Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
Matthew 10:17-22

Reflection:

It was an amazing Christmas experience. It was the same feast, yet different in so many ways.

I lived in the Philippines for two years when I was in my late twenties. I often smiled and rolled my eyes when I’d hear at Christmas time Bing Crosby on the radio singing, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” as I lounged under a palm tree in the tropics.  It was not going to happen.

Yet there was something intensely profound in celebrating Christmas there. There, in the midst of immense poverty in the squatter community where I lived, the hope of Christmas really meant something.

For nine days before Christmas Day, before the sun lights the morning sky, Filipinos rise for Simbang Gabi, which literally means “night church,” or often called Misa de Gallo, from the Spanish, “Mass of the Rooster.”  Either way, it was the middle of the night! Winding through tiny homes patched together with scraps of material often salvaged from the adjacent garbage dump, families made their way to the simbahan (church) carrying a “parol” or Filipino lantern shaped like the Star of Bethlehem.

They came in hope, much as I imagine the shepherds did to see a newborn child. They came with expectations, much as the wise men did. They came to a simple chapel, Simbahan ng Kristong Hari (Church of Christ the King), much as Mary and Joseph did to a shed in Bethlehem.

This rising contrasted so profoundly with the rising I remember as a child. We rose to run to the tree to see what Santa Claus brought.  Perhaps we can return this Christmas to the story Filipinos re-enact in their Simbang Gabi:

And the shepherds said to one another, “Do you hear what the angel is saying? Let us rise and go to see him.” All at once, as they were walking, the star stopped over the stable. The shepherds were amazed. How was it possible that the Son of God could be born in such a place? They went in to see him, and they found everything to be as the angel had told them. Then they kneeled down before him and adored him.

 

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and is the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

The Solemnity of Christmas

Scripture:

Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-6
John 1:1-18

Reflection:

Christmas is such an important liturgical event in the Church’s calendar that it have given us three Masses to lift up the importance of this day.  There is the Mass at Midnight, at Dawn, and for the Day.

The gospels for the first two Masses are taken from the Gospel of Luke, and the Mass for the Day, uses the Prologue from the Gospel of John.  The Vigil Mass for Christmas uses the Gospel of Matthew.

Luke is the only synoptic to develop the nativity event.  Luke is the only synoptic to use the term “Savior.”  It is the text used in the Midnight Mass.  We are told that Mary and Joseph have to leave Nazareth to go to Bethlehem, about eighty miles, to complete a census required by the Roman Government.  Every fourteen year such a census was demanded.  Right off we are told that Israel is occupied by a foreign forces.  Citizen regardless of their conditions must comply.  Israel was a land of anguish, destruction, forced deportation, filled with outcasts.

Luke also tells us that when it was time for Mary to deliver her child, there was no room for them in the Inn.  An Inn is simply a fenced in area where animals and their owners can settle.  The implication is that Mary and Joseph deliberately chose to stay in a stable, where there would be more privacy.

Luke further tells us the first to know about the birth of the child, were shepherds in a field tending their sheep.  What is unusual about this is that shepherds were considered outcasts of society.  In the eyes of society they were considered to be of shiftless and dishonest character.  In the Old Testament they were classified along with prostitutes, publicans, and tax collectors. They were selected to be the first to hear the Good News that the Messiah was born, the Savior.  They received the message and went to witness the Child wrapped I swaddling clothes, with Mary and Joseph.

It is important to note that the Shepherds announced to Mary and Joseph what they were told by the Angels.  They also proclaimed the good news to all they met, and were filled with joy.  It is not to be missed that the first to preach and proclaim the Good News of the Incarnation were these shepherds, the poor, the despised, the outcasts of society.  Everyone is responsible for sharing the Good News, no matter who we are, and what our circumstance may be.  And it also important for us to listen to the Good News, Salvation is present to us.

We are moved with humility, because God loved us so much the Son, became incarnate, one with us.

He was born in need, a prerequisite for the Reign of God.  He was born of a young couple on the road, in a manger.  He was first recognized  and proclaimed by shepherds, societies outcasts, not royalty, or wealthy, but the poor and lowly.

How do we get to Bethlehem?  Like Mary and Joseph, by our routine family responsibilities.  Like the shepherds, we need to listen for the messengers of God, who bring the Good News to us.  When this happens we are restored to wholeness, which the Incarnation brings.  We are rescued from sin and our alienation from God.  And, God become immanent.  Through us God is made present to the outcasts.  Jesus, who became one with us, saves us from destruction and self isolation.  Karl Barth said that “The Incarnation, is God’s search for human kind.”  This search is continued through you and me as we live out the mystery of God taking on human nature.  This continues through the Church.  This continues the reality that is Christmas.  Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

Fr. Ken O’Malley, C.P., is the formation director and local superior at Holy Name Passionist Community in Houston, Texas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Luke 1:67-79

Reflection:

The Dawning of Our Compassionate God

On this day before Christmas the liturgy brings a beautiful text to our prayerful attention. “The compassionate mercy of our God has dawned and visited us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Lk 1:78  This complex, poetic and beautiful text is hard to translate, but very clear in its meaning.

At Christmas a new day of God’s passionate mercy lights up the world!

In the original inspired Greek text the word for compassion, splagchnon, is much stronger than its English counterpart.   Splagchnon is full of deep emotion and comes from the innermost feelings of our anatomy.   The word means visceral or intestinal.   For the ancients it was a way of expressing what is deepest in our being.  God with the deepest mercy like the sun is dawning on us at the birth of Christ!  This message is right from God’s heart.   He is head over heels in love with us humans.   “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him.” Misericordiae Vultus Pope Francis

Christ is often compared to the sun’s rays.  “And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.” Mt 4:13   Thanks to modern physics we know a lot more about the light of the sun.   It is generally strongly agreed that light is not just a ray but also a stream of tinny energized particles called a quanta.  When we sit in the sun we are enveloped in billions of quanta coming from the core of the sun’s nuclear reactor which fuses at 27 million degrees.

Christ is the “light of the world”.  It is fitting we use so many lights at Christmas.   His coming at Christmas blankets the world in the life giving quanta of Christ.  This comes to us from the depths of the Father’s heart.  The Christ child is the most beautiful and precious gift that can come to us in this blessed season.  We must never leave it unwrapped under the tree of the cross!

 

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

Scripture:

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
Luke 1:57-66

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading for today, when the baby born to Elizabeth and Zechariah is about to be circumcised, the relatives are ready to name him after his father Zechariah, but Elizabeth corrects them and says, “No, he will be called John.” But the relatives protest, saying, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they turn and ask Zechariah, who has been mute since the birth of John was announced to him. Zechariah writes on a tablet, “John is his name.” Immediately Zechariah gains his speech and praises God.

When I reflected on this reading I was struck by the relatives’ protest: “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” In other words, “This is a completely new name for this family.” And it got me to thinking about the church’s response to the things going on in our world. Our faith has been handed down to us through the centuries from apostolic times. That will not change. But the church has always tried to make the Gospel message intelligible to each culture and society in which it finds itself. And sometimes that may require new terms that have not been heard before in order to help people deal with things that have not been seen before.

In Jesus’ time, His proclaiming of the kingdom was new and at times radical to those who first heard it. In many ways, the Gospel is still new and radical today. The challenge is to discern how the Gospel message can be translated into terms that people understand without compromising the basic truths of our faith. That has been the challenge of the Church almost from the beginning. When we face war and terror and deal with the implications of technology and the crisis facing our environment, we may need new terms to speak to the people of the 21^st century. But we do that as we have always been called to do it – with love and compassion and mercy, seeking peace and justice for all of God’s creation.

As we continue to make room for Jesus in our hearts this Advent, we pray for the grace to be open to how we communicate His love to the world of today.

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

Scripture:

1 Samuel 1:24–28
Luke 1:46-56

Reflection:

Yesterday, I attended the Christmas Concert and Living Nativity by the Choir and the children of our Basilica Parish.  I arranged the lights on our Monastery Christmas tree and arranged for the decorating of the Basilica in time for Christmas.  Today, I am writing out the employee Christmas cards and gifts as well as cards for each member of our Monastery Community.    You guessed it – Christmas is drawing near.  There is nothing like lively Christmas music and children telling their version of the birth of Christ to get you into the Christmas spirit.  And we do need to get into that spirit.

Our Scriptures today are very helpful.  We have two extraordinary women of faith to consider.  Hannah, who praises God for the gift of her son Samuel after years of waiting for this blessing from the Lord, comes to the Prophet Eli and presents her son to the Lord in the Prophet’s care.  In the gospel, we have Mary who bursts into God’s praises once Elizabeth acknowledges Mary as the “Mother of my Lord” who has come to visit her as she awaits the birth of her son, John the Baptist.  They are first of all women of faith.  They have each lived in a deep, abiding relationship with God.  They have poured out their hearts to God, have persisted in their petitions to God and have listened carefully to God’s answers through the very circumstances of life.  As a result, both Hannah and Mary are women of praise for God.  They  fully recognize God’s loving action in their lives and offer themselves in service to His divine design for life.  Because they  understand that it is God who loves first, they are caught up in praise.  They avoid the mistake of believing that this is all their own accomplishment.  Rather, they praise their God and revel in His love showered upon them.

This is not to say that Hannah and Mary are passive actors in the play of life.  On the contrary, they are women of faith who are preeminently women of action as well.  They accept God’s blessings in the persons of their sons and set about raising them in the spirit of that same faith and that same sense of service to God which characterizes their own lives.  Hannah is up and out the door to bring young Samuel to his apprenticeship with Eli.  She has a “get it done” attitude as she presents her son to the Lord.  Mary breaks into praise of God after hearing God’s Word through the Angel Gabriel, after accepting God’s Word into her womb, and after packing up and going to see Elizabeth who might need a bit of companionship and help as she gives birth in her old age to John the Baptist.  There is no sitting around with either of these women.

In this, perhaps, we find our own Christmas inspiration.  We often think of Christmas with a  kind of romantic notion.  We imagine a time of peace, comfort, shared happiness, a gentle snow falling (even if you live in Florida or Southern California).  We might hope the snow doesn’t last too long but the  image of a gentle snowfall with Bing singing “White Christmas” is very appealing.  We are able to sit back with a deep sigh of contentment.  Today’s scriptures and our two women of faith invite us to a very different understanding of Christmas.  We are called at Christmas to a time of action.  We are to set aside that  pessimistic moaning  we sometimes hear about generosity or kindness only surfacing at this time of the year and put our energy into heightening that generosity, compassion and kindness even if it wanes later.  We are invited by Hannah and Mary to be men and women of action this Christmas.  We are invited to take the initiative to mend the fences between us and a family member, to reach out to let others know how we are doing and inquire how they are even if it is only once during the year, to spend time with a sick neighbor or with Mom and Dad, Grandma or Grandpa in a nursing home, to affirm and encourage the children and teenagers in our lives – and to do so in a more energized and greater way during the Christmas season.  If we are looking to deepen our faith and live it more fully as disciples of action, Christmas has a natural pull on our hearts to do so now and with fervor.

As we close out our Advent this year, may God’s abundant Christmas blessings wash over us enlivening us to greater joyful action in living our faith this Christmas season.

Fr. Richard Burke, CP, is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province.  He lives at St. Ann’s Monastery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Scripture:

Zephaniah 3:14-18a
Luke 1:39-45

Reflection:

As we near the birthday of someone we know, a festive mood of joy and celebration prevails, which is usually the case, unless the birthday celebrant him or herself is not exactly joyous over the event.  In the case at hand, of course, most of us who are believers in the significance of the birth of the Lord Jesus among us have adequate reason to be joyful.

And our joy is well expressed by a woman in today’s gospel, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.  The entire gospel selection for the day is devoted to her exuberance at the visit of her young kinswoman, Mary, who has just arrived from relatively far away, perhaps not the case in our contemporary experience of travel, but certainly very much so in earlier, bygone, days.  Elizabeth is undoubtedly thrilled, and proud, at the considerable effort made by Mary to be near her at this particular time, since both women were pregnant with two very promising offspring.  And both were experiencing this, their first childbirth event, in rather remarkable ways.

Today’s gospel event is totally devoted to Elizabeth’s experience of joy.  Mary’s expression of the same sentiment will be forthcoming in the bible readings to follow.  Elizabeth’s joy is based on both her own remarkable experience of becoming pregnant at an advanced age, and also on what her now mute husband (Zechariah) was able to convey to her about his own part in this good news (which, at the moment, was not exactly good news for him, given his present affliction).  Elizabeth’s joy is undoubtedly enhanced by what had been a likely sorrowful experience that she and he had undergone throughout their marriage at their inability to beget a child, a blessed event eagerly anticipated by every married couple, especially in the Israel of that time.  So certainly neighbors and friends would have shared joy in learning of Elizabeth’s good fortune, having known of her sorrow prior to this.

We have a corresponding reading today from the Old Testament: the prophet Zephaniah.  That is, it too is a joyful piece, following on a painful ordeal.  However, the circumstances surrounding this prophecy and its joy differ from those found in the gospel piece, if, for no other reason than that it occurred in a different time period, several hundred years earlier than that presented in the day’s gospel.  But there is this common thread running throughout both this prophecy and the visitation event.  They both occur after a drought of any such good, joyful news.  For just as Elizabeth and Zechariah went through some sad days in their marriage, so the city of Jerusalem, where Zephaniah lived, had had its experience of sorrow over the tragedies and calamities that had been inflicted on it by its enemies over the recent centuries, clearly permitted by the Lord as a result of the city’s sinful behavior.  But the prophet Zephaniah indicates today that this is now a thing of the past, and that Jerusalem is to enjoy a period of peace and prosperity.

So in both readings we have a mixture of joy and sorrow.  And we note the sequence in which they occur: sorrow first, then joy.  And it leads to the question: is this not usually the case, in the lives of all of us?  That the sorrow-joy sequence is more commonly experienced, than joy-sorrow events?   This is hardly true across the board, of course, but it seems that, within our own limited experience of things, the impact of sorrow/joy, in that sequence, is more compatible with our make-up, than the sequence of joy/sorrow.  Why is that, since each involves the same elements?  Perhaps this is because it is “easier” to enter into, first, sorrow, and then joy, than it is to enter into, first, joy, and then sorrow, especially if our joyful moment is already anticipating a sorrowful event to happen.  Whereas anticipating a joyful event about to occur can at times dilute a current experience of sorrow.  Going to the dentist, with a plan to attend a party afterward, is easier to undergo than to go to a party, while planning to make a visit to the dentist’s office afterward.  They each involve similar experiences, but in different time sequences.

Both Mary and Elizabeth were coming off of stressful moments in their lives (Mary’s encounter with the angel, and Elizabeth’s long childlessness), making their experience of mutual joy at the time of Mary’s visit to her cousin thoroughly understandable, as was Zephaniah’s joy at the relief now available to the city of Jerusalem and its people following their long-standing subservience to an enemy.  And, in general, it seems joy is more readily shared than sorrow.  So we look forward to Christmas and the good news that the angels plan to announce over the grazing lands near Bethlehem.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Scripture:

Micah 5:1-4a
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45

Reflection:

The readings for this Fourth Sunday of Advent, the final Sunday before the Feast of Christmas, ponder some of the mysteries that underlie God’s birth into the human family.

Micah prophesies that, when the Savior comes into the world, he will be born in a place so small and insignificant that it is not even identified “among the clans of Judah.”  Yet, despite the insignificance of the place of his birth, the Savior will “stand firm and shepherd his flock…”and “his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth….”

In the Gospel Luke recounts for us Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, after the angel revealed to Mary that her cousin, too, was “with child.”  Elizabeth, too old to conceive, and Mary, who had no relations with a man, both pregnant through the power of God.  Two women, who couldn’t possibly bring forth life, are the mothers of the two greatest figures in human history: John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world.

Through these readings we are invited to recall that our salvation comes through the gracious goodness of God.  Our hope does not come from our plans, our talents or our accomplishments.  When God comes into our lives, he does so from places we’ve never heard of, through people who are often beneath our notice and in events that we least expect.  Mary and Elizabeth illustrate for us the attitude of heart we must cultivate, a deep trust in God and an openness to God’s invitations.

 

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P., is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a
Luke 1:5-25

Reflection:

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.” Luke 1:13

As Christmas Day draws near, the Church invites us to tap into our deepest hopes for new life. Today’s Scripture thrusts us into the lives of two families that had remained faithful to God. Both longed to have children. One had not given up hope, and the other had resigned itself to being childless.

The human heart has longings and desires that may never be realized. When we are young, we long to be older and we long to be “someone.” We look at the things that may make us happy, successful and secure, like a fulfilling career, a family and a peaceful community. When some of these longings are lacking, it seems that our life is unfulfilled, no matter how good everything else is.

In our Mass readings for today, we have the tale of two families. Both families seemed to have good lives. Both families were faithful to God. In fact, Zechariah was a priest with privileges. He was chosen to enter the Sanctuary of the temple and burn incense. But in both families, there was one thing lacking: children. That longing for children had never left them, as good as their lives were.

Then God broke into their lives. Once God brought new life into their world, their lives changed. God’s gift to them came with responsibilities. For so many of us, the experience of God transforms our lives. We become more aware of our frailties and much more aware of God’s love.

In our Christmas preparations, it is very easy to lose touch with our deepest longings and our greatest desires. We become overwhelmed with the superficial wrapping of the Christmas season. But every so often, we stop to take a deep breath and enjoy a quiet moment. It is then that we allow the unfilled longings to come to the front. And it is precisely there, where we encounter God. This is when new life happens! This is when we experience Christmas.

May we never be so busy this Christmas that we don’t recognize when God answers our deepest longings!

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Christ the King Community in Citrus Heights, California.