Daily Scripture

Feast of Christ the King

Scripture:

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Matthew 25:31-46

Reflection:

Today is the the last Sunday in the Liturgical Year. We start all again next week with the First Sunday of Advent. Today, though, we celebrate the Solemn Feast of Christ the King.

Monarchs are not all that familiar to us who live in the United States. We can read about the historic reign of Queen Elizabeth II, just last week celebrating 70 years of marriage to Prince Phillip. We may be real fans of the television series The Crown. The longest serving monarch died last year. The King of Thailand began his reign in 1950.

So how do we make sense of today’s feast? We do not live in an age where we rally around a king and vow allegiance. No, the call we need to listen for is not feudal allegiance but the call to join together to do something wonderful.

An authentic “king” is someone who inspires us to see what is possible in our lives and our world. This person does not demand our fealty but invites us on a mission, a journey. Today’s feast is the call to join Jesus in his mission:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.”

Jesus does not point and say, do what I say. He says, come with me and together let us work to bring about a new world of peace, compassion and justice. That is an authentic king.

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:

1 Maccabees 6:1-13
Luke 20:27-40

Reflection:

I sometimes wonder how long we will associate Newtown or Aurora, Orlando or Charleston… with tragedy and heartbreak. The recent massacres along a running path in New York, or the concert venue in Las Vegas, add to this painful litany of grief for all of us. In face of such anguish and sorrow, many people of faith today are questioning: Is “sending our thoughts and prayer” enough as we confront such sadness? Does reflection upon POLICY CHANGE have a place in our prayer and at our worship?

Albert Nolan’s book, Hope in an Age of Despair, is provocative and challenging. In a chapter entitled “True Reconciliation” the author alludes to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers”, and how he tells his disciples, “Peace is my gift to you, peace is what I want to leave you.” Nolan also reminds us, however, that these statements must be understood in the context of the more remarkable saying in Luke and Matthew, “Do you suppose I have come to bring peace: No, I tell you, but rather, division.”

Nolan further states, “The history of the Jewish people in the bible is very much a history of conflict with the pagan nations. This conflict and confrontation are not merely encouraged by God; he actually commands the people again and again to oppose the tyranny, injustice, and immorality of the pagan nations. One of the greatest sins of the Jewish nation was their attempt to be reconciled with the nations who oppressed them.”

The commonly held view that Christians should always seek harmony and a middle way in every dispute assumes that tension and conflict are worse evils than injustice and oppression. That is a false supposition.

The readings from Maccabees and reflections on “end times” from the Gospels these past many days are a keen reminder that we are at the end of the liturgical year once again. So, Antiochus gets his comeuppance — he dies in a foreign land after hearing of the successful revolt in Judah. And Jesus offers no patience with the absurdity of the Sadducees’ inquiry; he does not lower himself to the level of his questioners, but picks up the question in a different way.

How is God calling me to derail some of the ludicrousness in our worlds of entertainment and politics today? How can we move deeper into what is truly significant? As a follower of Jesus, do I have the courage to transform and be transformed?

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

Thanksgiving Day (USA)

Scripture:

1 Maccabees 2:15-29
Luke 19:41-44

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day, we hear the account in Luke when Jesus cleansed ten lepers who begged Him to have pity on them. One of the ten came back to thank Jesus for what happened to him. Jesus asks, “Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner [the one who returned was a Samaritan] returned to give thanks to God?” Then Jesus says to the one who returned, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

When I reflect on this Gospel, I often think about the difference between the one who returned and the nine who did not. And what has come to me this year is that the gratitude shown by the one indicates perhaps an internal, as well as an external, cleansing.

If you think about it, living a truly thankful life can bring an inner peace. When I’m grateful, I tend less towards envy, or rejoicing in others’ setbacks (well, maybe except when the Yankees lose ☺). If I can be satisfied with what I have, I may not feel the need to steal or to cheat or to lie, or in extreme cases, to kill.

Gratitude is not more important than love, but being grateful is an indication that I can accept love, especially God’s love for me. And when I realize all that God has given me out of love; that all is a gift, I am free to be generous to others, especially to those who are in need of the basic necessities of life.

There is nothing we or anyone else can do to take away God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. May we be thankful always, and so be open to God’s healing grace and love. And may we give in return what we have been given. Thanks be to God!

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

Scripture:

2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31
Luke 19:11-28

Reflection:

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing?  I was a freshman in our high school Passionist seminary.  Classes had ended for the day and we freshmen were on our way outside to take on the sophomores in a baseball game.  Suddenly, an unexpected bell rang out.  We gathered in the study hall where we were told that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.  All 120 of us went to the Chapel with our Passionist Community to pray the rosary for the repose of his soul.

Prior to that unexpected bell, we were all individuals intent on our own mission and agenda out on the ball field.  We were divided into camps – who can throw, who can run, who can hit, who can pitch, who we needed to keep out of the way.  All of these differences and divisions melted away as the news hit home.  We were of one mind, one heart as we walked to the chapel.  This was true not only of the 120 or so high school students.  In that moment we were one with our entire country, bonded in our shock and our need to be strong in the face of terror.  We were one in our consensus that the government would go on.  We would mourn, but we would go on and become perhaps wiser and stronger than before this day.  Our faith was in the society we called our American community and it would see us through.

Interestingly, our Sacred Scriptures today present us with tragic experiences which called upon some very tested people to put their faith not just in theological axioms or explanations but in the concrete reality of faith communities who were present to them and supported them through their own terrors.  A mother of seven sons witnesses their torture and death.  She does so not with empirical proof that it will all work out in the next life.  She plants her feet solidly within the faith community and their understanding of a loving and merciful Lord.  This is what makes her sacrifice possible.  This is what sustains her hope in the life to come when she will be reunited with her seven sons.

Luke gives us a look at another interesting moment in our faith journey.  The story of a king.  The story of the king’s people while he is off pursuing his crown.  It is the story of Herod the Great and his goal to be King of Israel. It is the story of a faith community trying to decide what they should be doing as they wait for the return.  As we come to the end of our liturgical year, Saint Luke is here dealing with musings about the end of the world.  What is it the faith community should be doing while they await the end?  Our evangelist suggests the faith community of Jesus must have their feet firmly planted in the reality of the community itself.  Each must take their gifts, abilities, talents, hopes and dreams and help to create as wholesome and holy a life as is possible for the entire faith community as they wait in joyful hope for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  What is freely offered and given to the community will be multiplied.  What is hoarded and hidden will be taken away.

In both instances, we are invited to see our faith life as a concrete, everyday reality firmly rooted in the life and traditions of a faith filled community.  This is where we are to live.  This is where we flourish.  This is where we draw our strength for the tragedies of life.  This is where we draw our hopes for the fulfillment of divine promises of life eternal.

We are called today to always remember that we are called to live each day to the full, not as unconnected individuals with no sense of bonds, but as faith communities who remain rooted with and in each other providing strength for the day realities of living.  We are called to always remember where we are and what we are doing. Perhaps today, we are called to ask ourselves, “What am I called to do today to enhance the connectedness, the daily living realities and the hopes of the part of the faith community where I live?”

Fr. Richard Burke, CP, is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province.  He lives at St. Ann’s Monastery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple

Scripture:

2 Maccabees 6:18-31
Luke 19:1-10

Reflection:

This feastday celebrates the occasion of Mary being presented to God in the temple, by her parents, Joachim and Anna.  The historical record of this event is not found in the bible, since the protocol surrounding this religious ceremony centered on a male child rather than a female child.  This doesn’t necessarily mean a girl-baby could not be presented to God, but simply that a boy-baby should be presented in the temple, according to a ritual then in use.  Given the kind of parents Mary was privileged to have, in Joachim and Anna, it is likely that such parents would have sought to offer their daughter to God in this manner.  But the historical accuracy is not to the fore in this celebration, but rather the devotion of St. Paul of the Cross, who named the first monasteries of both the Passionist men and the Passionist women in honor of the Presentation of Mary.

We get the gist of this devotion from our biblical readings today.  The first reading unfolds the history of the Jewish prophet Samuel, beginning in the temple in Jerusalem, when Samuel was a young apprentice, so to speak, of the priest of the temple, Eli, an old man at this point in time.  We learn of Samuel’s encounter with the Lord, occurring in the temple where both of them were living at the time.  One night Samuel was awakened three times by a voice calling him, and the lad ran to the old priest in response to this call he heard.  It was only on the third call that Eli realized this was the voice of God calling this young apprentice of his, and so he instructed the youngster to reply: “Speak, I am listening.”

This incident stands at the heart of the spirituality associated with this feastday of the Presentation of Mary.  It is one of reverential openness to whatever God might be asking, and this, in turn, would resonate with the spirituality of St. Paul of the Cross, whose openness of attitude toward God’s will in his regard carried Paul through some trying moments as he at times struggled to get his new community (the Passionists) established, and on their way.  It was not an easy task for him, but he eventually prevailed.  It was his sense of God’s presence to him through thick and thin that enabled him to get his new community of the Passionists underway.

And much the same interaction occurred in the life of Jesus on the occasion that He entered the town of Jericho, and encountered Zacchaeus, “a chief tax collector and a wealthy man”.  Unlike the young Samuel, Zacchaeus made an opportunity for himself to meet the Lord, by climbing a tree lining the road down which Jesus was passing, for Zacchaeus was a short man.  Whereas Samuel was feeling his way along a new venture for himself, Zacchaeus exuded a considerable amount of self-confidence and jumped at the opportunity to wine and dine Jesus at his own house.  And while the young Samuel had to observe his Ps and Qs in ascertaining the next step to take in dealing with the Lord, Zacchaeus was taking the initiative to cement his relationship with Jesus by showing how he was going to improve his style of life, gaining thereby Jesus’ very encouraging approval: “Today salvation has come to this house…”

So this feast of the Presentation of Mary to the Lord speaks to those who are open to any overtures God makes in their lives, as the young Samuel showed, and also to those who initiate opportunities to meet the Lord in ways that they themselves develop.  The Presentation of Mary offers us the opportunity to see how God operates in our lives, so as to respond to them.

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

Scripture:

1 Maccabees 1: 10-15, 41-43,
54-57, 62-63
Luke 18: 35-43

Reflection:

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.

The Scripture readings today present quite a contrast.  The passage we have from the Book of Maccabees describes the decline of religious belief among the people of Israel during the second century BC.  As it is presented, the cause of the decline is pressure from the neighboring Seleucid empire combined with poor leadership both by the corrupt King of Israel and the religious leaders.  Weak leadership combined with the desire of many of the people to be accepted by their powerful neighbor and to take on their Hellenistic values lead first to a decline in traditional Judaism and then to the persecution of those who wanted to follow the traditional Jewish laws and practices.  Our reading ends with the comment, “Terrible affliction was upon Israel.”

The Gospel for today narrates the encounter of Jesus with a blind man.  When he hears that Jesus is passing by he calls out to him asking for pity.  The disciples tell the blind man to be quiet so as not to disturb Jesus.  However, Jesus, upon hearing the blind man’s cry, asks him what he wants from him.  The blind man asks for sight.  Jesus, commenting on the blind man’s faith, heals him.

The contrast present in the readings is the darkening of Israel’s faith and the consequent affliction it brought about in the first reading and the light and vision restored in the encounter of Jesus with the blind man in the Gospel.

Most all of us want to be respected and thought well of by our friends and neighbors.  We also do our best to become prosperous.  The question put to us by today’s readings is “To whom do we look for guidance in achieving our good name and our prosperity?”  In the Book of Maccabees, so many of the people of Israel looked to outside forces and strange (Hellenistic) values to bolster themselves and their fortunes.  In the Gospel account we have today, the blind man looked with faith to Jesus.  One approach brought darkness, the other light.  Is there something here for us to ponder?

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

Scripture:

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30

Reflection:

In the political climate in the U.S., it seems that being in the “middle” is deemed to be unsatisfactory. When we read books about family dynamics, being the “middle child,” seems to be fraught with its own challenges and problems. But as I reflect on the parable we hear in Sunday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 25:14-30), I find myself drawn to the servant in the “middle,” the one who was given two talents, between the one who was given five and the one who was given one.

In the parable, a man who is going on a journey entrusts his possessions to three servants. As was noted above, one received five talents; one received two, and one received one. When the master returns, the one who received five made another five; and the one who received two made another two; but the one who received one buried it in the ground.

A lot of the parable deals with the one who received the one talent and did nothing with it. I think he did that out of fear of what would happen if he lost it. Sometimes we are fearful of using all our talents. We can be afraid of making mistakes. Or we can be afraid of what other people might think of us. Or we can simply be afraid of not being up to the tasks to which we are called.

The reason I felt drawn to the middle servant is that he avoids a trap into which I have fallen many times in my life. What’s remarkable to me about him is that he does not seem to mind that the first servant got five talents, and he received “only” two. He simply works with what his master gives him and he uses it well. There are times when I can be envious of those who seem to be more talented than I. They either do what I do better than I, or they do many more things than I do equally well.

I think one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is that acting out of fear, as the last servant did, or acting out of jealousy, as the middle servant could have done, is ultimately a form of being self-absorbed, because when I’m concerned about how I will look if I make a mistake, or when I compare myself to others, it becomes all about me. The middle servant does not do that! He doesn’t even seem to look down upon the last servant.

So, strange as it may seem, the middle servant is the one with whom I identify, and the one I believe I’m called to emulate. God has given me love and grace. God has given me gifts. At times, they may not seem to be as profound or as important or as numerous as the ones others may receive, but they are the ones given to me, and I am called to use them for the sake of the kingdom.

If we use our gifts the best we can in doing God’s will, we need not fear “the day of the Lord” spoken about in our second reading from 1 Thessalonians (5:1-6). We will indeed be “children of the light and children of the day.” We need not compare ourselves to others, but instead, like the “worthy wife” mentioned in Proverbs (31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31), we can live lives of service, reaching out to the poor and the needy.

May we not waste time in fear or envy, but use the gifts we have been given for the world God loves so much.

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

Scripture:

Wisdom 7:22b-8:1
Luke 17:20-25

Reflection:

November is the month which starts us off with the Feast of All Saints, followed by the Feast of All Souls.  This is a feast we can all look forward to because it is where our patron saints and hopefully ourselves and our family and friends will be praising God for all eternity.  However, I use to dread the thought of being among those who didn’t get to pass through the Gates of Heaven at the first try.  Not until I heard a statement about the Souls in Purgatory did my thinking change.  St. Catherine of Siena said that “No happiness is comparable to that of the Saints in Paradise except the happiness of the Souls in Purgatory!”

Peter Berger a Sociologist of Religion said that the purpose of religion is to help us answer the profoundest questions life can give us and that is “What is the purpose of death for the Christian? Karl Rahner, one if not the most profound theologian in the last century agrees with Berger and others that the most profound question we must answer with our life is “What is the meaning of death?”

Another theologian, Leonardo Boff, a Latin American theologian, asked the Dalai Lama “What is the best religion?”  Boff thought the Dalai Lama would say “Buddhism.”  But the Dalai Lama answered “The best religion is the one that gets you closer to God.  It is the one that makes you a better person. Whatever makes you more compassionate, more sensible, more detached, more loving, more humane, more responsible, more ethical.  The religion that will do that for you is the best religion.”

The Gospel of Luke would tell us if one embraces the message of Jesus we will be invited to sit at the eschatological banquet. It doesn’t matter if we live in the streets, the alleys, the highways, the hedgerows.    “Life is eternal, love is immortal and death is only an horizon into to the heart of the Trinity.

Fr. Ken O’Malley, C.P., is the local superior at Holy Name Passionist Community in Houston, Texas.