Daily Scripture

Second Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Isaiah 11: 1-10
Romans 15: 4-9
Matthew 3: 1-12

Reflection:

THE DESERT

Repentance brings hope to the dry and seemingly barren areas of our life, the desert. We get discouraged and weak by our sins and short comings. When the Lord enters these places we become strong. In the desert you feel abandoned and alone with no hope. But the Lord will come and feed you with his manna, the bread of angels, and make you strong again. This only comes through humility and prayer. We make straight his paths by saying “You must increase, I must decrease.”

John’s penitential life reveals his sincerity; he practices what he preaches. He detest sin and desire to please God, who is worthy of all our love. He offers up his body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, his spiritual worship. He wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. Knowing and confessing our sins is a grace. “God’s greatest pleasure is to pardon us. The good Lord is more eager to pardon a repentant sinner than a mother to rescue her child from a fire” (Saint John Vianney). Repentance brings hope to the dry and barren areas of our life.

You must always come in the true spirit of repentance not in a public show of self-righteousness as the Pharisees and Sadducees are coming to John’s baptism? John is encouraging them to receive this Sacrament with the right disposition. Our confidence in every sacrament arises from faith in Christ’s power. It is Christ’s power that makes us strong and gives us strength when we are alone in the desert. Even if we fall Jesus does not abandon us: humility and contrition keeps us firm in God’s love.

John’s baptism inspired repentance and merely pointed to Christ’s baptism—the Church’s baptism—which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, forgives sins and fills us with divine life. Jesus frees us from sin, purifying our hearts so we can become like the pure wheat consecrated on the altar. He “bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world” (2Pt 1:4). We must become like a desert and empty ourselves of all our sins so He can come into our lives and make them whole again.

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.

Scripture:

Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26
Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Reflection:

On Tuesday of this week, the local AARP chapter which meets at the Lakeview Presbyterian Church where I go to lunch five days a week, hosted a Salvation Army Holiday Musical festival after lunch. Four Salvation Army Officers made up the familiar brass band I’ve and I expect you as well, have often seen on the street corners and malls at this time of the year, playing Christmas music and entertaining holiday shoppers. This day they entertained two dozen seniors in the Presbyterian Church sanctuary. It was beautiful and uplifting.

That experience made me wonder more about the Army, so I looked them up on YouTube where I watched a three-minute video. They were founded by a married couple, Catherine and William Booth in London 1865. This year, according to the video, they will serve 30 million people in the United States alone. Their centers are located in poor and crime infested areas where few of us are willing to serve. They have a worldwide membership of 1.7 million and are assisted in their work by 3.4 million volunteers. Wow!

I’m meeting with some young graduate students (I’m 74) today who have asked me to present a dream I’ve been talking about ever since I retired twelve years ago: affordable housing that welcomes people of all classes, young and old, rich and poor, churched and unchurched… I sometimes ask myself, why I do such crazy things. I can’t solve the homeless problem in my city of Chicago, let alone provide for the homeless people I see at my local McDonald’s. I even sometimes wonder where I am going to get the resources, I need to meet my own needs. That’s probably how the first followers of Jesus felt when he sent them out as we read in today’s gospel selection.

Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus,

“Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.|
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” (MT 9 & 10)

I pray today to hear the calls of the needy all around me and to respond with the same faith and trust that those first apostles, Catherine and William Booth, and St. Paul of the Cross did, and their followers continue to do in our world.

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 29:17-24
Matthew 9:27-31

Reflection:

“Let it be done for you according to your faith.” With these words Jesus, in today’s passage from Matthew’s gospel, opened the eyes of two blind men who had nagged him to have pity on them.

Have you ever nagged Jesus with a request? In desperate times such as life threatening illness, trauma, legal troubles and discord at work or at home, people of faith turn to Jesus, nagging him perhaps.

Nag as we might, however, often our pleas seem to go unheard.

Surely God will cure a young father of terminal cancer. And what about my alcoholic brother? Or the family business that’s about to go under? Can our child meet the academic requirements for the college she wants to attend in the fall? Will I deliver a healthy child?

The answer we want is the same answer the blind men received: “Let it be done according to your faith.” We want what we want on our terms.

But, in our deepest prayer, sitting alone with Jesus, we do get what we want according to our faith but maybe not as we originally imagined.

By uniting our wills to God’s, we find lasting peace, accepting what we are given, knowing in the larger vision and plan of God, all will be well.

The writer of the passage from Isaiah today gives us a glimpse of this larger vision and plan: “…out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see,” and “when his children see the work of my hands in his midst, they shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob and be in awe of the God of Israel. Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.”

The unplanned pregnancy gives joy beyond measure, the failing grades offer opportunities to tackle deeper issues that had been avoided, the death of a spouse deepens the faith in the resurrection, the drug overdose of the nephew leads the family to crusade for prevention and recovery programs to save hundreds of lives.

Do we pray for disappointments and tragedies? No. But carrying all of life’s joys and sorrows to prayer, totally surrendering ourselves to God’s will, always leads to new life…the resurrection…in ways we might never have anticipated.

“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 26:1-6
Mattehw 7:21, 24-27

Reflection:

The local university offers a course on ultimate questions.  As a Pastor, the one big question people ask in my ministry is the assurance of going to heaven. It seems no matter how much is written on topics of salvation, free will, and God’s grace, few will read them. Most people don’t read theological treatise, nor do they trust the variety of opinions from a plethora of websites.   Neither one gives the assurances they are looking for. So, when today’s Gospel is proclaimed in the liturgical cycle, it can be a little disconcerting. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  And if the image of going to the kingdom was much like climbing a ladder to the ultimate destination, I suspect there are those good Christians who wouldn’t think twice about stepping on someone else’s fingers in their great ascent.

Pope Francis perpetually reminds and challenges the understanding that the Kingdom of heaven is not membership into a group of religious elite. He forever reminds us of our need to be in solidarity with the poor through which we find transformation. And he does so by proclaiming the simplicity of the Gospel. Another example happened just this past weekend. Last Sunday, Pope Francis published his Apostolic Letter on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene. Highlighting in simplistic ways the elements of grace which come to us: Retelling details of the Christmas story, building and encouraging family traditions, gazing upon something with wonder and joy, reflecting on God’s plan just to name a few.  Here is a short excerpt from Pope Francis’ latest Apostolic Letter, Admirabile Signum. 

The enchanting image of the Christmas crèche, so dear to the Christian people, never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is itself a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The nativity scene is like a living Gospel rising up from the pages of sacred Scripture. As we contemplate the Christmas story, we are invited to set out on a spiritual journey, drawn by the humility of the God who became man in order to encounter every man and woman. We come to realize that so great is his love for us that he became one of us, so that we in turn might become one with him.

He concludes with thoughts of the crèche bringing elements of unity.

Beginning in childhood, and at every stage of our lives, it teaches us to contemplate Jesus, to experience God’s love for us, to feel and believe that God is with us and that we are with him, his children, brothers and sisters all, thanks to that Child who is the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin Mary. And to realize that in that knowledge we find true happiness.

Returning again to Matthew’s Gospel, what is asked of us is to listen to the words of Jesus and act on them.  This is both the contemplative and active stances of our faith. This house which then is built on rock stands through the storms. Pope Francis’ invitation for people of all ages to make time this Advent for the nativity scene in our families’ life is formational and evangelistic and just so simple.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Isaiah 25:6-10a
Matthew 15:29-37

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel, Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee and encounters “great crowds” of needy folks:  the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute.  And their friends placed them at Jesus’ feet, and He cured them!  Noting their hunger, Jesus then lovingly fed them with the seven loaves of bread and the few fish that his disciples had brought along.  With lots of leftovers…  Wow…

I can’t help but think of the crowds of recent days…shoppers, travelers – “needy” folks, on the move, like long ago.  Some in search of a bargain or a get-together; some troubled in mind or body.  Jesus today wants to meet their needs, to cure their aches and pains and feed their spirits…with a great “feast” that God provides, as in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah.

For most people of times past and present, bread is a fundamental source of nourishment, and therefore a symbol of what’s needed to sustain life.  And these holidays, who of us can resist the inviting aroma of fresh-baked bread and the warm feelings that bread inspires?  No wonder Jesus’ healing love included bread — ultimately His very Life in the Eucharist.

This Advent we journey as people of hope – needy, hungry people seeking Jesus who is “Bread for the Life of the world” – Life that is wholesome and lasts!  We look to the great event of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem (“House of Bread”), to Jesus’ presence in our midst in the Eucharist and the Scriptures and one another, as well as the great coming of Jesus at the end of all time.  These days we’re invited to open our hearts to God who meets our human needs, nourishes us, and loves us unconditionally.  Advent celebrates the transformation and fulfillment of all creation in Jesus!

And so, as Church, we humbly pray:  Come, Lord Jesus!

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 4:2-6
Matthew 8:5-11

Reflection:

It is somewhat ironical that a ‘pagan’ – a Roman centurion – has given us one of the more intimate and humble acclamations of our faith. His words to Jesus, slightly amended, and made personal for our individual voices in the midst of a shared prayer, are used each day in our Eucharistic celebrations. For every time we celebrate the Eucharist we are invited to acclaim “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and I shall be healed.”

We use the prayer as part of our preparations for communion. At its core, this prayer reminds us of our basic stance before God – humility.  Indeed humility is a most important aspect of our being, it brings us into contact with our very creation at God’s hands. For we are made from the ‘humus’ – the soil of the earth – and this Latin term is the foundation and root of the English word ‘humility’. When we engage with others from our capacity to be humble we are really being true to our very nature! When we are humble we return to and connect with, our creation at God’s hands and our dependence on God. The virtue of humility reminds us not only that God gently and lovingly took the soil of the red earth and ‘shaped’ the first humans, but that God stands ready to continually breathe life and grace into us. We only have to ask. Thus the centurion stands in place of every one of us.

The same prayer then allows us to open ourselves, at the deepest level, to intimate union and communion with Jesus himself. We invite him to ‘enter under our roof’. This image of inviting Jesus to come into our ‘home’ can serve to draw us ever closer to him.  Each time we celebrate the Eucharist and enter into the receiving of the body and blood of the Lord at our common table, we build or deepen our relationship with Jesus our Saviour.  There is a saying amongst the members of the European Union – they seek to create an ‘ever-closer union’ of nations committed to being and acting together and perhaps this image might help us. For at each Eucharist we too seek an ‘ever closer union’ with Christ and every time we receive Christ in the Eucharist we can deepen and renew our commitment to that union. We welcome him into our life, our body, our being – that is, we welcome him ‘under our roof’.

Finally, we might note that the centurion witnesses to the power of Jesus Christ to change our reality “only say the word and my servant will be healed.” He is confident and trusting Jesus will be able to bring his servant to health again. It is a wonderful witness to us about the power of prayer but more so, the power of faith in God! We who know Jesus even more closely, and believe in him as God’s messenger and our Saviour, can confidently adopt the very same attitude.

In this way, we hope to one day to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.

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

First Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44

Reflection:

This first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical year; it is also the year of Matthew’s Gospel when the worldwide church will be hearing passages each Sunday from this great Gospel.

Advent is a beautiful season that leads us to the feast of Christmas.  A key word for this season might be “anticipation.”  Strangely, when I think of “anticipation” a classic ad for Heinz ketchup comes to mind!  You may remember it–a hungry person watches as the rich red sauce comes slowly out of the bottle and on to a waiting hamburger, while in the background a song is playing: “Anticipation.” We wait for good things with longing…

Advent is a time when the church asks us to be mindful of various levels of anticipation. For sure we look forward to Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Jesus (some of that anticipation admittedly is tinged with a bit of anxiety due to the Christmas rush).  Belief in the Incarnation—the astounding marvel of the Word of God taking flesh and becoming human—is at the very heart of our Christian faith.

But as suggested in the Scripture readings for this Sunday, Advent turns our attention to another focus of our anticipation.  Our Christian faith believes that we have a destiny with God.  We are not on an endless treadmill, with history turning in an eternal circle without purpose.  No, we believe that God is leading us to the complete fulfillment of our human story—a story for us that both individually and corporately ends in the loving embrace of God and the unending experience of beauty and love for which we humans long.

Advent prompts us to anticipate that unimaginable yet real endpoint. The Scriptures for this Sunday, for example, use a variety of images to portray that endpoint of human history.  In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah imagines the endtime as a moment of world peace.  The prophet foresees the nations coming to Israel not as a threat, which was usually the case, but in a majestic procession, all of them eager to worship God so “that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths.”  In words now inscribed in the courtyard of the United Nations, Isaiah anticipates that the peoples of the world will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Instead, people will “walk in the light of the lord.”

The response Psalm 122 picks up this same theme.  It is a “pilgrimage psalm”—chanted by Israelites as they traveled to the heart of Jerusalem and its magnificent temple.  Again, there is a longing for peace: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls, prosperity in your buildings.”  Given the generations of anguish and violence in the Holy land, such an anticipation of a land at peace is poignant and compelling.

The second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans uses another biblical image to anticipate human destiny.  Paul reminds his Christians that “the day is at hand.”  While others may wander in darkness—their lives smothered in promiscuity and tense with strife and jealously—this is not how the followers of Jesus should view the world and its future. “Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day.”  Instead of searching for some means to protect us from strife, Paul encourages us “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Clothed like this, we can face the future without fear.

And in the gospel, we have yet another metaphor for anticipating the future—the end may come unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night.”  Jesus reminds his disciples that, like their ancestors at the time of Noah, people can live engulfed in everyday concerns but without awareness of what God is asking of them. The disciple of Jesus is to be “awake”—alert for the moments of grace that can break into our lives unexpectedly.

May this Advent be a time of spiritual alertness for us.

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.

[Adapted, with permission, from the author’s weekly column , “Perspectives on Scripture” which appears in the Chicago Catholic .]