Daily Scripture

Scripture:

1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1a
Mark 2:13-17

Reflection:

In the first chapter of Mark’s gospel Jesus announces the Kingdom and calls people to a change of heart. He then shows himself as one who has power to heal and drive out demons. A new voice is being heard in Israel and a miraculous power breaks into the ordinary lives of men and women. Jesus caused a sensation. People want to see him and hear what he had to say. Even representatives of the religious leadership join the crowds to size him up. Up to this point Jesus hadn’t really broken any expected molds. There were prophets and healers before him in Israel.

But Jesus was about to reveal something that would become fully known and understood only in the light of his death and resurrection. Four men carry a paralytic to Jesus, but can’t get near him because of the crowds. Not to be stopped, they go up on the roof, separate the tiles, and lower the mat upon which paralytic was lying into Jesus’ presence.

We can sense their enthusiasm and determination by their boldness.

Jesus senses much more: faith! We expect Jesus to act as he had done before and cure the paralytic. But the does a new thing. “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Wow! The scribes are shocked. “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”  They got that right.

“Child, your sins are forgiven!” These are words that people longed to hear. They are words that I need to hear. May my wounded heart always have the faith that brings me to the sacrament of Reconciliation to hear the same words spoken to me by Christ’s representative: “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22a
Mark 2: 1-12

Reflection:

The world can be a scary place. It is true today as it was four thousand years ago in the time of Samuel the prophet. The Hebrew people had occupied the Promised Land, more or less. They were united in language and in their shared experience of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But they lived in separate clans, on both sides of the Jordan River away from the Mediterranean Sea.  The coast was still controlled by the Canaanites. To the southwest was the powerful kingdom of Egypt and to the north and east the ancient civilization of the Sumerians. For two hundred years the Hebrews maintained their freedom, uniting temporarily under a “judge”, a tribal chief who had the ability to lead in war. This ad hoc arrangement was deemed unsatisfactory by thoughtful men, the elders, who come to Samuel to ask for a king.

What does God think of civil authority and power? Obviously the writer of first Samuel had his concerns. Civil power and authority can be abused and given human nature probably will be. Our text has the Lord almost reluctantly saying: “Grant their request and appoint a king to rule them”.

2016 is an election year for us in the United States. The question of leadership is on the minds of Americans. In prayerful reflection each of us in conscience will participate in primaries and then in the November general election to choose a president for the next four years. Like the Hebrews four thousand years ago, it is important for us and the world that we choose well.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Samuel 1:1-8
Mark 1:14-20

Reflection:

Immediately they left their nets and followed Jesus.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Peter and his brother Andrew left their nets behind and followed Jesus.  James and his brother John not only left their nets behind, they left their father, to follow Jesus.  They gave up their security of home and income.  They left behind their old lives to follow Jesus into a risky venture.  In the process, they stumbled and fell into the mud over and over.

Knowing that, are we ready to give up our nets? I, for one, have tried to be practical about this call to discipleship.  I’ve told myself it makes no sense to leave my nets behind.  I can follow Jesus and still carry my nets with me, or more accurately. wrap myself in my nets, like a shawl or security blanket.  But the trouble is that those nets become heavier as I try to follow Jesus.  My feet get tangled in those nets.  Like the first disciples, I stumble and fall, over and over.

But then, repentance– metanoia, change of heart and direction–was never meant to be easy.  What, then, is Jesus asking us to leave behind?  Could it be those nets of insecurity and our need to be in control? Or of self-doubt and inadequacy about how we can even respond to God’s call.  There are so many nets we clutch.  Nets of anger, inability to forgive, to forgive ourselves as well as others.  Could it be any net that separates us from the love of God?

Nevertheless, Jesus calls us over and over again.  And therein may lie the Good News.  Jesus calls us to be his disciples, not because we are perfect, but because we are weak.  We are called not to run away from ourselves, but rather to enter more deeply into who we truly are — sons and daughters of God, created in his image;  that just as Jesus humbled himself to share in our humanity, he calls us to share in his divinity.  That is Good News worth believing, worth sharing.

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

The Baptism of the Lord

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Acts 10:34-38
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

Reflection:

Today brings the Christmas season to a close. Like most of you, we celebrated Christmas with a bit too much food and drink and a sometimes mind-numbing schedule of visiting, gift-giving, shopping (and then returning).  For my family this is the day to strip trees of their ornaments and “un-deck” the halls, to put away Nativity figurines and the once-again tangled sets of lights.

As much as I tried to focus on the “reason for the season” through it all, it is tempting to linger at the crib as more of a spectator than a participant in the story. Not today. As we now leave the manger, we face the fact: Babies don’t stay babies for long (as my children and grandchildren constantly remind me). They and we must grow up. So today, we are focused not on mangers and cute babies, scruffy shepherds and kind kings, but on the waters of life and death, on adult choices and responsibilities, and on the real “reason for the season.” Jesus was born and so are we. The Spirit that rests on Jesus at his baptism is the same Spirit that comes to rest on each of us. Through our baptism, each of us is a child of God, made in the divine image, breathing divine breath and capable of achieving the impossible through God’s grace.

This is the culminating message of the season: Our faith is not merely about honoring Christ through remembering his birth, but accepting the challenge of discipleship, opening ourselves to being baptized not just with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We are to be adult Christians with adult faith. Now more than ever, we need people living out the call of baptism.

I think I will get out my baptismal certificate and reflect on the dreams and hopes my parents had for me that day. Then I will expand my focus and reflect on the dreams and hopes that God has for me. I have been given so much. I pray that through the grace of this feast, rather than returning to my work exhausted from celebrating, I can return to my work renewed in awareness of my responsibility to manifest Christ and be an instrument of God’s loving and healing power. I hope I gain courage to challenge those who discriminate or promote violence based on another’s skin color, culture, religion or political beliefs. I hope that wherever I go I can stop hateful speech in its tracks and refuse to stoop to humanity’s lowest common denominator. I hope I can find ever-new ways to advocate for justice, to abandon gossip, to reach out in mercy and compassion, and to let God’s light shine through me to a dark and weary world.

Today, God says to me and to each one of us “You are my beloved child – in you I am well-pleased!” Our task is to speak those words to those whose ears have grown deaf, and continue the work of Christmas that John and Jesus began so long ago. There is so much to do. Can we start anew today?

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/.

Scripture:

1 John 5:5-13
Luke 5:12-16

Reflection:

I can almost see John standing with outreached hands saying, “Don’t you get it?  What else can I say to you to make you understand?”  That is John’s message in today’s First Reading.  He tells us water, blood, the spirit and human understanding should make the point.  But beyond that, don’t you hear the Father?  If you believe, you will have eternal life, and if you believe, you will know that Jesus has brought us eternal life.  In this reading, John is speaking to a people who for the most part didn’t seem to have a very strong belief in eternal life.  But he is also speaking to us.  This may be a good time to think a bit about how strongly we actually do believe in eternal life.  The average life expectancy for humanity is 66.7 years.  If you compare that to eternity, it’s not much at all and yet our focus is definitely on this life.  We put so much of ourselves into celebrations—birthdays, Christmas, Halloween—but it seems like our preparation for eternal life is an afterthought.  If our Faith was stronger, wouldn’t we be spending most of our time preparing for eternal life and less time preparing for Halloween?  Wouldn’t we be overjoyed when someone enters the Kingdom?  And wouldn’t we live lives that show that we know that 66, 70, 80 or even a hundred years of this life are but nothing compared to eternal life?

As we begin this year of 2016, let’s ask ourselves, what will I do this year to get ready for eternal life?  But let’s also give ourselves a break; after all, we’re only human.  Hopefully this year of mercy will encourage us to be merciful to our neighbors but also to be merciful to ourselves and to remember that we can bathe in God’s mercy.

In the Gospel, Jesus performs a great act of mercy when he cures the leper.  And he goes one step further, when he tells the leper to show himself to the priest and present the offering so they will know he is clean.  Jesus knew that if the leper tried to resume a normal life without having this seal of approval, he would continue to be shunned by family and friends.  Jesus didn’t just cure the leper, he cared about the leper.

Do we do acts of mercy, truly caring about the recipient, and do we remember to love ourselves as we love others?  May 2016 be a year of strengthening our beliefs, living our Faith, and practicing mercy as we follow the path Jesus laid for us.

 

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

Scripture:

1 John 4:19-5:4
Luke 4:14-22

Reflection:

The other morning I confirmed a “friend request” on Facebook before beginning my morning prayer. That diversion led to looking at the pictures and reading the latest news feeds of my friends and family. Fifteen or twenty minutes later I finally got down to my morning meditation, this time however, bringing my friends and family with me making that session a rich and I think fruitful experience of prayer.

This is quite a change from my former morning pattern of reading some online newspapers, and wondering what was happening in “the” world and what am I doing there.  Reading Facebook put me more in “my” world and I must say that made me much happier and gave me a sense of “God with me” Emanuel. I wonder if that insight isn’t too different from the people of Nazareth’s response to Jesus’s visit with them in the temple that we read in today’s gospel selection: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” (LK 4:22) Help me God to see You in my life, in the real people and events You bless me with each day.

Think I’ll try spending time on Facebook tomorrow before sitting down to prayer.

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

Scripture:

1 John 4:7-10
Mark 6:34-44

Reflection:

Decorating the Christmas tree this holiday season has got me thinking.  Have you ever reflected on the items we place on the top of our Christmas trees, as compared to the items we place beneath our trees?  Many people put a star or an angel at the top of their tree. Underneath, people put presents, a nativity set, a train set, or perhaps a small village.  We tend to put the things of heaven at the top of trees and the things of earth underneath them.  It is almost as though the Christmas tree has this ability to connect us again.  Symbolically, the tree unites the heavens and the earth.  And the space in between we fill with ornaments, decorations and lights.  These are all things which lift us beyond the hum-drums of daily routine.   Many times the ornaments themselves are symbolic of family experiences.

Fascinating, for so many people these few days of Christmas actually change us. We change our schedules, our priorities, and we let go of productivities. We literally move into a different frame of time and in doing so the magic of reconnecting happens.  We take time to connect and reconnect with family and friends.  And suddenly, right there in our midst is the Prince of Peace.  It’s delightful and miraculous how we actually live for a few days out of the truth of this connection. We afford ourselves time to tell sacred stories and to listen to how the one from heaven comes to us.  And for a brief time, we find ourselves at one with God.

I noticed this year, that it really doesn’t matter how many unexpected people stop by.  There’s always enough to go around;  enough food, enough hospitality, enough laughter, and certainly enough  stories.  There’s enough for everyone.  Mixed in with this is a sense of sharing in the blessedness of the season and never any worries of scarcity.  Isn’t this the kingdom which Jesus proclaims?  When I read today’s gospel, I read it from the satisfaction of this blessed Christmas season.  Where some only saw scarcity and limitation, Jesus says there is enough for everyone, not just the 5000 men but also anyone else who would have showed up.  Jesus looks beyond the smallness of a limited existence.  He looks beyond what merely exists at the bottom of the tree to the abundance in that place where heaven and earth come together.  He is able to take, bless, break, and give beyond the limitations of what his disciples see.

Two chapters later in Mark’s gospel Jesus challenges his disciples to reflect on this experience.  He asks them specifically about the numbers to jog their memory and have them recall that it is more than a miraculous event.  As we do the same thing today, we see the event begins with the mercy of Jesus seeing the crowd.  He then spends time teaching them as if to get them to look beyond their mere existence.  And as he begins to raise his eyes to heaven, I can’t help but think that those watching Jesus began to raise theirs too, if only to see what Jesus is seeing.  And somehow that star, sitting at the top of the tree, shines light on that humble little place of our existence.   I love GK Chesterton’s quote that logicians are seeking to get the heavens into their head, while the poet only asks to get his head into the heavens.

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

Scripture:

1 John 3:22 – 4:6
Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25

 

Reflection:

Epiphany:  The Manifestation…Continued

Yesterday we joyfully celebrated the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the “manifestation” of Jesus to the world in the welcoming of the Magi by the humble Holy Family of Bethlehem.  From our vantage point, centuries later, we too proclaim:  “Jesus is the loving Savior of all people, without exception!”

Today’s Gospel selection from Matthew helps us appreciate the entire life of Jesus as a “manifestation” or revelation of God’s power, God’s mercy, God’s love.  Jesus preaches, teaches and calls for personal repentance; He cures every disease and illness, even the possessed, the paralyzed, the leprous, those wracked with pain, the outcasts.  His love reaches out and grants new life for everyone!

The Gospel selection goes on to say that great crowds from many parts of the area followed Jesus, no doubt looking for additional “manifestations” via the miracles and powerful teachings.  Their motivation?  Perhaps, like so many of us, they were a tad bit selfish…

Throughout the ensuing centuries, countless women and men have “met” Jesus, then selflessly left everything and followed Jesus — not just to view another miracle or two, but to freely give their lives in promoting the Good News of Jesus.  One such rather contemporary disciple is St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the 19^th Century foundress of the first women’s religious congregation in the United States — and the first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized.  Her special disciple’s love included families, children, the poor of her day:  each person prompted Mother Seton to be generous in loving service of their needs, with her life rooted in the person of Jesus.

You and I have received that same Jesus-manifestation in our day.  We have our 21^st century sicknesses, our lack of direction, our selfishness; likewise, our world suffers from violence and lack of respect for all of creation.  Today Jesus continues to speak to our hearts as this Christmas season continues to inspire us, and He challenges us with great human examples such as St. Elizabeth Ann.  The question of the day:  Can we say “yes” to Jesus, have a true change of heart, and lovingly follow and serve Him in our day?  With the Magi of old, with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, we have seen the Lord…and this Good News needs to be shared!

May God help us to say “yes” by our lives, in both our words and deeds — and may the world be ever-blessed by the person of Jesus!

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