Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Hebrews 3:7-14
Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:

An examination of conscience is included in today’s Word which exhorts us to not “harden our hearts” and to not, excessively, rely on externals as sure signs of God’s Will in our lives. “…your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years.” (Heb. 3:8) “See that you say nothing to anyone…but the man went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the word….” (Mark 1:43-44)

This examination can bring new, refreshing, light and perspective to a marriage, a family, or a religious community.  I am thinking of that excessive reliance on custom and routine in which we become set, doctrinal and hardened on that certain way in which “we have always done this.” With surrendering our reliance on the “tried and true”, or “the facts as I see them” is it possible to surrender, and step back from yet another battle ground? God brings new graces and new insights that will enable us to enter into a “rest,” thoroughly in God, deep within our hearts. With Christ as my acknowledged partner, (I bring my concerns to prayer, and into dialogue with others) I am able to hold my first confidence firm to the end. (Heb. 3:14)

The followers of Moses missed totally the significance of their sojourn despite how sacred the Ark was. It’s a matter of trust and faith in the mystery of the unknown, where God is.

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is president emeritus of Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

Scripture:

Hebrews 2:14-18
Mark 1:29-39

Reflection:

After his stunning display of preaching, banishing unclean spirits and healing the sick, there is a note of simplicity and humility in Jesus rising before dawn, going off to a deserted place to pray.  He sought silence and solitude.  He sought intimate communion with God, to be alone with the Father.

But, in typical fashion, Simon and the others went running here and there, looking for Jesus – and with some impatience.  Didn’t he realize the crowds were clamoring for him?  Didn’t he know how popular he now was?  Didn’t he know he’s a superstar?

Jesus, however, has a radically different sense of himself and his purpose.  It has nothing to do with popularity, with the expectations of others or being puffed with self-importance.  From the depths of his silence and solitude, Jesus had a clear self-understanding of his purpose and mission.

“Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also,” he told them.  “For this purpose have I come.”

Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom is central to Jesus’ mission.  All that he does, all that he is, must be in harmony with the Good News.  But this mission is not that of Jesus alone.  “Let us go,” Jesus says.  He is including his disciples – us – in his mission.

It follows then that if we are to keep our priorities in order, we must imitate Jesus.  We too must find our deserted place to be alone in prayer with our Father.  We too need silence and solitude if we are to hear the soft whisper of God voice speaking us, inviting us to seek conformity to his will.

Whatever the mission God has in store for us, it always begins in a deserted place, in silence in solitude.

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Hebrews 2:5-12
Mark 1:21-28

Reflection:

There is power in calling things by their right names. Those who named Jesus as the Christ were healed and freed from whatever held them bound. Jesus recognized demons and unclean spirits for what they were and expelled them. Paul writes extensively to more clearly name what Jesus means in our lives. As disciples, we are likewise called to name reality, discern truth, and call out evil.

I find that this is particularly important in our world right now, when positions are given free reign that in the past would have been immediately named as racist, xenophobic, misogynist, and more. Women are told that to resolve on-line abuse, they should just log off. Immigrants, regardless of their legal/political status and even if they are refugees fleeing for their lives, are told to “go home”. Groups of white men who declare that this country was built by whites and belongs to only whites are given unprecedented press coverage and find their ranks growing. People who fear the imposition of a different religion on the legal system strive mightily to impose their own religion on the legal system. It seems that we as a society are allowing and even promoting abusive, discriminatory, prejudiced, and intolerant language and actions.

As Christians, we must name and combat these things. And we have to start with ourselves. The examples I gave above are blatant. But they can start to seem acceptable only because there are lingering threads of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and other prejudices within our own hearts. This is especially true for those of us born and raised with the privilege and benefits of being white. When I was growing up in rural Iowa, I never encountered anyone from another race, religion, or culture. Living in the Chicago area, that is definitely not the case. I have always worked to be open, accepting, curious, generous, and kind. Yet I catch myself. I have to constantly examine my reactions when, for instance:

• The person on the phone has a non-European foreign accent
• I drive into a neighborhood populated by another race or culture
• I see a woman wearing a tight-fitting low-cut outfit
• I see a women wearing a burqa
• A person living with disabilities slows down the checkout line
• A young black man wearing a hoodie and low-slung jeans walks toward me on the street

Your list is likely different than mine, but all of these situations trigger emotions inside of me that I work and pray to understand and eliminate. It is all too easy to succumb to the emotions, especially when surrounded by people who feel the same things, but that is not the way of Christ. I need to continue naming these realities, calling out their anti-Christian nature, and working with others who are committed to helping the reign of God come to earth.

Perhaps that can be our New Year’s resolution. Let’s work together to fight injustice, oppression, and prejudice in all its forms. In the face of a wave of resistance that grows bigger by the day, let’s do whatever we can to birth, embody, and promote the reign of God and the compassionate love of Jesus Christ.

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.corgenius.com/.

The Baptism of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 or Acts 10:34-38
Matthew 3:13-17

Reflection:

Our Lord’s baptism concludes the 44 days of Advent and Christmas. If we love  Christmas season and hate to see it end, we have only to remember Mr. Scrooge. Having met the spirits of Christmas, his conversion made him known as the man who lived Christmas every day of the year! There is a goal for us.

After Christmas day the liturgy gives us responses of faith to the mystery of the Incarnation. Stephen, John the Evangelist and the Holy Innocents invite us to ponder their responses. The first week end with Mary, Mother of God, but also one who responds as a disciple. She always listens to the Word and pondering in her heart.

Our second week of Christmas unveils the challenge of having faith. We met John the Baptist. Prompted by the Spirit he identifies Jesus as God’s chosen One. Yet John will send messengers from his prison cell to ask Jesus, ‘are you the one?’. A final act of faith must be made by John it would seem. We hear the disciples whom Jesus calls give  Our Lord various titles: Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel, Rabbi. What more could be said? But we know these are hollow titles, their meanings to be filled in by the words and actions of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Wedding Feast of Cana, Mary’s annunciation to Jesus by the one who responded to the angel’s annunciation, sets Jesus on the work of giving glory to the Father and of being glorified by the Father.

‘As we end Christmas Matthew’s focus is on the person of Jesus. We have the identity of the one who will lead us to the Father and proclaim the Kingdom of God. What we have reflected on the days of Christmas is proclaimed, ‘This is my beloved Son. My favor rests upon him.’

Madeline L’Engle in her book ‘Wind in the Door’, the second of a quintet of children’s books that deal with the battle of good and evil, introduces a ‘singular cherubim’ by the name of Proginoskes. He helps the main character, Meg, in her battle and becomes her special friend. To her this angel of a hundred wings and a variety of eyes is Progo.

He has the mission of being a Namer, a sacred job. Progo explains that in his training he had to learn the names of the stars. When asked by Meg, ‘which ones?’ he replies with a strange expression, ‘why all of them of course! (we realize there are billions!). Meg points this out to him and he concedes that it was a bit of work, but important because each of the stars like to be called by their name when God addresses them.

Angels decorated our parish church this year, large beautiful angels suspended from the ceiling. They gathered the assembly and said something wonderful is going to take place. Two bore Advent symbols of an open treasure chest of God’s Word and a house, God will dwell with us and the Word will become flesh. An angel also hovered over a large backdrop behind the altar of our children gathered around the manger. Let us take our leave of Christmas in the company of the angles who have been with us these days. If a star’s identity is important, how sacred is ours! And how important what we hear of the identity of Jesus: the Son, the Beloved, the New Israel.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica, New York.

Epiphany of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6
Matthew 2:1-12

Reflection:

In my life as a Passionist, and perhaps even before I joined, I have been interested in the forming of community, and how diversity may not only be tolerated, but celebrated, as we strive to come together in some form of unity. When we read the history of the Church, we see that almost from the very beginning of its existence, the Church has had to deal with how to make the Good News of Jesus Christ intelligible in the various cultures in which it found itself. And so Matthew, in Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 2:1-12), has recounted for us the visit of the Magi, these strangers from the east, who have come to do homage to the “newborn king of the Jews.” In recounting these events for us, Matthew has shown us that from the beginning of Jesus’ life, there has been an indication that His coming was not meant only for the people of Israel, but for everyone. This is an important truth to remember as we live in a seemingly increasingly divided world.

In my life I have had mostly positive experiences encountering people from different cultures, whether it be African-Americans when I was doing ministry practicum at St. Benedict the African East in Chicago, or as pastor of St. Mary’s in Fairfield, AL, or learning Spanish at the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, or as a volunteer when I was stationed in Sierra Madre, CA, or when I made trips to the Holy Land and India. I discovered that these encounters helped me understand myself as well as those I met.

Does that mean it has been easy to enter into dialogue with people who were different from me? No, there have been times when I’ve had the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end because I was challenged by what I heard. And there have been times when I’ve been taken aback by what people have said. One of my favorite Marian hymns is “Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly.” One day I was sharing this with a woman colleague of mine, and she told me she hated that hymn! I was completely surprised. When I asked her why, she told me it had to do with the lyrics of the first stanza. The first line of that stanza is “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly, Virgin Mother undefiled.” I didn’t think anything was wrong with that, but I did realize sometime later that those words offended her because, I think, they implied to her that all other mothers were somehow looked at as defiled, or less than pure. I learned something from that! (By the way, more recently published versions of the hymn do not have those words anymore).You may think that I’ve simply fallen into the disease of “political correctness,” but I feel that there is something more to it than that. I can’t help but think that awareness of where people are is an important aspect of being a disciple.

What we do in these encounters with different people is up to us. On one hand, the Magi’s visit to Jerusalem prodded those in the royal court to actually look at their own Scriptures! But on the other hand, Herod, in his desire to hold on to power, ordered the slaughter of innocent children in and around Bethlehem. We are not to be like Herod in the Gospel. Instead, just as Mary and Joseph welcomed the Magi when they came, and just as Jesus talked to the Pharisees and the scribes and the Roman centurion and the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Syro-Phoenician woman with a sick child, I believe we are called, in Jesus’ name, to listen to the “other” and cross the barriers that divide us, and that we can do that and still be true to whom God made us to be.

Perhaps one way we can be an epiphany, that is, a revelation, of God’s love in Jesus Christ, is to have a listening ear to those around us, no matter how different they may be.

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

Scripture:

1 John 5:14-21
John 2:1-11

Reflection:

Last Sunday coming home from Mass about 8:30 in the evening, I boarded an almost empty “L” (Chicago elevated rapid transit system) along with a rather tall, heavy-set gentleman of a different ethnic background than mine who chose to sit right next to me and rather a bit too close for my comfort. He immediately began speaking to me in a loud voice, addressing me as “pops” (he later revealed his age as 58 which means he rightfully estimated my age) I could tell by the smell of his breath and the slur of his words that he’d evidently been over served. My immediate reaction was to quickly change seats and hope that he didn’t follow. I didn’t. I put away my cell phone and started paying attention to him.

I suspect it might be a bit blasphemous for me to compare my fear last Sunday night to that of Mary’s when the angel told her “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus”  but I believe God chose Mary because of her habit of saying “yes” when called upon to love. Maybe, it’s little experiences like my encounter above that will give me the grace to say “yes” to the bigger challenges should they come my way.

This all precedes today’s Gospel selection, were we read about the miracle of Jesus changing water into wine. Mary has a focal role here too. She asks Jesus to do it. I find it interesting that it is Jesus’ first public miracle and that those who choose the readings for the Lectionary, put it here immediately following Christmas on the weekend we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany translates God being made manifest.

Maybe I can just expect a miracle and find God, whenever I choose love over fear, even if it’s only for a short ride on the “L”. Wow!

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture:

1 John 5:5-13
Mark 1:7-11

Reflection:

John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” I doubt that we would have put John at the top of a list of those who would introduce Jesus. John’s mission was to introduce Jesus as the promised Messiah, the hope of all the ages. But who would have ever thought that God would have chosen a man like John the Baptist for this task? To say that John was “unique” would be an understatement. He was off the charts! He was a “wilderness man,” a man who lived in the desert, wore clothing made of camel’s hair and ate locust and wild honey. His message was not polished, but blunt and rather succinct. “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Yet, this was the man who God had chosen to introduce his Son, the Messiah.

What qualified John the Baptist to be the “first evangelist”? Perhaps it was his humility. St. Thomas wrote, “The virtue of humility consists in keeping oneself within one’s own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one’s superior.” John knew his position in the universe. He was not God. He was not the Messiah. Rather, John was merely a voice, crying in the wilderness; the Messiah was much greater. John did not even consider himself to be worthy to carry the Messiah’s sandals. John baptized with water, but the Messiah’s baptism was far greater.

Because of his humility, John was the best person to introduce Jesus. In Wednesday’s gospel reading, John encouraged two of his own disciples to follow Jesus. John was willing to let go of his own disciples because he knew the ultimate leader was Jesus, not himself.

As we continue our journey into 2017, we pray that we might be able to lead others to Jesus through the humility that let’s Jesus be the Savior. “Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Fr. Don Webber is director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness and resides in Chicago.

Scripture:

1 John 3:11-21
John 1:43-51

Reflection:

Children, let us love not in word or speech but, in deed and truth.

But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel.” John 1:47-47

So, here we are, five days into the New Year. Most articles or reflections around this time (mine included) mention something about resolutions and how they are going. Many lament how difficult it is to change bad habits or how challenging it is to cultivate good ones. At this time of year there is no lack for advice on how to turn your life around. Some people advocate elaborate systems for setting reminders and establishing rewards. Some simplify the process to just developing more willpower. And, still other say there is no hope, that your habits are part of your nature and that is set.

In our readings for today, however, we have two good examples of how we can change ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. The first, from 1 John, could be a slogan for a shoe company, if you substitute “exercise” for “love.”  For John the answer is simple. We must act in accord with our true intentions. Our deeds need to be reflections of our love for each other and our love for God. It is not enough to simply ‘talk the talk.’ And how do we know if we are actually doing this? John goes on to tell us “…if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God.” For myself, this can be hard. I often find I regret how I handled a situation or the words and tone I used to express myself to another, especially when dealing with complex or deeply personal interactions. But if I listen closely to my heart, it is more of a gentle chiding, a reminder to try better next time than an outright condemnation.

In our gospel reading we have a great example of personal change from Nathanael. When Philip tells him they have found the Chosen One, the true Messiah, he responds with an dismissive, ‘yeah, right!’ And yet he goes beyond his first reaction to follow and see for himself. Once he sees the Lord, he has the grace and openness to recognize Him. Nathanael doesn’t persist in his preconceived notions, but allows a new thought to arise in him.

My prayer for myself today (and for this year) is that I remain open to the new person God is calling me to become, and that I become that person in deed and truth.

Talib Huff is a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights. He can be contacted at [email protected].