Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Ephesians 5:21-33
Luke 13:18-21

Reflection:

This reflection is addressed to husbands.  A song of some years ago, sung by Garth Brooks, had this haunting refrain: “If tomorrow never comes, will she know how much I loved her?”  In our second reading today St. Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives.”  How will she know how much you love her?

She will know if you tell her.  So use these three words frequently, “I love you.”  And use other words, like, “You look marvelous.”  “That was a great meal.”  “I appreciate all you do.”  She will know how much you love her by your positive words.

Not a person of words?  Then service. Cut the lawn, wash her car, do the shopping, take out the garbage, etc., etc.  By making her life easier, she will know how much you love her.

Is she still not convinced?  Then try gifts.  Flowers, candy, jewelry, her favorite meal, a movie, etc.  She will know the message.

No money for material gifts?  Then give the gift of time, quality time.  Do fun stuff together.  Enjoy each other’s company.  Make her laugh.  And give the most difficult gift, the gift of listening.  Put aside the “I” word and say instead, “Tell me more.”  Listen until you fully understand.  The gift of attentive listening is a priceless gift.

And be sure to hold hands, embrace, kiss, and do all you can to make her know she is Number One, the only one in your heart.

With the frequent use of words, service, gifts, quality time and touch, you will nourish your wife and care for her as Christ cares for the church.  And your wife, in turn, will know how much you love her.  (Cf. The 5 Love Languages, by Gary Chapman.)

What does the reign of God resemble?  In the Roman Liturgy of Canada, we read, “Marriage… is the most powerful symbol of God’s love for the world.”  A little spark of love can grow into the beautiful flame of marriage that illumines the world with the truth of who God is.

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.   http://www.alanphillipcp.com/.

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:32-5:8
Luke 13:10-17

Reflection:

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love . . . Ephesians 5:1

In today’s Gospel Jesus heals a woman who is unable to stand up straight. The leader of the synagogue, where Jesus healed the woman, is upset about a healing taking place on the Sabbath. This was seen as work and no work was to be done on the Sabbath. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were focused on the Law. The Law was what told them how they were to live their life. Jesus healed many people of many ailments and physical disabilities and he did this out of compassion and love for humanity. His teachings and parables also challenged the religious leaders to go beyond the Law. Jesus’ law, is the law of Love.

In Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we are called to imitate God and to live in love by being kind, compassionate and forgiving. The Scripture message today is very poignant for all that has been occurring in our cities, states, country and throughout the world. The message of Saint Paul and Jesus’ Law of Love is needed to refocus us on what is truly important. Kindness, compassion and forgiveness are tools we can use to diminish hatred. The Scriptures call us to be that instrument of the law of Love, to be “imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love”.

How can we be instruments of God’s love to others?

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

Scripture:

Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 5:1-6
Mark 10:46-52

Reflection:

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha lost her Christian Algonquin mother and Mohawk father to smallpox, which also weakened her sight.  Her uncle, a Mohawk chief, took her into his longhouse and called her Tekakwitha, One Who Walks Groping Her Way.  Even though Tekakwitha was not able to physically see as well as others, she developed a keen insight which led her to become a Christian and live a life of faith and service to others.

If we were to take on the persona of Saint Kateri as One Who Walks Groping Her Way through life, how would we deal the hand that has been dealt us?  I think we all experience times in our life when we seem to ‘have eyes but do not see’ or turn a blind eye to something or someone we would rather not deal with.  Where do we go to find the insight or direction to make the right decision or act appropriately?

Do we sit at the side of the road with Bartimaeus waiting for Jesus to come and heal us?

A life well-lived can be marked by the times our eyes have been opened to see as Jesus sees, to respond in the manner he would respond and to serve with the eyes of love for all.  in the beautiful song we often sing at liturgy, OPEN MY EYES, LORD, we ask for help as One Who Walks Groping Our Way with these lyrics,

Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see your face.
Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see.

We give thanks this day for the gift of faith that allows us to see the face of Jesus in our sisters and brothers, regardless of color, race, religion, political affiliation or state in life.  As we grope our way in faith, may our eyes be opened to the many needs of those around us especially in the poor, abused, lonely, sick and suffering.  Lastly, may we appreciate the beauty around us in sunsets, starry nights, the smile of a child and most of all in those we love and who love us.

Amen.

Theresa Secord is a Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:7-16
Luke 13:1-9

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells the people about sin and repentance and God’s mercy. When people talk to Jesus about Pilate slaughtering a group of Galileans, and what he did with their blood, He replies, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

The people in Jesus’ time tried to make sense of some tragedy or evil by concluding that it was a punishment from God. Many people today follow the same line of thought. Almost inevitably, after some disaster has befallen some part of the world, some evangelist will make a statement about how the disaster was God’s punishment on that country or that group of people. Today we hear Jesus reject that kind of thinking. The victims of Pilate’s slaughter were not punished by God. They were victims of sin. And Jesus’ exhortation to repent is so that, we too, do not fall victims to sin.

Instead, we are to follow Jesus in sharing love and showing mercy. We are to work for peace and justice. In other words, we are to bear “fruit.” And so Jesus tells the parable of the barren fig tree. In the parable, the owner of the tree, frustrated that there is no fruit on the tree, tells the gardener to cut it down. But the gardener asks that the tree be left for one more year, to see if it can still bear fruit. Such is God’s mercy toward us.

If we can accept God’s love and mercy, there need be no delay in our being disciples. By the grace of God, we can bear fruit, and witness to the love God has shown us in Jesus Christ. As our first reading says, “grace has been given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” May we use the gifts we have been given, turn away from sin, and bear fruit to a world in need.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is the local of St. Paul of the Cross Community, Detroit, Michigan. 

Scripture:
Ephesians 4:1-6
Luke 12:54-59

Reflection:
One of my esteemed professors in graduate school shared with me a fairly common matrix used by management professionals to prioritize the day’s or week’s tasks.  You may have seen or used this matrix:

Not Urgent and Not Necessary	Necessary but Not Urgent
Urgent but Not Necessary	Necessary and Urgent

We are hearing stories from the Gospel of Luke that clearly fall into the “Necessary and Urgent” category, and today’s selection in particular challenges us to apply our abilities to read the weather to the more important and urgent matters of life.  All through Chapters 12 and 13, Jesus implores us to be ready, watchful and diligent; to not be the unfaithful servant or the barren fig tree; to not be the rich fool who stores up what does not last or to worry about what we cannot control.

Too often, though, I find myself all-consumed by those concerns that are neither urgent nor necessary.  I find myself upset by minor distractions that really matter not.  I seem to focus on what’s right in front of me right now, which may not really be important.  I had an assistant who knew how to move her work along…she put documents front and center on my desk knowing I’d attend to those immediately, even at the expense of more important priorities.  I pulled out this matrix one day to remind me (and my assistant) that just because something is right in front of me does not make it urgent and necessary.  We worked out a better system.

I am very blessed to be carrying very few regrets in my heart.  This is not to say I could not have done many things better.  I know I could have.  But those regrets I do have are all because I did not do what I knew in my heart was the right, necessary and urgent thing to do.  I lost focus.  Jesus knows we lose focus and today calls us to clarify what is necessary and urgent.

St. Paul writes to the Ephesians a prescription for keeping priorities in their right order.  He writes, “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace; one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  The Kingdom of God is all that is really urgent and necessary.

 

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:

Ephesians 3:14-21
Luke 12:49-53

Reflection:

The Love of Christ

Several phrases from today’s two readings could each serve as a theme — not merely for a homily — but for an entire retreat!  For example, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” or “I have come to set the earth on fire!”  We might take one line, however, from the Letter to the Ephesians: “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” and ponder upon it for today’s reflection.

A current spiritual writer says that we live in a time and in a culture with an obsession for clarity; we limit reality to what WE can understand, what is clear to us. What, then, does it mean that “Christ’s love surpasses knowledge”? This is different from the time of the Enlightenment (Europe, eighteenth century) when many felt that reason alone would solve all problems.  For some today, reality is limited to what is perceived by our human senses, what can be entered into a computer, or measured and monitored in a test tube.  It was St. Paul, however, who wrote, “…we see dimly (or indistinctly) now, as in a mirror, but then, face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

It’s ironic that science now tells us NOT to limit reality to our perceptions. It was back in the 1920’s that Werner Heisenberg articulated his “uncertainty principle,” stating there is a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what we can know about the behavior of quantum particles, and that the best we can hope for is to calculate probabilities for where things are and how they will behave. And it was in the 1990’s that the Hubble telescope (named after the “pioneer of the stars,” Edward Hubble) helped us realize that the universe is expanding! The cosmos, our biggest frame of reference, is still unfolding, at a greater and greater pace!

Of course, this is a simplistic analysis, but it tells us that science is not the enemy of religion, that the thirteenth century “Cloud of Unknowing” is truly relevant today, to know that the love of Christ surpasses our knowledge. How sad that we barricade ourselves in our own little worlds, circling the wagons of our myopic vision. We listen to talk radio (thug radio!) and watch our cable news networks that support only our preconceptions and nurture our particular bias. This is low-level religion, when we entrench ourselves deeper and deeper into our toxic polarization with no room for the Spirit… and all the while the goal is not TRUTH-seeking, but victory and dominance.

Today, may we instead know the love of Christ that surpasses our knowledge!

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Scripture:

Ephesians 2:1-10
Luke 12:13-21

Reflection:

“But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.” Luke 12:13

Today’s Gospel is very dear to me. You see my husband who passed away 4 years ago, used this as a guide for his entire life. Don’t get me wrong, he had plenty of ‘treasure’ or junk as I would often call it, but he tried to have a focus of Christ in his life that was extraordinaire.

Once a year we would talk through our ‘things,’ and see if they were used for God. If they were, we kept them. His caution cone orange helicopter, that he purchased in order to take, “angel flights’ those who needed flights to the hospital for free from far away was one example of what some people would consider an extravagance, he used for God. He didn’t always live this way, but as he grew older and was ordained a deacon in the church, his love for the Lord became more important than his love for things.

It is a challenge in this day and age to use the things we have for God. Mike’s truck had a bible verse on the back. We shared our home with missionaries. We wear crosses on our necks.

It’s not about oh, look at me I am holier than thou, it’s about, “yeah, God can use, even little ole me, to be his hands and feet”. As I look back at Mike’s life, I am so very thankful for this bible verse and all the ways that he embraced it.

Mike died in that caution cone orange helicopter. “That night, his life was demanded of him”

He was rich in what mattered to God, and that my friends is a gift, for those that are left behind.

That is the challenge this day, to evaluate what is it that you have and what needs to be given away? What are you using for Gods work and what are you holding onto for your own sake?

Let go, take my word for it.  You do not know when your life will be ‘demanded of you’ and the things that you own, will not matter in the least. Blessings on your week

Kate Mims is the Retreat Center Director at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Isaiah 53:10-11
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45

Reflection:

One of the advantages that an infant enjoys over an adult is that an infant has few accolades or a reputation to live up to, while an adult dreads the day when the young ones in a family gradually begins to realize that  mom or dad have unexpected faults and weaknesses.  The parents dread the day when the little ones in the family who have come to idolize mom and dad gradually come to see that they’re really not all that the child had come to admire about them.  The parents also have their feet of clay.  So while the child is expected to have bowel problems, the parents are not expected to have drinking problems.  Every boy likes to boast: “my dad can beat up your dad”.

This carries over into the spiritual or religious realm too.  For instance, we hear Isaiah the prophet coming to terms with the long-awaited messiah who has been a dominant figure in the history of the Jewish people.  The messiah was to be the champion of the Jewish people, who could do no wrong and who would stand head and shoulders above everyone else.  And yet today we hear Isaiah prophesying that this messiah was going to be crushed by the Lord because of the weakness afflicting him.  And he is going to have to lose his life in carrying out his mission, and suffer much.  This was not the message the Jews wanted to hear about their long-awaited promised one.

And along the same lines, we hear the apostle Paul speaking about this long-awaited person to come in terms of priesthood.  He is going to be a priest, but then, remembering the sordid history of so many priests in the history of the Jewish people, Paul goes on to clarify that the priest he has in mind is not an unsympathetic, cold-hearted individual who has no appeal to the expectant Jew, but one who indeed is going to be tested with some hard times, but who will win over Jewish hearts in the long run.

And then we’re updated to the time of Jesus, and hear Him trying to straighten out some ideas that His disciples have about him, as for instance when two of them, James and John, ask Him to arrange seats of honor for them when they all arrive in heaven.  And so Jesus has to straighten them out on their expectations of what lies ahead of them.  It’s not going to be all peaches and cream, but there are going to be some tough times ahead that will test their expectations of what Jesus is going to do for them, like the boy or girl dreaming of the good times ahead when mom and dad do all kinds of favors for them.

So it’s a matter of living up to expectations.  We all want to achieve this, but we also have to be realistic and admit that some of these ambitions are off-target.  We have had expectations of others, which were unrealistic, and others have had hopes for us, which are simply not going to happen.  And today we are asked to recognize this, not to sour ourselves on life, but to prevent ourselves from being misled by false expectations, while still believing in the goodness and promise latent in others.  Like the Detroit Lions quarterback of years ago, Bobby Lane, a native of Texas where he picked up some unfortunate drinking problems, but whose teammates kept their faith in him, so that, when he huddled with them about the next play, they turned him around facing the right direction, and most of the time their faith in him to throw it to the right player paid off.  It’s a matter of putting up with another’s foibles in order to succeed beyond one’s expectations.  That’s Jesus’ message to us today.

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.