated Fr. Casper and took Isaiah seriously realizing that it is my responsibility to feed bodily and spiritually, the flock of those about me, and to carry those who can no longer carry themselves. Help me respond dear God to Your cries for help today. 

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Reflection:

Several years ago, a dozen Louisville Catholics were given an abandoned rectory to develop a Catholic Worker house of hospitality. When we began the effort there was no clear path to follow. We prayed, hesitated, attempted a “strategic plan,” but failed to launch the project. Then we were inspired to consult with Joe Zarella, one of Dorothy Day’s original members at the New York Catholic Worker, who was then in his late 80’s.

On a bright autumn day, we lunched with Joe on a picnic table outside a simple mom and pop restaurant and asked him how to start a Catholic Worker house of hospitality. With a twinkle in his eyes and a head of thick snow-white hair he smiled and said simply, “You just do it.”

Taking his advice, we welcomed immigrant women and their children into the large rectory with mismatched donated furniture, creating a noisy, chaotic loving small community of faith and mixed languages.

After several weeks, we hosted all the volunteers to meet the guests around a large dining table filled with special recipes brought by the attendees. As we ate together something stirred within me looking around the crowded room: this is what the reign of God looks like. There were no cultural barriers, no language barriers, no class barriers…love had broken down all barriers.

The utopia described in today’s reading from the book of Isaiah and what I experienced at the Catholic Worker house that night is possible, if we just do it. I am encouraged, as I read Isaiah’s prophetic words, to know that Jesus read the same words in his native language from the same prophet. He must have prayed over them, letting them sink in, letting them transform his understanding of the goodness of his Father and the goodness in himself and the goodness in each of us.

In today’s Gospel, people of every village in Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem sat in the presence of this transformed Jesus…the Pharisees and teachers of the law, the community of a variety of people…all determined in their mission to just sit. This great crowd crushing around Jesus must have included all classes of people from the highways and byways seeking something better in life, the something they hoped Jesus would provide.

Their enthusiasm led them to this house on that day. They wanted what we all want, what the Prophet Isaiah poetically describes in the first reading: a world where all barriers are broken down, where love rules and where we are free to shed what individually weighs us down and keeps us from being all we can be and all that God desires for each of us.

In prayerful reflection, let us sit before Jesus today in stillness to listen to him and to feel his love. This will lead us to moments when we just do it, which leads us to barrier-absent mystical moments when we really know the reign of God is within us and around us.

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:

Baruch 5:1-9
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6

Reflection:

Wow, we are already in the Second Sunday of Advent. For many of us, and I include myself in this group, the First Sunday of Advent frequently gets lost amidst the Thanksgiving weekend. 

Years ago, when I was studying theology, my preaching instructor said something that made a lot of sense to me.  He said the season of Advent prepares us for Christmas, just like the season of Lent prepares us for the celebration of the Triduum.  Of course, that is true but how that happens is the most important.  He then he took it one step further and walked through a season of readings showing how they are steppingstones, and each step advances you in its mission.  I recalled how my high school composition teacher spoke how one’s introductory paragraph is supposed to start a very broad encompassing the reader and gradually narrow the topic with each sentence till the final sentence is what your paper or composition focuses on.    Advent is the exact same journey.  It doesn’t start with stories of Jesus’ birth.  It leads you to that story by starting exceptionally broad.  Last week, Luke’s Gospel began the Advent journey with calamities.  We were told that amidst all the calamities, raise your heads and stand before the Son of Man. We were reminded not to be weighed down but to be watchful and attentive.  How appropriate for the times we live.   

If listening to the gospel today doesn’t put an element of fright into your psyche, then you’re probably a little out of touch with first-century Israel.  Luke mentions specific names: Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and his brothers Philip and  Lysanias. (He left out their father, Herod the Great) None of these names left a good taste in anyone’s mouth.  The big three were tyrants, cruel and oppressive dictators, who cared very little about the common person.   Luke is trying to say that of all the times of history this is one of the most difficult times to live in.   And yet specifically, in amidst such tyrannical or oppressive times is when John the Baptist begins speaking loudly and boldly.  Take note, his message at this point still is not about the coming of the Anointed One.  His message of all things is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He is asking people to think differently and live differently which is the essence of the Greek word metanoia.

If you live in a joy-filled happy place all the time, then why do you need a savior?  We can’t use the Advent season to fictitiously paint joy on our hearts, and peace in our city streets. Biblically speaking, we find Christ most profoundly when are willing to sit in a chaotic troublesome place and call upon God.  Joy and peace promised us in the gospel never start with us. They start first and foremost with the mercy of God.  What wisdom is ours when we listen to our spiritual elders?  Think of the men and women who could sit in the midst of the chaos and call forth the spirit of God.   I think of men such as Martin Luther King Jr.  I think of countries such as South Africa.  And indeed, repentance is a necessary step for the coming of Christ.  How can we ask Christ to come into our hearts if we are not willing to change?  How can we celebrate the incarnation if we refuse to forgive? 

Lastly, I think it’s important to highlight another element in these Sunday Advent Readings for this new liturgical year.  If you look them over you will notice these Sunday readings are not inclusive of the book of the prophet Isaiah.  The truth is that each week we listen to a different prophet, and each prophet speaks to us of a promise that God makes.  Last Sunday we listened to the prophet Jeremiah.  This week the prophet Baruch says to take off your long faces.  Look at the splendor of God which is before you. God will lead Israel with joy. God is filled with mercy and righteousness.  While this reading may be over 2500 years old, could we possibly find a reading that is more applicable to us today?   And coming up we have the prophets Zephaniah and Micah.  For anyone who is looking for an Advent exercise this year, I couldn’t recommend anything better than every week spend some time with the prophet of the week.  Who were they?  What was their family and their cultural life like?  What motivated them?  What are they saying about God?  How has God fulfilled the promise made to each of them?  And how is their message speaking to me about the coming of God’s Anointed One?

Have a blessed Advent week.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the local superior of St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Isaiah 30:19-21,23-26
Matthew 9:35 – 10:2,5,6-8

Reflection:

Faith, Life, Love … Treasured and Shared

Today’s Advent Gospel presents a touching scene:  Jesus moves among the towns and villages, teaching, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, curing disease and illness.  To underscore just how personally involved Jesus was in this ministry, Matthew writes that Jesus’ “…heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”  The troubled, the abandoned, the lonely, the wanderers…Jesus had come into the world as God’s gift to such people — people like us centuries later.

Jesus then spoke to his disciples about the abundant harvest of souls and called them to share his authority and help continue his mission:  to proclaim that “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” and back up the words with action on behalf of those in need.  The final words of Jesus cited in today’s Gospel are especially encouraging: “…without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”  God has freely given us faith in Jesus, and this gift is to be freely shared…shared with the same intensity that “moved” Jesus.

The gift of faith is so different than the material gifts that draw our attention this Christmas season.  If you give someone a gift of money, you necessarily have less money yourself.  However, if you give someone the gift of faith, you not only do not have less — but you really have more!  To grow in our Christian life, we must share our faith with others…families, coworkers, neighbors, even the “stranger” we meet while holiday shopping.  Our words, our good example, our interest in people – rising from our faith — speak volumes and make real the person of Jesus who loves us all unconditionally.  Faith shared is faith on-the-grow.

Advent is a time of hope, of anticipation, growth, and celebration – the gift of Jesus’ life and love are so real these days as Advent moves us to the celebration of Christmas!  May we make Jesus’ clarion call our own:  the Kingdom is at hand!  May we be faith-moved to greater care for our sisters and brothers, especially those in special need.

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the Vocation Director for Holy Cross Province. He lives at St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.