Daily Scripture

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection:

In the gospel today, Luke tells us the “Parable of the Sower” (Luke 8:4-15). After telling the large crowd the parable, Jesus takes the time to explain to His questioning disciples, and us, the parable.  Jesus explains that the “the Seed is the Word of God.” The seeds fall about and depending on where they fall the amount of fruit they bear differs.

I think it is easy to judge those who don’t go to church or aren’t Christian, or Catholic as one of the non-producing soils. Is it a little too easy to cast a stone or two toward others here? I think instead that we are all four of these soils, for me, sometimes in one day.

Some days when I sit in the morning to do morning prayer, I am fertile and the Lords word penetrates me. I am nourished and cannot help but share those graces that overflow from my heart.

Some days I start out really great and I allow the devil to “come and take away the word from my heart”

Some days I quickly dart through my prayer, receiving very much what I give to the Lord. That time quickly forgotten and trampled with my day.

Other days the whole prayer time is covered in distraction and thorns of the day.

Perhaps the gift of the parable today is to encourage us to all work towards being fertile soil. To be fertile soil more. To plan ahead, to cut the thorns, to tell Satan to ‘get behind me’ and to open our hearts to God and his miracle grow and watch the fruits grow and nourish those around us.

Today. To open our hearts to the Lord in a new way trusting his nourishment and his constant feeding.

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

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Matthew 9:9-13

Reflection:

Today we recall the life and memory of the apostle, St. Matthew.  He comes down to us in history as one of the authors of our four gospels, and his gospel is usually placed at the front of the listing of these gospels in the bible.

He has the distinction of not only being called by the Lord to become His follower, but his calling was distinctive, along with that of Peter and Andrew, James and John, and Nathanael, because it enumerates him among those specifically named by Jesus, and provides some information about his background.  For Matthew was a tax collector, working for the government, and the government happened to be Roman controlled.  The Jews had no love for the Romans, their conquerors,  who, among other things, used Jewish wealth/assets for Roman projects, in which the Jews had no interest whatsoever.

At any rate, Jesus went out of His way to meet Matthew in his work setting, and He invited Matthew to become a follower of His.  Matthew jumped at the opportunity, for, Jew though he was, he was comparable to being a traitor to his Jewish background.  So he was not popular among his fellow Jews.  To have someone of the caliber of this remarkable young Jew named Jesus of Nazareth to invite him to join His specially chosen group of followers was a wonderful opportunity for Matthew to reconnect with his Jewish background again.  So he lost no time in inviting Jesus to his house and join him for a meal with many other tax collectors and “sinners”.

In view of this strained relationship, it is surprising (or maybe it’s not) that Matthew’s gospel has come down to us as an effort to present the life and death of Jesus as being in continuity with the religious convictions of the Jews, deeply rooted in the bible.  This became the conviction of Matthew in writing his gospel in which he depicts the way Jesus comported Himself in dealing with His Jewish compatriots.

And that’s why the words of St. Paul today are so appropriate in describing how Christians should live their lives, “striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace, one body and one  Spirit..one Lord, one faith,…one God and Father of all.”  And, again in St. Paul’s words, Paul writes the Christian community in Ephesus to anticipate attaining “to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God…”

So St. Matthew hopes that his gospel will be instrumental in unifying Judaism and Christianity.  For he has undergone the pain of being ostracized from his native Judaism.  So Matthew can well be a bridge between the Judaism of our day, and our own Christian faith, even though the past century is replete with the horrors  of anti-judaism reaching its climax in the near annihilation of the Jewish race during Hitler’s time.  Judaism remains as the oldest religion on the face of the earth, with the possible exception of some far eastern religions like Hinduism and Confucianism.  Perhaps St. Matthew’s gospel can inspire us to see bonds of unity waiting to be tied between Christianity and Judaism.  May it serve to diminish anti-judaism from our society.

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

Memorial of Saint Andrew Taegon and Companions

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 7:36-50

Reflection:

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you….

With these words from our first reading today, St. Paul is urging the Corinthians to resist the judgment and condemnation of the culture around them, but rather to be faithful to the Gospel that they have received.  These words of St. Paul encouraged the Corinthians and the many generations that came after them to stand with Christ no matter the cost.

These are powerful words and words that were certainly taken to heart by the men and women we celebrate today, St. Andrew Taegon and his many Companions.  Perhaps this St. Andrew is a “new” saint in your awareness.  He was canonized by Pope Paul II only in 1984.  So, these saints are new to the liturgical calendar.  But they are worth remembering and celebrating because they are fellow Christians who are powerful witnesses to living the Gospel in real life.

St. Andrew is tied closely to the foundation of Christianity in Korea.  He wasn’t the first Korean Christian by a long shot.  By the time he was born in 1821, Christianity had been growing in Korea for about fifty years.  It is believed that Christianity had been brought into Korea by some Christian Japanese soldiers in the latter part of the 18^th century.   The Christian Japanese soldiers baptized the first Korean Christians and the Christian community began to grow quickly.  By the time the first foreign priest arrived in Korea in 1836 there was already a substantial Christian community flourishing there.  It’s the only known Catholic Christian community that first developed completely from the witness and work of lay Christians.

The rulers in Korea were not at all pleased to have this foreign religion thriving in their country.  At first they just discouraged it but soon enough outlawed this practice and began to actively persecute anyone who took it up.  As Christians were arrested, tortured and put to death the Church quickly moved underground

St. Andrew’s parents, members of the Korean nobility, were an important part of that early community and secretly remained faithful to their life with Christ.  Andrew was baptized at fifteen and soon expressed his desire to become a priest.  He traveled to Macau to attend the seminary and was ordained in 1845.  He was the first Korean to become a priest and returned home shortly after his ordination to help organize the Church and bring the sacraments to the faithful.  He ministered in Korea only a year before he was arrested and put to death.

There were intense persecutions of Christians in Korea in 1839, 1846, 1866 and 1867 and 103 Christians were martyred for their faith.  We celebrate these heroic martyrs on this day.

May their faith and courage inspire us to live our lives faithful to the Gospel and have the strength to be fearless witnesses for Christ in our everyday lives.

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31a
Luke 7:11-17

Reflection:

When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity…

Let’s think about this scene, Jesus, travelling in a large crowd with his disciples, likely engaged in conversation and laughter, busy about themselves.  They happen upon a funeral procession a widow who was burying her only son.  We are told that when Jesus sees her he is ‘moved with pity’.  Seeing her takes him out of himself and his carefree surroundings, his heart is touched, deeply.  He knows this is devastation for the widow, she now has no one to care for her, in Jesus day, she now would be considered a ‘nobody’ she would be abandoned to fend for herself, invisible to the community.

He reaches out and touches the dead man – again, touching the dead makes you unclean – another reason to be abandoned by the community.  But Jesus follows his heart, his gestures show another way – a way of compassion, a new way of being community and caring for one another.  Being a community who supports one another and offers new life.

When our heart is moved with pity, are we willing to follow our heart as Jesus did , or do we stop short and ‘follow the crowd’, or put too much stock in what others may think or do?  In a world that seems to be unsure of neighbor and community the ‘heart of Jesus’ can provide a new lens, a new opportunity, a path to new life.  Can we allow our ‘hearts to be moved with pity’ and respond from that openness?

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 33
Luke 7:1-10

Reflection

We receive the body of Christ in order to be the body of Christ.

This metaphor for the church originated with the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. To speak of the church as a body suggests unity, togetherness, and harmony. We imagine a vibrant community where everyone shares their talents and resources generously and joyfully, encouraging and supporting one another as together they further Christ’s work in the world.

But that was not happening in Corinth at all. Ironically, Paul’s most original theology of the church developed in response to a grievous problem. The Corinthian church could not be Christ’s body for anyone because they were a fractured and divided community, one marked more by conflict, animosity, and discord than harmony and peace. Today’s first reading is the earliest account in the New Testament of how the first Christians worshiped. As the passage illustrates, they gathered in one another’s homes where they would share a meal together. Bread would be blessed, broken, and distributed, and a cup of wine would be shared. In this way, the unity, charity, and peace they had together in Christ was meant to lead to unity, charity, and peace among themselves.

Paul is angry with this fledgling Christian community (“What can I say to you? Shall I praise you?”) because the factions among them, rather than being healed when they celebrated the Lord’s supper, only grew more prominent; indeed, their “meetings are doing more harm than good.” When they gather, those who have more, thinking only of themselves, share nothing with those who have little; thus, the poor, left out and overlooked, are shamed. Moreover, some are getting drunk at a meal that ought to be marked by reverence and thanksgiving, not thoughtless self-indulgence.

In stark contrast to this unsettling portrait of the early church is today’s passage from the Gospel of Luke. The centurion addresses Jesus with the words we reprise at every Eucharist: “Lord,…I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.” Like the church at Corinth, if we are to be Christ’s body in the world, we must first receive Christ’s body with the humility, sincerity, and truthfulness that Jesus encountered in this memorable Roman soldier, the very one he holds up for us as an exemplary model of faith.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the extended Passionist family.

Scripture:

Isaiah 50:5-9a
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35

Reflection:

In Sunday’s Gospel reading (Mark 8:27-35), Jesus demonstrates more than once that God’s ways are not our ways. When Jesus asks the Apostles who they say He is, Peter confesses the faith: “You are the Christ.” Then Jesus tells them how he is going to fulfill His role as the Christ: He predicts His Passion, death, and Resurrection. I always suppose that Peter doesn’t understand about the rising part, and doesn’t want to hear about the suffering and death part, and that is why he rebukes Jesus for speaking the way He is. And so, forcefully, Jesus has to rebuke Peter: “Get behind me Satan (Didn’t the devil try to tempt Jesus away from His Passion when they were in the desert?). You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” And then, Jesus says something that demonstrates how much God’s thinking is different from ours: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

I think it is very human not to want to deny oneself of anything. And we know the extent to which people are tempted to do anything to avoid the crosses in their lives. At this time, however, I find myself looking at that last verse about saving one’s life and losing it. It seems to me that Jesus is talking to His disciples about facing persecution. But He is also speaking to the challenge of discipleship to give one’s life to following Him. I have found it true that when I am willing to give myself over to God; to follow God’s will, that I don’t lose myself, or my life, I find it, and I hope to enjoy the promise of eternal life.

But there is another aspect of Jesus’ words I want to explore. If we look at “save one’s life” in terms of preserving something, we may ask ourselves, “Is there something I’m trying to preserve at the cost of forsaking the Gospel?” For instance, am I trying to hold on to what is comfortable even when it means that I ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit? There seem to be a lot of people who want to go back to the past. At the extreme of this are the white supremacists who want to go back to a time when their dominance wasn’t questioned but accepted as the right order of things. For many others, though, there is a serious self-examination going on about “white privilege.” I have not been privileged in the sense of being born into wealth, but there are things I can take for granted that a person of color cannot.

As a white heterosexual male in the U.S., I can feel I’ve heard enough about “#Me Too,” or “Black Lives Matter” or “LGBTQ Rights.” As a priest in the Church, I could wish that the whole abuse scandal would just go away. But the scandal won’t go away, and as uncomfortable as it can be sometimes, I need to keep listening to women and people of color and others who are different from me, to understand how the status quo that serves me well can actually be unjust to someone else. In terms of our Gospel reading, am I willing to lose my comfort and my “privilege” and enjoying whatever status I may have as a priest in the Church for the sake of the Gospel; for the sake of loving others as Jesus loves them; for the sake of justice and peace? And in doing so, can I believe that my life is actually being saved, even after “losing” all those worldly things?

Our faith may call us to honor and keep some traditions, but I don’t think it calls us to live in the past. Change is necessary, and even when it’s necessary, it can be painful. This is a cross we have to take up. But if we remain faithful, if we, in the words from our reading from James (2:14-18), “demonstrate” our faith by our “works,” and, in the words from our reading from Isaiah (50:5-9a), trust that the “Lord GOD is” our “help,” God will bring us through the changes that we need, both as individuals and as a community of faith.

May we seek to think and act and love as God does.

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

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 10:14-22
John 19:25-27

Reflection:

Behold your Mother! In life we never quite know what tomorrow holds, whether our next days will be bright and sunny, painful and challenging or full of sorrow is a mystery. But one thing that we as Catholic Christians can count on is that there will always be hope. There is always hope because we have a Mother and a Savior who love us in a way that we will never quite understand. He loves us so much that He gives us His Mother and she loves us so much so as to point us back to Him, this is a true love triangle!

Today we celebrate the feast of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary, by apostolic letter, Pope Paul the VI constituted and proclaimed the Sorrowful Virgin Mary as the principal patroness of the Passionist Congregation. The celebration of this feast of our Lady of Sorrows offers us all the opportunity to deepen our participation with her in the mystery of Christ’s passion. From the very instrument of His crucifixion, the cross, Our Lord offered His mother to all of humanity as He proclaimed, “Behold your Mother” and His Mother in turn points all of humanity back to her son offering reconciliation with him.

In the hymn, Stabat Mater which we sing on this day we hear the line, “at the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last” and it reminds us of the ultimate sorrow of a mother who witnesses the pain and suffering of her only son who is fully human and fully divine. In His divinity He is the Alpha and the Omega and in His humanity He feels the nails, the wounds, and the pain that cut to His very being. She is close to Jesus to the last and as such He offers her to us, to heal our wounds, to bring us hope and to love us. So, Behold your Mother!

Deacon James Anderson is the Administrator at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Scripture:

Numbers 21:4b-9
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17

Reflection:

Today’s feast is truly meant to be a day for rejoicing in the salvation and healing that was won for us all by the Cross of Jesus, our redeemer.  It is a day to remember those well spoken words:  “We adore you O Christ and we bless you because by your Holy Cross you have saved the world.”

We adore Christ, we thank Christ, we rejoice with Christ in our salvation.  Today is a great day for rejoicing.

But it strikes me that there is another side to the feast we celebrate today as well.  This side of the feast is evoked for me by the words we hear in our first reading from the Book of Numbers where we read:

“With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

The people were so worn out by the long, long journey that they could seemingly no longer remember how blessed they were to have been freed from horrible slavery and servitude.  Their hearts were filled with a kind of amnesia, a forgetfulness if you will, because their present experience was so painful and difficult.  So they complained again God, they complained against Moses.  And I think I can understand why they felt the need to do so.

Don’t we all at times, when the dark clouds cover our heads, forget those other times when the sun was so bright we had to shield our eyes?  I know I do!  There are frustrating moments in my life from day to day when I am guilty of this unique brand of “amnesia”, this forgetfulness of the abundant and lavish kindness of God.  I forget the countless times I have been blessed by God who never holds back.

So dear friends, on this feast of rejoicing and gratitude let’s not be too hard on those poor worn out, impatient, desert-weary people who hated the food, the heat, and the discouraging journey.  They cried out loudly!  And I have no doubt that God smiled in an understanding way (as He so often does with me) and continued to show them the way.

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.