Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17
Mark 10:32-45

Reflection:

“Give new signs and work new wonders.” (Sir 36:6)

This single line from the Book of Sirach (at times called the Book of Ecclesiasticus) leapt off the page as I read today’s readings. The bickering disciples depicted in today’s gospel from Mark usually get my attention. Maybe because those guys remind me of growing up with eight siblings. But not today.

Breathe in: “Give new signs.”
Breathe out: “Work new wonders.”

My tendency in prayer is to be very active. I engage my imagination and play out gospel scenes. I am not really very good or practiced in quiet meditation. Yet I am quite drawn to these seven words.

A mantra is a word or phrase repeated over and again to aid concentration in meditation. It is very common in eastern religions and the growing popularity of meditation to help quiet the mind and experience the Divine. Its intention is to step back from all the distractions around us and focus on simple, repetitive words and slow, measured breathing.

Breathe in: “Give new signs.”
Breathe out: “Work new wonders.”

With all that has happened in the past fifteen months, I experience a growing need to find some quiet to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. The rancor, incivility, rudeness, and disrespect in word and action in these stressful times lead me to plead with God: “Give new signs and work new wonders.” And if I can find that quiet, I trust God will reveal all the wonderful signs and wonders that are indeed around me. I’m just too often distracted to see them. And so, I’m trying this.

Breathe in: “Give new signs.”
Breathe out: “Work new wonders.”

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Sirach 35:1-12
Mark 10:28-31

Reflection:

Peter began to say to Jesus,
“We have given up everything and followed you.”
~Mark 10:28

What does this mean, to “give up everything?”  I hear this and I know I can’t even imagine it.  I have a hard time even giving 10% of my income away–a goal I’ve had for about three years now.  I inch closer.  Then the kitchen sink backs up and a plumber needs to be called and that “radical trust” in Jesus takes a back seat.  Ten percent?  Radical?

We all likely have some area like that, our learning edge of trust in giving up.  Maybe it’s not money.  Maybe it’s opening your heart, letting someone in a little closer.  What would you need to give up? 

Maybe it’s trusting in God’s love for you.  What would you need to give up?

Maybe it’s exploring “just what is this systemic racism thing all about?”  What would you need to give up? 

Or maybe it’s reading the encyclical Laudato Si’ and wondering: What can I do to respond to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor?” What would you need to give up?

Hopefully a few of these things resonate for you.  But the truth is they are all things that have required me giving up something.  They have required me dying to something: beliefs; fears; parts of me that I thought were who I was; and training from my parents, teachers, and formative community that I had taken on without even knowing it.  And this process of giving up, of faithfully surrendering to the dying of these parts of me, is far from complete. My rewrite of this gospel verse would be something like “I am in the process of trying really hard to give up those things that are standing in the way of my fully following you, Jesus, and I need your help.” 

Yet my sense is that that is enough, this guiding beacon: our wish, our commitment, our prayer to follow Jesus, trusting in his own sacrifice that it is in the giving up, in the dying, that we too will be born into new life in the Kingdom of God.  Again and again.

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

Image credit: Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Scripture:

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14
John 19:25-34

Reflection:

Mary and Anatomy of Sin in Genesis

“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Gen 3:8

Our first parents gave us a virus far worse than Covid 19. The Holy Scriptures in the sin of Adam and Eve have given us an anatomy of the most deadly disease known in history.  The first effect of this virus is to hide from the very Person who can heal us.  “You hid Your face, I was dismayed (bāhal). Ps 30:7 Bāhal is the Hebrew word for dismay, be disturbed, alarmed, terrify.   Running from the face of God leaves us in a horrific loneliness. 

Their incredible offence was to overthrow God so that they can be gods! The liar Devil promised: “you will be like gods knowing good and evil.” In other words, you decide what is good or bad!   While this sounds off the wall is this any different than what we do today?  We deny God’s word, His instructions for a beautiful life, and think we are smarter than Him.  We in effect place our minds over His and our hearts dismiss any care for Him. 

Society’s favorite ideal today is to be open minded about sexuality, fidelity, religion and any care for our neighbor.   “Tolerance is often the virtue of the man without convictions.”  Gilbert K. Chesterton   We must be careful that our minds not be so open that our brains fall out.  We need the help and protection of a wise and caring mother. As in our natural lives it is often true that it is not so much what we know as who we know.   So also, in our spiritual lives we are extremely blessed to have Mary as our mother’

 We celebrate the feast of Mary, the Mother of the Church.   I have been long fascinated that the first words of Jesus on the cross in John’s Gospel were about Mary’s being mother of all the Beloved disciples.  “Behold your mother” came at the high-water mark of the fourth Gospel.  We are truly blessed to have as a mother Jesus’s own!  We are the children of God.   Children need a mother to care for them!  I love William Thackeray’s quote: “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

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

Scripture:

Acts 2:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Galatians 5:16-25
John 20:19-23 or John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

Reflection:

One of the quotes on my office wall is from St. John XXIII as he opened the Second Vatican Council:

We are not gathered here to argue the truths of faith, they have been passed down from
generation to generation. We are here to figure out how we can transmit the faith to
tomorrow’s men and women in such a way that will penetrate their consciences and
thereby move consciences to live by faith!

This came to me as I reflected on the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which we find in our first reading for the Feast of Pentecost this Sunday (Acts 2:1-11). There are so many remarkable things in that account that Luke gives us! There is that “noise like a strong driving wind” that drew a crowd to where the apostles were. Then there was the appearance of “tongues as of fire” that descended on each of the apostles. And there is just the fact that these apostles, who not long before this, locked themselves in an upper room out of fear, are now going out, boldly proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to anyone who was listening!

But what struck me more than anything, I guess because of the times in which we are living, is that when the apostles came out and spoke to the crowd, everyone in the crowd could understand them, even though they came from different parts of the world, and spoke different languages. Maybe you could say it was a miracle of communication, even without Google Translate and Zoom and Skype, and all the rest.

We believe that at our baptism we, too, received the Holy Spirit, which was confirmed at our confirmation. And so, we, too, are called to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our challenge is to proclaim the Gospel in such a way, following John XXIII, that people can understand.

But in order to speak in a way that makes sense to people, we need to listen to them. In our politics, and in our “culture wars,” there doesn’t seem to be much value placed on listening to the “other.” But how can I truly communicate with you unless I am willing to listen as well as speak, and to be impacted by what I hear?

In the Gospel reading option for Cycle B (John 15:26-27, 16:12-15), Jesus says to His disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” It has been my experience that the more I listen to those whose experience and background and culture are different from mine, that I gain in understanding and knowledge of the truth.

And so I wonder, at this time in our history, that, as the Holy Spirit is moving us to be witnesses to the love of God in Jesus Christ, that we are also being called to listen and to serve, so that our testimony may be better understood and accepted.

May we be found, in the words of those listening to the apostles, speaking of “the mighty acts of God.”

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

Scripture:

Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
John 21:20-25

Reflection:

Sometime last year the world population exceeded 7 Billion souls living in approximately 194 countries, with varying estimates of how many governing bodies exist within those countries.  In the time of our Lord, by comparison, there were just 230 million souls in the known world, all of which were governed by just one entity: Rome.

In this much smaller Roman world of the first century, the apostles walked with Jesus and strove to understand His teachings.   In John 21, Christ teaches Peter that his concern should not be about his or anyone else’s future, but rather that he should focus on the present and how he can serve God in that present.  Peter by this time had daily shared Christ’s life almost 3 years, and yet he was still learning how Our Lord wanted him to serve.  

The Covid pandemic has forced each of us into isolation, shrinking our worlds into safety pods of very few people. This isolation has undoubtedly allowed us to get to know those people better because we have walked so closely with them.  And so it is with Christ.  We strive to walk more closely with Him, to better understand Him, knowing as we try that it will take an infinity for us to grasp His divine nature ~ which is infinity.  We try to know and love Him and understand how He wants us to serve Him.  Or maybe He’s been telling us all along, but we haven’t taken the time to listen for His voice.   

 “Silence is one of the deepest disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let God be our justifier. We don’t need to straighten others out.”

― Richard J. Foster, Seeking the Kingdom: Devotions for the Daily Journey of Faith

Just for today, I will seek moments of silence to listen to His voice.  I will learn how I can best serve Him in this moment, this present time, and let God direct the rest of the world.   

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.

Scripture:

Acts 35: 13b-21
John 21:15-19

Reflection:

“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  -John 21:17

Have you ever been grilled by a parent?  Your Mom or Dad asking a question and then repeating it a second and a third time.  Each time you become more fearful and you begin to sweat.

Imagine how Peter felt in today’s post resurrection gospel. Jesus cooks breakfast over a charcoal fire and Peter denied Jesus 3 times around a charcoal fire. In front of his fellow apostles, Jesus asks Peter 3 times: “Do you love me?” In frustration, Peter says ”Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.

Some scholars say that Jesus uses the Greek word “agape” meaning unconditional and generous love in the first two questions.  Peter uses the Greek word “phileo” in each of his three answers.  Phileo means affection and  companionable.  In his 3^rd question, Jesus uses “phileo”.  Maybe this is Jesus’ way of enabling Peter to think  about his relationship with Jesus on a deeper human level.  This passage is urging us to examine our relationship with Jesus, our family, and others in light of unconditional love. (Gary Edmonds, Contributor, “Agape and Phileo Love: We Need Both”, Huffpost, 02/14/2017 11:37 am ET, Updated Feb 14, 2017)

How would we respond if  Jesus asks: “Do you love me as much as you love your family?  Do you love me more than your career? Do you love me enough to give me some of your time in daily prayer”? (Josh Shoemaker, “Agape and Phileo” at DiscovertheBible.wordpress.com..)

If Jesus would question us about our love for Him, would we respond as Peter did? “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Take some time today to reflect on your relationship and Jesus’s unconditional love for us and be aware and grateful for the blessings in our lives.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits” (Psalm 103:2)

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

Scripture:

Acts 20:17-27
John 17:1-11a

Reflection:

…I pray for them…the ones you have given me, and everything of mine is yours…

Jesus prays for his apostles, disciples and all of us really!  He is getting ready to leave, remembering that he has done what his father has asked – passed on the best of what he has – his relationship with his Father, his prayer life, his preparing of others to continue the journey on their own.  In some ways, setting them free – commissioning them to continue to build the kingdom, yet somehow trusting that he has done his ‘job’ – loved them into adulthood and trusted that God will continue to accompany them on their life journey.

Those of us who are parents, or mentors, or teachers really, of any kind, can relate to Jesus in this passage.  Isn’t that what we do – prepare those given to us to grow – grow in knowledge, wisdom, grace and love.  We prepare them to set them free!  We prepare them to face challenges, joys, obstacles and opportunities.  We prepare them to trust that they have all that they need to continue the journey.  We prepare them to love – because they have first been loved – by us, by God.

Like Jesus, we too take God with us.  God’s love empowers us to pass along what we know, to pass along our learned wisdom, to model right relationship and accountability.  Love is what enables us to let go and let God – to trust that God will have their back.  We too pray for those we love and care about – Love assures us that our relationship with them will continue, albeit different, even when we set them free.  We too pray that God will continue what we have begun and that our sons, daughters, mentees and students will continue to be embraced and loved by God, and that they too will pass on the best that they have.

Faith Offman is the Associate Director of Ministry at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Acts 19:1-8
John 16:29-33

Reflection:

“I tell you all this that in me you may find peace.” Those words of Jesus spoken to his disciples in today’s gospel grab at our hearts because peace is one thing every human being desires; indeed, the story of our lives can be read as an endless—and sometimes frantic and sorrowfully misguided—search for what we think will satisfy and content us. If we look at the trajectory of our lives, it is hard to deny that human beings are creatures of restless hearts, hungrily pursuing all the things we believe will quiet our desires and quell our deepest yearnings.

Jesus proclaims that he is the answer to our restlessness and the secret to our heart’s greatest longing. But the peace Jesus offers is eminently deeper and more resilient than a feeling that we have one day but is gone the next. The peace that we find in Jesus is the pervasive and abiding serenity that characterizes the person who has been transformed by, and become one with, the greatest possible good, and for Christians that good has a name: Jesus. This is why enjoying the peace Jesus brings requires being initiated into a certain way of life, a way of life began in baptism that Christians call discipleship. We grow into peace as we follow, learn from, imitate, and become increasingly like Christ. Of course, along the way we discover that we must relinquish any desires, attitudes, habits, or affections that can never bring us peace because they are at odds with the ways of God that are revealed in Jesus.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “There only will you have true peace where true good is desired.” The plot of the Christian life is to form us into the kind of persons who know true peace because we have learned to love and savor God more than anything else. When we have become that man or woman we will understand exactly what Jesus meant when he told his disciples: “I tell you all this that in me you may find peace.”

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.