Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Hebrews 13:1-8
Mark 6:14-29

Reflection:

The centrality of today feels like a double tragedy.  The Gospel retells the details of the tragic murder of John the Baptist and that is framed in the feast of  St. Agatha.  

We aren’t sure if Agatha was born in Catania or Palermo. The trivial details have long been forgotten. What is remembered is her single-heartedness. What has been passed down and written about is how highly she was venerated in Christian antiquity. She was put to death during the persecution of Decius for her unwavering belief in God.

From her very early years Agatha dedicated her life to God as a consecrated virgin. She desired to give herself totally to Jesus and the Church in a life of prayer and service. A high diplomat named Quintianus thought he could get her to turn away from her vow to God and force her to marry him. Polite proposals escalated to harassment, arrests, imprisonment, and hideous torture. Through all of it Agatha continued her simple prayer of single-heartedness to Christ. Even the prayer attributed to her death, was a single-heart devotion. “Lord, my Creator, you have ever protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world, and given me patience to suffer: receive now my soul.”

Agatha’s example is her perseverance in running the race and keeping her eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfector of faith. She embraced the joy found in the presence of Christ,  understanding it as the fullness and completeness of life.

We don’t have the last words of John the Baptist’s life.  Yet as I read this gospel today, I’m mostly hearing the guilt and the lack of peace in Herod was facing.  Not being able to put the event behind him, Herod was haunted by its memory.  So much so that he is starting his own conspiracy theory,  “It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.”  One of the truths of Mark’s writings is that he is direct, short and to the point.  For him to include this detail means it was quite significant.      

Today’s first reading from Hebrews concludes with these words.  “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.  Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

That is quite a request given the fact that today we look at two people who were put to death because of their belief in Jesus.    

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the local superior of St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Hebrews 12:18-19, 21-24
Mark 6:7-13

Reflection:

Called and Sent

Today’s Gospel selection from Mark 6 presents the early mission of the twelve apostles.  Previous verses in Mark’s Gospel present the disciples as challenged by and questioning Jesus’ words and deeds.  Now they are summoned to join Jesus in proclaiming the Kingdom of God.  One wonders what must have gone through their minds as this call and mission unfolded. 

Let’s consider:

1. Jesus calls the Twelve together, with specific directions for their mission.  Must be important!
2. They are to head out “two by two”.  Important work benefits by mutual support and effort.  Ok!
3. Jesus gave them “authority” over unclean spirits.  A serious mission, needing a special share in Jesus’ powerful love and healing.
4. They are to travel “lightly”.  They can wear sandals (lots of walking!) and use a walking stick…that’s all.  Hospitality, food, money, etc. will be provided by those who receive them.  Takes a lot of trust to head out in such a detached manner.
5. They did preach repentance…drove out demons…cured the sick.  Sins, sickness, satanic powers – all handled as Jesus had instructed.  For real!  Jesus working in and through them…Change happening…Great!
6. Such experiences, over weeks or months, must have strengthened their faith in Jesus and their desire to continue growth as his disciples.  But…down the road…their zeal as disciples weakened…and later Jesus was arrested and crucified and died…without them.

As 21^st Century disciples of Jesus we are sent to witness to our needy world the Kingdom of God’s love and mercy and healing – a serious mission.  Today’s technology is helpful, but the real “power” is in preaching the Good News by our very lives — based on Jesus’ life and values, a personal witness we offer in our homes, our neighborhoods, our jobs, our society.  Unclean spirits abound today in fear and mistrust, in selfishness and lack of mutual respect, in disregard for both human and environmental life, etc.  The need is great.

And so, we gather, “two by two”, and personally share the Good News of God’s love – even using words as deemed necessary!  May we be blessed by Jesus and encouraged by those fellow disciples who have gone before us.  “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”  Amen.

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the Vocation Director for Holy Cross Province. He lives at St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15
Mark 6:1-6

Reflection:

Inner strength is difficult to measure. It lies silently below some of our outer actions and words and can so surprise us. Inner strength has its own potency and is not always obvious.   Sometimes it surprises us when we discover a strength that we did not know we possessed and at other times it conveys strength, inspiration and hope to others.

The Word given to us today reflects on inner strengths from different perspectives.

In the reading from Hebrews, the author encourages the Christian community to stand firm, to be strong and to rely on inner resources to stand firm against evil and sin. It is an appeal to one’s inner will and highlights the value of good practices which help to form good attitudes which in turn allow us to make good and consistent decisions.

By contrast our gospel highlights the inner power of Jesus – his wisdom and clarity of thought and speech. His words astonish his listeners. Perhaps we have had this experience too, when we meet someone who we know at one point of life, but who have been through their own journey of growth, or formation and education and how now possess new skills – skills we had not encountered before. We are often amazed and how someone has grown, matured and marvel at their progress.

For Jesus it seems this was certainly the case.

Perhaps too there is another lesson for us. The reaction to Jesus, from those who we might broadly label kinsfolk or at least, those who had known him since childhood, is most revealing. Their rejection of Jesus, someone they had known and cared about since youth, is determined by two dynamics. They seem unable to trust their own experience – obviously, they are moved and deeply impressed by Jesus words, but they do not allow this experience to have its own value in their world of meaning. They seek a more logical explanation, one that ‘fits’ more readily into their presumptions and worldview. They limit themselves by virtue of their own recourse to logic and familiarity. They trust an idea rather than listening to their inner world and they are the poorer for it.

Faith of its nature is not bound by logic and reason. Certainly, at times we need to explain and articulate our faith, but in its essence, it is a gift, often residing quietly and deeply within. It is from such a base that we listen to and absorb the words and message of Jesus – which of themselves and in their essence defy logic! Let it always be so.

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

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Scripture:

Malachi 3:1-4
Hebrews 2: 14-18
Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22-32

Reflection:

Surely he did not help angels but rather the descendants of Abraham; therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way… Hebrews 2:16-17

This Feast of the Presentation, forty days after Christmas, has been the traditional close of the Christmas season. When I listened to the stories around Jesus’ birth and infancy this year, I was struck by the humility and vulnerability of the Holy Family when Jesus “became like his brothers and sisters in every way” (today’s second reading from Hebrews) .

In today’s Gospel, we find Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem practicing the ancient customs of Mary’s purification after childbirth, and Jesus’ presentation: the offering of the first-born son. Even though Mary was told by the angel that she was “full of grace” when he presented her with her special vocation, she still went to be purified. And she and Joseph took Jesus to offer him to God, even though he came from God. Mary and Joseph, observant Jews that they were, humbly complied with the law of Moses and performed the rituals.

Since they could not afford a sheep, Mary and Joseph gave the offering of the poor: two turtledoves and two young pigeons. This is a reminder of their precarious circumstances: the stable birth, Jesus’ escape from the murderous Herod, and their flight into Egypt. The Incarnation means literally to “take on flesh”.  Jesus in taking on flesh, fully entered into our vulnerable human condition and “became like his brothers and sisters in every way”.

In our American culture, success is often seen as being ever more prosperous, influential, and in control. The Holy Family shows us a different way: humbly trusting in the Holy Spirit to lead our lives. With each Christmas season that passes, may this countercultural message sink in more!

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.

Scripture:

Hebrews 11:32-40
Mark 5:1-20

Reflection:

The reading today from Mark’s Gospel is the longest exorcism story in the New Testament.  The driving out of demons probably strikes most of us today as strange, to say the least.  But for the ancient world in which Jesus lived, the personified power of evil was viewed as a real threat that could wound and even destroy human life.  In fact, in Mark’s Gospel exorcism is a characteristic action of Jesus’ mission.  The first thing Jesus does in Mark’s account, is to liberate a man in the synagogue of Capernaum who was convulsed with “an evil spirit.” 

Reading the account of the Gadarene demoniac brings us deeper into the dynamic force of Jesus’ mission.  He and his disciples cross over the Sea of Galilee to Gerasa, a region in the Decapolis, a league of ten cities populated by Gentiles.  As Jesus comes ashore a man possessed by a demon approaches him.  Mark vividly describes the man’s plight: he lives among the tombs (the living dead); he is self-destructive, bruising himself with stones; he is out of control—breaking the chains and shackles that people had used to restrain him; and not surprisingly this poor tormented man cries out day and night in torment.  Mark’s description puts in existential terms what being “possessed by a demon” meant—a human being isolated, ill, dehumanized.

This is the type of situation Jesus, the great healer and reconciler, the one filled with God’s own healing Spirit, has come to transform. The evil spirit recognizes what it is up against in confronting Jesus: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”  But there is no question that the power of Jesus to heal is stronger than any evil.  Jesus demands to know the demon’s name.  “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”  This is a fascinating detail of the story—the Latin word “legio” is the term used for the Roman army situated on the Golan heights close to where this story takes place.  The oppression represented by the might of Rome choking the people of Israel was another existential example of what being tormented by evil felt like.

Jesus proceeds to liberate the man from his torment—sending the demon into a herd of pigs which rush down into the sea and drown.  Of course, for the Jewish background of this story, pigs were an unclean animal and the sea was a fearsome place, a proper end for evil.

Most important in the story is the outcome.  The man who was so de-humanized and wracked by suffering is now completely healed, “sitting there clothed and in his right mind.”   A human being restored to life.  When the people from the nearby village come to see what had happened, they are thunderstruck to find the man they had feared and isolated in the tombs now fully restored, and, as was often the case in the biblical world, they are overwhelmed by fear and awe of such divine power and plead with Jesus to depart from them.  Not so the man who had been healed by Jesus.  He pleads to stay with him.  Instead, Jesus gives him a commission: “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.”  The man, liberated and thrilled, becomes the first Gentile missionary—going throughout the Decapolis region, proclaiming “what Jesus had done for him and all were amazed.”

Few stories in the Gospels match the drama of this event or more clearly reveal the mission of Jesus—and the mission of those who follow Jesus then and now.  When confronting human suffering in all its forms, the Christian is to use God’s grace for healing and reconciliation.  In a world still filled with suffering and injustice, the story of the Gadarene demoniac forcefully reminds us of our Christian responsibility.

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 7:32-35 
Mark 1:21-28    

Reflection:

Be free of anxieties. /v.32a
I know who you are – the Holy One of God! /v.24b

Happy Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time!

It’s a really interesting thought.  Nutty, actually.

“Have no anxiety at all.”

Every time I read the first line of this particular passage from 1st Corinthians I laugh, sarcastically, and say “yeah, RIGHT! In this life?  No way.”  And I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m probably not alone.  I mean, just think of the simple things we are worried about every day: food and shelter and clothing, taxes, work, bills, family, friends, and oh so much more.

And then these things:  Betrayal.     Hate.     Murder.     War.     Illness.     Death.

But what about our spirit? 

Do we worry about our soul?

I was reading Charles Dickens’ “The Christmas Carol” the other night.  Ok, I know that you’re saying “The Christmas Carol?  Puccinelli, you’re the one who’s NUTTY!”  Well, you’re probably right… but bear with me for a moment. 

I think we probably all will know this story… A wealthy miser called Scrooge is tormented by 4 spirits: at first, one of an old friend, and then three others who turn the screws on him until he’s frenzied and nearly out of control.  It’s only at that moment that he accepts the call of God through the glory of Christmas, the point in time when he begins following the example of Christ, that he is saved.  It’s Jesus that saves Scrooge. 

It’s not unlike today’s Gospel (Mark 1:21-28), when Jesus calls out to a man tortured by a frantic spirit and commands him healing, peaceful salvation. What a gift to know that God wants us to be peaceful and happy, and is willing to help us get there.  It is Jesus who saves us.  All we have to do is recognize Jesus for who he really is: The Christ, the Lamb who takes our sins. 

“The Holy One of God.”

Dear God of all healing, thank you for the incredible prize of your powerful salvation.  Please grant us the grace to know you and have all anxiety flee our souls at the sound of your voice. Amen.

Peace and love to you today, and forever.

Paul Puccinelli is Director of Liturgy & Music at St. Rita Parish in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the retreat team at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center.

Scripture: 

Hebrews 10:32-39
Mark 4:26-34

Reflection:

 “Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering.” Hebrews 10:32

The readings for today are a great reminder for us that it is important to cultivate our faith. That faith is what helps us through the good times and the times we are now experiencing. Even during these days of living in a pandemic it is important to continue to take time to read and reflect on the scriptures, listen to music that inspires us or helps us to meditate. A good spiritual book is helpful as well. Feeding the soul couldn’t be more important during these months of the pandemic.

The second part of the Gospel speaks of the Kingdom of God starting as the size of a mustard seed, which is very small and yet grows into a large plant. Even during the pandemic, the Kingdom of God continues to grow through our struggle. Through our willingness to help those around us. In the midst of winter, the Church reminds us that growth happens at all times. Even in the grip of a pandemic we can grow as Church and as a person.

May these be days of hope and growth for you and your loved ones. May we all pray for one another and for those who are struggling in any way.

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.