Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
Matthew 36-43

Reflection:

Oh, if only life was this easy to understand and correct. How many of us have worked in that heavenly garden of a place? You are blessed beyond measure, you receive so many gifts of the Spirit, and you are hoping and praying that what God wants you to share with others is what you are contributing. You understand the sacrifice of what you do – time away from your family, hours that you dedicate to service that usually pile up all too quickly. You look forward to going to work every day, and you can’t believe the day’s hours have passed because you have found so much joy in your daily efforts.

But, then there are the weeds. Those folks who see nothing wrong with taking advantage of the system, taking a few free hours here, a few free trinkets there. And we are not usually given the opportunity of seeing those wrongdoers removed from the garden. Not always are our warnings heeded of what we know or see, and so the joy of the garden is snuffed out, slowly giving way to the evil that begins to linger in it. 

It is so incredibly easy to become downhearted, depressed, or sad when you have lived through an experience like this. You believe that you are doing things the right way, going through the proper channels, but there will always be the weeds of the garden that want to snuff you out. But we have to stand firm in our belief in a loving and merciful God. The parable in today’s gospel is the reality of good and bad. I have been guilty of allowing others to “steal my joy” in their badness, and it has thrown me into the throngs of depression and sadness rather than the goodness I should be searching and working toward. It has affected my ministry in the past and numbed me to my faith. 

Our own hearts must be open to God’s protection for us from evil. He loves us so very much, and we know that there will always be someone who wants to control what others can contribute or experience in ministry. Open your hearts to the Gospel and be the flower – don’t be the weed!

Patty Masson supports the Passionists from Spring, Texas.

Scripture:

Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34
Matthew 13:31-35

Reflection:

If you are old enough to remember the comedian Flip Wilson from the 1960s and 1970s, you’ll recall his comedic signature: “The devil made me do it.” He got a lot of mileage out of that line. Why? Because, as is true with all good comedy, there is an element of truth in it. We don’t often know why we do stupid things. It must be the devil.

Today’s reading from Exodus finds Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the tablets inscribed with ten commandments, commandments that signify the people’s covenant relationship with God. What does he find? A golden calf, an idol, this image upon which the people have placed their hope.

His own brother Aaron says to Moses, “You know well enough how prone the people are to evil,” as if that were an excuse. He could have said just as easily, “The devil made me do it.”

Without a doubt, the Israelites were tired of wandering the desert after leaving Egypt. They were frustrated, maybe even angry, so they create the proverbial “golden calf” to assuage that frustration. It is so tempting to off-load that pent-up anger to someone or something else, creating an idol upon which to place hopes for a better life, rather than to take personal responsibility for their lives.

All around us today we see evidence of the frustration people feel. It was there before the pandemic, but Covid-19 exacerbated people’s sense of being lost and alienated, which has fueled our anger. We are short-tempered. We lash out at others. We demonize others who are not like us. We, too, look for an idol in whom to place our hope – maybe a person, maybe a political party, or maybe a drug of choice.

It is telling that when called out for poor behavior, a person often says, “I’m really not a bad person. I’m not a bigot. That was not really who I am.” In other words, “The devil made me do it.” A far better thing to do might be to stand at the foot of the Cross, gaze upward, and say, “Lord, help me. I’m scared and alone and frustrated. Show me your love and mercy.”

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:

2 Kings 4:42-44
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15

Reflection:

There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?  ~John 6:9

In today’s readings, I’m struck by the fact that this miracle of abundance, this wondrous multiplication of the loaves and feeding of the five thousand (not including women and children!), begins with a boy who has five loaves and two fish.  A child. 

The adults in the situation—the disciples who are with Jesus day in and day out, and might have perhaps by this point developed some trust in Jesus’ abilities—are flustered.  One might even imagine panicked.  “Where can we buy enough food?”  “It would take two hundred days’ wages!” “What good are these for so many?”  I think of the many times I have looked to my own resources for solutions, unaware of Jesus ever ready to work miracles.

But Jesus simply receives the boy’s gifts. And in striking similarity to the Last Supper and Eucharist, he “took the loaves, gave thanks [eucharistēsas in Greek], and distributed them.”  And all who were there, every last man, woman, and child received their fill.

Theologian Walter Brueggemann observes that many of us are habituated to a “market ideology [that] wants us to believe that the world is profane—life consists of buying and selling….But Jesus presents an entirely different kind  of economy, one infused with the mystery of abundance and a cruciform kind of generosity.”^[1]  A market ideology draws us into an economy of scarcity undergirded by fear, and competition with our neighbor.  In the mystery of abundance, incredible numbers of people are fed with food left over. And, not only that, we can also imagine that the crowd included folks from all different social and economic groups—at a time when social barriers to table fellowship were strictly upheld. This is a scene of both miraculous abundance and radical inclusiveness.

So I wonder, what are the situations today where we adults may be, like the disciples, blindly limited by our stubborn clinging to our own resources and habitual ways of thinking, oblivious to Jesus in our midst? It may seem like a bit of a jump, but I wonder if Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, the Parkland teenagers who sparked the #NeverAgain movement, or Malala Yousafzai, the 15 year old shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan for daring to speak out against a ban on education for girls, are very different from the boy in John 6:9. These young people offer what they have: a sign reading “Skolstrejk för klimatet” and time every Friday;  the experience of surviving a school massacre and the determination that it not happen to another young person; the courage to speak up for the rights of girls in the face of an oppressive state.

And, even as the adults on the scene seem to be in disarray, Jesus receives their gifts, gives thanks, and offers them to all.  Over time, we have seen the gifts of each of these children miraculously multiplied—even in the face of hate and violence—into movements larger than themselves with a vision toward abundance, healing and radical inclusivity.  A “cruciform kind of generosity”, indeed.  May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts.

[To read more stories of young people who are offering their gifts, visit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2020/04/11/12-kids-who-are-changing-their-communities-our-world/.]

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

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^[1]The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity: Consumerism and Religious Life by Walter Brueggemann [https://sanantonioreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/the_liturgy_of_abundance.pdf].

Scripture:

Exodus 24:3-8
Matthew 13:24-30

Reflection:

Precious Blood

“Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.”

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
“This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you.” EX 24:7

One of the most beautiful images use frequently in the Old Testament is that of blood!  In the days of antiquity, the science of biology was very undeveloped.  One thing they did observe was the close relationship between life and blood!   The Hebrew word for blood (dam) appears some 360 times in OT.  In the NT blood (haima) occurs 97 times.  For the ancients blood especially meant life or its loss meant death.  Even today we know that a loss of too much blood spells death! “Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. Deut 12:23

When Moses sprinkled blood on the altar (what belongs to God) and on the people both God and His people in a wonderful way shared the same life!  When we celebrate the Eucharist “we who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.” Eph 2:13 . 

Jesus shares these dramatic words with us: “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” John 6:53    This is a life of deep intimacy with Christ.  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:56

Our eight pints of blood circulate through the heart maybe 60 times an hour, absorbing recently inhaled oxygen from the honeycombed fabric of the lungs and proceeding into the thickly muscled heart, which then shoots the enriched fluid onward to nourish the rest of our body.

Jesus mingles his Blood with ours in Communion.  Jesus unites His bl00d with ours which feeds and cleans us.   It delivers fresh oxygen and other nutrients to all 100 trillion cells of the body, flushing out carbon dioxide, ammonia and other metabolic trash.  Our blood is touched by the Blood of Jesus!  This great Sacrament fills us with the fullness of Christ, “is it not a participation (koinonia: sharing) in the blood (life) of Christ?”   -1 Corinthians 10:16

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

Scripture:

Exodus 20:1-17
Matthew 13:18-23

Reflection:

In our weekday readings for Mass, we see a progression through certain books of the Bible for our first reading, and then a progression through much of the Gospels for the Gospel reading. Very often they are not related to each other. But I believe there is some connection between our two readings for today.

In our first reading from Exodus, God delivers the Ten Commandments to the people. I like St. Paul’s summary of the Ten Commandments in his letter to the Romans (13:8-10): “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,’ and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

In our Gospel reading, Jesus explains to His disciples the meaning of the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. As He explains the images of the types of soil on which the seed does not grow, I see those explanations as illustrations of what gets in the way of us following the commandment to love, especially the images of the seed sown on rocky ground and the seed sown among thorns.

When it comes to the seed sown on rocky ground, in countries like the U.S., there may not be outright persecution of Christians, but there is sometimes pressure to go along with the crowd, or even get into a mob mentality and demonize those who are considered “other.” When it comes to seed sown among thorns, worldly anxiety and the lure of riches can lead to stealing and lying and coveting, and even killing.

But when we follow the commandment to love, we grow in our understanding of God’s word, and when we share that love, the word “bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” May the seed of God’s love in Jesus Christ bear fruit in us.

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

Scripture:

Song of Songs 3:1-4b or 2 Corinthians 5:14-17
John 20:1-2, 11-18

Reflection:

Today’s gospel clearly pictures Our Lord’s frustration with the men and women who had walked daily with Him for almost three years. He is astonished that the apostles understood neither the true meaning of the parable which He had just given that morning, nor the reason he used parables in the first place; Parables He had used since the first early days of His preaching.  Why had they not asked Him about using parables long before this moment?    

Having created us, Christ knew that humans are better able to comprehend and remember instruction presented in story form rather than dry enumeration of fact or direction.  The parable is a form of Aristotle’s method of teaching: drawing the learner to comprehension of the subject being taught rather than simply presenting it. The parable is a gift to unwrap, a mental puzzle of sorts that increases the true understanding of Christ’s message. 

If these, His hand-picked followers, could not grasp His meaning or the way it was presented, how much more must we strive to understand His words?  The Sower of seed may appear nonchalant about broadcasting his precious seed amongst the rocks and thorns.  But the Holy Land is a desert country of rock strewn, dusty, parched fields.  Good land is rare and must be sought out and cared for. Even then the seed may fall on rock, bare baked earth, or among the weeds.  Rock, weeds, thieving birds, poor earth are always a challenge to a good harvest.  So Christ’s truth is that the sower, having been given the gift of good seed, must care for the way it is sown, watered, cared for, until it brings forth a bountiful harvest.  We were each given gifts which must in turn be cared for, increased, then brought to full harvest.  

Just for today, I will sit in the quiet of this summer evening and think of all the gifts I have been given, the talents I have received, and how I am using them.  Then as twilight slowly overcomes the day, I will thank Our Lord for all that He has given me and remember that those gifts are merely entrusted to me. I must account for them at the final Harvest.       

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:

Exodus 16:1-5, 9-15
Matthew 13:1-9

Reflection:

In today’s first reading the children of Israel are grumbling against Moses and Aaron. “…you lead us into the desert to die of famine!” Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.”  (Exodus 16:2,3,4)

After complaining and grumbling they noticed a white substance on the early morning ground.  It was manna to make bread.  For many of us this past Covid year may have seemed like a desert journey easy to grumble but “each of us challenged to search for manna daily to nourish our spirits”. (Patricia Livingston, Living Faith, July, August, September 2021, July 21, 2021.)

What are the ways that you and I can nourish our spirit when we might feel sad, depressed and down?  Some examples would be increase time for prayer, practicing mindfulness of the moment, taking relaxing walks, taking time to read scripture daily, volunteering to help others. 

The gospel of today is about the Sower and the seed.  St. Lawrence of Brindisi, whose feast we celebrate today, states “The seed is the Word of God, who is the highest good and supreme goodness.  The seed which he sows, therefore, cannot be anything but good seed”. (From Lenten Sermons, , Volume II (Part I)Vernon Wagner, O.F.M. CAP. Tr. Pp. 54-55, 56,57, 58. Copyright 2007, Media House, Delhi India, www.mediahouse.online.) The important question is what kind of seed have I been sowing?  I have found by performing “random acts of kindness” such as opening a door for others or unhooking the grocery cart, sanitizing the handle, and giving it to an elderly person brings a warm smile to their face.  To me, this is sowing the good seed and receiving manna to nourish our spirit.

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

Scripture:

Exodus 14:21-15:1
Matthew 12:46-50

Reflection:

The great adventure begins!  Moses had finally been able to convince the Jewish people, the slaves of Egypt, to seek freedom from their oppression.  He had also finally been able to convince Pharaoh that it was in the best interests of Egypt to let the Jewish people go.  So, the children of Israel have begun their great journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, from oppression to freedom, from living as slaves in Egypt to living as the Chosen People of God.  What a great adventure!

But such a momentous journey turned out to be a much more difficult one than anyone, including Moses, had imagined.  As soon as the Jewish people left Egypt, the Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his armies to re-impose his will by bringing back the slaves, at least those who would survive the confrontation.  The army caught up with the slaves as they camped by the sea.  The slaves were caught between the army and sea so there was nowhere to flee.

The Egyptians were elated, and the Jewish people lost heart and were in despair.  They turned on their leader, Moses, with anger and berated him for bringing such calamity upon them.  Moses turned to God.  God responded, “Why are you crying out to me?  Tell the children of Israel to go forward….”  God created a path for them, a path that turned out to be a safe path for the Israelites but a path to destruction for the army of Pharaoh.

This story marks the beginning of the great journey (the forty-year Exodus) of the children of Israel.  This crisis that marks the beginning of the journey, is only the first of many.  Again and again the people will lose heart and believe that their journey is impossible to complete because of outside forces: the hostility of their environment, lack of food and water, attack by other peoples, devastation by wild animals, and most tragically their infidelity to God.  But God remains faithful throughout, patiently responding to their cries for help by meeting their needs and encouraging them not to lose heart.

As we live our lives, we, too, often fear that the obstacles we meet, the betrayal’s we experience, and the frailty of our faith will destroy us.  This story of Exodus reminds us that God is always faithful, ever ready to hear our cries for help and give us new courage “to go forward” in our personal journey.

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