Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Matthew 5:20-26

Reflection:

Conversion. It’s pretty close to the Latin “conversio,” meaning a turning round, revolving; alteration, or change. And Lent is all about those things.

To convert implies that we can look at ourselves as in a mirror. Not one of those goofy mirrors on the boardwalk or midway that distorts our image, or one of the playful apps on our smart phone that dresses us up in silly outfits. In a mirror we see ourselves reflected back with all that is good and all that we recognize as needing some work. Lent has always been about becoming a better person by doing something about the flaws that keep us from being all we know we can be and all we know God calls us to be.

But we live in such unforgiving times that “turning around” or “altering” our lives is harder than ever. There seems little room to recognize that we can and do grow and mature. Images on the Internet are forever. Tweets in a moment of frustration are thrown back at us many years later. Indiscretions of youth are assumed to be permanent personality disorders.

The Lenten clarion call, “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel,” seems not as easy as simply saying, “I’m sorry. I’m going to do better.” The tether to past sins—from our own guilt to buried tweets—can prove difficult to sever. The starting point of conversion is the honest appraisal and recognition of the need for a course correction. Public personalities who say, “That statement/action is not who I really am,” might rephrase that. “That is not the person I am hoping to grow into, and I am sorry. I want to do better.”

We are flawed. We are sinful. We do need Lent. We can change. And we need to allow ourselves and certainly others to change.

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:

Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25
Matthew 7:7-12

Reflection:

“Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” -Matthew 7:7-8

I’ve always found this a hard reading.  Not everything I ask is given to me.  And yet, here is scripture telling me simply to ask.  So, then I find myself doing mental gymnastics.  Is it God or is it me?  Why did my mom die of cancer at 57?  Did I not ask with enough faith?

As I’ve gotten older things have become more nuanced.  Can you really ask on behalf of someone else?  Indeed, as the years pass, I wonder if there is really anything to ask except “Open me to you God, right now, right here.”  So—when I have the grace to remember—I find myself asking more and more that my eyes and ears and heart be opened to God who is always within me and in front of me. In my sons. In the early morning light that streams through the window.  In my frustration.  In the tight feeling I have around my heart these days.  In the burning forests and the water and land protectors. In Breonna Taylor and in every police officer.

And each time I ask, each time it is given me, the door to my heart opens a little wider into the vastness of the divine heart. And it turns out that God is the one knocking and I am the one opening the door.

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

Scripture:

Jonah 3:1-10
Luke 11:29-32

Reflection:

Conversion Metanoia

 The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.   -Luke 11:32

The word for repent in today’s Gospel is metanoeō or metanoia. This is one of the favorite words for conversion in the Greek inspired New Testament.  The verb and nounare used 56 times indicating their importance in Scripture. Jesus begins His preaching in Mt 4:17:  “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The word metanoeō is not the easiest word to translate into English.  It is composed of two words, meta which can mean after 88 times etc.   The second word is noiéō meaning to comprehend, heed:—consider.   I think the meaning rather strongly indicates the need of a change of thinking or acting.  You can’t pour new wine into old wine skins.   The amazing mystery of God’s incarnation was utterly beyond the hopes or imagination of the people in the Hebrew scriptures.  With the coming of Christ He had first to prepare their mind for the incredible move of the Father giving His Son to us!

It is interesting how Jesus was upset when even his apostles could not appreciate this great mystery,   Christ is recorded in the Greek New Testament using the critical word syniēmi (sun together+ send) which means to send together or put together.  The verb noeo, lit. “to direct one’s mind to a subject” shares a close relationship with the word metanoeō i.e.need to deeply understand and change our thinking. 

Jesus complains in Mark 8:21 “He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand (syniēmi)?”  It took even the Apostles a long time to “get it together” the beautiful reality of Christ.   When Mark uses “was saying” the original Greek clearly says Jesus was often saying this!   The words “not yet” show that Our Lord after so long a relationship with his disciples, they still did not comprehend His wonderful identity.

For us conversion means primarily getting our minds and hearts to realize the magnitude of the Incarnation.  This will never happen unless Christ reveals this to us.  “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal  Him.” LK 10:22  The first step of conversion is that Christ reveals Himself to us.  This we need often to humbly beg Him to show Himself to us!

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus talks to His disciples about prayer. He tells them to trust that God knows what we need, and we do not need to convince God that we should be helped: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

And then Jesus tells His disciples how to pray, and we hear what we often refer to as the “Our Father,” or “The Lord’s Prayer.” Even though this is a prayer we recite many times, I don’t think we often appreciate how radical a prayer this is. For me, one of the most radical aspects of the prayer have to do with forgiveness. “… and forgive us our debts” is not so radical. We know we need forgiveness. It’s the next line that should startle us: “… and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (italics mine).

I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that forgiveness is one of the most basic ways we demonstrate our discipleship of Jesus. But for many in our world, especially during these times of division and “cancel culture,” forgiveness is seen as weak, or naïve, or simply unjust. We have to remember that forgiveness is not a condoning of bad behavior, nor is it a denial of what has happened. But it is necessary for the well-being of our soul, even as we work for justice.

I think that is why, after Jesus teaches the prayer, He says: “If you forgive others their transgressions, our heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” I sometimes wrestle with this, because it seems to put the lie to God’s unconditional love for us. After all, Jesus died for us on the Cross while we were still sinners. The way I understand Jesus’ words here is to ask, “How can we take God’s forgiveness of us for granted while we withhold forgiveness from others?”

May we take Jesus’ command to forgive seriously, and help bring about reconciliation in our world.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 58:9b-14
Luke 5:27-32

Reflection:

The Swirl of Lent Becomes a Stream of Grace

I heard an artist explain why at times he paints with oils and other days with watercolors. When life is in chaos he choses oils because they stay where he puts them and he can return later and move them where he wants. He is in control. But, he said, when my life is too organized, when I need freedom, then I like the watercolors. I put them on a wet piece of paper and they go where they want. I enjoy the surprise of the beautiful colors and the patterns that emerge.

We have begun Lent the journey into the mystery of Our Lord’s suffering, death and resurrection – the Lenten days of preparation, the Triduum and the fifty days of the Resurrection. Lent is like a stream running to the Triduum, to the mystery of Jesus’ dying and rising. It begins with tiny sources here and there that come together feeding the stream that takes me into some aspect of this mystery of God’s love. This is a long hand way to describe the naming of the graces at work these days.

I am feeling it will be a watercolor Lent so far. We describe the Triduum as one great day where the entire mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus is present. There is victory even on the Cross, the marks of the wounds even at the resurrection, all creation blossoming in the quiet of the tomb, and in the breaking of the bread the living memory that becomes, as best we can describe it, a sharing of the banquet table in the Kingdom of God. All these colors swirl around making such amazing patterns.

As the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection swirl around the Triduum, so in our Lenten preparation the celebration we prepare washes back into our preparation. It is at work forming the stream of grace guiding us into the unique gifts of God for us.

Joel’s first words of Lent, ‘Return to me with all your heart’ are words of a lover to a loved one who is separated by place, or distraction, or perhaps betrayal. These words are spoken to us by God. Imagine being called to the embrace of this Lover!

Today Isaiah says, do not push others down, but raise them up. Live the Sabbath, that is, enter the time of walking with God again in the garden. In Jesus we believe this time is now realized. The garden gates are open to us. Matthew hears the words, ‘come follow me’. Like Peter and the fishermen he also ‘leaves everything behind’ to follow’.

May what we prepare to celebrate flow back to us today and draw us on. Even a willing disciple stumbles before the mystery of the Cross; pushed down, burdened, the Shepherd will be raised up and draw all to himself. Did the ‘come follow me’ spoken by Jesus to Matthew sound in Matthew’s ears more like the voice of Joel, ‘return to me with all your heart’? Will we hear those words spoken to us today? Will they come as unexpectedly as to Matthew? Will we be as responsive or slip a few coins in our pocket, just in case? May the celebration for which we prepare come back to ‘delight’ us these Lenten days. It is a time when we don’t ‘follow our ways’. For Jesus the Sabbath was not meant to limit, He becomes the Sabbath and makes grace free to flow where it will. May we enjoy the surprising colors and patterns of this Lenten time.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 58:1-9a
Matthew 9:14-15

Reflection:

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Matt: 9:15

When I was taking classes, one thing that irritated me a great deal about some of my teachers was when I would ask a question, the teacher would answer me with a question. Another irritating moment in school was when I would ask my teacher how to spell a word, and then received the reply to look it up in the dictionary. As I look back on these learning experiences, I can appreciate them now for pushing me to become an active learner, to search for answers that were not evident at first glance.

It seems to me that we need to take a closer look at this passage as we begin our Lenten journey. We began our Lent with a very clear declaration as we received our ashes on Wednesday: Repent and Believe in the Gospel. A traditional form of repentance from the beginning of our Salvation History in our Scriptures has always included fasting in one form or another. There were associations of people during the time of Jesus that included fasting weekly. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays; the disciples of John probably fasted weekly as well. Fasting was a sign of living a life pleasing to God as well as a sign of repentance.

At one point, the Catholic Church had many Church laws around fasting. We had a strict rule of fasting from all food and water since midnight before receiving Holy Communion up until 1953. In our Passionist seminary, we had weekly fasting, especially during lent and advent. And as we begin lent, so many of us make it a practice to fast until Easter. Many times, these are symbolic fasts, giving up candy, giving up going to the movies, or giving up our free time to do good deeds for others.

For many Catholics, especially those of us who live in first world countries, fasting from something tangible is a challenge. Many people want to turn fasting from visible behaviors to personal and psychological ones. For some, this may work, but for the vast majority of us who have tried this, it doesn’t. It is more difficult to feel the satisfaction of actually completing a tangible expression of a fast when we do something else in its stead. Those of us who have been on 5 K runs or walks know the satisfaction of crossing the finish line, even though we come in last. As we look deeply into our spiritual life, most of us will recognize how difficult it is to commit to such expressions of tangible fasting practices and address the question: why is that?

The question asked of Jesus in the passage is not from his disciples, but the disciples of John. Jesus’ response did not absolve his followers from fasting in the traditional ways of fasting during his time, but they would fast when it was their time to fast.

But Jesus was also clear, as were the prophets and mentors from Hebrew Scriptures, our practice of fasting is organically connected to living a holy life, a life that is not deceptive, dishonest or duplicitous. Fasting doesn’t absolve our sin, but rather recognizes us as a sinful person who approaches God with a contrite heart. The more that we are helped to recognize the Mercy and Love of God, especially with such practices as fasting, the more we can be assured that we are disciples of Jesus. Lent, then, is our time to fast!

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

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Luke 9:22-25

Reflection:

…I set before you life and prosperity…death and doom…choose life then…

We have begun our Lenten journey with the message of Ash Wednesday – sound the trumpet, prayer, fasting, almsgiving…40 days in the desert…

Today, only the second day in, in some ways really, the first day of our journey and we are told how to do that – choose life!  Yet we are also told – deny yourself…take up your cross daily…is that how we choose life? 

Thomas Merton talks about the first Lent – the Exodus journey of Israel out of slavery – he says, they needed to be ‘educated in freedom’ – they needed to let go of the ‘comfortable’ yet unhealthy ways they learned to adapt to their life of oppression and slavery.  They had to learn how to be free.  To live with no other mast but God.

Each year during Lent we are invited to do the very same thing – learn how to live in the freedom of being a Child of God!  Let go of all the other ‘masters’ that have found a place in our lives, let go of the oppression of always trying to please the other – God even – and be willing to simply live our everyday lives in service of the Lord.  Let go of ‘shoulds’, of unrealistic expectations, of becoming better than, or stronger than, or too comfortable with self-centeredness, greed, busyness or rampant consumerism.  We are invited to learn how to journey through our own ‘passions’ on this life journey – to discover anew, that it is in the going through rather than going around – it is discovering as Jesus discovered, we can do anything with God’s help – but sometimes, like Jesus, we need to go to the garden first and lament – to shout out – so God can enter and transform whatever needs transforming – What in our life needs to be transformed?  Are we willing to take God with us and be ‘educated in freedom’?

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

Scripture:

Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

“Three cheers for Lent!” It’s unlikely that we’ve ever said that before or known anyone who did, but we ought to welcome, and even joyfully celebrate, this season of the liturgical year that begins today, Ash Wednesday, because Lent is the annual six-week long reminder that it’s never too late to change, never too late to begin again. Nothing is ever hopeless, nothing is beyond repair and redemption, because the God whose love brought us into being continually calls us from death back to life by returning to relationship with him.   

To turn to God is to turn to life. To turn away from God is to turn away from life. Lent pivots on these two truths, truths we are all pretty good at denying. Lent reminds us that we are commanded to love God wholeheartedly and our neighbors as ourselves because there is no other path to life. But we frequently live and act as if this were not the case. We become experts at self-sabotage because we develop ways of being that pull us further away from all that is life. We’re miserable. We’re more dead than alive. But after a while we see no way to move from death back to life. 

Today’s readings show us that the way back to life is surprisingly simple. The passage from the prophet Joel puts it succinctly: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart.” In the reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul pleads with us, even begs us: “We implore you, in Christ’s name: be reconciled to God!” And our gospel, with its triple warning against performing religious acts in order to be seen, counseling us instead to “go to your room, close your door, and pray to your Father in private,” assures us that in that quiet, intimate moment we shall discover what it means to be fully known and fully loved, and, therefore, fully alive.

That’s wonderful news, news worth celebrating. And so, on this first day of Lent, let the cheering begin!

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.