Daily Scripture

 

 

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.

 

Scripture:

Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
Matthew 11:28-30

 

 

 

Reflection:

Rest In Him

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

This short reading has always brought me comfort. Through this Scripture I find solace in the fact that I can come to Jesus and lay upon His feet.  Rest is a concept that is lost on our culture today. We are always trying to be the next big thing, get a head of our coworkers or maximize our time. Slowing down and taking time shows weakness and vulnerability, which are unattractive traits nowadays. Yet, our faith is meant to be countercultural. Jesus reminds us that we are to take time to rest in Him. This rest helps us to gain strength to carry the crosses that we have been given.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.

A yoke is usually a wooden beam that is set on two cattle in order to help them move the same way while plowing. Now when Jesus says "Take my yoke upon you," I think about the work that will take; a new path, new weight, new method. Yet, when we take the yoke of Jesus upon us, we are guided and taught His way. The way of joy, love, truth and hope. Uniting ourselves to Jesus on the yoke helps us to find out way. We wash away the old hurt and pain and put on love. When we come to rest in Jesus through prayer, we are reminded of that relationship that we have with Him and with those who unite themselves to Him. We are given a community of support that is also attached that same yoke. No burden is too heavy when it is given in love and carried in love. When we unite our lives to Jesus, he helps us to carry our burdens.

 

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16
Matthew 11:25-27

Reflection:

"The Lord will not abandon his people." Psalm 94:14 (Responsorial Psalm)

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had the chance to visit some people that I haven’t seen in a long time. Age has seems to have done something to them. They seem to be much more concern about the current state of affairs in our world. These are people of faith and yet they seemed to have lost hope in the Providence of God.

For some reason people today imagine the present more evil than the past. For example, my friend lived during the Great Depression, during which affected millions of people and caused untold suffering and misery. He also lived during the Second World War, when millions and millions of people died violent and painful deaths in faraway lands. There were brutal dictators who systematically put to death millions of people because of their race and ethnicity. Memory will sometimes reduce the pain of human suffering that we have experienced.

No one is saying that these times are better or ideal. The realities of war, natural disasters and dictatorships continue to rain down suffering and pain upon innocent people. Maybe it is the constant reporting of disasters that provoke great anxiety and stress among us. Or it could also be sensational reporting that puts blame upon scapegoats in order to offer simple solutions to complex realities. For some, it seems that God has abandoned the world and has allowed evil to triumph.

It seems to me that every generation looks upon its present time and declares it the worst ever. In the fifties, it was the dictators within the Soviet Union and China, the military juntas in Latin America and the communist take-over in the United States. In the sixties, it was the disintegration of the establishment by the hippie revolution, the hedonism of the emerging generation, incurable epidemics and the addictions to drugs. We could go on and on. Each decade had "prophets" of doom who declared that the world would soon come to an end because of our worsening human condition.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures us that God has not abandoned us, even when we are surrounded by affliction and disasters that we cannot humanly understand, even by the wise and the learned. Jesus praises his Father for being in charge. He reveals to us that those who trust God as children trust their parents are ones who are truly blessed. They do not take on God’s role, thinking that they are the ones who have to figure out how God is going to prevent all of these terrible things from happening. God saves us one person at a time and one community at a time. And God gives us the resources we need to overcome any kind of suffering that we encounter. It is called Grace. It begins with Faith. It is made manifest by Love. So, we do not despair, but embrace Hope.

Trust is such a beautiful thing! This is what makes Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel such a timely one. Today, let us give praise to God for all the good things we have received and the courage to deal with the injustices that surround us. We are God’s children, after all.

 

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

Memorial of St. Bonaventure

Scripture:

Isaiah 7:1-9
Matthew 11:20-24

Reflection:

What if you knew for certain that there was a worldwide event about to take place and you told everyone you knew and no one listened to you? Perhaps in some small measure you would then understand Jesus’ voicing his frustration in today’s gospel.

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and He preached its imminent arrival. He knew it was going to happen and He wanted all God’s faithful to be ready. He was, as we say in modern parlance, "a change agent." Jesus not only proclaimed the event, He was the event! He in himself embodied the Kingdom. As God he knew, like the Jewish Prophets before him, that the coming of the Kingdom signaled a different way of being…of living one’s daily life, of interacting with one’s fellows. And he showed this not only by the way he lived His life but by the way he touched others lives as well. Echoing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, Jesus had no doubts of God’s in-breaking into the world. He was "firm in faith and stood firm!"

So you might be able to imagine Jesus’ utter amazement when the cities in which His greatest miracles were done did not take seriously his message. These cities were blessed with a "preview" of God’s action in the world, but they refused to change. Whether out of fear or ignorance or even willful pride, these sophisticated cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida or Capernaum just couldn’t be bothered.

Like his Lord, Saint Bonaventure was also an agent of change. He led the Franciscan Order through changing times as they adapted message of St. Francis for growing medieval towns and cities. Like our Lord, that simple message of change was often ignored or reviled. But Saint Bonaventure stood his ground "firm in faith."

And what of us? Do we really take seriously Jesus message of the Kingdom? Do we live the change the Gospel proclaims? Are we truly "firm in faith?"