Daily Scripture

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

The story of the widow of Nain, found only in Luke and is the first occurrence of restoration from the dead in this Gospel. According to tradition, Nain is located close to the Carmel mountain range and so we have a connection here with the prophet Elisha who performed a similar miracle in the same region in Shunem (2 Kings 4:8-37). Similarly, the story of the prophet Elijah, who raises the son of a widow in Zarephath (1 Kings17:8-24) may be also linked to the crowd’s reaction, “A great prophet has arisen” and “God has visited his people.” And, here is where Jesus’ actions and healing power is separated and distinguished from the great prophets. While both Elijah and Elisha had to physically touch, Jesus merely speaks his command while touching the coffin and the widow’s son immediately sat up. Further, in this story Jesus takes the initiative because he was moved with pity as we read over and over in Gospel stories. Compassion means to suffer with and Jesus clearly suffers with this woman.

Life for this widow was over; she would have no means of supporting herself in that culture.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians frames our reflection; we are to understand and value the Body of Christ recognizing our Spirit—generated unity in diversity and care for each member. Jesus, through his cross rearranged our conventional order—the weakest or the least must be a priority within our body. His outpouring of compassion must be ours as well.

I remember when my grandmother, Kathleen, passed away. My heart was broken. She was my mentor and friend. I used to dream that she was brought back to life before our eyes and it was glorious. Then I would wake up to life without her and my grief returned. I would feel jealous of this widow in today’s Gospel story. In my naiveté as a teenager I would question God’s actions—why that widow? Wasn’t it unfair that the rest of us were not chosen—was God playing favorites? I’ve learned that this story is much deeper than my surface dwelling mighty deeds expectations and I wonder sometimes if this is the operational image we have of God. If my prayers are not answered in the way I expect then does God really love me? Is he even listening? Do I matter to him?

St. Paul places mighty deeds below apostles, prophets and teachers for a reason. He is inviting us to correct our lens so that we do not overvalue the spectacular and undervalue the more important gifts given by the one Spirit for the good of all. Jesus’ cross was real—it is real in mine and yours because we bear in our bodies his dying and rising—mystically, one cross for all. It isn’t about me being special apart from anyone else—together we are all special because we count as members in the one body.

Let’s strive to respond to this sacred gift of unity and divinity today.

May the Passion of Jesus Christ be Always in Our Hearts, Amen.

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

Reflection:

Has an airline ever lost your luggage?  It’s happened to me.  It’s a terribly inconvenient experience, what with my clothing, toothpaste and toothbrush packed in that suitcase, not to mention other valuable items, all missing.  My business trip was disrupted.  I was distracted and anxious about my belongings.  I checked in with the airline’s lost and found department.  They promised to call the moment they found my luggage.  Being of little faith, I held out little hope.  But, find it they did!  I was never more relieved and joyful.

Those feelings and emotions come to mind when I reflect on the parables of this gospel.

In the first parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd represents God.  The shepherd astoundingly leaves an entire flock of sheep in order to search for a single lost one.  How impractical and reckless is that?  Yet, that is how much God, the shepherd, loves us.

But the second parable is even more astonishing.  Here, it is a woman – an ordinary, poor woman at that – who represents God.

Most of us refer to God almost exclusively as a male.  But Scripture makes no such exclusions.  Scripture also personifies Wisdom as the feminine character of God present to us.  So, then, who is this woman sweeping in dusty corners for the lost coin?  It is the Wisdom of God searching frantically for her lost currency.

And when the woman – this feminine God – finds the coin, she invites her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her.  In the Greek of Luke’s gospel, the words for friends and neighbors are both feminine.  After finding her coin, she calls together the women who are her friends and neighbors and says to them, “Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.”  She wants share her great joy with those close to her.  There is something maternal and warm in this image of the neighborhood women gathering to celebrate.

Together with the parable that evokes the biblical image of God as the loving shepherd, Jesus chose a story that resonates with the equally biblical image of God among us as Mother Wisdom.  Wisdom herself is doing the searching.  She is searching for something small but, to her, ultimately precious.  That coin is you and me.

This is a story about who God is, a God present in our midst, choosing to live in our home, lighting a lamp to pierce the darkness and searching, not for money, for but us – we who became invisible, lost in the dark corners of our lives.

Look closely.  Whether resembling a good shepherd or poor woman, it is God who searches until he finds us – the God of the lost and found.

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Luke 6:43-49

Reflection:

Jesus tells us several times to build our foundations on solid rock so they can withstand whatever threatens them. He knew that without a strong foundation, we are fearful and anxious, searching for anyone or anything that will keep us “safe” and “protect” us from the bad things of this world, whether from the local economy or global terrorism. Without a strong foundation, we have no base from which to reach out to those whose social, racial, or ethnic characteristics are not ours. We cannot be confident in ourselves, passionate about mercy, open and vulnerable, loving and willing to engage. We become exclusive, drawn inward, anxious, and self-preserving. That is clearly and unequivocally against God’s will for us.

Yet when God built the foundations of the church, of Christ’s body on this earth, did God follow Jesus’ teachings? Not really. God’s “house” is built of human stones, of people like you and me. Individually, none of us is all that stable. We are imperfect, struggling, sinful, rebellious, suspicious, stubborn, ever-learning creatures who have to consciously work, pray, stretch and grow to become half the disciple that Jesus wants us to be. What was God thinking?

Yet somehow, when we humans join together with God, we are stronger than anything that threatens us. We have confidence that even when we screw things up royally, even when we sin, even when we head in the wrong direction, whether individually or collectively, God is always there to forgive, teach, admonish, and gently lead us on to the right path.

What Jesus does, then, is take this message that seems so simple on its face and turn it on its head. It’s the same thing he did with the Good Samaritan, when he turned a question about who my neighbor is into a lesson about how to BE a neighbor to all. In this case, he tells us to build our house on strong foundations, and yet he presents us with a stark and important choice: Are WE willing to be part of God’s foundation on earth? Are we building ourselves on prayer, reflection, and service in order to become solid supports for God’s reign? In other words, we are not to build for ourselves alone or for just the foundations of our private homes and individual lives. Instead, we are to become God’s foundation in service to the world. That is a much greater challenge indeed!

So as I look at the world today, as I consider the upcoming election, and as I decide how to act and react to local, national, and global events, I must look at the ways in which I am a crumbling or cracked part of the foundation. I need to examine my motives and my life, so I can fill in the cracks with faith, mercy, justice, and compassion for all. I need to be continually re-shaped so I can be an ever-stronger part of God’s house on earth. I hope you will, too, because none of us can do it alone. Although Jesus is the cornerstone, even he is not enough. God needs us. Let’s become worthy to be his building materials.

I end with the beautiful lyrics written by Rory Cooney in his song titled You Have Built Your House (WLP 2005) and I pray that we all may become ever-stronger foundations stones for God.

“You have built your house of living stones;
Nothing of our hands can hold you.
Who can build your house but you alone? Who can hold you?
Build us into a house of prayer, a house of peace, a house of care – inn and hospice, fortress, banquet hall.
Home for all!”

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/.

Feast of Saint Peter Claver

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b-27
Luke 6:39-42

Reflection:

When is a Work of Art Finished?

The inaugural exhibition of the new Met Breuer museum this spring was entitled, “Unfinished Thoughts Left Visible”. It raises the question, ‘when is a work of art finished?’. If the artist captures a goal of a beautiful facial expression, is the work done then and there? Can the artist skip the rest? The exhibition showed some artists who didn’t worry about filling the whole canvas with paint, and displayed modern artists whose work expressed incompletion itself and unending change.

The letters of Paul make visible for us ‘unfinished thoughts’. We can understand Paul’s unfinished thoughts as those things that are always new and never exhausted in reaching our goal. Like an athlete there is always the next event to train for, and preaching the gospel requires the strength to live the words preached. Paul would probably comment that our work is not finished. In Our Lord’s time things will be brought to completion. Our work at best is unfinished. We strive to capture the vision that we have, to show Christ present and at work among us. Christ’s work is not finished either! I don’t think Paul talks about art work. In Athens he calls his hearers to note the altar to the ‘unknown god’. Paul must have explored the Greek temple and saw all the altars and the images they contained, but he doesn’t seem to care for their beauty or creativity. He wants his hearers to know about Jesus. Paul may not have been into art, but he would have appreciated the sweat and mess and confusion behind the work of the artists. There he might have found another image of our work as we follow and witness to Jesus?

Luke says guides must see, teachers communicate to see their students grow, and our own eyes need tending before we can help others see well. In Dante’s Divine Comedy one of the groups in purgatory have their eyes sown shut and are gathered on a cliff with an long drop. They have to help one another lest someone fall off the cliff, (good luck), they ask the communion of saints for help as would beggars at a church door. In life they were the envious who looked on others only with the desire for what they possessed. They are learning now to see others as God sees them, all of us together in the unity of mutual charity. Indeed, Luke suggests something unfinished that we all work on, seeing clearly. We ask God to guide, teach and make our vision clear.

Finally, the Church gives us today, on the feast of St Peter Claver, SJ, a finished portrait. This Jesuit priest labored for forty years at the port where slaves from West Africa were brought to be sold and forced into labor, some in mines. He became one with the slaves in many ways. He met them upon their arrival at the wharfs and entered the horrid conditions below deck, he cared for them with medicine and kindness while they were on display waiting to be sold, he visited later to tend the faith of those baptized, and on his visits he avoided the lodgings of the wealthy to share the quarters of the slaves. His tireless work often met with negative criticism from the establishment, but in the end, after four years of illness, unable to minister and forgotten, at his death he was accorded a state funeral. The moral witness he lived, although not avidly embraced was heard and acknowledged none the less. We honor St. Peter Claver, a finished work of art whose grace may inspire us.

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

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Micah 5:1-4a
Matthew 1:1-16,18-23

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the birth of Mary.  We celebrate because we have the advantage of Church history and tradition as well as scripture to serve as the base for our belief.  So while her birth is not mentioned in scripture, church history– dating back to the end of the second century– teaches that Mary was born of Anne and Joachim who were childless and who thought they would not be able to have children.  We also know from church teachings that Mary was born without original sin. God was preparing her to carry His Son.

The church offers us a choice in the readings today.  One set is much shorter than the other. There is much value in reading the longer reading, especially the gospel which is the genealogy of Joseph’s family.  One of the values of stopping and taking the time to read this long list of names is because it signifies the passage of time.  The people were waiting for the Messiah – year after year; generation after generation.  How tempting it must have been to give up on the whole idea, to think that it was never going to happen.  But all along, God had a plan, and His plan did not just go back to the birth of Mary, but to her family and to the family of Joseph as the offspring of a family God called to help bring about the salvation of the world.  And so we hear all the names, we recall the time that past and hopefully we ponder again the words of scripture “My time is not man’s time…”

This is especially important for us in today’s culture of immediate gratification.  Let’s face it, most of us don’t like to wait for things.  We think we’re doing great when we plan our calendar for the next month and we are challenged greatly when we have to wait for graduations, weddings, job promotions, and other events that take planning and work to achieve.   So when we pray, it’s hard for us not to presume God is going to answer our prayers right now.  We think this is when I need it!  Whether we are praying for peace, for a cure for an illness, to reach an important decision, to get over the death of a loved one, for a new job or to pass a test or win a game, we want it now.  What a lesson we can learn from the Israelites waiting for the Messiah.  Let us follow their example, let us follow the example of Mary, our Blessed Mother, let us learn patience and trust in the wisdom of God.

Mary Lou Butler is a long-time friend and partner in ministry to the Passionists in California.

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Luke 6:12-19

Reflection:

After praying all night, Jesus chose his twelve Apostles, the incipient Church.  Who are they?  They are the most unexceptional, unremarkable, rag-tag bunch of fishermen, zealots, tax-collecting self-centered, thick-headed, doubting men, filled with fear masked by bravado.

Never did 12 men ever change the course of history like these 12, but never did a leader ever have more trouble with his followers than Jesus had with these 12.  Why did Jesus choose this bunch?  Did they lie on their resumes?  Did Jesus not check them out before he made his selection?

The answer lies in the mystery of who Jesus is.  Jesus chose those who would most resemble him at the moment of his crucifixion.  It is when Jesus is weakest, most broken, most vulnerable, most frail – nailed to the cross – that he is strongest.  God’s strength was unleashed on the cross, at the moment of our redemption.  What makes us most like Christ is our frail humanity.  The Apostle Paul proclaims this mystery: “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Throughout Scripture we hear repeatedly how God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.

Job said, “I abhor myself.”
“Moses pleaded, “Pick somebody else, I’m no good at speaking.”
“Isaiah said, “I am a man of unclean lips.
“David cried out, “My sin is ever before me.
“Peter begged, “Depart from me, for I am a wicked man.
“Paul groaned, “The evil which I would not, that I do.”

And therein lies the Good News for us.  We don’t have to worry about being qualified to be used by God.  Does anyone lack self-esteem, feel ungifted and inadequate?  Congratulations.  Those are just the qualifications God is looking for.  He specializes in using people who are not fit for the job.

God, who has all strength, doesn’t need our puny strengths.  But we do have something God doesn’t have, something God wants – our weakness.   Just as Jesus called the 12 in their stunning frailty, he also calls us to surrender our broken, crucified, weakness to him.  Only then will God’s power qualify us, empower us, unleash us, transform us to do his work.

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Luke 6:6-11

Reflection:

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh…

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”

Today’s gospel and first reading seem to send conflicting messages. In the gospel, there is Jesus, once again tweaking the noses of the scribes and the Pharisees (read: those who hold themselves in self-righteous judgement over everyone else). He reminds them, and us, that it is the spirit of the Law, not the letter, which is important. When he cures the man’s withered hand He shows that the Law must always be tempered with mercy. As He says in Mark, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” You can hear the same message today in many of Pope Francis’ homilies and meditations. This is the core lesson in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.

It appears that this message of mercy stands in stark contrast to the pronouncement from St. Paul to the Corinthians. He chides that congregation for their pride in the sin of one of their members. What does he recommend for that member that is causing this scandal? “Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh!” How does this jibe with the instruction for mercy? If we just take this line out of context, it does seem as if St. Paul is suggesting a harsh punishment. But, within context, a deeper picture emerges.

First, let’s look at the word ‘flesh.’ There is the obvious meaning of our physical bodies. However, St. Paul also speaks of a thorn in his ‘flesh’, where he uses the word to mean something beyond his body. Could it be here that Paul is using the word ‘flesh’ for that earthly side of our self, that small part of us which can become so entangled with our desires that it keeps us from deeper communion with God? Maybe this is the ‘flesh’ Paul wishes to be destroyed. Seen in this light, St. Paul is instructing the community in “tough love.” If one of the communities not only sins, but flaunts that sin, turn them loose. Perhaps they need to hit rock bottom to come to their senses. For Paul sees the result of turning the member loose is that that “his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”

My prayer today is that I find the strength to release those parts of myself that keep me from building up my community.

Talib Huff volunteers and works at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights. You may contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

Wisdom 9:13-18b
Philemon 9-10,12-17
Luke 14:25-33

 

Reflection:

The Cost of Discipleship

Quite a picture in today’s Gospel:  Jesus is travelling with great crowds; He stops and tells them that, to follow Him, you must “hate” your family and even your own life!  Strong words!  Discipleship is a great calling, but…hatred of family?  Carrying your own cross?  Challenging words to those who wanted to join His team and help spread His “Good News”…then…and now.

Jesus continues his discourse and invites his followers to consider how “costly” discipleship is.  He compares the decision to follow Him to building a tower (most likely winemaking) or going to war.  In both examples Jesus highlights that a person would be foolish to embark upon a major project without research, planning, resources, etc.

Today’s Gospel encourages us to consider our own discipleship, rooted in our Baptism “back when” in our lives.  No doubt we’ve been blessed in many ways thus far – and we’ve faced some difficult times in living out our faith in our 21^st Century world.  Jesus directly challenges us to go deeper in our hearts and check on our resources and our personal resolve:  Is Jesus 1^st and foremost in our lives?  Do “things”, or people, or possessions of any size or style get in the way?  Are we open to growth and change in our discipleship with Jesus?

“Hard”?  Yes!  “Impossible”?  No!  As noted in the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, God provides the grace, the Spirit, to help us.  And like Paul in his letter to Philemon, we have the support of one another in living as credible disciples of Jesus in our day and age — be we imprisoned or sick or elderly or experiencing any limitation.

Today we are invited to be grateful for the gift of our faith, cultivated in each of us by family and friends and our spiritual leaders.  Likewise, we are grateful for our 21^st Century discipleship and whatever vocation we’ve received from God.  We are encouraged to continue growing as disciples, accepting the challenges and crosses that are part of our lives – helping each of us to not just be “one of the crowd,” but truly unique, faith-filled and loving disciples.  May we be blessed as we credibly share our faith and our gifts with our needy sisters and brothers world-wide.

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is a member of the Passionist community in Chicago, Illinois.