Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Micah 4:1-4 or Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

Reflection:

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Today we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We should be flowering her with gifts of love today. We should be thanking God for the gift of her birth. Today is the day that God gave us our new Eve. Today is the day the vessel to carry our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was created. The time when she who is to give birth has borne.

When the most holy Virgin was born, the whole world was made radiant; blessed is the branch and blessed the stem which bore such holy fruit. The Root of Jesse has blossomed; the Star has risen out of Jacob. At the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the new Eve enters the world, she who by her total obedience to the will of God is to crush the serpent, becoming the Mother of our Redeemer—God’s own Son—by her Fiat!

“This is, in fact, the day on which the Creator of the world constructed His temple; today is the day on which, by a stupendous project, a creature becomes the preferred dwelling of the Creator” (Saint Andrew of Crete). We give glory to God this day in celebrating the perfect humility and love of Mary, his masterpiece of grace and the Ark of the New Covenant.

Even though it’s Mother Mary’s birthday and not yours, the Lord wants to give you a birthday present. The present of new birth and new life in Jesus. Will you receive the birth-present of new birth and new life, even in impossible circumstances? Like Mary, will you believe that “nothing is impossible with God”? (Lk 1:37)

How happy is she who is both mother and spouse of God, the gate of heaven, the loveliness of paradise, lady of angels, queen of the universe, joy of the saints, advocate of believers, courage of those who fight, the recaller of those who wander, medicine of the penitent. Happy Birthday, Mary!

Deacon Peter Smith serves at St. Mary’s and Holy Family Parish in Alabama. He is also the Athletic Director and Facility Manager at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama, and a member of our extended Passionist Family.

Scripture:

Colossians 2:6-15
Luke 6:12-19

Reflection:

“Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:” (Lk 6:12-13)

The other morning, I was having breakfast with a friend at a local restaurant, sitting outside enjoying a beautiful Midwest early summer morning. A young father who stood about six feet four or five inches tall, with his three or four-year-old son sat down at the table beside us. I couldn’t help glancing over periodically to watch the two enjoy their meal together. From my vantage point, I saw that the little boy had French Toast with strawberries and whipped cream. It looked so much more tempting than my order of an omelet with a side of sliced fresh tomatoes.

Scott (my breakfast companion) and I were still enjoying our coffee when the father and son got up to go. The little boy finished very little of those delicious looking French Toast, so his father had asked the waiter for a container to take the leftovers home. The father gave his son the container and they got up to leave. The little boy dropped the container and OMG, the toast and strawberries spilled all over the sidewalk. The little boy started bawling and despite the heroic efforts of his father attempts to minimize the accident, his son kept bawling. Only when this six-foot-tall dad, got down on his knees and with his child gathered up the fallen treasure, and replaced it in the take home container, did the little boy quiet down.

I wonder if this is what Jesus expects of his apostles today, to do as this father did, get down on a level with his child and help him amend the “disaster” all the while, not belittling his son or telling him he should have…but just lovingly amending what the child saw as a total disaster. I wonder if the apostles Jesus names in today’s gospel selection were as surprised as this father would be if he was identified as one of Jesus’ twelve?

Jesus, choose me to be your apostle in my world today, spreading the good news that we are all loveable and we can love no matter how clumsily we go about that task.

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

Scripture:

Colossians 1:24-2:3
Luke 6:6-11

Reflection:

The scribes and Pharisees weren’t all wrong. In today’s Gospel their motives were definitely suspect, wanting to trap Jesus in their scrupulous interpretations of the Law. But their desire to protect the Sabbath carried some weight, a weight that deserves our attention.

The Sabbath had been set in Jewish Law since the days of Moses, and for very good reasons. In toiling seven days a week, the Hebrew people could easily lose perspective about what they did and did not control in their lives. To work endlessly, God recognizes, leaves humans spiritually and physically depleted and distorted in our relationship to all creation, especially our relationship to God.

Today in our Western culture we ignore the Sabbath more than at any time in human history. Sundays are days, in many people’s lives, for packing in as much activity as possible. Some work long hours on Sundays out of necessity like medical or security personnel. But many others see Sunday as just another day to add more hours to their work schedules to make a few more dollars.

Others, driven to accomplish more or craving more entertainment, sports practices and events, fill Sundays with back-to-back activities.

As I reflect on the Biblical meaning of keeping sacred the Lord’s Day, I realize that the commandment is intended to strengthen our dependence on God. Pausing one day a week, not driven to complete another project or assignment or attend another event, gives us the mental and physical space in our lives to understand in a deeper way how totally dependent we are on God for everything.

Not letting the many external pulls and tugs of the swirling world about us direct us, but letting God direct us on Sundays, happens when we collect ourselves in silence and sit in God’s presence for a spell. When we add to this silence attendance at the source and summit of our lives, the liturgy, God leads us into a serenity and joy that we can carry into the new week.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:4-7a
James 2:1-5
Mark 7:31-37

Reflection:

Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; Then will the eyes of the blind be opened…
–Isaiah 35:4, 5

The LORD gives sight to the blind…-Psalms 146:8

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality… -James 2:1

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. -Mark 7:37

I’ve been thinking about sight a lot lately. I recently had cataract surgery, and it changed the way the world looks to me. For over 50 years I have been dependent on glasses to see at a distance and now, at least in one eye until the next surgery, I can see clearly. I only mention this because, in one way or another, all four of our readings today speak of sight.

Isaiah tells us to be strong and fear not for the eyes of the blind will be opened. In the psalm we are told the Lord will give sight to the blind. These seem to be both direct references to our physical eyes not functioning and then becoming whole. But is it pointing to a deeper meaning?

In the epistle from St. James the apostle speaks of a different way of seeing. He talks about how we see others and judge them. He cautioned us against assigning value or worth to people based on the value and worth of the things they own. In doing so he reminds us that all of God’s children, the poor and rich alike, have sacred worth and value. And it is a danger to our “spiritual eyes” to use only our material eyes to form judgments.

In the gospel Jesus heals a man who is deaf and unable to speak. Although not directly connected to sight, hearing is another way of seeing. The book, “And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero” tells the story of Jacques Lusseyran, a French resistance fighter in World War II. It said that he was able to tell the trustworthiness of a person through the sound of their voice.

All of these readings speak of an opening in the way we perceive the world. It is so easy for us to go through our lives only seeing the difficulties and challenges that face us. In Genesis it says that God created the world and saw it was good. While there are definitely situations we need to correct and work on, God calls us to open our eyes to the good that is around us as well. This leads to a feeling of gratitude. And as Meister Eckhart says, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”

Today my prayer is that I remember, in the midst of all my running around, to open my eyes and see the good world that God has given to us and to be grateful.

In addition to being an independent teacher (now online!), Talib Huff is on the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You can contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

Colossians 1:21-23
Luke 6:1-5

Reflection:

Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath

Again, Jesus meets up with the hostile Pharisees who noticed some “unlawful” Sabbath activity by Jesus and his disciples:  hungry men picking heads of grain, shelling them in their hands, and eating them.  The Pharisees’ question “why?” was an attempt to humiliate Jesus and weaken any support for Jesus’ message of Good News.

The Pharisees’ legalistic approach to their religious beliefs revealed an extreme view of God and a lack of human compassion; their attitude was “let the hungry starve on the Sabbath; the law is more important than any hunger…”  Jesus pointed out that he and the disciples were doing what was reasonable:  going beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law.  Jesus also noted that their deed was not without precedent, as seen in the life of King David.  The final statement of today’s Gospel selection cites Jesus’ crowning statement: “…the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

In this 21^st century, how do we honor the spirit of the Sabbath?  Contemporary society encourages us to see each weekend as additional days for everyday routines of busy-ness and work – with perhaps a bit of rest and relaxation.  Jesus challenges our thinking just as he did the Pharisees of times past:  what about the spirit of the “Sabbath”?  Do we see it as a sacred time for needed communication with God, a time of re-creation open to the total gift of God’s Life at work in us?  Like those early disciples, we are invited to walk with Jesus and be nourished by his word and example.

Today is part of the U.S. “Labor Day” weekend, leading to the Church’s 23^rd week in Ordinary Time.  Many will “labor”; some will invest in fellowship and food, possibly prepared, and safely enjoyed outdoors in the waning days of summer.  May these few days not be “ordinary”, but may we walk with Jesus through the “fields” of Chicago, Louisville, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston, Birmingham, etc. — humble and grateful for the many blessings that are part of our lives as contemporary disciples of Jesus.  Peace and justice, healing and hope are ours, in and with Jesus!

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

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Scripture:

Colossians 1:15-20
Luke 5:33-39

Reflection:

Nostalgia is a term often used to describe sentimental longing or wistful affection for a past time or state of being.  It is a powerful inner resource and can be at work within each of us, often shaping our sense of what has occurred in our past or transporting memories of the past into our present consciousness.

The term has roots in Greek and is roughly translated to “homecoming” and “pain”. Nostalgia utilises our capacity for memory and in a certain sense brings some situations to life again often leading to feelings of happiness, joy and appreciate of love and gifts given to us by others who are dear to us. But as the definition suggests, there can be pain in nostalgia moments too as many memoires whilst happy in essence, might also be about people or relationships we have lost over time, and this can cause some sadness.

There are echoes of ‘nostalgia’ in the responses of the scribes and pharisees as they listen to Jesus’ teaching in our gospel text today. But it is tending towards a nostalgia that contains rather than frees one. They hark back to the past and adopt an attitude that Jesus describes as a preference for the old over the new – “And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Yet Jesus came amongst us precisely to announce the good news of our liberation and salvation and integral to this message was ‘the new’. New images of God, new teachings to set us free, new boundaries created, a new law to surpass all before it and a new and vital revelation of the nature of God and of our future in God. Such new life needed new expression – new symbols, new visions and new practices. His message was new and was not to be contained or defined in any one system or collection of laws. Rather his message was dynamic and needed to be contained in a community of believers living and witnessing in the world under the auspices of the ‘reign of God’ (often referred to as the “kingdom of God’).  Jesus placed great emphasis on his followers on their formation and on their ability and faithfulness to continue his mission after his passion, death and resurrection We have now inherited this mantle of witness.

Thus, our mission today is to keep alive his vision and message. In this task nostalgia for the past has a place, but not one that dominates or overly directs our thoughts and practices

Covid-19 has added complexity to our societies and tested us as individuals, families and communities. Perhaps it also pushes us subtlety in the direction of nostalgia in that many discussions and conversations tinged with phrases like ‘getting back to normal’ or speak of a ‘return to what we once had’. Certainly, let us hope that we regain freedoms, but let us note too that life in every dimension including our life as faith communities, will also be irrevocably new and different after this past eighteen months. In life as in discipleship, let us not one tear pieces from a new cloak to patch an old one or pour new wine into old wineskins.

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

Scripture:

Colossians 1:9-14
Luke 5:1-11

Reflection:

Let’s step back a few verses where Luke begins to set the stage for today’s gospel. In the previous ten verses Jesus has been in the village of Capernaum teaching and healing everyone who was brought to him.  Moreover, he has cast out demons who reveal his true identity, crying out “You are the Son of God!” (4:34 & 4:41).   Luke says the crowd went out to pursue Jesus, “and when they found him they tried to keep him from leaving them” (4:42).  This is completely understandable.  Isn’t it highly desirable to keep the miracle worker in town?  These are people who have an agenda.  So the stage is set for today’s gospel.

The scene unfolds:  Two boats, a few tired and hungry fishermen, a large crowd pursuing Jesus who are now pressing in upon him.  Take notice, Jesus is standing in the midst of this mass of humanity.   The men who have been fishing have an agenda too.  Luke says they are there washing their nets, indicating they are done for the day.  It certainly hasn’t been a good day.    Simon later tells Jesus, “We have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing” It’s clear, Simon is tired, hungry, and he doesn’t have anything to take home for his family.  When I am tired and hungry I become irritable.  Realizing I project that onto Simon, the situation gets worse. When I am tired, hungry, irritable, and I just want to go home, but someone commandeers my vehicle and I can’t leave, I become ANGRY!    Why would Simon and his companions be any different?   I suspect their initial plan was to finish washing their nets and return home.  Instead this man, who is at the center of these people’s attention, commandeers Simon’s boat and now he has to stick around and listen to this Galilean talk.   As he listens to him, Simon doesn’t understand who it is who is in his boat.  The Evangelist has Simon address Jesus as Master.   It’s in listening to Jesus’ words that somehow captivate Simon to act where it really doesn’t make logical sense.  He knows there’s no fish in this area. He has fished the area for hours and knows that it is a waste of time.  Yet all these people are before him; he is on stage before this crowd.  Yes, there is some social pressure as well.  Amazingly, it is in this moment of working with the Lord,  Simon will be forever changed. His vision shifts; he now sees who is the one in his boat.  His posture changes; he drops to his knees in an act of submission. His title for Jesus changes; “Lord”.   Before him is the sacredness, the holiness and the awesomeness of the divine.   Notice too, even when Simon sees his unworthiness, Jesus NEVER judges him.  He simply invites him into a new task and a whole new life.  And the Evangelist goes so far as to immediately give him a new name.  He is now Simon Peter.

For some of us, conversion starts as Jesus has to intercept our personal agendas.  And for some of us who are more stubborn, Jesus has to literally wear us down.  So many times peoples’ conversion stories are narratives of God’s persistence and patience up against our human limitations and our personal agendas.    What is your conversion story?  What has Jesus had to do to get your attention?

Have you noticed how Jesus entices us?  He frequently steps in where a person already has plans,  inviting a person to change their plans.   The enticement leads to intrigue and can frequently lead to  a shift in our agenda, doing something we would NEVER picture ourselves doing previously.  With the mind and heart enlightened, directly in front of us, in a profound moment of recognition, is CHRIST!!!   Paradoxically, in the end, we leave EVERYTHING behind and follow.  We are eternally different.

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

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11
Luke 4:31-37

Reflection:

As the saying goes, “nothing good happens after midnight.”  And that is true; so many criminal acts seem to take place under the cover of darkness. 

In today’s first reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, that image of light and darkness are in play.  In his counsel to the community of Thessalonica—one of the first communities Paul evangelized in Macedonia and probably the recipients of the first of the several pastoral letters he would write—the apostle reminds them that they are “children of the light and children of the day.”  They are “not of the night or of darkness.”

The “light” that Paul speaks of in his letter is that inner illumination—that grace—that has been given to them through their faith in Jesus Christ, who out of love “died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.”

The metaphor of “light” and “darkness” is used elsewhere in the New Testament.  In John’s Gospel, Jesus himself declares that he is the “light of the world.” (John 9:5) as he brings sight to the man born “blind.”  In the story that follows, we observe that the “man born blind” begins to “see” deeply—not only regaining physical sight but beginning to grasp the beauty and power of Jesus himself.  Meanwhile, the religious leaders grow in their resistance to Jesus and become more “blind.”  This dramatic account ends with Jesus’ paradoxical saying: “I came into the world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind” (John 9:39).

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ words refer to light and darkness in a manner similar to Paul.  “Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.  But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” (John 3:20-21).  Similarly in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has little patience for religious hypocrisy, when one “performs pious acts for people to see” but on the inside one harbors a very different spirit (see Matthew 6:1).

It is obvious that for Paul, as for John’s Gospel, “light” and “darkness” or “day” and “night” are metaphors referring not just to physical light and darkness but to a person’s transparency of spirit, a sense of integrity that does not fear scrutiny.  Each of us, of course, have our own personal thoughts and feelings, some of them inarticulate and to be shared only with those we love and trust.  Sometimes, we know, people share “too much information.”  A well-known and very prolific Chicago author was described as “having no unpublished thoughts”!

But we are also sadly aware these days of how many sinful actions committed by civic and religious leaders take place under the cover of “darkness.”   The reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians urges them to resist living under the cover of darkness.  God’s grace and the example of Jesus enable us to live in the daylight, unafraid to be our true selves.

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.