Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10
Matthew 13:1-9

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seed. For me, of the seeds which are kept from producing fruit, the ones which are most applicable to my life and my experience with others are the seeds sown on rocky soil, and the seeds sown among thorns.

I have seen people who have been thrown for a loop by some great tragedy or difficulty, and have lost hope and lost their faith. Some of them come back to their faith, realizing that God has neither punished nor forgotten them. But others do not. In my own life, I have seen where anxiety has kept me from sharing the Good News as much as I could have. So, there are obstacles to producing good fruit, but the Sower of the seed has given us grace and the Holy Spirit, and we are still able to bear fruit "a hundred or sixty or thirty-fold."

What might producing good fruit look like? I think it involves sewing some seeds ourselves. The seeds we have do not come from us, but we are called to spread them around as much as we can. These are the seeds of God’s love and mercy in Jesus Christ. They are the seeds of compassion and understanding. They are the seeds of encouragement and joy. They are the seeds of peace and justice. These are the seeds which the world needs sown now more than ever, and just as Jesus has sown good seeds in us, may we not only bear good fruit, but pass the seeds along so that others can join us, so that the fruit we have in Jesus may be multiplied over and over again!

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is on staff at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

 

Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene

Scripture:

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20
John 20:1-2, 11-18

Reflection:

Today marks the 51st anniversary for five of my classmates and I professing our vows to live religious life through the charism of St. Paul of the Cross. On one level these actions taken by the six of us at the ages of 19 and 20, in 1963, appear to be minuscule in the economy of life’s realities. Upon which of the world’s theaters of violence and the loss of life must we ponder today? But who are we to say which actions are minuscule or insignificant? Is there or is there not, a new creation in our midst, "see, everything has become new!" (2 Cor. 5:17)

The Word has Mary Magdalene standing outside the opened tomb of God’s dead body, only to weep the more in utter confusion "not knowing where they had laid him." The Word from the Song of Songs has us harken back to the bride "seeking whom her soul loves." She cannot find him…"I sought him, but found him not ; I called him, but he gave no answer." the bride searches, "I will seek him whom my soul loves." If the Lover is for real, that Person will find us.

Speaking only for myself, I have found that the Passionist way of life, with the determinants of the four vows,(chastity, poverty, obedience, and, to promote devotion to the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ) has lead me in countless ways and in countless times through situations of apparent loss, whether it has been a talent which just didn’t come forth at the right time, a situation that has presented no immediate solutions or quick fixes, or a reality to be faced that will take more time and patience than I believe I have. These are all situations beyond my grasp.  And yet, Jesus says directly to Mary, "do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father." But he does not hold her back from going and declaring to the fearful disciples that she had seen Him alive.

So, too, we must not hold back from continuing to announce life and hope in the very situations where there is "apparently" none. Our daily actions of mercy, sacrifice, and other-centered ness reveal the new creation that is revealed in its own time and manner through the Plans which the Father and Son reveal. It is up to me to pursue the situations in my own reality with hope, and allowing God to continue to speak to us each in our own intimate way.

 

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

Scripture:

Jeremiah 14:17-22
Matthew 13:36-43

Reflection:

Sunflowers and Swords

Sunflowers are dazzling displays when they bloom in country fields against a blue sky.  Sunday’s paper had two pictures of blooming sunflowers.  One picture was in the Ukraine, the other near the Gaza strip.  However the beautiful, blooming sunflowers were nestled in fields along with the swords of violence. 

The Ukraine field was next to a row of bodies from an airliner of innocents downed by a missile, a deadly sword of violence.  The Gaza field was inhabited with soldiers, bullets and rocks flying through the air; violence amid the beauty of the sunflowers.  The words of today’s reading from Jeremiah seem to apply amidst these signs of our times.

"Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest.  Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people.  If I walk out into the field, look, those slain by the sword."

Good Seeds and Bad Seeds

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus explains the parable of the weeds in the field.  The good seeds and the bad seeds germinate and grow next to each other, just as the sunflowers and violence bloom together in the fields of Gaza and the Ukraine.  At the "end of the age" the products of the good and bad seeds are separated into piles; one for burning and one for the Kingdom of God.  Small seeds grow together into beautiful plants or into unspeakable evil.

The Kingdom of God and Me

I don’t control the world.  If I did, I would choose to eliminate the swords of violence in favor of the beautiful sunflowers.  However I do control my choices everyday in building the Kingdom of God.  Every act of compassion nurtures a growing sunflower in the Kingdom.  Every moment of forgiveness supplies light to the world.  Every move toward unity and away from divisiveness promotes a good harvest in the Kingdom.  Today I humbly pray for the strength to sew good seeds.

 

Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of our Passionist Family who volunteers at the Passionist Assisted Living Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
Matthew 13:10-17

 

 

Reflection:

Two Great Evils

The prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading utters some of the most intense words of Scripture!  ""Be appalled (šāmēm), O heavens, at this, And shudder (śāʿar)", i.e.bristle with terror".    Jeremiah calls the whole cosmos to be stunned and horrified at two evils in his world.  The first one is that the people have forsaken (ʿāzab) God.   We live in a country that has allowed our laws and media to abandoned God as in Jeremiah’s day.  But we have gone further by legally discarding Him from schools, public speech, and even largely from political life.  

A beautiful and inspirational example was given with the Passionist Saint Inocencio and  eight Christian Brothers.   During the Spanish Civil War on October 9,1934, they were taken to a cemetery near their Catholic school and shot to death before their open graves.  They refused to take down crucifixes and stop teaching religion.  These wonderful men paid a terrible price for the importance of God in education of the young!  Jeremiah, I am sure, was proud of them.

For many have not only jilted God but even have been convinced that He is not important in modern life.   Jeremiah some twenty five hundred years ago saw this as an absolute stunning and shuttering disaster.   In the last 50 years we have experienced enormous cultural change.    Much of this change has been nothing less than wonderful.   One thing that has not been changed is our desperate need for God!

Jeremiah forcefully reminds us that even with all the astonishing improvements in modern times our life will turn into a catastrophe without an intimacy with God.  So he tells us the second evil. We will be like "broken cisterns that can’t hold water".   It seems to me the perennial challenge of life is to thoroughly live and take advantage of the present world without losing God.   Paul reminds us that Christ "is everything in everyone" (panta in pasin) Col 3;11   Our life will forever be broken without Him   "He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Colossians 1:18

 

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

Scripture:

Jeremiah 18: 1-6
Matthew 13: 47-53

Reflection:

Since the beginning of time, it seems that people have been looking for hidden treasure.  Today, people are still looking for treasure… they look for it in the Lottery, or in the Casinos of Las Vegas, in the Stock Market, or maybe using On-Line Gambling…If only they could hit that "big jackpot", they believe that their life would be better.

In one way or another, all of us are TREASURE HUNTERS…we’re all seekers.  Each of us is looking for that certain something that will make our lives happy and complete…and that’s a good thing.   

In today’s Gospel, Jesus compares the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN to a fishing net that collects all kinds of fish without regard for their value.

This is a story about the FINAL JUDGEMENT…and it is also a story about our God who patiently waits for us to have a change of heart…..to turn our lives around and come back to Him.

When the net is finally pulled in, the work isn’t done.  The sorting will begin; the good will be kept and the bad will be discarded.  So, while the "Gospel" net is cast out for everyone, not everyone will find themselves in the container marked… "Going to Heaven !"

As seekers on a spiritual journey, we can pray for an understanding mind and the ability to know that the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN…is Jesus Christ living within us…Right here…Right now.

And in the end…THAT is the container with the good fish…fish that got their value from the One who was willing to pay dearly for them by shedding His own blood on the cross for each of us.

When we respond to God’s call to be in a personal relationship with Him, then the realities of the rest of our life…the blessings and the challenges….are the steps along the path that will continue to lead us to that "big jackpot"…THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

Today’s Gospel, indeed, calls you and I to think and to pray… and may He give us the grace and the willingness to change.

 

Deacon Brian Clements is a retired member of the retreat team at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Micah 6:1-4, 6-8
Matthew 12:38-42

Reflection:

Memory and imagination work hand in hand as we listen to today’s biblical messages.  They can help us focus on an ever present concern: what am I to do?

The prophet Micah shows his adeptness at doing what prophets do well: bringing God’s program to bear upon our way of life by calling on the past.  He reverts to the major memory coloring Jewish history: the exodus of the Hebrew people from the land of Egypt, laying on the backs of these people something of a guilt trip for their failure to show God the proper gratitude owed Him for this favor.  He even toys with the idea of bringing them to a "court of law" for this travesty of responsiveness to such kindness on His part.  But He backs off from what can be a fairly clear procedure and prefers to appeal to this people’s imagination in the form of a dilemma across their pathway: what to do, in recognition of His kindness to them?  Offer sacrifice in the temple?  Micah comes up with an answer on their behalf, a moral ideal: they are to walk before the Lord with justice, mercy and love: this is the higher road for them to follow, a way that God will find acceptable.

If Micah shows God seeking a response of memory and imagination to His overtures on behalf of the Hebrew people, later on we find them, in turn, (on this occasion, the Scribes and Pharisees), pressing Jesus for some kind of sign to validate His credentials supporting His claims, which again call on memory of their own history, linked to the prophet, Jonah, whose sojourn in the belly of a whale for three days and three nights was for Jesus an eerie sign of His three days in the tomb following the death He clearly foresaw.  Jesus’ attempt to evoke this memory of Jonah was clearly less successful than Jonah’s own preaching to the people of Nineveh.  Jesus also delves into another historical incident, about the Queen of the south going to great lengths to see and hear King Solomon, and contrasted to it the reception He was receiving from the Scribes and Pharisees around Him.  They clearly could not imagine Jesus possessing the same credentials as Solomon.

We are given a hint here about a procedure that we might gainfully employ in responding to God’s enrichment of our lives: going back into our own personal history and there re-discovering  traces of God’s overtures on our behalf: the opportunities He has bestowed on us, the endowments with which He has gifted us, the alerts and warnings He has placed along our pathway about the dangers that lie ahead, or the significant people He has introduced into our lives.  Our own personal history contains riches, just as instructive as the history of the Hebrew people. 

The most empowering of God’s overtures on our behalf is the Passion reference Jesus makes to the unfriendly and belligerent group badgering Him for a sign: His three days and nights "in the heart of the earth".  This especially can evoke in us a response laid out by the prophet Micah: "…to walk before the Lord with justice, mercy and love".  Can we not be more responsive to it than the scribes and Pharisees were on this occasion?  Only if our memory and imagination prove equal to the opportunity presented us.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Micah 2:1-5
Matthew 12:14-21

Reflection:

Do not forget the poor, O Lord! (Responsorial Psalm)

Micah, the Prophet, had had enough! In our first reading for today, he expresses his anger towards the oppressor and the powerful, the ones who lord it over the poor and the powerless. He goes on to describe their wrong doing: cheating people out of their lands, stealing a family’s inheritance, taking a poor man’s house and leaving people without hope for a humane existence.

There is much that we can identify with in this first reading. Who of us have not had family or friends or neighbors who have lost their jobs, had a bank foreclose on a home, and suddenly found themselves and their families with much less than they had just a few years prior. Like Micah, we recognize that these human conditions are the result of human greed and not from some cycle of an economic theory. This is one of the teachings that the Church has been promoting over the years. Most recently, over the last hundred years, the Papal Encyclicals on Social and Economic Justice have cast a Gospel light on these issues.

The Gospel for today also gives us an example of how Jesus confronted this reality. Jesus’ mission was described for us in the Gospel according to Luke, 4:18 -19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Jesus was moved with pity by the poor and oppressed and the Gospel readings we have this week gives us a picture of a Jesus who is caring and compassionate.

On the other hand, we also have a growing opposition to Jesus by the religious leaders of his day. In today’s reading, they are beginning the plot to put him to death. The way that Jesus deals with this threat to his life is truly remarkable. He continues doing what he was doing, teaching and curing the sick. He became more cautious but he didn’t stop doing what he was commissioned to do. He understood what St. Paul later describes as the power of powerlessness. St. Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians says, "for when I am powerless, it is then that I am strong." (2 Cor. 12:10)

It is not difficult for us to identify with the Jesus we have in today’s Gospel and feel the powerlessness of being a voice of justice and goodness in the midst of so much opposition. When we experience that powerlessness, we are like St. Paul, recognizing that this is truly God’s work and God will not forget the poor and the oppressed. In our human way of thinking, we may believe that all the people who are bringing death and destruction to God’s creation and children are getting away with it. They are not. Our role is to stay the course, stay firm in our faith in a God who creates and loves, who send us His Son that saves and redeems, and a Spirit that sanctifies every moment of our life. We believe that faith is truly stronger than evil, and that love is greater than hate and justice is more powerful than wickedness. This kind of faith motivated Micah. It can motivate and inspire us also. We believe that God never forgets the poor.

 

Fr. Clemente Barrón, C.P. is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Chicago, Illinois. 

 

Scripture:

Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19
Romans 8: 26-27
Matthew 13: 24-30

Reflection:

How many times have you wondered why God hasn’t intervened in some ugly situation?  I know I’ve wondered more than a few times.  It seems that it would be so much easier if only God would step in and fix things.  Injustice, wars, starvation and famine, violence of all kinds and the suffering of so many people in so many ways all seem to cry out for God’s intervention!

The readings today offer a different perspective.  In the parable that Jesus tells, it becomes clear that the owner of the field wants to make sure that absolutely none of the good wheat should be sacrificed in order to root out the weeds.  He wants the good wheat to grow strong and mature so when harvest comes it will be easy for the harvesters to separate the wheat from the weeds.  Clearly, the field will be awfully messy while the growing takes place, but the harvest will be so much better given the owner’s patience.

Like all parables, it makes great sense from one point of view but not from all points of view.  But Jesus surely wants us to know that God’s going to give us every chance and all the time we need to grow into strong, mature men and women…and only then make judgment about whether we are wheat or chaff!

The reading from the book of Wisdom makes a similar point.  "And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins."

We are so often in a great hurry to make a judgment, to find a resolution, to make our point, to fix the world around us.  The readings today remind us that God always takes the time needed to accomplish His saving will.  It’s a message well worth hearing, and pondering!

 

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