Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Jeremiah 11:18-20
John 7:40-53

Reflection:

You may have noticed that throughout this week’s Gospel passages from John there has been strong confrontation and criticism from the religious and political leaders towards Jesus’ compassionate acts of healing in public and on the sacred Sabbath. On two occasions, including today, people of prominence and power recognize that “that there has never been anyone who has spoken like him.” (John 7:46) Yes, even to this day, piety, virtue and compassion (all expressed through non-violent engagement with power) are labeled as weak and ineffective.  Yet in Jesus the qualities in a genuinely virtuous person fascinates, invites, attracts and challenges.

Joseph G. Donders comments in With Hearts on Fire, that Jesus “brought all his human powers and capacities to fulfillment as the Spirit prompted him. He was fully alive, an admired and loved human being because he was loving, just, courageous and unpretentious. His spiritual vibrations were immediately felt by all. He changed everyone at the first contact; some loved him intensely, others hated him fiercely.” (p. 80) Our prayer time can simply be placing ourselves into His presence, as did so many whom we read about in the Gospels. We will resonate with him.

An incident comes to mind when Pope John Paul II visited the U.S. and, the then vice-president Walter Mondale commented as the Pope was leaving the country. “You have unleashed the best and most generous sentiments within us and given us courage to go forward.” Without counting the cost, nor looking for results, our daily activities will channel in some way, shape or form the healing power of Jesus within and around us.

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

Scripture:

Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Reflection:

…he himself went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

There was a popular tradition in Jesus’ day that the Messiah would simply appear supernaturally or come out of a hidden place suddenly, mysteriously.  For many, Jesus did not pass this test.  After all, they knew him when.

In a culture without surnames, the place of origin was a means of personal identification. “Jesus son of Joseph” or “Jesus of Nazareth,” or “Joseph of Arimathea” were typical identifiers.  Understandably, the crowd examined Jesus on an earthly level. And since they could trace Jesus’ human origins, he was disqualified from messianic status.

Even so, Jesus cried out in the temple in irony, “You both know me and know where I am from; and I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know.

You think you know me and my origin, Jesus said.  And while there is a sense in which that is true, he came from Nazareth, in a far more importance sense they do not.  They did not recognize the Messiah, the one who came from God and knows him with profound intimacy.

Truth be told, Jesus has never been easy to recognize.  At his birth in a stable, few recognized him.  Throughout his public ministry, on the cross, at his resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, few recognized him.

How then are we to recognize the Messiah?  Today’s Psalm 34 gives us a clue.  “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.”  And our best example of this spirit of brokenness is Jesus himself.  “On the night he was betrayed, he took bread…broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is broken for you.’” (1Cor11:23)

During this Lenten season the Church has urged us to make our journey in that same spirit of brokenness in order to prepare for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  Are we prepared to recognize the Messiah who comes to us “not openly, but as it were secretly” – such as in a piece of broken bread or in a cup of wine?

 

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:8-15
John 5:17-30

Reflection:

 

John’s Gospels – Our Final Guide to the Passover of Jesus

In our fourth week of Lent until Easter the lectionary turns to the reading of John’s gospel. It is a glimpse of an ancient lectionary going back to the time when Lent was a three week period. With John we will accompany Jesus to his Passover from death to life, and we will take our place with the beloved disciple who rests upon Jesus heart just as Jesus rests upon the heart of the Father. Jesus is the one who is the way to the Father, and invites us to be one with him on the journey to the Father.

Today’s gospel is the second of three gospel readings this week that make up chapter five. We can approach John in two ways. A commentary can help because our readings are not easily followed, there is little story to hold our attention. A second way is to prayerfully allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to practical connections between John’s words and familiar situations of daily life. The first readings, prayers and prefaces of Lent all help to see invitation.

When chapter five began yesterday we saw the division between Jesus and the Pharisees over the Sabbath. The leaders said they are the custodians of the Sabbath but Jesus says he is one with the Father who is the Lord of the Sabbath. Today Jesus tells us why he can say this: he has authority from the father and brings life. Tomorrow this chapter ends as Jesus invokes three witnesses to support him: John the Baptist, the Father and Scripture. The leaders however will condemn Jesus for making himself one with the Father.

A practical application of John’s words could show us how yesterday Jesus loves the poor. The healed man of Bethesda never says, ‘thank you’. He places his trust with those in power more than with Jesus. He does not have the courage of the man healed at Siloam nor the faith of the official who believes Jesus will heal his dying son. In short this man is poor! Thirty-eight years of sitting in the back row has not developed the best in him. Jesus takes all the initiative with him and loves him no less. Jesus invites our selfless love upon those who do not say, ‘thank you’. But more, we can see Jesus loving us in our poorness?

Or today Jesus defends himself and at the same time reveals gifts to us, ‘As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.’ ‘Whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life.’

‘I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.’ We also give our best to explain or be of service and are not always received. Sometimes children, friends or students and those we serve turn a deaf ear to our gifts. We may feel a dying when our best is rejected. Like Jesus let us trust the Father whom we serve and who loves us as he loves the Son. That cross or that particular dying will be raised up and become life giving in the mystery of God’s saving plan.

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

 

Scripture: 

Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
John 5:1-16

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the ill man to take up his mat and walk.  In reading this Gospel, our thoughts turn to the Pharisees’ condemning of Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. But there is much more here.  For Jesus, this is a teaching moment, and as usual, He is teaching us more than one lesson.  Jesus does not just heal on the Sabbath, he also tells the man to pick up his mat and walk on the Sabbath giving the Pharisees reason to condemn the man and Jesus for his instruction to the man.  But wait, go back a bit in the Gospel.  What else does it say?  This man had been ill for 38 years and he had been waiting to be helped into the pool for healing.  But he was always pushed out of the way and “had no one to put him into the pool.”  The words then are as much a reprimand to the community for not caring for their brother as they are a reprimand to the Pharisees for their following the letter of the law to the exclusion of the spirit of the law.  Because we no longer observe the Sabbath in the ways it was observed in the days of the New Testament, or for that matter even as it was observed in the last century, it is obvious to us that the Pharisees and the neighbors and community of the ill man were blatantly in the wrong.  Taking care of the sick should have been their priority not following the strict letter of this law.  By curing the ill man on the Sabbath, Jesus was making sure that attention would be given to what He was doing.  This should give us pause.  We easily see that performing a miracle, curing the sick is more important than the rule of keeping the Sabbath, but do we also see how Jesus is speaking to us and to our world?

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus tells us to love one another, to follow the works of mercy and the beatitudes as well as obey the Commandments.  How many of us take the time and energy to live this message, how many of us live as Disciples of Christ, keeping the spirit of the law, even when it means we don’t follow the letter of the law?  How many of us let our bigotry, our fear, our discrimination become more important than caring for and loving our neighbor?

In this year of mercy, may we continue to be merciful to one another and to ourselves.

 

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 65:17-21
John 4:43-54

Reflection:

He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,
and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
They shall live in the houses they build,
and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant. Isaiah 65:20

Those are strange words as I go about my days burying many of my friends and family in their 50’s 60’s and 70’s. Ok, a few have reached their 80’s and 90’s, but those are the exceptions, not the rule that Isaiah talks about in today’s first reading. What am I doing wrong or is Isaiah just making wild claims to stretch my imagination?

At the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the “special” school where I taught and worked in some capacity or another for 40 plus years, I was signing my name at the reception after all the talks and formal ceremonies for the occasion when one young man in his 40’s said: “I know that signature. It’s on all the reading awards you gave me when I was a student here. My mother has saved every one of them. Mr. O’Donnell, you taught me to read!” Maybe Isaiah wasn’t just dreaming. Maybe I can bring a little hope into this marvelous ever expanding world I find myself in. Thank you, Isaiah. I’m going to keep trying and doing my little bit to bring about that New Jerusalem you envisioned.

 

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

Scripture:

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Reflection:

Have we been merciful as the Father is merciful?

During the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has asked us to do a number of things, but two stick out to me: go to confession and to be compassionate.

Through the sacrament of reconciliation we are given the opportunity to bring our sins to God, lay them at his feet and be washed in his forgiveness. Yet, how often do we find ourselves right back where we started not a few days later? And how often are we willing to forgive others the way we have been forgiven? We are called to have contrition for our sins, to express what we have done. To attempt to fix what is broken in our lives through compensation and penance. And finally, to correct our lives for the future and sin no more. Through this sacrament, we become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17); a creation made in the image and likeness of its creator.

The Gospel reading calls us to be compassionate and merciful like the Father. We can relate to each of the characters, the prodigal son, the older son and the father. The prodigal son is us when we have sinned, those times in which we have fallen away from God and are struggling to come back. The beautiful scene where he is embraced by his father, reminds us of the unending love we are given by God the Father. The older son is us when we do not want to forgive those who seek or need our forgiveness. We want to hold a grudge or even find them “unworthy”. “I have been faithful and they haven’t, why should they be celebrated?”. The father reminds the older son in the Gospel to not dwell on this, that everything he has is his, and to rejoice in the fact that his brother has come back to the fold.

While we may identify with the sons from time to time, the real focus here is the role of the father. “ I am the son of a compassionate father. I am an heir”. Henry Nouwen The Return of the Prodigal Son.  As the heirs of our heavenly Father, we are called to carry on the compassion that we are so freely given. We are to strive to live in His image and be like him through forgiveness of others. We are called to be like the father, to open up our arms and just love. He did not question, or reprimand, but opened up his heart and home to the son who had squandered his inheritance.

During this Lenten season, let us ask God to help us let go of the competitive and petty nature of this world. Let us love as He has loved, and forgive as we have been forgiven.

Kim Valdez is the Pastoral Associate at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Hosea 6:1-6
Luke 18:9-14

Reflection:

Jesus, the master storyteller always has a way of setting stories up and allowing the listener to chose sides.  We see this again in today’s Gospel.  It is the famous parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee.

Face it, the résumé of the Pharisee is stellar!   Just look at all his qualities, and look at the things he does.  In church lingo he is the ideal parishioner:  he prays, he fasts, and he tithes.  He is a deeply religious man making me think that he has a genuine fear of the Lord.   He hasn’t taken things which he hasn’t honestly earned.  He is faithful to his wife, patient with his children, and loyal to his friends.    He is disciplined in life and honest with his business.  He doesn’t chase after money or women.  Here is a guy who comes to church and believes he is abundantly blessed by God.  You have to give the guy credit.  He is a good person, and he knows it.

If we contrast him to the tax collector you would be keeping your distance.  The tax collector is not a person who tells you the truth.  No one would really want him to be part of their faith community.  He’s not trustworthy.  Notoriously, he is good at swindling, and can negotiate deals with power people who are against you.  He can take what he wants from you leaving you with no recourse.  Look at the company he keeps, his friends are cheats and thieves as well.  He is notorious for taking your hard earned money and giving it to the international dictator.  The truth is, you would never invite this man to your house for dinner.   And now the stage is set.  Whose side do you choose?

The majority of rational people would choose the honest, God fearing, law abiding Pharisee.  And yet this religious person’s judgment of himself as superior to the tax collector is exactly why Jesus told the parable.  Remember, Luke tells us that Jesus addresses this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.

This praying Pharisee not only thinks he is better than the other man in the temple, he has gone so far as to stand before God and declare himself better that the rest of humanity!  And while the things he may say about himself are true, he certainly neglects the shadow side of himself.  He really doesn’t see his whole self.  One could say he is living a partial lie.  Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.  All of his bragging won’t lead him into God’s grace or gift him with salvation.

Like the people in Jesus’ day, most of us have been taught to strive everyday to be better than this tax collector.  And many of us have been conditioned to believe that the better of a person we are the more credit or reward we will have somewhere along the line.  Again and again the Pharisee in us pops out when we are challenged with people we would judge as beneath us.  And at the end of the day, the tables turn on us, because the person we would choose in this story is not the one Jesus declares to be justified.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Hosea 14:2-10
Mark 12:28-34

Reflection:

 

No Greater Commandment

Today’s Gospel opens with a question of a scribe:  “Which is the first of all the commandments?”  The question presented to Jesus by the scribe was not an idle one, for the rabbis of the time had determined that there were 613 distinct commandments in the law – both great and small, and very great and very small!  Sadly, some observed merely the letter of the law without regard to its spirit, despite the warnings of the prophets throughout Israel’s history.  No doubt, the scribe was searching for a deeper understanding.

Jesus’ answer, put simply:  Love God…with all your heart, soul, mind, strength!  And…Love Your Neighbor…as yourself!  That’s it:  the letter of the Law and the spirit of the Law, simply stated…and supported by the teaching and example of Jesus himself.

Years ago, we in the Church were presented with a number of smaller rules and regulations for the disciplined living our Christian life…even the Lenten season.  Fasting, abstinence and even decorum in church had us watching our watches, measuring liquids, avoiding meat flavoring, and covering our heads and folding our hands.  These rules served a purpose, and today spark a variety of memories both meaningful and at times humorous.

We continue to have our “guidelines” for Life and Lent and Holy Communion (today, Friday in Lent:  abstinence from meat).  And yet we enjoy a greater freedom that encourages a more mature and fruitful love of God, neighbor and self:  to be people of ever greater intimacy with God, to take an active interest in others – especially to the neediest of our sisters and brothers – and to have a healthy love for self that encourages fulfillment in the living of our vocations.  True love of God, neighbor and self is open to all sorts of expression, in areas of life both great and small.

As we continue our Lenten journey and today hear Jesus’ encouragement to love, I’m reminded of my patron saint, St. John the Apostle, who tradition has lived to a very old age.  He became so weak that he had to be carried to the celebrations of the Eucharist, and his advanced age also limited his preaching.  Nonetheless he insisted on sharing this same message at each celebration:  “My children, love one another.”  Questioned about this repeated (and often boring) message, he calmly replied that he was simply repeating the command of Jesus…love!  The all-inclusive command.

As Hosea stated today:  God loves us freely.  Jesus Crucified shares that love with us this Lenten season.  May that Love transform our lives, and our world!

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