Daily Scripture

Scripture:

1 Timothy 6:2-12
Luke 8:1-3

Reflection:

The aptly named pastoral epistles are loaded with practical advice and today’s reading from the first letter to Timothy is no exception. We are told to be “content with a sufficiency” and reminded that if “we have food and clothing we have all that we need.” Of course, we don’t swallow such advice easily, especially in a culture of consumerism that religiously trains us never to be content but to always want more and more; indeed, in a culture of consumerism, to be “content with a sufficiency” seems downright heretical.

It’s so easy to lose our way, to spend hefty portions of our lives sidetracked. This happens when we let lesser goods (such as wealth and possessions) become more important than greater goods (such as God and other people). But as this passage from 1 Timothy attests, when we give lesser goods more attention than they deserve we lose all sense of what truly matters, all sense of what is genuinely valuable and good. Even worse, while we may think money and material things will help us get ahead in life, if we set our hearts on loving them rather than God and our neighbors, we will slowly but surely destroy ourselves. As this reading emphatically reminds us: “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation, and a trap. They are letting themselves be captured by foolish and harmful desires” which lead not to life and security, but “to ruin and destruction.”

Less is often better than more. Today’s first reading calls us to embrace the simplicity of life not only because when we do we are able to apprise the true value of everything, and not only because when some of us live with less the poor and destitute are able to live at all; but also because if we are willing to be “content with a sufficiency,” we will finally discover where true life can be found. As today’s pithy gospel indicates, it comes in following Jesus, joyfully “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God” as we do.

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

Scripture:

1 Timothy 4:12-16
Luke 7:36-50

Reflection:

“If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” -Luke 7:39-40

All of us, probably, have had the experience of walking into our home, or a classroom or a workplace and instinctively felt the chilly reception we were getting. There were no overt signals that we were not wanted or signs of disrespect. But there were many little things that spoke volumes and loudly. The lack of a sincere welcome, the abrupt change of conversation, the veneer of social niceties in words, without the warmth and happy gestures, make us wary and uncomfortable. It seems that in people’s minds, we are judged, and we have failed to meet their expectations of us as a human being, family members, friends and persons worthy of their friendship.

If we are so attuned to this kind of experience in our society, Jesus was also. Jesus knew when he was being used. Jesus knew when people were saying one thing to his face but thinking another thing behind his back. Yet, Jesus did not avoid these encounters. In fact, he seemed to welcome them. The Gospel for today’s Mass demonstrates that.

Jesus is invited to a dinner being given by a “certain Pharisee” who may have been well known for his prestige, social status and wealth. Jesus enters and reclines at the table with him. We later find out that he was not welcome with the common courtesies of the day: his feet washed, a kiss of greeting and an anointment that would certainly fill the room with a nice fragrance. We get the impression that the Pharisee was doing Jesus a great favor by having him sit at the table with him.

The other important person in this Gospel account is “a sinful woman in the city.” There could be no greater contrasts than between these two people: a man of power, prestige and wealth and a woman who was well known for her sinful life.

One of the many layers found in this Gospel passage is that of entitlement. The sense of entitlement comes more easily to people of status, wealth, power, and social standing. That doesn’t mean that all of us also have a sense of entitlement, but some are able to exercise it more easily and without impunity, without shame. The examples are legion.

Jesus’ parable within the Gospel passage shows us that all of us are indebted because all of us are sinners. No one has the right to claim superiority over another human being. All of us have sinned. All of us are in need of forgiveness. All of us depend upon God’s mercy.

God’s love for us is all-inclusive. God loved us from the time we were in our mother’s womb. The sign of God’s love for us is forgiveness.

Jesus knew how to break the cycle of social inequality. No human law can dehumanize a person and classify that person as untouchable, inferior, unforgivable, unlovable. Only the human mind and heart can do that.

This is why Jesus’ command to love one another as he loves us is so liberating. It puts us in our place: children of God and brothers and sisters to one another. We don’t have to worry if this person is worthy of our love and attention, or if this “sinner” is loved and can be forgiven by God! That is why God is God.

Those at the table with Jesus ask: “Who is this who can even forgive sins?” Thank God, it is Jesus, our Lord, and Savior!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California. 

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Scripture:

Numbers 21:4b-9
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17

Reflection:

Today, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we are reminded of so many elements that make up our Christianity’s core.

The readings today inspire a Novena-style prayer which draws us towards the theological gift and virtue of Hope. Where we cannot just live in a confident expectation of Christ’s presence in our lives but can bathe in the grace already delivered through His salvific mission.

Let us celebrate this wonderful day for Passionists (and all Christians) around the world.

A Prayer for the gift of Hope

• DAY 1—MOVING CLOSER. Dear Lord, let my understanding of Hope move from a desire to receive my wishes and personal needs to those which bring my heart closer to you.

Recite ten times:
(Lord, open my heart to your most wondrous gift of Hope, this day, and every day of my life.)

• DAY 2—NEVER DESPAIR. Jesus, let me not despair in my times of need. Let my heart have the confidence that you will always provide. Let me recognize the gift of Hope, which eternally flows towards me, even when I do not see it. Turn my heart towards you, so I will do, or be ready to do your will.

Recite ten times:
(Lord, open my heart to your most wondrous gift of Hope, this day, and every day of my life.)

• DAY 3—DURING TIMES OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS. Holy Spirit, you are always in my life, ever-present but not always recognized by me. So let me greet you like the unexpected visitor who comes just when they are needed. I am grateful for the gift of Hope, which always connects me to you, and let me bask in Hope during those unexpected times of spiritual dryness when often I need you most.  

Recite ten times:
(Lord, open my heart to your most wondrous gift of Hope, this day, and every day of my life.)

• DAY 4—OFFERING OF HEART AND MIND. God, help me surrender my soul to you in the only way I know-how. Dear Lord, I offer my mind and heart to you in all things, no matter how difficult I find it, to make this humble and vulnerable offering.

Recite ten times:
(Lord, open my heart to your most wondrous gift of Hope, this day, and every day of my life.)

• DAY 5—A BROKEN HEART IS AN OPEN HEART. Jesus, my broken heart is an open heart, which faces you fully and with the love you have donated. Let my heart be open and bleed to your liturgy of love, which you give me daily through the channel of Hope.

Recite ten times:
(Lord, open my heart to your most wonderful gift of Hope, this day, and every day of my life.)

Michael Cunningham, OFS, is the Director and CEO of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 7:1-10

Reflection:

Over the next few days, we will mark the special feast days in the Passionist calendar. Tomorrow will mark the feast of the exultation of the Holy Cross and the following day will mark the feast of our Mother of Sorrows.  The scripture today is pointing the way and acting as a guidepost announcing this special week. In the first reading from Timothy, where the author is exhorting his community to live peaceably. A plea to make no enemies among the community. It comes as a very egalitarian plea. Scripture scholars refer to 1^st Timothy as a preeminent example of a Christian raised in faith. The author suggests that the community promotes faithful instruction and pay heed to the laws. The author warns his community to be careful of those who teach false doctrines.

Our Gospel story shows Jesus being surprised by the faith of another pagan. Throughout the synoptic Gospels, Jesus consistently finds faith “not even in Israel.” We hear from the mouth of the centurion a familiar verse recited before our Eucharist celebration.

This is the feast of St. John Chrysostom; he was considered in his day to be a great preacher. While far from teaching false doctrine, he was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Today, we stand on the shoulders of those who have wrestled with doctrine and the interpretation of Scripture within their time. So many people were raised by the Holy Spirit in all ages. Like the psalm suggests, “Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.” Today’s scriptures offer us an insight that while the times in which we live may feel like challenges to our faith. May we reflect as the psalm offers, “In him my heart trusts, and I find help.”

May the Lord, bless and console us as we face the challenges of today in trust. Amen.

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.

Scripture:

Isaiah 50:4c-9a
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35

Reflection:

In Passionist chapels, you will see Christ on the Cross with his eyes open. There is no piercing in his side. He is looking out on the world. He looked out on the world on September 11^th, 2001, and we know what he saw. This is His Passion as He looks out on a broken world. Broken is traumatic and paralyzing.

“9/11” was a continuation of the atrocities among innocent families caught in the middle of the cauldron of war. September 11^th was an orchestrated attack of retaliation that launched another cycle of the fruitlessness of war throughout the region.

This is Our Lord’s Passion, witnessing the destruction and disregard for God’s Creation – human and natural. The Love of God responds with the mercy of the Resurrection, that which is embedded within us in our Oneness with Christ through our baptism.

Can you put yourselves into the persons of the disciples as Jesus asks them if they know who He is? Jesus would be the Suffering Servant for the world. He would undergo great suffering, rejection and death, and after three days rise through the power of the resurrection.

The disciples need to set their minds on God’s merciful and loving ways of seeing and doing things to counter the evil causing such trauma.

Jesus does not pretend to be “saving us” by using divine power to change whatever it is in society, whatever it is in other people’s behavior that is threatening us. Jesus tells us that the challenge in our world is to do one thing – we do not love one another.

If we accept to learn from him how to love as the solution, all other problems will find solutions.

Love must be our guiding principle. Selfishness destroys – love gives life. In the words of W.H. Auden, American poet, “we must love one another or die.”

The only power Jesus promises to use for us is the power that enables us to love as He loves.

This is the only power that saves….

I ask you before Mass is over today, to make a commitment to work deliberately on one habit, just one habit to love someone in a deliberate manner.

Make that the habit during your week and then when you return next week, put your work of love during the past week into the bread and wine and let God’s grace renew that habit to love.

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

Scripture:

1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14
Luke 6:39-42

Reflection:

Jesus often calls out those who are “blind”, who cannot see God’s truth. Almost exclusively, they are righteous people who judge or marginalize others – those whose very belief in their integrity and “rightness” is what makes them blind. Paul relates well. He was an ardent, much-feared persecutor of Christians who believed he was doing God’s work. God had to make him physically blind before he “saw,” and became a crusader for those he previously oppressed.

So where am I blind? I find that I need to ask two related questions.

1. Where is my belief in my own rightness or innocence blinding me to how God wants me to change?

2.  In what ways do I only associate with, read, or get to know people who believe what I believe, risking that the blind lead the blind?

Example: Although I consider myself open and accepting of other ethnicities, I realized I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I thought. I attended an event at which a Black priest spoke about times he was without his collar while walking down the street in a nice neighborhood when he was stopped by police who wanted to know what he was doing there. A Black professional colleague told me that every time her honor-roll teens leave the house, especially if they wear hooded sweatshirts, she worries in ways I never had to about whether they will return home. A successful Black financial advisor told me he has to work three times as hard as others in his office to be taken seriously. These and others opened my eyes to ways that people of color are marginalized, judged, and excluded, and the different levels at which I take part in that. I couldn’t see it if I associated only with people like me – white, suburban, middle-class America. I would have remained blind.

Another example: My brother is gay, I know scientists have proven it is a genetic trait, and I considered myself open and accepting. But I found out I was too insulated. Many years ago, I was hired to coordinate liturgies for a meeting of the National Catholic AIDS Network. Throughout the weekend, I was surrounded by the amazing talents, gifts, and perspectives of dedicated, faithful, gay Catholic people. As I listened to their stories, I was transformed. My eyes were opened to the depth of their pain, and the exclusion and violence they often experience, as well as to the beauty and joy of being with them. If I had been afraid or had turned down this opportunity, I would have remained contentedly blind.

In these are so many other areas, God is calling us to remove the beams from our eyes and search for the truth. We have to reach out beyond our comfort zone. Connect with others and hear their stories. Let the love that God has for each one of those we define as “others” fill our hearts, so together we can work to bring justice to our world.

Please, Lord, help us to see!

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:

Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 6:27-38

Reflection:

Love is…., yes, visible.

Today Luke gives us his teaching on the law of love, and Paul tell us that we who are God’s chosen ones who reflect love in so many ways. More than explain love to us, the readings invite us to to open our eyes to love around us. Learn from it.

In the hospital I visited an elderly religious sister who had spent a long career teaching first graders. I can still see her large eyes, and the sheet pulled up to her chin. I ask, ‘What do you like to read’, expecting her to name some children’s story books. She answered, ‘The Bible’. I thought, ‘She fooled me’. Then, as if going to confession, she added, ‘I also read love stories.’ She was obviously one of God’s love stories!

So is a picture of a little girl drinking some nourishing food out of a bowl. She is dirty, barefoot, and shabbily dressed. An arm with delicate fingers reaches out to her holding the bowl. A piece of jewelry that makes the arm beautiful contrasts not only with the child’s poverty, but says the suffering that seizes another’s body, can rob it of the chance to be beautiful? The woman who reached out to the girl nourished her not only with food but with hope. “One day you will grow, you are beautiful and are meant to be able to stand and show your beautiful self to the world”. ‘Give and it will be given to you. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you.’ I save a lot of the beautiful pictures of faces from the Sunday Magazine sections and fashion magazines. Among the pictures I hold most beautiful is the one who shows me only her hand and bracelet encircled wrist.

Our pandemic continues. On the nightly news we see people whose special gift, vocation, love, is to heal the sick. We improve our gifts when we are challenged when we struggle to defend them. I remember a nurse so sad when her patient went AWOL. There was no goodbye, no appreciation of the care and investment to make him well.

I see love every night from those who deal with people denying the value of vaccines and suffering from Covid. The medical personnel sorrows no less for them and their families. Is this the love that you give when someone slaps you on the cheek, and invites you to turn the other, continuing to give of yourself in caring love?

As school begins, I read a beautifully illustrated children’s story for the little ones who will be tearful. ‘A Kiss in my Hand’ by Audrey Penn. A mother raccoon’s little boy tells her that he wants to stay with her and not go to school. She tells him to expect good things, and that she has a secret for him. She takes his little paw into hers and turns it palm up and separating the fingers a bit. She kisses it, closing the fingers back into a fist, saying, if he feels a little sad just open his hand and put it against his cheek. He will feel the warmth of her love with him. Before he climbs the tree with the other little ones of the forest to meet the awaiting owl (teacher), he says to his, mom, Mom, give me your hand…We see his mom with her hand against her cheek as he walks along a branch to the first day of school. There is a picture of a heart in the center of the little boy’s palm. Luke and Paul would say yes to that. We usually draw a nail mark, but a heart might do. Our love is sacrificial like that of Jesus. All stories are love stories.

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