Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:1-6
John 13:21-33, 36-38

Reflection:

“So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” (JN 13:30)

In 1962 Nelson Mandela, a lawyer working in Johannesburg was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He had the nerve to stand up against the South African powers that be and their system of apartheid a system that gave privilege to white people over black people. He stayed in prison for 27 years, making friends of his jailers. I was a junior in high school at the Passionists’ Prep in Warrenton Missouri, learning about a man, Paul Danei who like Mandela came from privilege but chose to identify with the poor.

“So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” (JN 13:30)

In 1968, my twin brother Dave joined the US Navy forces fighting in the waters of the Mekong Delta, while I stayed at school with my privileged school deferment and ironically, studied amongst other subjects, peace, or irenology as the science would call it. That same year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed (April 4, 1968) and I student-taught in a Chicago Public School amidst the resulting hysteria.

“So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” (JN 13:30)

In 1979, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, foundress of The Missionary Sisters of Charity received the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in Macedonia she joined the Sisters of Loretto in Dublin Ireland where she worked as a teacher until feeling called to work with the “poorest of the poor” (The Nobel Prize) opened up a school with no walls serving children growing up in the slums of India. That year I started working in the Insurance business where I eventually made more money than I ever dreamed possible.

“So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.” (JN 13:30)

God of justice and mercy, if you exist (and I believe you do) help me to wake up today to join you in loving and caring for all, in particular those who are persecuted, marginalized or just ignored as if they don’t exist.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-7
John 12:1-11

Reflection:

The whole world is under a heavy, dark cloud this Holy Week as the Covid-19 virus spreads its invisible, insidious poison everywhere.

None of us is spared. No individual is safe. The best most of us can do to save our individual selves and everyone else is to unselfishly be at home.

Others have active missions in healthcare facilities, in essential services such as utilities, food distribution and coordinating the emergency responses. We pray for their safety.

Each of our lives, constructed around self-sufficient structures and illusions of security like the stock market, careers, and a stable government, are suddenly vulnerable in ways none of us every imagined.

Science cannot destroy the virus. Our military is not able to defeat it. No government program can fully contain it, only slow its spread.

We are left exposed, fearful and restless. We are face to face with a reality we spend our lives fleeing and denying: we are not in control.

It is a lesson in humility that makes us uncomfortable. As Americans we are taught a “can-do” attitude toward life. We want to take charge, achieve goals, make money to insure ourselves against tragedy and to guarantee comfortable lives and “secure” retirements.

The pandemic, then, can be a moment of grace, teaching us the importance of being passive, resting in God alone.

In today’s first reading, the first of the Servant Songs from the Book of Isaiah (chapters 40-55), we learn of God as the initiator in the life of a humble man disposed to only doing God’s work of justice: “I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”

And in the Gospel selection from John’s twelfth chapter, Jesus rebukes Judas Iscariot’s attempt to take control and use money to fix poverty at the expense of Mary’s humble, repentant connection with Christ in their midst.

During this dark time in the world’s history, we have an opportunity to stop our usual routine busyness, carrying on with a blinded sense of our self-sufficiency and self-importance. Now we are forced to realize we control nothing.

Submitting our lives to God in moments of deep prayer today we can come to understand only God can give the peace and serenity we seek in life. Things we think are crucial or necessary suddenly are brought into perspective. What is essential is what Mary did at the feet of Jesus at Bethany: humbling savoring the presence of the Lord.

This alone is our safety. God will provide all that we need, especially when we are most fearful.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Scripture:

Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14-66 or 27:11-54

Reflection:

What a Lent this has turned into.   When we began this sacred season on Ash Wednesday, none of us would have predicted such a rapid global upheaval.  The new norm includes social distancing, confining isolation, evolving information, daily frustration, and nightly confusion.  Stories of heroism complement the reality of grieving. And yet how can anyone grieve when the need to maintain distance for one’s health takes precedence?

The streets are eerily quiet.  The hospital reports say it is a war zone.  And another scene is replayed in tens of thousands of households where a young mother or father with small children is working from home and has just lost it because they can’t find a way to be a productive employee, a loving parent, a good spouse, while confined to a small apartment.  All they want is a little mental sanity.

Where is God?   Why doesn’t God do something about this situation?  The psalmist words today;  “My God my God,  why have you abandoned me?”

We add to that the financial problem.  Homeowners and shop owners, small business people and people who live from paycheck to paycheck who have no money coming in.  A slight hope, out there beyond arms reach is a promise from the Federal Government with a placard stating “stimulus package” being tossed around.    The prayer from their mouth is, ” Oh God, how are we going to get through this month?”

A woman lies in isolation in her home having tested positive for Covid-19.   Her husband lies  in a different bed several miles away in the hospital and she can’t be there as he struggles for his last few breaths.  In fact there is no one there to hold his hand.   And for those who have died, either from the virus or another cause, their loved ones can’t be together to grieve.  People are kept apart from each other even in times of painful loss.  We can’t even come into our churches to pray and grieve.  And the most we can do to show our support is to “drive by” while maintaining our social distancing.

My God my God,  why have you abandoned me?  These words of Jesus, as he hangs on the cross haunt us this day.  It’s all a little too close to home.

Maybe today, Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, is a time to move the perspective from an event that happened two thousand years ago to who we are today.   Literally, the whole world is affected.  We are hurting, confused, frightened, haunted, and wishing we could just wake up from this nightmare.  Like the two Gospels given to us on this day, first the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the second the proclamation of the Passion, this Lenten season has shifted our mood and our direction.  We have gone from personal expectations of Lent to the unpredictability and a deeper crying out to God because of human suffering.

Was it any different than the nightmare of the Apostles who just in a matter of hours lost the one in whom they had put all their hopes and expectations?  Was it any different than the regret of Peter whose mental tape played his last words of denial over and over in his mind?  Was it any different from the emptiness Mary felt when after birthing and raising this special little child, and she now holds his crucified, lifeless body?   Was it any different from the fear of the disciples locked in the upper room wondering if they were going to be next?  None of this made any sense to anyone living subjectively in the midst of the situation.  And the uncertainty of what might be coming next plays with the mind and the emotions.

One thing the Gospel accounts insists on is you cannot read the Gospel stories like a newspaper.  And in fact, every time you read the Gospels wearing the lenses of the resurrection, suddenly the stories begin to sound differently.   Christians are supposed to be people who can not only see and live in the Kingdom, but they can share and proclaim it as well.  How do we get there?   I think the answer is practice.  To be proficient at any trade, talent, or sport requires practice.   So too is practicing the art of interpretation in light of the resurrection.  The more a person practices this art, the greater their skill and prayerful reward.

Only a few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul writes to the Christian community in Corinth reflecting on how interconnected we are for all of us make up the body of Christ.  Specifically, (1 Cor 12:26) “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members share its joy.”   Christ never abandoned the church.  If anything, Christ lives in and through its members.  Theresa of Avila’s teaching was quite the similar invitation.

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people. God alone suffices.”

Today as we listen to the Passion of Jesus proclaimed, we live, and pray this truth.  The liturgical readings and our lived communal experience have aligned asking us, do you see Christ Crucified today?   This is not a mere historical occurrence.  This is a reality which we live with and are being asked to internalize.   Instead of pleading to God to change this situation, can we begin to see how the suffering of Christ is a reality in the suffering of humanity?  Indeed, Christ chooses to suffer with us in our afflictions.

Two thousand years ago the whole world was affected by the death of Jesus.  That event changed the face of humanity.   Today, in the contemporary event of human suffering, we sit, ponder, and prayerfully meditate with the Passion of Christ from both the historical and contemporary dimensions.  As Jesus did not abandon us even in his suffering, so too are we assured of his presence in this challenging time.  And we pray from the core of our being, not as defeated people, but people who know that God is faithful to the splendor of the resurrection.

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

Scripture:

Ezekiel 37:21-28
John 11:45-56

Reflection:

Goodness to Come Of Evil?  God Says “YES”!

We’re on the “eve” of the great week we annually call “Holy”.  The opportunities and challenges of Lent continue to draw us deeper into the Paschal Mystery.

Today’s Scriptures highlight the providential love of God for everyone — even the sinful.  John’s Gospel recounts the plotting of the chief priests, Scribes and Sanhedrin to kill Jesus.   Jesus preached healing and love, attracting many followers.  The high priest Caiaphas expressed his idea that one man should die instead of many people, based on his fear that the Romans would disturb the status quo and rob the freedom and land of Israel.  Jesus’ death?  Tragedy!  Evil!  …and Salvific!

From our 21^st Century vantage point, no doubt Jesus’ death on the Cross was better than the whole human race “perishing” in sin.  God’s plan was that the life, suffering and death of Jesus would bring about atonement for the world’s sinfulness; Divine Love would triumph; goodness would blossom from evil, risen life from crucifixion.  As one author put it:  Good Friday didn’t spoil the weekend…

This Lent is a unique journey of faith!  The pandemic experience of global sickness and death, of fear and isolation, of short-sightedness and confusion – all are vivid examples of 21^st century Evil.  Yet as we ponder the life of Jesus, as we dig deep as men and women of faith, as we come together as a faith community within our socially isolated spaces…God can and will bring new life and goodness from the evil we experience.  Just as God brought about good from the evil plot to kill Jesus, God will bring about good in our day.  We are to be men and women of ever-deepening faith, selfless and generous in union with Jesus, firmly confessing that “God is in charge”.

May we enter these concluding days of Lent embracing our share in the Cross of Jesus.  As proclaimed in the Responsorial Psalm from Jeremiah 31, God shall guard us; God will redeem us; God will turn our mourning into joy and console and gladden us.  God lovingly says:  “Yes!”  And we today add our “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:

Jeremiah 20:10-13
John 10:31-42

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading from John, some of the people are ready to stone Jesus. When Jesus asks which good work did He do to provoke them, they answer: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.”

Jesus uses Scriptures to explain Himself to them, and eventually says, “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” But this does not seem to persuade them all, and they try to arrest Him, but Jesus escapes.

I find myself thinking about “believe the works.” What are the “works” that Jesus is talking about? As I see it, they are works of healing (the man born blind), of feeding the hungry (the multiplication of the loaves and fish), of answering people’s needs (the wedding at Cana), among others. We know that Jesus would later perform the great work of our redemption and reconciliation.

For me, the same challenge that Jesus faced we face today. We may share the Good News about Him, and many may not believe. And so, our challenge may be, then, to do good works, by the grace of God, so that even if people won’t believe what we say, they can at least believe in the works, and see that love and hope, peace and justice, and joy, can and do exist, and there is a God who is the Source of it all.

May we follow Jesus in doing good works.

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

Scripture:

Genesis 17:3-9
John 8:51-59

Reflection:

For visitors to the Holy Land, one of the most obvious sights is the fact that the desert areas are not only bleak and sun-bleached to a uniform sandy colour, but all around one sees stones.

Israel is a ‘rocky’ land, almost everywhere one steps one sees stones! Generally, these are small, somewhat rounded, and within easy reach. No wonder then that ‘stoning’ became a regular means of dealing with a speaker whose opinions one did not like – one simply reached down picked up a stone and threw it! The fact that stones were everywhere made it even more possible to be spontaneous in doing this, thus one could very easily give way to emotions and reactions and instantly act on them.

Today we read of a similar moment in the life of Jesus – “So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.”  The cause of this reaction is the profession by Jesus that he is so intimately in union with the Father that he too can claim the title of God. “Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

Apart from the reflection that Jesus lived a life surrounded by danger and that he lived like that for us, we might also look to the revelation that is offered by Jesus’ to the crowd and which caused them to reach for stones to throw.

In his words Jesus reflects a truth that Israel has known from its beginnings. God had been with them since their foundation and God had called them into an intimate union – one we know of as ‘the covenant’.

This life-giving relationship between God an Israel is heavily weighted in their favour. It is God who promises so much – God is with them, God has created their nation, God has given them a fertile land, made them a people set apart and given them their leadership. Most importantly God is faithful and will remain faithful to this covenant.

On their part the people have only to keep the covenant with God. That is, to stay in relationship with God and to see and identify themselves in this light.

Jesus comes to bring this covenant into a fuller light and to reveal completely to them the depth of this relationship with God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh for them to see and touch, to hear and to embrace.

But as we move closer to the events of Pasion Week and the Triduum we know that such revelation will cause more than mere stones to be thrown at Jesus; rather his very life will be sought and his message and the revelation contained therein seemingly rejected.

But as the refrain reminds us ‘The Lord remembers his covenant forever’ – and we know that God will be faithful to the people even in their rejection of the Son.

Let us enter Holy Week with open hearts, open minds and an open heart that we might truly hear all that is promised to us in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

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

Scripture:

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
John 8:31-42

Reflection:

The first reading for today—April Fools’ Day!–is taken from the Book of Daniel and tells the fantastic story of the three Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who heroically resist the demand of the wicked Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar to worship a golden statue.  If, when they hear the “sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments,” they still refuse to worship the idol, then they are to be thrown into a roaring fiery furnace.  When this royal ensemble plays its tune, the three still refuse and are thrown into the roaring flames. But miraculously the three Israelites are spared by the power of God—leading the mighty king of Babylon to praise the God of Israel! “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego!”

This marvelous story of heroism and God’s protection of his people was crafted centuries after the exile of Israel to Babylon but also during a period of great suffering.  The Jews were under the thumb of the Seleucid empire, a Greek dynasty created in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Middle East.  One of rulers of this dynasty, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (167–164 B.C.) was exceptionally cruel.  The story from the Book of Daniel both urges Israelites to remain faithful amid suffering and assures them of God’s protective care.

The gospel selection today is from the Gospel of John and there is also here a threat of violence, as Jesus’ opponents, the religious authorities, bitterly criticize him.  But Jesus offers words of comfort to “the Jews who believed in him:” ‘If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I checked the internet and learned that there are many explanations about the origin of this day.  One that struck me as plausible was a connection with the end of the winter solstice and the fact that the weather at this time of the year changes rapidly and fools us all.

Who could have predicted the “climate” we all are in now—with the threat of the Coronavirus seeming to turn upside down almost every aspect of our normal lives? One refrain I keep hearing from thoughtful people in this moment is the paradox that, as we are forced to separate from each other (“social distancing”), we are also realizing how connected with each other we truly are and how much we need each other.  That conviction, in fact, is at the heart of our Christian faith.  The belief that we are all daughters and sons of God and that we are responsible for each other.  The heart of Jesus’ teaching (and the example of his life) was precisely this: Jesus taught that the “greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart and soul, and our neighbors as ourselves.”  That is the truth that sets us free and will help us persevere through this present threat.

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:

Numbers 21:4-9
John 8:21-30

Reflection:

Explosive Love of God

People in the Exodus had to look at the brazen serpent to be healed from the venom of fiery serpents.  They made the disastrous spiritual mistake of accusing God of not caring for them or even thinking that He intended to destroy them and their children.   They made the capital sin of grumbling against God!  The apostles made the same mistake much latter at the storm on the sea in Mark’s gospel when Jesus was asleep at the helm of the ship!

“It does not matter to you that we are perishing” The people of the first covenant had to look at the cause of their pain, the Bronze serpent, to remind them how terribly wrong they were about God’s love and care of them!  It was only by seeing the snake they could be healed.   To complain about God not caring for us is indeed a deadly mistake!

Most certainly one of the worse things we can do is to accuse God of not being

lovingly and intensely affectionate to us!   I think one of the greatest reasons He chose to suffer and die on the cross was to show us how very fond He is of us.  Grumbling against His providence must hurt Him very deeply after all He has done for us!

We must learn to look on Christ crucified to learn the depths of God’s care for us. So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am”.  When we gaze on the uplifted Christ on the Cross we will begin to understand how passionately he cares about us.  “God is love” and nowhere else can we see this better than the explosive figure on the Cross.

That the God who is now creating the universe is so anxious to prove His fondness for us that He asks His Son to die a horrifying death on the cross should utterly boggle our minds and hearts!

A priest was visiting the Holy Land and bought a crucifix for his parish.  The strict Jewish security told him that they must X-Ray the Crucifix for explosives.  The priest thought to himself if only they knew how explosive the cross really is!

 

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