Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:

I don’t know about you, but when I read the passage from the 13^th chapter of the Book of Leviticus I felt eerily uncomfortable because it reminded me all too much about the various restrictions we have been facing globally in dealing with the Covid-19 virus.  Leprosy was a terrible disease at the time Leviticus was being composed, one that could destroy an entire tribe or community of people, just like Covid-19.  It was something that was protected against by distancing one person from another, family member from family member, just like Covid-19.  And, if one was exposed in one way or another to the virus, it became only too clear that the right thing to do was to quarantine yourself and no longer be a part of the family or body of friends and associates for their sake even if it did mean being cut off and alone, just like Covid-19.  And the poor soul with leprosy was commanded to “muffle his beard” (assuming it was a man, of course.)   And so, all of us in this Covid19 time are muffling even more than our beards but our faces from nose to chin, and now even double muffling!  And while we may cope with this terrible pandemic with a little humor, there is nothing funny about it at all.  And it was not funny at the time of Leviticus, which was written about five centuries before the birth of Jesus.  But one thing is for sure, the contrast between our first reading from Leviticus and the great mercy of Jesus in curing the man with leprosy could not be clearer.

Imagine the scene, if you will.  Jesus is standing there and the poor man with leprosy sees him.  The scriptures tell us that he came to Jesus and, kneeling down, begged him, saying, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus response to this special man was nothing less than complete and total compassion: “I do will it.  Be made clean.”  With the simple touch of the Master’s hand, this once isolated and shunned soul is now able to be a part of family, synagogue, community, and society once again.  I do will it.  Be made clean!  What a glorious moment!  What joy and wonder.

Today, and perhaps every day this week, come before the Lord as the leper did.  Kneel before him and open your heart to the Lord.  Tell him what you most want to pray for.  Ask him to bless you and all the world.   And then hear him as he says, “I do will it.”  Then just trust in his healing presence and mercy.  It is there for us all. 

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Genesis 3:9-24
Mark 8:1-10

Reflection:

We are being treated this week to stories from the book of Genesis. We have so many elements to reflect upon in our readings today. Scripture scholars offer that the final chapters of Genesis may have been written during the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon, sometime between 587 and 538 B.C. Accordingly, their primeval history was written as they tried to figure out life and death; as well as labor pains and how they might have ended up in captivity. Yet, in their wonderings, they never doubted the compassion of God.

In today’s text, blame enters our world with Adam assigning blame to God for the woman he (God) gave him. Eve on her part realizes that she was tricked by the serpent. However, one common item that stands out between both readings, is the idea of pity or compassion. The word for pity or compassion in Greek is Splanchizomai. Deeper meaning can be understood as translating to “from the depths of his being or even, “womb.” This explanation is so much deeper and richer than pity or compassion as we understand the words.

We hear, “For the man and his wife, the Lord God made leather garments, with which he clothed them.” I have always loved this verse because it speaks to me of compassion and action. Further, it reminds me that God desires to cover our shame with his love. He desires real healing for us to live shame-free regardless of our actions. It also brings to mind many childhood memories of watching my mother making garments. She loved to sew and placed so much care and attention on her work. Today, I read this verse through that lens of the loving tenderness of my mother.

Our Gospel from Mark offers us the story of the second feeding of the multitudes, the first coming in chapter 6: 34-44. This one is believed to be food for the Gentiles. We are now situated in the middle of the Gospel where soon we will hear Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Messiah (8:29).

Pope Francis has said, “If we put what little we have into the hands of Jesus in order to share with others, it will become an overabundant richness.”  I do not think I can add to his words except to say that it is not just our food we are called to share although, that is helpful. Perhaps we can imagine that Jesus feels deep compassion for those in need of help in our world, today. What I read in this Good News is that each of us has a part to play in making miracles happen. We simply should not assume that seven loaves and a few fish cannot feed thousands abundantly with leftovers. We are called to do what we can.

Another element that I see in the text is the idea of waiting for Jesus to act. “Taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute.” We often find ourselves impatient as we wait on Jesus to act and attempt to take matters into our own hands…and out of his hands. Finally, if our hands are already full, how can we be of help to Jesus?

Like the psalm says, “In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.” May we always know that God is indeed our refuge, especially in these times of uncertainty. 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.

Scripture:
Genesis 3:1-8
Mark 7:31-37

Reflection:
We continue with the pairing of primeval history situated at the beginning of the book of Genesis and the gospel of Mark. Here the senses of sight, speech, and hearing are highlighted with movements rich in symbolism telling the story of salvation.

We have a talking serpent that the Lord God had made who most translations label as “cunning.” Later scripture will identify the serpent with Satan or evil but for now the text simply states the facts above. It is clear that he has mischief on his mind as he addresses the unsuspecting woman, who had been living in harmony, feeling no shame. She observed the tree was good, pleasing, and desirable and she acted upon those thoughts certain that she was right. And she had her eyes opened, as did the man who was with her.

This isn’t just a story about Adam and Eve acting on their desire for more than God had given them; more than they needed; more that could hurt them-for life! Even in Eden they wanted more!

I act this out every time I deliberately choose to sin. Certainty can be turned upside down when my eyes are opened to the emptiness of what looked good, pleasing and desirable. I too, am tempted to cover my shame and disobedience by hiding from God.

In the gospel, Jesus lays his hand on the deaf man whose ears and eyes are immediately opened. Recognizing the prophet, Isaiah, who spoke of Israel’s deliverance when God would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf (Is. 35:5-6), the people were exceedingly astonished at the significance of Jesus actions. Salvation had come to them-and us!

“Lord, probe me and know my heart…then lead me in the ancient paths.” (Ps 139:23-24) …And we are invited to be healed of our shame so that we may once again walk with the Lord God at the breezy time of the day.

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Genesis 2:18-25
Mark 7:24-30

Reflection:

“Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  These words of Jesus are shocking, if not cruel.  These words are arguably among the most troubling in the New Testament.  These are the words of Jesus to a mother who is begging him to heal her daughter.  What are we to make of these words?  How can this passage be redemptive?

Some Scripture scholars try to soften Jesus’ words by suggesting that when he refers to Gentiles as “dogs” he actually means to express an affectionate tone by using the diminutive Greek kynariois, which refers to household pets.  But who wants to be compared with dogs, even if they are cuddly pets?  Others explain that Jesus simply wanted to test the woman’s faith with his provocative words.  These scholars may be right.  But I respectfully disagree.

Let us look at the historical context to help us better understand this gospel passage.  When Mark wrote his Gospel, sometime in 60-70 CE, the church included many Gentiles, along with Jewish Christians.  This Jewish church community was still uncomfortably struggling to determine its relationship to these once impure pagan Gentiles.  In his letter to the Romans, which was written earlier than Mark’s Gospel, the Apostle Paul writes: “for the Jews first and also for the Greeks” (Rom. 1:16).  The Gospel must first be preached to the Jews, followed later to the Gentiles.

Mark’s Jewish Christian community needed to know how they were to relate to the Gentile Christian members.  In his Gospel, Mark showed his community that even Jesus, like them, needed to grow in his in his relationship with Gentiles.

Jesus clearly felt it necessary to focus his mission on the Jews.  But here in the Gentile region of Tyre, Jesus was confronted by the urgent need of a Gentile mother.  She approached Jesus in desperation and yet in deference with her plea: “She begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.”  Jesus, however, rebuffed the woman: “Let the children be fed first.  For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  This mother will not be put off: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”  The Jews saw themselves as God’s children, and Gentiles derisively as dogs.  Because of her persistent pleading, Jesus could no longer ignore her: “For saying this, you may go.  The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Jesus did not accompany the woman to her home.  He did not touch the child.  He did not even issue a healing command.  He simply informed the woman that her daughter had already been healed.  The emphasis in this passage is not on the healing, but on Jesus’ relationship with the Gentile woman.  The woman began her relationship with Jesus by first expressing a simple but profound faith by coming to Jesus.  Then, she expresses her profound faith by going home.  Just as Jesus grew in respect of and relationship with the Gentile woman, so too, Mark is saying, his community too, must learn to respect and relate to one another.

And what of us today?  What might we learn from this passage?  Just this: The woman is a compelling example of persistent prayer that refuses to be discouraged by difficult circumstances when prayer is not immediately answered, or in the way we expect.  This remarkable woman also shows us how to engage God fully and passionately in prayer.  God honors and hears such prayer.

We are no different than Mark’s community.  Human relations can be difficult.  Because of our cultural upbringing, we may hold conscious or unconscious prejudice against others.  Like Jesus, we too are challenged to be open to others who may not look like us, dress like us, believe like us, or act like us.  We can also learn from Jesus.  Yes, he was fully divine.  But he also was fully human.  And in his humanity, his growing self-awareness, he “grew in wisdom and maturity” (Lk 2:52).  He learned that no one should ever be called a “dog.”  Jew or Gentile, all are children of God.  This is what it means to be Christ-like, to grow in wisdom and maturity.

In this month of February, we celebrate Black History Month.  This is a time to reflect on the history of black Americans, their experience, and what it means to all Americans.  However, this is not just a time to celebrate.  This is also a time to consider how we can create greater understanding and respect for one another, to treat one another with the dignity and respect we all deserve – no exceptions.  Why? Because we all are created in the imago Dei, in “the image and likeness of God” (Gen. 1:27).  No one is a dog.  All are “children” of God – no exceptions.  

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

Scripture:

Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17
Mark 7:14-23

Reflection:

As I grew up in my very large family, we honored a lot of traditions, sometimes creating new ones that stuck, and other times carrying on those that had survived generations, sustaining and bonding those who participated. Yet over time we also let go of traditions, even some that had long held. Why? They didn’t accomplish the purpose for which they were created, or we outgrew them, or they had become burdensome, or they just didn’t work anymore. I learned that doing things “the way they’d always been done” wasn’t sufficient.

My experience as an adult reinforces that holding onto things for the sake of tradition is often not only unwise; it can be close-minded, destructive, and unjust. If we had never reversed “tradition”, women could not vote, schools wouldn’t be integrated, and slavery would still be allowed.  In fact, Jesus warns against abiding by traditions that were built for human purposes, and he broke with many traditions himself, including things like purity rituals that were deeply embedded in his culture and religion.

Our Church has likewise seen fit to abandon various traditions, such as fasting three hours before receiving Communion or fasting from fish every Friday, considering suicide a mortal sin, forbidding lay people from reading the Bible, and more. There is no doubt that as we continue to discern the movement of the Spirit and God’s present-day revelation, more changes will be made in the practices of the Church. Some will be welcomed; some met with resistance. Yet our Church must be open so that Jesus does not say of us, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts”.

The call to examine traditions goes beyond the Church, too. I also need to look at my personal life. Which of my personal traditions, beliefs, and set ways of doing things are of God, and which are human constructions that need to be held up to the light? In what ways am I, like the Pharisees, caught up in obeying the rules instead of doing the hard work of spiritual growth? What practices have I outgrown as I mature in my faith? Are there some that are not only unhelpful to me, but actually harmful to others? More importantly, are there some that I find comforting and wish to continue, but which are actually harmful to others and need to end?

My challenge this week is to examine traditions in every sphere of my life, work, and faith in order to discern what is of God, and what needs to be released. May we all have the courage to honestly do so, the wisdom to know what is right, and the strength to let go of even treasured practices in greater service to God’s will.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

Genesis 1:20-2:4a
Mark 7:1-13

Reflection:

Imagination and Creation

With a beautiful imagination the author of Genesis shows us God creating. The author of Psalm 139 puts words of praise on our lips as we express our feelings to God as we see ourselves, ‘I thank you that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works.’ Another poet takes a deep breath and challenges us, saying, ‘God scatters beauty before us like a gambler who throws dice, only we do not see, we do not see.’ So beautiful all of it.

Imaginations work before our understanding, they are fed by the world that surrounds us. A glance can tell us what we like or don’t like. In the pronounced divisions that are becoming part of our lives today, it seems we are not very successful at building bridges. It is awful to think of living as if we were on the Western Front during WW I, unable to move forward in a lifeless, unfriendly world. We need new visions that are created and nourished by our imaginations.

A good example, appropriate during this Black History month, are the works of the author James Baldwin. He reverently opens the lives of our black brothers and sisters, revealing holiness, struggle and love. Our imaginations become portals into a beautiful world kept closed by racial prejudice. Or on your computer visit the Museum of Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. You will enter a new world as you are surrounded by an environment meant to affect our imaginations. These examples of imaginations drawing from what is read or seen to create new visions, are at the same time de-creating of other visions that divide and do not move us to praise and wonder.

The sacredness of imagination is present when our children turn the kitchen into a wing of an art museum, showing their artwork on the refrigerator door. How symbolic is that, displayed on the place we go to for nourishment? The little ones labor with the crayons, paint or pencils until they know it is just right, it is done. It is good. Can we see something of God looking at the finished work of creation and saying, ‘so good.’

All creation is sacred. I stood on a corner with a few people waiting to cross a New York avenue. As the traffic went by a friendly sized rat made a dash across the street. There were oohs and ohs as it dogged and darted and disappeared under the opposite curb. We laughed, we checked to see if we were part of a Disney movie, we were happy it made it to safety to live its life. Creation is good, good even for those alive on the lower rungs of life’s ladder.

Today in the gospel Jesus challenges the vision of the Pharisees. Their vision is not the vision of God’s love revealed to Israel. What is the vision of the Pharisees or anyone whose imagination does not value loved ones perhaps humbled by the burden their years? Does that vision merit praise, or give the feeling of, ‘it is good’?

The imagination that allows us to create our visions is a gift of the Creator. Does the great mystery of creation flows from God’s imagination? This gift of imagination is greater than we can imagine! Praise and wonder lead us to it.

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

Scripture:

Genesis 1:1-19
Mark 6:53-56

Reflection:

Hope in Jesus

To come to know God, the true God, means to receive hope. To come to know Jesus the true Son of God means to receive hope. St Josephine Bakhita was kidnapped into slavery and sold over 5 times to different masters who beat her severely, but in the end received hope. She got to know God and his Son Jesus the true source of hope. In today’s Gospel the people of land around Gennesaret received hope when they recognized that it was Jesus who was getting off the boat. They had hope that He could heal them of all their sickness, if only they could touch the tassel on his cloak. The hope was so great that in every town or village he entered the people would lay down their sick in the marketplace and beg Him to heal them or to just touch the tassel on his cloak.

Today is the memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita, an African slave from Sudan, who was illegally kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 9. St. Josephine was beaten and treated cruelly almost her entire life as a slave. She like the people in the Gospel today found her hope in Jesus Christ. She found out that there is a God mightier than her owners. There is a God who loves her. There is a God who has a Son who was treated just as bad as she was. This Son even gave his life for us. She had a God who was waiting for her in heaven. She was so overwhelmed with hope that she couldn’t tell enough people about God she had found and wanted to show them the Hope she found in Him. St. Josephine Bakhita pray for us and let all the enslaved and suppressed in the world today, during this Black History month in America, remember you, the daughter of Sudan, and the hope you found in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

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 Passionist Family.