Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 5:34-42
John 6:1-15

Reflection:

The God of Our Being and Meaning

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

How often this is the critical question of our lives!  How do we get through life when we are so flawed and pathetic?  We so quickly forget our Creator and ourselves as creatures.  As a young man, the first quote in the original Greek from the New Testament that I memorized are the words of Jesus:” ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Mk 9: 23  Our Father in Heaven creates not only our being but also our meaning!  His creative power includes not only our existence but also our significance.  His plans for our lives are full of His creative energy as much as when He gave us being out of nothing!   Our being and meaning are in His wounded hands!   On our part, we must trust in His creative and loving plans for us!

The world has been paralyzed by fear.  Problems are an opportunity to build our trust in God’s loving designs in life.  That is why He lets us get into freighting situations!  One must think long and hard at Jesus on the cross to be absolutely convinced of His loving fondness and care for us. “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD” Is 62:3

Jesus’ final words on the cross in Luke are a quote from SS., “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.”  Lk 23:46  The word in the inspired Greek for commit is paratithēmi i,e, total giving.

Jesus says in today’s liturgy, “Have the people recline.” John 6:7   We must learn to relax in the hands of the risen Jesus, which still have the mark of the nails!  When Christ appeared to his apostles, He dealt with their terrible fear and unbelief with the words: “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see.” The word used for touch is psēlaphaō which means to handle or gently feel the wounds in His hands and feet. That is our vaccine for fear and courage to live!

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

Scripture:

Acts 5:27-33
John 3:31-36

Reflection:

I well remember one of my scripture teachers speaking about the gospel of St. John. He found it easier to use the passages throughout this gospel for his prayer rather than for his preaching.

In some ways that might speak to many people, since John’s gospel is marked by a number of longer discourses spoken by Jesus which are not so easy, to sum up briefly but rather call for reflection and invite us to ponder them so as to discern their meaning.

That seems true for our reading today with its many statements each containing a truth for us to wonder about.

So perhaps today we can approach the reading in two ways.

Firstly, we can simply stay with the words of our gospel and allow them to lead us into a time of reflection and prayer. Thus I invite you to read slowly over the words of the text and to hold them in a more prayerful way. Sometimes we are helped in this exercise by gently re-reading the text or by repeating to ourselves those phrases s or words that resonate and which seem to stay with us.

Let yourself then stay with the prayer and sharing with God that follows.

Alternatively, a second approach may suit if we prefer to look more deeply at the message that the gospel proclaims. In this case, then let us focus on just one or two points of reflection.

We might notice that today Jesus speaks to us of his mission which was to come to us and to proclaim the truth on behalf of God – a truth that is given to us and which invites us to accept it.  The mission of Jesus begins in eternity and his earthly life brings this mission to its fulfillment – he is God’s witness and he speaks the truth of God.

Our response to this good news is one of faith.  In our response to God we seek to raise up our whole self –  mind, heart, will, strength and to make Jesus the center of our lives and his message our compass to guide all our actions in life’s journey.

And as today’s text also promises that ‘whoever believes in the Son has eternal life’. Here we can take confidence that God is faithful to us and that our faith will be rewarded. But faith is a gift not only for oneself but contains within it a dynamic that propels us to reach out to others. Here I think we can also hear an echo of the experience of the apostles in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles – such was their faith that it filled them with strength and opened them to the prompting of the Holy Spirit; so much so that they became witnesses to others and indeed their preaching ‘filled the whole of Jerusalem’. Perhaps we will not preach in that way, but our faithful lives can become a shining beacon to others and help to show them the way to Jesus and thus to eternal life.

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

Scripture:

Acts 5:17-26
John 3:16-21

Reflection:

Today’s refrain in the Responsorial Psalm is “The Lord hears the cry of the poor”. Do we ever hear that refrain, and immediately think of the poor in Africa, Calcutta or even the chronically poor in our own country. That certainly has been my thought over the years when I think about the Lord hearing and answering the cry of “poor” among us. Do we ever think of ourselves as poor? As being in need? Or are we ok, just need a little help now and then. We’ll ask for it if we need it. A temporary lifeline. Instead do we ever consider our own poverty? Our need for a Savior. God has seen mans need throughout history, and as we hear in today’s Gospel, in response, out of His love, He has sent His only Son that we might be saved, that we might have life, eternal life.

I retired a number of years ago and began a journey to deepen my interior life, to come closer to the Lord. To deepen my relationship with Him. That journey became one of coming to know the Lord and His love, but also of knowing myself. And letting the Lord know me. Not the varnished version I often might present, even to God. But of the real me He created and knows. It was there that I came to know, or I was shown, my poverty, my need. I may have always thought of myself as a “good” Catholic, but on this journey, even at 62 years old, I have been led to know myself in a deeper and truer way, seeing my poverty, my need for healing, my need for a Savior. It is not the physical poverty I had always thought of when I heard the refrain from the Psalm, but I truly have come to see myself as one of the Lord’s poor. I believe it is from that more humble place, that we are better able to be open to live the Lord’s truth and come into the light that we hear about in today’s Gospel, allowing The Lord to heal our poverty and draw us into new life with Him.

Steve Walsh is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre ,and a good friend of the Passionist Community

Scripture:

Acts 4:23-31
John 3:1-8

Reflection:

When Jesus was alive, it seemed that the Apostles never understood his true mission.  They came to believe he was the Messiah but were blinded by their assumptions about what the Messiah was to be about.  They were thinking about an earthly kingdom and worldly power.  Jesus challenged them over and over to think beyond their preconceptions, but they managed to cling to their expectations right up to the arrest and death of Jesus.  However, that experience dashed all their hopes and killed their tightly held expectations!  They ended up locked up in an Upper Room filled with fear and darkness.

The resurrection of Jesus caught them totally unawares and changed everything.  After a little confusion at the beginning few days, they quickly took up the new life and vision Jesus offered them.

In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles we see them carrying on the mission Jesus had given them with commitment and confidence.  The chief priests and elders had chastised and confined both Peter and John because they kept proclaiming that Jesus was alive.  Yet they were not intimidated or cowed.  They returned to their own people and affirmed that though “Herod, Pontius Pilate, together with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel” had “stood against the Lord’s anointed One,” they themselves would continue “to speak the word of God with boldness.”

The Word of God they continued to speak was not condemnation for the evil acts of the people and their leaders, but rather a word of healing, recalling the signs and wonders done through the name of Jesus.  The Word of God is a Word that brings life to those who hear it and take it to heart.  There is no place in the hearts of the early Apostles for revenge or recriminations.

As disciples of Jesus, we, too, are called to speak the Word of God to our generation.  To do so faithfully our hearts must also be filled with the same love and compassion that is so clear in the life of Jesus and the lives of Peter, John and the other Apostles.  May God continue to open our hearts to his Word of love so that we speak that Word clearly and boldly as did Peter and John.

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

Scripture:

Acts 4:32-35
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31

Reflection:

The Gospel of John begins with these words from the prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1).  This verse is important for our understanding of today’s gospel.

Three days had passed since the crucifixion of Jesus.  The disciples had abandoned him for fear of their lives.  Now on this first day of the week, Sunday, they are in the house with doors locked and bolted.  They are still afraid of the Jerusalem leaders who put Jesus to death.

Then it happened.  Jesus came and stood in their midst with words of comfort and forgiveness: “Peace be with you.”  Three times he repeats these words to these disciples whose fear and shame turned to joy at seeing the Risen Lord.  All were present in the house, except one – Thomas, called the Twin.  He was off alone, isolated, his heart shattered, his hopes crushed at the death of Jesus. 

I can commiserate with Thomas.  When my father died, and then several years later, when my mother died, I insisted on being left alone.  I wanted no one near me.  Just leave me alone in my grief.  Eventually, however, I returned to family and community.  Through them, I came to accept the deaths of my loved ones, and to embrace their presence in the joy they were in my life.

So too, the disciples went to Thomas and declared: “We have seen the Lord.”  But, so engulfed in grief and doubt was Thomas that he rejected their message.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (Jn. 19:25). 

Then, it happened – again.  A week later, Jesus came and stood among then.  But this time, Thomas had rejoined his disciples.  This time, Thomas saw the Risen Christ.  Jesus did not scold Thomas, did not reprimand him for his doubts.  Rather, he invited Thomas to touch his wounds if that is what he needed to believe.

The point of this episode is clear.  We are Thomas’s twin.  And like our brother, we will never see Christ if we choose to live in isolation.  Only in community can we see, can experience the Risen Christ.  Only in community, as we stand in solidarity and compassion with one another, comforting one another, touching the wounds of Christ – our wounds – in our brokenness, in our imperfection, can we experience Christ.  Only then, in community, can we joyfully proclaim to others, “We have seen the Lord!”

And then, it will happen again.  Like our twin brother, we too, will pronounce the greatest confession ever: “My Lord, and my God.”  My Lord and my Theos.  No one, until Thomas, had made such a bold declaration, that Jesus is God. Theos—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God — begins the Gospel of John, and Theos—“My Lord and my God — concludes his gospel.   So, too, those words are the twin bookends in our lives; when we are baptized in Christ and in death when we hope to see the Risen Christ.  And throughout our lives in between, we are called to live in community to minister to one another, touch and to heal one another’s wounds.  And when we do this, we will surely see the Risen Christ, and proclaim to all: “We have seen the Lord.”

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Acts 4:1-12
John 21:1-14

Reflection:

                            Is Fishing the Only Alternative to Resurrection Fatigue?

Could it be that Peter and his companions are suffering form Resurrection fatigue? We know about fatigue don’t we? Enough, we need to break out. We want things under our control. Living as if problems do not exist gives some energy, and we go on. Mary Magdalene had to let go of what she wanted to hold onto. The disciples from Emmaus had hoped, but then were back to having hope, plus a new understanding of the Scriptures and an encounter that set their hearts on fire. Jesus followers went through such intensity, fear and confusion that they must have been exhausted. Could this new redeemed life been so demanding?

It began for Jesus followers when they heard him preach at the lake. Some of the men and women in those crowds put out into the deep, leaving their lakeside lives to go where Jesus went. It was exhilarating at times. Who would ever forget the procession into Jerusalem with Jesus, the praise, the song the hope? But there were tough times too, getting chased out of a Samaritan town, not understanding Jesus, the arrest and crucifixion, and the confusion that followed. How they thought the women had all lost their minds! Jesus put it back together, ‘Peace’. He kept saying, ‘Peace’.

In a few days we have come a long way. It is overwhelming. It is fatiguing.

I read a story of a young woman, a champion basketball player on her high school team at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. SuAnn Crow was a role model, a gifted young woman whose life in many ways nourished the spirit of her people.

SuAnn and her teammates had a game in a small town off the reservation. As soon as they appeared on the court to warm up racist shouts and jeers surrounded them and didn’t let up. The young people were humiliated and scared. They did a lap around the court then took the seats on the bench about to begin the game. SuAnn stopped at the center of the court by herself and put a towel around her shoulders, as if it were an Indian shawl. While she was being taunted and heckled she began to perform a traditional Lakota dance. She spun, dipped, stepped gracefully, her shawl extended like the wings of a bird. As she moved she sang a traditional song in the strange, otherworldly tone of her people. While the crowd screamed at her, she stood at the center circle before them. She sang and she danced. Her actions touched the crowed. Watching her quietly dance in a world of her own, the crowd grew still. When it was finished, her dance had broken their hearts. (Set their hearts on fire?)

Resurrection has been described as God making a way where there is no way. A teenage girl responded by opening the treasure chest where her deepest gifts were stored and placed them before an undeserving crowd. Resurrection fatigue can set in because God’s love challenges us. Don’t we hear or say often, ‘No clinging, Mary!’ or ‘We had hoped.’ We are not immune from feeling empty or afraid or overwhelmed. Let us live the fifty days of Easter celebration, open our treasure chest, and perhaps in the midst of an undeserving crowd quietly do our dance and sing our song.

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

Scripture:

Acts 3:11-26
Luke 24:35-48

Reflection:

Peace be with you!

The vaccines for the Covid-19 virus have given us peace and hope that there is a way to live through this pandemic. We must just have faith and believe. No one knows for sure how this pandemic is going to turn out but there is a glimmer of peace and hope with the vaccines that are out now. There are some who do not believe in the vaccines at all. Some who refuse to believe no matter what they see or here. There is no reason to live if there is no hope. There is no reason to do right if there is no hope. Our work is in vain if there is no hope. The vaccine is our only hope, just like Jesus is our only hope to salvation and glory, to overcome this deadly virus. You just have to believe, trust, and have faith.

It is Jesus’ unique prerogative to invade “startled,” “terrified,” and “troubled” hearts and to bring them his eternal peace. The disciples in the Gospel are perplexed: “the author of life” was put to death, and his body has now gone missing, reported to be mysteriously risen from the dead. Jesus stood in their midst, revealing his “flesh and bones,” his “hands and his feet,” even asking for something to eat. This is no ghost, for it has been prophesied from of old, since the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since Moses, Samuel, and all who follow suit. Our ancestors yearned to see this day. Blessed are we who are “witnesses of these things,” who have been given “minds to understand the Scriptures” and mouths to “preach in his name to all the nations.”

These are the words that our savior gives us, today in the readings, for those who believe and have faith in Him. Peace be with you. Peace to the one who has faith, hope, trust and believe in what he has done for all mankind. Faith that he is the Son of God. Faith that he has defeated death. Faith that all our sins are forgiven if we just believe. Faith that the Holy Spirit will be here to guide us until he comes again. Faith that all we must do is repent, be baptized and believe in His every word. Peace be with you!

Deacon Peter Smith serves at St. Mary’s/Holy Family Parish in Alabama, a religion teacher at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham, and a member of our extended Passionist Family.