Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
Matthew 13:36-43

Reflection:

Many moons ago I was studying for my doctoral degree in Scripture at the University of Louvain in Belgium.  Occasionally, some of us would take the ferry to England to buy books.  Mind you, this antedates the Common Market—yes, that long ago–and prices for books were much cheaper in England than in Belgium.  I remember sorting through a stand of used books in front of Blackwell’s Book Store in Oxford, a treasure house of books on theology.  To my delight I discovered a leather-bound edition of J. C. Hawkins, Horae Synopticae.  Before you are tempted to order this on Amazon, realize that it is a turgid study of the literary relationships among the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Only a doctoral student who had basically lost touch with the outside world would be excited by a book like this!

On the way home, I took out my treasure and noted that the original owner had written a Greek phrase on the inside cover: “Ho de agros estin ho kosmos” (“The field is the world”).   I thought it was vaguely familiar and wondered if it were a quote from an ancient Greek poet.  Only much later, to my great embarrassment, did I realize it was a saying of Jesus found in Matthew’s Gospel (13:38)—in fact the same gospel passage for today’s Mass! And I had been spending the waking hours of each day studying this Gospel for my doctoral dissertation!

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the weeds among the wheat. After a farmer had planted wheat, an enemy scattered weeds among the wheat and when the harvest came, there the weeds were, crowding the wheat.  The servants propose to their master that they pull up the weeds, but he counsels them to let them go until the harvest, lest in pulling up the weeds they also harm the wheat.  Perplexed, the disciples ask Jesus the meaning of his parable. And it is at this point that he explains: “the field is the world.”  I’ve pondered that saying often.  Jesus doesn’t say that the field where God’s word is sown is the church, or the Christian community, but “the world.”  And, the parable implies, we live in an imperfect world of “wheat and weeds” and it is there that the “children of the kingdom” must labor “until the end of the age.”

This orientation of the Christian mission to the world is all important.  We Catholics, for example, are not asked to focus solely on the church, whether we think of our parish, our diocese, our religious community, or even the Church universal.  These are precious to us as our spiritual home.  But the mission entrusted to us by Christ is not to be turned in on the church but outward to the world.  Pope Francis has emphasized this mission perspective from the first day of his role as Pope.  In the days of preparation leading up to the conclave in which he was elected, Pope Francis shared with his fellow Cardinals his reflection on a famous passage from the Book of Revelation— “behold I stand at the door and knock.”  Many, the future Pope said, interpret this to mean that Jesus is knocking on the door of the church in order to get in—but I think of it as Jesus knocking on the door in order to get out!  Out into the world to bring his message of love and reconciliation.!  That is why the Pope has insisted we should think of ourselves not simply as “disciples” of Jesus, but as “missionary disciples”—sent by the Risen Christ to a world in need.

We need the support and example of our fellow Christians among our families and friends.  We need the nourishment of the Eucharist and the sacraments celebrated in our parish church.  We Passionists need the support of our fellow religious.  But the ultimate goal for all of us is to bring the good news of God’s forgiving love to the world, to build, in Pope Francis’ beautiful words, a “civilization of love.”

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:

Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34
Matthew 13:31-35

Reflection:

The Kingdom of heaven is like….

Today’s passage is from the great part of Matthew’s Gospel during which Jesus opens his “mouth in parabes.” He explains what his Father’s Kingdom is like, putting it in terms more people could understand. In fact, it’s part of the same narrative that we’ve been hearing from these last three Sundays of Ordinary Time.

It kind of reminds me of the little sayings, “Life is like…” I think many of us can immediately recall what is probably the most famous, made so by the 1994 movie “Forest Gump.”  Forrest says, “Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get.” I like these two, both of them told to me by an aging jazz musician, living and playing on the streets of Hollywood when I knew her.  She would say, “Paul, life is like a phonograph record.  You’ve just got to get in the groove” and “Life is like an onion – you have to peel off one layer at a time, and sometimes, you weep.”

Of them all, though, this one of Jesus’ is favorite of explanations.

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed… the smallest of seeds, and yet it grows into the largest of plants, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in it’s branches.

There is just so much depth here. At first glance, this may seem to be about God spreading his arms in order to save and give shelter to us, the little sparrows on which he has his eye always. And have you ever seen a mustard seed? They are nearly microscopic (well, to my crazy eyes they’re pretty hard to see).

But add the next verse, and I think you’ll see what hits me like a ton of bricks. “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman mixed with wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”

The whole batch.

Yesterday’s Gospel, from the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, is part of this wonderful section of Matthew’s Gospel, and includes a verse which, I feel, drives the point home. It reads,

“The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets.” (Matthew 13:47-48)

Every kind of fish has a chance. Even the bad ones get caught in the net with the good. All the flour is mixed until the whole batch is leavened. That gives me such hope, both for me and you, but also for our society and world today. It doesn’t matter if we’re good or bad, broken, repaired, towing baggage of the past… we’re all fertile ground.

So planting the seeds, gathering the wheat, leavening the bread… Growing the kingdom. It’s all about making the most of the God who lives in us, and bringing that gift to our area of the vineyard.

Sure, it’s just a small seed… but that’s only the start.  Yeast, yes – but alone it can do nothing. It takes more than one thing to build the kingdom. We need rich soil, water, sunlight, weeding, tending, nurturing, caring. Little by little, the branches will grow. From those humble, miniscule beginnings, an enormous life will emerge.  From tiny seed to the mighty Sequoia. It’s got to start

somewhere, and it needs help to flourish. And we’re all, each one of us, called to tend and care for the seedlings in our hearts, and the hearts of each person we meet… and especially the hearts of those people we don’t want to care for. The homeless, the outcast, the sick, the family member who hurt us, the spouse who betrayed us, those who are “different” (whatever that means).

So, today, how about we all let God plant that seed of his Kingdom in our hearts right now?
How about we become the fertile ground and the yeast, the gardener and the caretaker?
How about we do that for others too?

This way, we can watch the Kingdom grow.

Does it matter if we’re perfect? The scripture says No. And have no fear, for as it is written in our first reading today, “My angel will go before you.”

Dear God of all, thank you for the gift of the seed. Grant us the grace to tend the garden of our hearts, and especially the hearts of all the faces of Christ we meet day to day. Amen.

Paul Puccinelli is Director of Liturgy & Music at St. Rita Parish in Sierra Madre, CA, and a member of the Retreat-Team at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center.

Scripture:

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12
Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 13:44-52

Reflection:

When I was ten years old and my sister was thirteen, our mother passed away.  Ovarian Cancer.  It was a very difficult time for us and for our father.

As time went on, our father remarried.  He married one of our mother’s sisters, our Aunt Mary!  She helped us through our adolescence and was a strong support for much of our adult years. She died recently at age ninety-three.  From this second marriage came our kid brother.  And he and his wife would bless us with two delightful children.  Our family went from death to life, from sorrow to joy.

Many years later I would read the words of St. Paul to the Romans as found in our second reading: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God…”  Our family loved God and all things worked for good for us.

Even before St. Paul wrote those words, our Blessed Mother experienced their truth.  The Thirteenth Station of the Cross shows Mary with the dead body of her son Jesus upon her lap.  What intense pain and sorrow she must have gone through.  What flow of tears streamed from her eyes.  But Mary trusted.  Mary waited.  And Easter came.  The Resurrection!

Whether we are going through physical pain, emotional distress or relational heartache, we are challenged to place ourselves into God’s hands.  From Calvary to Easter, from death to life, from sadness to joy – that is the pattern in a life of faith.  Trust in God is a pearl of great price and is found in those who belong to the kingdom of heaven.

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

Feast of Saint Martha

Scripture:

Exodus 24: 3-8
John 11: 19-27

Reflection:

In Exodus we read that Moses is binding the people to God more deeply through both their own verbal promise to keep the Covenant and the offering and sprinkling of blood upon them. The sprinkling of blood upon the altar was a common practice in the time of the Hebrews when a sacrifice was made. Covenants were also common when agreements were made between two people or groups of people. Using blood made the covenant that much more binding than the verbal agreement. Through these actions Moses is letting the people know that the Covenant between them and God is a serious one, not to be taken lightly. The people now have a greater commitment. Today, in our own faith, we have the Sacraments of Initiation that allows us to make commitments to God. The Sacrament of Confirmation made us full members of the People of God and opened the doors to the other Sacraments and graces. Today might be a good time to remember and reflect on those times in our lives when we received the Sacraments of Initiation and what we felt deep within us at the time.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus and Martha have a conversation where Martha makes several faith statements about her belief “in the resurrection on the last day”. The last statement she makes is that she believes “you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” In the Gospels, when Jesus is healing someone it is through that person’s faith or the faith of others that the person is healed. Martha, a woman who is portrayed as to busy to pray in the Gospel of Luke, is the one who has faith that Jesus is going to heal her brother or raise him from the dead in the Gospel of John. Jesus responds to her with one of the “I Am” statements:

“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

This conversation between Martha and Jesus might be a Covenant dialog. Martha makes her statements of faith and Jesus replies with the promise of eternal life. Martha’s faith and the faith of the Apostles was not perfect. They kept trying to understand the message. And that is what we do when we say the Nicene Creed at Mass on Sunday. We are making our statement of faith as best as we can. Taking time to hear God’s response, engaging God in our own covenant dialog could possibly be an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God and grow deeper in our faith.

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

Scripture:

Exodus 20:1-17
Matthew 13:18-23

Reflection:

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.  Luke 8:15

In reflecting on this passage, I am remembering the words of a wise spiritual director who once said:

‘Remember the Gospel you preach is also the Gospel you are called to live by.”

At each liturgy we hear the Word of God proclaimed followed by a homily reflection ending with the directive to go and live the Word of God.  How simple a directive and yet how complicated!  Our lives are filled with stories of generosity and perseverance.  Our parishes and communities band together to ensure that the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are made visible on behalf of the needy and suffering.

In the past year our parish has had the opportunity to resettle two refugee families, a family of eight from the Congo and a family of six from Syria. The parish community continues to respond generously to the needs of our new families.  We hope to resettle another family in the coming year.

Over the past months, we have also had the privilege to participate in special days of prayer focused specifically on two parish families and a staff member who were experiencing serious health problems.  The spirit and reverence in which the faithful came together in prayer for others showed us we were indeed on holy ground.

We are called to be persevering gospel bearers in spite of adverse situations and complications from those rule keepers who focus on the black/white interpretation of the laws rather than the heart/human reality that surrounds us.  We continue to march in solidarity for the oppressed and to write and call our government leaders, challenging them to govern wisely focused on the common good of all peoples.

We are sowers of the Good News!  Despite the thorns of anxiety and greed, the rootless and rocky ground and the weed strewn garden path, the rich soil of God’s love for all of us indeed bears fruit and yields even more than a hundred or sixty or thirty fold!

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

Scripture:

Exodus 19:1-2, 9-11
Matthew 13:10-17

Reflection:

They look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. 

Seems like I’ve heard these words from Matthew’s gospel before!  I know I heard them from my mother.  “Open your eyes Terry, it’s right in front of you!  If it was a snake it would bite you!”  “Listen when I talk to you; I told you to do this three times today!”

I’ve also heard those words from teachers, authority figures of all types, even my beloved wife!  Now I hear the words from Jesus!  “Don’t just look Terry, SEE!  Don’t just hear Terry, LISTEN!”  Jesus goes on to clarify toward the end of the passage from Matthew.

“Understand with your hearts and be converted.”  I think to understand with my heart I have to be vulnerable.  I have to be open to conversion at the deepest level in my heart.  I have to change.  As I age, I have to open my heart to a deeper reality.  This new reality requires a change of heart.

No longer can I just look and hear on the surface of life.  I need to go deeper.  Going deeper demands seeing and listening with my heart.  What is my heart asking of me in this present moment?  Am I being asked to forgive or be forgiven, to be vulnerable to God within me, to be truly open to the human hearts I come in contact with every day, to be aware of the presence of God in creation around me?

Today’s reflection tells me to go deeper.  See more, listen more, and open my heart to God within and around me.  Run toward my heart and find God’s love!

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of our Passionist Family in Louisville, Kentucky.

Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne,
Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Exodus 16:1-5, 9-15
Matthew 13:1-9

Reflection:

Compared to the highly efficient and GPS-guided farming methods today, the sower scattering seeds willy-nilly might seem wasteful, at best, and perhaps a bit stupid. A little more care in preparing the field or first taking out the thorn bushes might improve the chances for a plentiful harvest. At least that’s one way to look at today’s gospel from St. Matthew.

But the parable is not so much about a plentiful harvest, though we hear it was a bumper crop. The key line that jumps out to me is this: “Such large crowds gathered around him…” Some of those who came looking for Jesus were perhaps only curious, some skeptical, some hurting, and some longing for what they could not name. Then the gospel continues, “And he spoke to them at length in parables…”

He spoke to them all. For whatever reason they had come, Jesus shared the good news. He shared it generously and without judgment. He was living the parable himself by sowing God’s word and trusting that some of those words would fall on hearts ready to receive it, where it would take root and produce a great harvest. Certainly some of those listening would not or could not understand the good news, like seed landing on rocky ground.

Today’s gospel seems much more about generosity than efficiency. Jesus shares freely his love. Perhaps it is for us to prepare our minds and hearts to receive God’s word. Maybe we need to remove the stones and thorns in our lives, the prejudice and anger and judgmental attitudes so God’s word can take root and produce a great harvest in our lives.

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:

2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Matthew 20:20-28

 

Reflection:

 “Can You Drink the Cup?”

Preachers often allude to the wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship) and Henri Nouwen (Can You Drink the Cup?). These writers were giants in spirituality not only because of their keen insight, but because of their humility, transparency, even vulnerability. Their appeal is universal because the narrative is so personal.

Maybe that’s why we like Thomas the Doubter, Nathaniel the Cynic, Peter the Impetuous, or James and John… who so miserably fail at grasping Jesus’ message of proclaiming the Kingdom. Matthew softens the effect of the story as Mark expresses it. The latter has the request for status and prestige coming from the two disciples; Matthew has the request coming from their mother!  But how we can identify with their humanity!

Reading the lives of saints or Church history encourages me. I know that the Church requires two miracles — events which defy the laws of nature, as I understand it — for canonization; but to know that Mother (Saint) Teresa of Calcutta battled doubt and depression much of her life, yet remained faithful… well, in my mind, that’s a cause for sainthood by itself!

Commenting on Jesus’ question to his disciples (Can you drink this cup?), Nouwen states,

Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be. True sanctity is precisely drinking our own cup and trusting that by thus fully claiming our own, irreplaceable journey, we can become a source of hope for many. Vincent Van Gogh, miserable and brokenhearted as he was, believed without question in his vocation to paint, and he went as far as he could with what little he had. This is true for Francis of Assisi, Dorothy Day of New York, and Oscar Romero of San Salvador. Small people, but great in drinking their cups to the full.

Today we are again invited to drink the cup of life that Jesus offers us.

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