Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Proverbs 30:5-9
Luke 9:1-6

Reflection:

“Take care, then, how you hear.”

Pairing today’s two readings can be facile, and the “takeaway” is quite obvious. From the Book of Proverbs we read, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need.” And the Gospel thunders Jesus’ words, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money…”

But if we are able to ponder a bit more, we are able to journey deeper and also discover a message most applicable for this difficult time of turmoil in our Church, our country, and our world. On Monday we read from Luke’s Gospel Jesus’ words, “Take care, then, how you hear.” Do I see or hear truthfully, honestly?

“In medio stat virtus” is a Latin expression taken from Aristotle by St Thomas Aquinas. It simply means that strength or virtue is found in the moderate position between – and above – the two extremes of any issue. In other words, Jesus is constantly admonishing the crowds, his disciples, and the Scribes and Pharisees, with a challenge to avoid the extremes, the outrageous. Whether his words of caution center on interpretation of the Law, or paying taxes, or the chemistry of relationship, the best option lies somewhere between two extremes. It is usually best to find middle ground. Moderation in all things.

Extremes today might be in religious expression, in wealth, in political opinions.

For example, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about seventy-four percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight; that includes nearly forty-three percent who are considered obese. Yet ten percent of those people don’t’ consider themselves to be overweight.

Another maxim from Aquinas is “Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur.” The translation: “Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver.” To paraphrase the proverb: We see things not as they are but as we are!

Lord, grant me the grace to see things as they are, not as I want them to be! 

Fr. Jack Conley, CP, is the local superior of St. Vincent Strambi Community in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13
Luke 8:19-21

Reflection:

The greatest and first commandment in the whole of the Bible is:

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord is the only One!   
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” Deu 6:4 (Mt 22:37f)

The first word of the Shema prayer is “hear,” or “listen”.  Listening is among the most important words in Scripture! It is used 1,160 times in OT and 433 in the NT!

 In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that the people closest to Him are “My mother and my brothers 
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”  LK 8:21 God loves to speak to us in many ways.  In the opening verses of Genesis, He speaks to us in creation.  “Let there be light (hāyâ or) and there was light!  What a beautiful universal language that all can understand.  His word, light, becomes light before our eyes!  All of creation is a concrete word to us from His heart to ours.  “All creatures are the utterance of God.” M Echart  

Above all His Word to us is an invitation of intimacy with the Lord of the galaxies!  His ultimate Word to us is His Only Begotten Son.  “And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us!”   Our hearing His Word, our sensitive and reverent listening, our “doing it” or letting it work in us is at the heart of discipleship with Him.   Cherishing His word is beautify expressed by Jesus.  “If a person loves me, he will treasure my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. JN 14:23

A very consoling aspect of listening to His word is it not only offers Himself “the Word” to us, but also empowers us to receive it.   “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth.

“It will not return to Me empty Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”  Is 55:11

A huge part of the gift of faith is the incredible grace to receive and practice it by listening to His Word!  St Gregory the Great beautifully expressed it.  “To know the Heart of God through the Word of God”.

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P., preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Proverbs 3:27-34
Luke 8:16-18

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading, Jesus uses the image of a lamp to talk about sharing the Good News. With common-sense logic, He says, “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.” And then He says, “For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.” Perhaps here He is talking about the mystery of God’s love in His Cross and Resurrection.

And then He says something that really caught my attention: “Take care, then, how you hear.” To me, that is a great challenge, because it cautions me to not only hear what gives me comfort, or allows me to be comfortable, but to also hear what can make uncomfortable, as I realize more and more, what is being demanded of me to be a disciple of the One who poured out His Body and Blood for me. For instance, some of the things we hear in our first reading from Proverbs: “Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim when it is in your power to do it for him. Say not to your neighbor, ‘Go and come again, tomorrow I will give,’ when you can give at once.”

We need to accept both the comforts and the challenges Jesus gives us, which are given out of love for us. In accepting both, we share the light of Christ with those who wander in the darkness of both despair on one hand, and greed on the other. May the light of God’s love shine through us.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Wisdom 2:12, 17-20
James 3:16-4:3
Mark 9:30-37

Reflection:

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago at Mass of a penance I often give when I hear confessions. Another penance I often give is the Third Step Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous. I give this penance because it is a useful prayer, whether the person is suffering from some addiction or not. One of the lines in the prayer is this: “Relieve me from the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will.”

The reason I bring this up is because our Scripture readings for Sunday call attention to the “bondage of self” to which the prayer refers. In our first reading from Wisdom (2:12, 17-20), the author presents a scenario that reminds us of the Passion of Jesus: “The wicked say: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training…With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” One thing to remember is that these “wicked” are not from the pagan Gentiles, but from God’s chosen people! There are times when we Christians find the Gospel “obnoxious” to us because it challenges our comfort and our assent to the wisdom of the world.

The words in our second reading (James 3:16-4:3) are even more disquieting: “Beloved: where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice…Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do not possess because you do not ask. You ask, but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Again, James is addressing this not to unbelievers, but to his brother and sister Christians! During this election season, we have intense passions on both sides, but we need to be careful about condemning others, and we need to be humble enough to recognize and repent of our own sins.

Humility is also what Jesus talks about in our Gospel reading (Mark 9:30-37). Again, Jesus predicts His Passion and death and resurrection. So, what is the apostles’ response? First, they have no comments about what Jesus tells them.  Second, they argue among themselves about who is the greatest! If I was Jesus (and thank God I’m not), I would be greatly frustrated. But Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all and the servant of all.” If we, as individuals and as a church, wish to proclaim that we are first, we shall not get anywhere. We are called to be servants. In that way, we shall proclaim the love of God in Jesus Christ, not our own expectations of prestige.

All this calls us to humility and service, and we are called to serve even the most vulnerable and those who are not considered to be important: “Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

May God relieve us from the bondage of self. May God grant us the grace, not to have superiority over others, but humility and the willingness to serve.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

The Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.  -Matthew 9:11

Have you ever gone to a dinner party and people wondered why certain “unsavory” persons were invited? Before Matthew became a disciple of Jesus, he was a tax collector. Tax collectors were despised because they worked for the Roman government and they collected taxes from their people, often times dishonestly. Mathew invited a number of his friends and acquaintances to his dinner party.  The righteous Pharisees got upset with Jesus associating with them.

When confronted by the Pharisees, Jesus responds: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. (Mt. 9:13) Go and learn what he means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus desires a merciful heart. All of us need God’s mercy due to our sins, faults, and failings. We need the mercy of others, and we need to provide mercy to others. (Sacred Space https://sacredspace.com/scripture/matthew-99-13/

Mercy is showing compassion to someone in distress. It can also mean the act of forgiving or being kind. Jesus is calling each of us to be persons of mercy: gentle, loving, forgiving going out of our way to assist others in need. On this feast day of St. Matthew, let us take some time to reflect and look honestly at my life.

To what degree do I realize I need God’s help in my life? How would I rate myself in showing mercy and forgiveness toward others?

Dear Lord, As I move through this day help me to treat all those around me as you want them mercifully treated.

Carl Middleton is a theologian/ethicist and a member of the Passionist Family.

Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Taegŏn, priest and martyr and Saint Paul Chŏng Hasang, martyr, and their companions, martyrs

Scripture:

I Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 8:1-3

Reflection:

Most of us are quite familiar with the stories of the growth of faith in the U.S. and in Europe and South America.  But stories of the introduction of our faith in Asia, though less familiar, are equally compelling.  And today we celebrate the early days of Christianity in the country of Korea on this feast of St. Andrew Taegon and Companions.  St. Andrew is a “new” saint for he was canonized by Pope Paul II.  Though St. Andrew and his Companions are new to the liturgical calendar, they are powerful witnesses to living the Gospel in real life.

St. Andrew 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.  The Korean Catholic Church is 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. a member of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Community, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Our gospel today is a story of vivid and illuminating contrasts. In this remarkable scene we see two very different people who respond to Jesus in very different ways. First, there is a Pharisee named Simon who invited Jesus to dinner. Then there is a woman. We never learn her name. All the gospel tells us is that she was “known in the town to be a sinner,” a description that has led many scripture scholars to conclude that if she wasn’t a prostitute, she was certainly sexually promiscuous. The woman obviously was not invited to the dinner, but nothing—not even the whispered comments and disapproving stares of the guests—will keep her from getting to Jesus; in fact, her desire to be in the presence of Jesus is so strong it’s as if nobody else is there. Down on her knees before Jesus, she begins to cry. She uses those tears to wash his feet and her hair to dry them. She then kisses Jesus’ feet and massages them with oil. The woman does all this with such focused determination it’s as if she had rehearsed the scene in her mind many times before. In the presence of Christ she opens her heart, repents of her sins, and performs exquisite acts of contrition and love.

Simon sees it all quite differently. Instead of being moved by the woman’s actions, he arrogantly assumes she could never be more than the sinner she has always been. As far as he is concerned, she can never be forgiven, she can never be free. But Simon not only judges the woman, he also judges Jesus. He denounces Jesus as a religious impostor because anyone truly of God would never allow himself to be touched by such a notorious sinner. Thus, before the end of the evening, Simon looks down both on the repentant woman and Jesus who forgave her. Both fall short in his eyes.

The problem is not with Jesus or the woman, but with Simon’s seeing. Pride had so twisted his vision that he completely missed what was happening before his eyes. But that’s the way it goes when we are so busy judging that we never have time to love.

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 7:31-35

Reflection:

Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. ~1 Corinthians 12:31

It’s with these words, words that come from deep within Paul’s heart, words that almost seem to be a desperate plea to a people who Paul loves with a father’s love and looked upon them with pride and gratitude, that begins today’s first reading.

The faith community of Corinth was Paul’s first real success as the Apostle to the Gentiles. They were the dregs of society. You only need to read the first chapter of this letter to know that. There he says, “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” (I Cor. 1:26 – 29)

Paul knows that the people he preached to and the people who responded to his Gospel message were ordinary people, and yes, even prostitutes and law-breakers, as he reminds them in Chapter 6. They were once a fervent faith community. But then they went astray. Now these people were knowingly living a double standard, lives of unlawful and sinful practices and yet practicing their faith as if their bad behavior did not matter. Maybe they thought that they are fooling God, but they were not. So, Paul reminds them of that very ancient truth: God sees not as humans see. Yet Paul holds out hope for the worst offenders, for he says in 5:6 that there is still hope that “his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.” What a wonderful balance between a harsh critique of bad behavior and a loving, compassionate belief in a God of Mercy.

Is Paul talking to the people of his day or is Paul talking to the people of this day? Is he telling us as individuals and, especially as a community, “to strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts?” Are we content with living in two worlds that are so different from one another, that we have become powerless? Have we become blind and deaf to the injustices of our society, to the cries of the suffering and the dying, and have we become paralyzed to a proper Christian response? I know that I sometimes feel that way.

It is with passages as we have for today’s Mass, that tells us to “strive eagerly for the greatest gifts” and Jesus’ question: “To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?” that call us back to faithful discipleship.

Jesus and Paul do not want us to be satisfied with what is. We are being asked to be a courageous people. They want us to strive to do better, to live better, to love better. How, then, are we to love better?

Just continue with the first reading for today’s Mass!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P., is a member of Mater Dolorosa Community in Sierra Madre, California.