Daily Scripture

Feast of John the Baptist

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:1-6
Acts 13:22-26
Luke 1:57-66

Reflection:

John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. -Acts 13:24

Paul sums up the work of John the Baptist with the word repentance.  The word in the Greek original inspired word is metanoia.  It means one has to think of God in a much bigger and exciting way.  We must change dramatically our thoughts about the wonder of His love.  What God is going to do for us has not even entered into the mind and heart of man in His wildest dreams!  Biblical “repentance” means not so much that we look to our wayward sins, but to God’s startling love for us!  We are challenged with God’s amazing ways to call us into the wonderful love life of the Trinity.  

Jesus says the most astonishing things about this sharing of intimacy with God!  “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. John 15:9  I think this is one of the most astounding words spoken by Jesus!  So strong is Jesus’ love for us it is like the Father’s love for His “Only Begotten”.  How could Jesus say it more strongly than that?  When John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God” that was the most wonderful sight in the world! Pope Benedict XVI beautifully says: “EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON THE INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS!”

Some years ago I visited the wonderful Basilica Sacré Cœur  in Paris in the evening when a teen age girl with her family came in and knelt behind me.  There is a giant mosaic of Jesus over the altar that is over 5,000 sq feet. It is the largest mosaic in France.  When the family of the girl first came in she cried  out: “look at Jesus”!  Maybe these words sums up the main wonderful point of John the Baptist.“Behold the Lamb of God”

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

Scripture:

Genesis 13:2, 5-18
Matthew 7:15-20

Reflection:

“Beware”.  The word is usually encountered upon entering a Halloween haunted house. In today’s gospel our Lord uses this emphatic warning to alert us to the false prophets all around us who are always the greatest threat to the Church and its teachings 

“You will know them by their fruits”, Mt 7: 16.  The message of false prophets is so successfully propagated because people are like drops of water, they seek the path of least resistance. “That Old Time Religion” was way too confining and too much work!  They want to be free to do as they wish and so they seek out a belief system that has no consequences or demanding effort.  We are living in a post-Christian/Judeo world where Secular Humanism and Prosperity Gospels are some of the more glaring bad fruits the false prophets promote.  The message is simply a narcissistic self-delusion of grandeur where it is smugly assumed that the modern intellect is superior in knowledge than those who came before, as if they were the first that believed this always modern fallacy.  Because of their astonishing understanding of the universe, past spiritual writers and Christian theologians can be rejected and abandoned as intellectual peasants whose time is long been over.   St Paul recognized this parochial thought pattern even in the time of Christ.  He mocks these self-professed intellectual superiors by saying, “Professing to be wise, they become fools”, Romans 1:22.  Their self-possessed beliefs gives rise to a system where there is no God, and the concept of human worth is achieved without religious dogma, structure or requirements.    Human value is recognized by adhering to the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.  

Perhaps some can remember a 60’s era t-shirt which highlighted the problem of using human nature as a value judgement criteria:    Emblazoned on the chest of the shirt in a bold, Gothic font, (which best resembled the title card for the movie, “The Bells of St Mary’s”)   was the phrase:   “Do Unto Others,  Then Split!”   

Since the beginning of our species, we have been programmed to place the needs of our tribe above all others, even to the detriment of other tribes.  We are driven to provide for ourselves and our loved ones without regard for others.  Charity, empathy and compassion, (which we used to call Humanity) are concepts that have their root in our faiths and belief in God.   These concepts have no place in a Post Christian/Judeo world.

A true prophet is one who leads by example, word, and action, back to our Father.  “You will know false prophets by their words”.  It is they who promote the idea of a Universe without need of an uncreated creator. They no longer need the protection of sheep’s clothing.  The false prophet’s secular thinking is now more accepted as correct by society than any Christian or Jewish premise.  While they might be college professors, members of the media, government officials or classroom teachers, false prophets can still be identified by their words because they do not lead back to God.  Bad trees can only produce bad fruit.   And whatever their status, they must be identified and confronted, both for their own benefit, and for our 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:

Genesis 12:1-9
Matthew 7:1-5

Reflection:

Imagine you are 75 years-old and God tells you to pack up and begin a new life in the wilderness. Instead of cosmic beginning stories, Genesis, chapter 12  focuses on Abram (Abraham) and his family.  Why should God choose this unknown Mesopotamian making him promises?  Rabbinical scholars believe that Abram was the first monotheist, a believer in one God. What were the promises made to Abram:  descendants, land, and blessings. (Working Preacher, Commentary on Genesis 12:1-9 by Katherine M. Schifferdecker) The moral of this story: being faithful to the One True God has its rewards. Today’s psalm confirms: “Blessed the nation whose God is the Lord”. (Psalm 33:1)

In our Gospel Jesus instructs : “Stop judging, that you may not be judged…Remove the beam from your eye and you will be able to see the splinter in your neighbor’s eye.” (Genesis 7: 1 and 5)

Rabbinical teaching laid down six great works which brought credit to a person: study, visiting the sick, hospitality, devotion in prayer, educating children in the Law and thinking the best of other people. Jesus and his audience was well aware of this teaching.  (William Barclay, The Gospel of St. Matthew Revised Edition, Volume I, Daily Bible Study Series, Westminster Press, 1975, pp. 263-265)

Scripture Scholar, William Barclay, states there are three reasons why no person should judge another:

1) We never know the whole facts or the whole person.

2) It is almost impossible for any person to be strictly impartial in his or her
    judgement. 3)  No person is good enough to judge any other person.  (Ibid. pp. 264-265)

The gospel challenge: improve our own faults and failings and leave the faults of others to God.  This week, let us practice kind and loving thoughts toward others.

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

Father’s Day

Scripture:

Job 38:1, 8-11
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4: 35-41

Reflection:

Fathers Day honors the man in the family bearing resemblance to God the Father, ”from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named”. (Eph 3.15)  This places dads in good company.  Why?  Because they do many good things for the rest of us, three of which are presented us today in our bible readings.

Dads are the outdoorsmen of the family, while moms are the indoors keepers of the family—more or less.  Dads are into lawncare, tree trimming, gutter-cleaners, building maintenance, garage and basement supervisors, snow removal—we get the idea.  How do we come upon all these good ideas for dads get all these ideas?  Perhaps from Job, of whom we hear today as he presents his own understanding of God as Father, engaged in more or less similar kinds of activities, like setting boundaries for the sea, deploying clouds as frills (decorations) around the seas edges, and darkness suggesting the depths beneath, keeping it land-locked so as to prevent it invading areas where it doesn’t belong.  This is God the Father’s job-description in His version of being a maintenance man: keeping things running smoothly and in good order.

Like His human counterparts, God the Father wants His (human) family to be off to a good start.  This is St. Paul’s take on God the Father today.  He leaves His imprint on the human family He has gotten underway, sending us Someone in His own image and likeness: Jesus.  Every father takes pride in the family He leads, seeing traces of his own image in the children swelling the family ranks.  His name (and ours, if faithful Christians) is as good as gold in certifying the trustworthiness of family transactions: accounts, purchases, taxes.  He is the designated family spokesperson, who are distinctive by the rules, customs and practices of the house (God has done this too with His ten commandments).  The family reflects the father’s value system, and this becomes evident everywhere: in the neighborhood, the school and parish, in recreational venues and workplaces.  Jesus recognized this in predicting: “By this shall all men know you are my followers, by your love for one another.”  As St. Paul says, family members operate on a different level, their own unique traits and characteristics: whoever is in Christ is a new creation: old ways of identifying the family may have to pass away, and be replaced by new things that do it better.  The father is the major influence in setting the family tone, just like God the Father and the Christian family.

And then there’s the fear factor insinuating itself into everyone’s life.  And fathers are made to offset such fears.  This is how Jesus His Son, His own image and likeness, saw it in proceeding in today’s gospel by going to sleep in the boat struggling to hold its own against a fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus’ trust in His Father’s oversight and loving care and presence was more than equal to the storm’s fury threatening His band of followers.  And dads carry on that same protective concern against taunts, bullying, put-downs for the clothes children wear, or the kind of food eaten or the entertainment enjoyed.  Dads also offset the dangers of a flat tire, or a broken scooter or malfunctioning skates, or a threatening pit bull: all potential threats needing someone to take charge and calm fears down.  And that’s the father of the family.  With God the Father’s care always close at hand, the father of the family has an image at hand to be the take-charge guy, assuring that all is well.

The sense of fatherhood provides the security of management and control, of identity, of protective care.   It embodies a pathway for coming to know God as Father.  And it identifies a major help in appreciating the man of the house as someone standing in for the comforting and protective assurance that help is always nearby, especially when we remember to pray: OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN…

This reflection was written some years ago by our late Passionist brother, Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P., who passed away on January 1, 2021.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Matthew 6:24-34

Reflection:

Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” II Cor. 8 – 9

Today’s readings reminded me of an insight I had that emerged over time when I began my ministerial priesthood. From the first times I heard confessions to the times when troubled people wanted “a word” with me, I noticed something in their personal struggles that resonated with me, we carry with us needless burdens and necessary sufferings. This was brought home to me when a recently married woman whose devoted and prominent Catholic family I knew well came to me for some help. She discovered her husband to be very abusive. Yet, she didn’t want to divorce him because of her strong Catholic faith. After months of struggle, she did divorce him. A couple of years later, the husband remarried and eventually killed his wife.

Needless struggles are those unresolved issues in our lives that we are unable to let go of even though we think God wants us to carry them. Some of these issues emerge from our sinful lives, infidelity, dishonesty, personal gain for economic and political purposes, unjust practices in our dealings with others. We put up with some of these practices, though sinful, because we think that the “end justifies the means.” We convince ourselves that we are doing this for a greater good. Eventually, we may find that we have dug ourselves a hole too deep for us to crawl out without causing great shame on us or our families. Ridding ourselves from needless struggles does not mean that it will be painless and easy. But making that decision to walk away and to make amends is the kind of grace that Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians. It is also an example of carrying our cross, seeking for forgiveness and redemption.

We also face necessary struggles that we cannot get rid of, just by walking away. For example, we cannot just get rid of an incurable illness or a chronic condition by ignoring them. These are our life-long sufferings that we unite to Jesus Crucified. Besides these kinds of life-long suffering, we sometimes choose to do the right thing by witnessing to Gospel values, knowing full well that we may suffer greatly socially, economically or personally. Gospel values are clear: we are all God’s children, love our enemies, we live by truth and justice for all, we are all responsible for one another, we are to love God and one another as Jesus has loved us. These are examples of God’s grace alive within us and also examples of picking up our cross daily and following Jesus.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says: “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mat. 6:24). So often, we try to be more clever than God. When we strive to live in both worlds, we find ourselves converting to that other way of life, easier to be dishonest, to be disrespectful, to be mean and uncaring, to be deaf to the cries of those who plead for justice and fairness.

But St. Paul says, the grace of God is stronger and more persistent than our sinful ways. When our conscience speaks to us in the depth of our hearts, to leave behind our sinful attitudes and ways, that is the grace of God lifting us up to the Cross of forgiveness. Yes, God’s grace is enough for us!

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

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 9:6-11
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

In this portion of the gospel Matthew has dealt with ·some of the guiding principles for Christina spirituality and practice. Jesus is telling his disciple to be aware when you are practicing the acts of faith found in all the great religions.

These are the acts of religion: Alms, Prayer and Fasting. In this portion of the Gospel Jesus reminds his listeners that the acts of religion, will be seen by others, but not be done to be seen by others. Our religious practice.s must be done for God, in God and seeks approval only from God.

Jesus instructs his disciples to Treat each other as God treats us. Jesus instructs us to avoid drawing attention to  ourselves when we offer acts of kindnesses and practices. Take care not to do your deeds of mercy and kindness not so your neighbors will see them, but they are performed to give honor to God. We have to enact our religious practices to honor God and live for God in our neighbors. We seek only the approval of God not others. The three acts of religion: Alms giving make us participants in God’s creation and mercy.  Prayer makes us an intimate friend of God and puts us in communion with God. It focuses us on the others, and ultimately the Other. Fasting- gives us clarity and purpose. It fills our hearts.

Fr. Ken O’Malley, C.P., is a member of the Passionist Community at Sacred Heart Monastery in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Ezekiel 17:22-24
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Mark 4:26-34

Reflection:

My former Hebrew Scriptures professor used to say that there is nothing in the Old Testament that could not be found in the New Testament. This statement rings true for today’s Gospel from Mark. In just a few short verses, there are echoes of those Scriptures as well as our first reading from Ezekiel which points towards the Gospel. Today, Jesus is offering us two insights or parables as to how we “compare” the kingdom of heaven (God). The first part contains a man who sows seeds, they germinate and begin to grow in an orderly fashion while the man sleeps. In a harmonious echo of the Genesis’ creation story, the plant pushes up the blade, ear, and the full grain; and the ”man” does not know how it is happening. (v.27) The prophet Joel is quoted (4:13) when the grain is ripe and ready for harvesting. So, this is “how it is with the kingdom of God” (v.26).  At the end of the text, we read that Jesus explained everything in private to his disciples (v.34). Scholars attest to the fact that we have no evidence that he explained anything to them. When I hear this text, I cannot help but think about Fr. Alan Phillip, a member of the Mater Dolorosa community who passed away in early March following a brief illness. Fr. Alan was in parish ministry, he dutifully and joyfully served a local parish community. This past Sunday, he was remembered by that community. After the evening, it was evident the impact Fr. Alan had made on the community, especially the school children. Saint Oscar Romero wrote a beautiful reflection on our role as “Sowers of seeds” and the rest is in God’s hands. We trust divine providence to “grow” the seed. Fr. Alan spent countless hours serving this parish community by sowing seeds of God’s love. How profound, how humble, no doubt, today—in the presence of Revelation—he gives thanks to God for the grace to serve Him. Is there someone in your life that comes to mind? Fr. Alan exemplified the “man who sowed the seeds and allowed them to germinate and bear fruit.”

Biblical Scholar, Amy-Jill Levine, offers insights on the first century Jew and the genre of parable. Telling parables was a tradition in Hebrew life. Levine assures us that Jesus’ audience was well familiar with this rabbinic teaching tool. Further, she warns us second millennia Christians to be careful that we do not domesticate Jesus’ teaching. Parables are used to remind us about the “upside-down” kingdom. We are often tempted to fix Jesus’ words and give them a fine bow as if wrapping a gift. A parable is supposed to teach us new never-ending insights. So, before we find ourselves tempted to install a hammock to sleep away our warm afternoons under this tree, we might reflect on the details of the parable. Biblical scholars are largely in agreement that a mustard seed was not exactly the smallest seed, and eight feet was the most it could grow. Yet, most commentaries will offer the idea that the smallest seed was the growth in the Christian community. Its growth exceeded far beyond a pesty weed—as it was known in Palestine in Jesus’ time—into a large tree with room and shade for all peoples.

I read somewhere that a mature tree can offer a day’s supply of oxygen for four adults. It not only offers shade but oxygen—life-giving breath. Imagine you are resting in your hammock under this large tree with shade for every bird. What might you experience? Loud noise, bird droppings, interruptions, surprises? Perhaps, it is not quite what you expected? Are you being invited to take a deeper look? We each find the kingdom at work in our own lives. How does Jesus’ teaching strike you, today?

So, let us enter into this day as seed-bearers of the love of God. May we offer this gift to the future of our world. 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.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Luke 2:41-51

Reflection:

Today as we celebrate the Feast of The Immaculate Heart of Mary, we pause to reflect on Mary, the Mother of God and what place she has in our lives.  In the Gospel of Luke we hear the familiar story of the holy family going to Jerusalem for the Passover and after it was over, they traveled home thinking all the time that Jesus was with the group of family and friends they were traveling with.  It is not hard to imagine their fear and frustration they upon realizing that he was not with them.  What parent or friend having lost someone in that way does not immediately think the worst has happened and despair sets in.  Fear turned to relief when they were reunited with him in Jerusalem.  Even though they were a bit exasperated when Jesus did not share their concern for his safety.  Another one of those occasions that give parents fits.

Mary, for her part ‘kept all these things in her heart.” What does it mean ‘to keep things in our heart’?!  As spiritual seekers we must be aware that deep within, in our heart of hearts is where we meet the Divine, where we encounter the Mystery that is beyond words or explanation.  God invites us to come deeper, to trust more fully, to  enter into the silence. This is where we are fed and nurtured with the spirit of God.

We are surrounded with so much busyness these days, with family, work, community, and even church responsibilities and events that we don’t make the time to get in touch with our heart time.  Mary had many instances where she pondered many things in her heart.  She found peace in her heart of hearts, the space she alone could commune with God.  This was her holy space where she gained strength to meet the challenges of daily life as the mother of Jesus.

When we make the effort to set time aside to just BE, to enter into that holy space where we meet our God, where we receive nourishment for the journey, then we are truly at peace.  Summertime offers us a chance to enjoy life at a different pace.  Where are you going on vacation this summer?  Why don’t you spend some time resting in God’s loving embrace that can only happen deep in your heart of hearts.  Enjoy your vacation with God this summer!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.