Daily Scripture

The Fifteenth Station:
Jesus is Raised from the Dead  

Mary Magdalene and the other women who left Jesus’ body in the tomb on Friday, thought that the Sabbath would never end. They gathered their oils, spices and perfumes with which they were going to anoint Jesus’ body. They made their way to the tomb, wondering if they could find someone who to help them roll back the huge stone that was blocking its entrance.

As they came upon the tomb, the women saw that the stone had been rolled away. Confused, they went inside but did not find Jesus’ body. They encounter two men dressed in white garments who told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The women were so startled that they did not know what to believe! They saw an empty tomb, a burial cloth laying on the floor and no sign of a body.

The two men dressed in white sent the women as messengers to tell the disciples that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that he would soon appear to them.

These women were the very first believers in the Resurrection of Jesus. Their sorrow which had turned into fear, suddenly become sheer joy! The Resurrected Jesus trusted them to be the first messengers of his Resurrection. Their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus was complete and absolute.

When Jesus the Christ finally appeared to the disciples, he appeared as the one who bore the marks of crucifixion. In fact, Jesus had to show them his hands and side to help them believe that he had risen from the dead. His wounds that were so visible and painful just three days ago were now scars which were completely healed.

The Signs of the Passion would always be visible on the Risen body of Jesus, the Christ.

We adore you O Christ and we bless you. By your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for letting us accompany you on your Way of the Cross. May the joy of the Resurrection bring peace and reconciliation to all we meet in our lives. Amen.

  

 

Holy Saturday

Scripture:

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Genesis 22:1-18
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Isaiah 54:5-14
Isaiah 55:1-11
Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4
Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28
Romans 6:3-11
Matthew 28:1-10

Reflection:

The day dawns upon the Sabbath and the usual silence continues within the homes and streets Jerusalem. For a small group of men and women, followers of Jesus, this day is one of unbearable heartache and unimaginable sorrow. Yesterday, as the day was ending, these men and women buried Jesus in an unmarked tomb after he had died a terrible death on a cross. His life and his words haunt them. All their hopes and dreams were shattered with his death. They would find meaning in these Good Friday events only on Easter Sunday. That Saturday was a day of silent mourning.

Centuries later, the Church still strives to capture that mood, that sense of loss that the disciples of Jesus must have felt on that first Holy Saturday. Today, when we enter a Church on Holy Saturday, we find it stripped bare of all of the usual reminders of a place of worship. There is no lit Sanctuary Lamp and the Tabernacle door has been left open. The altar is stripped bare. There are no flowers or banners or trappings that speak of life, hope and tomorrow. Only silence and a sense of solitude are present in the Church.

There is no morning Mass, funerals or weddings on Holy Saturday. It is a day of silent prayer, a day of remembrance, and a day of longing. It is a day of quiet and reflection. It is a day when we can invite the Lord to make a dwelling deep within our hearts and minds. It is a day of profound communion with ourselves and God.

Before we go to bed on Holy Saturday, we will experience a whole new feeling, a very different mood. Out of the darkness will come voices from the past, helping us remember the Love of God from the beginning of time. We will be reminded of the Power of God, the God who Saves time and time again. We will be invited into the empty tomb where Jesus’ body was laid to rest, only to find messengers of Good News: Jesus Christ is Risen from the Dead. We will be called to communion of heart and mind as we unite as a People of Faith around the Risen Christ. Candles will be lit. Glorious voices will sing out. A New Day Dawns! Alleluia, Alleluia!

 

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

Holy Thursday

Scripture:

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

Reflection:

Today continues our journey to the Cross with remembrance of the Last Supper and washing of the feet. Holy Thursday opens ourselves to the love that is placed before us on the cross. This Holy Day reminds us not only of great gift of the Eucharist but also the service that we should provide to one another.

This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Our participation in the Last Supper at every Mass has a vertical and horizontal nature. Vertically, it strengthens our relationship with God, reminding us that all we have comes from him and goes back to him. The horizontal element strengthens our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. The gifts and graces that we receive in the Eucharist, we are called to then share with others. And not only share but take responsibility for and to love one another. Jesus is the model for this in the washing of the feet of the disciples

He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

Through the gift of Christ in the Eucharist, we are called to serve one another with the gifts we have been given. The range of the ways we can use our gifts is vast. We are taught that it is our duty to serve one another. What we don’t always remember is that Jesus also showed his disciple how to be served. It can be difficult to humble ourselves and be served by another person. Whether that be accepting meals during an illness, or asking others to pray for you, we have to be open to accepting the help of others. God sends us graces and gifts through others when we are in need; let us be open to accepting it.

As come to the end of this Lenten season, let us recall the ways that God has called us to serve one another and how we can learn to be served.

I have given you a model to follow, so that I have done for you, you should also do.

Will you let me be your servant? Let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too. – Servant Song

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

 

Wednesday of Holy Week

Scripture:

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Matthew 26:14-25

 

 

Reflection:

The Redemptive Suffering of Jesus’ Passion

What liberating power does God’s word have without being prophetic in the face of social injustice and human disgrace?  What meaning does praying to God have in the face of human distress and hardships without any zeal for God’s merciful love?  What beauty and nobility does the glory of Jesus’ resurrection have without the horrific suffering of his death?  The redemptive suffering of the Servant of the Lord surfaces in today’s liturgical readings and orations and thus evokes the above reflective questions that resonate with the human experience of suffering and redemption in and through Jesus Christ.   For, in the offertory, we beseech the Lord to receive "the offerings made here, and graciously grant that, celebrating your Son’s Passion in mystery, we may experience the grace of its effects."

We indeed present to God our existential struggles, hardships, hopes, and joys along with Jesus’ self-giving and suffering on the Cross, knowing that "the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not" (psalm).   Because we know that Jesus’ "appointed time draws near" in Holy Week, the church’s liturgy prepares us to celebrate with him the Passover.  No wonder the more we approach the celebration of the paschal triduum of Holy Week, the more we are asked to surrender our selfishness, sinfulness, and self-sufficiency to God in order to commemorate and make sense of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in our lives.

The church prepares us so well to be in tune with Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection by instructing us, since Monday, in the light of Isaiah’s "Oracles of the Servant of the Lord."  And today we hear from the third oracle that the Suffering Servant of the Lord did not shield his face "from buffets and spitting," because "the Lord God has given him a well-trained tongue . . . to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them and a receptive ear "that I may hear" and not rebel against his divine will.  Therefore, we will eventually come to hear on Good Friday Isaiah’s Forth Oracle of the Servant of the Lord who denied and "surrendered himself to death" (Is 53:12).  We can even come to open our hearts and minds to deepen in our lives the meaning of Jesus’ words from last Palm Sunday’s Gospel of the Lord’s Passion, that is, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will" (Mt 26:39).

God’s word will never set us free unless it remains true and prophetic in the face of social injustice and human disgrace.  Likewise, unless we develop a zeal for God’s merciful love, we will never experience his life-giving and imminent presence in our prayer life.  And we will never come to experience God’s redemptive grace in our lives unless we accept the suffering of our daily living with the dignity and humility of a self-surrendering attitude to God’s will.   Hence, let us prepare ourselves to walk with Jesus and submit ourselves with him "to the yoke of the Cross," so that we may "attain the grace of the resurrection" (today’s collect).  

 

Fr. Alfredo Ocampo, C.P. gives retreats and parish missions.  He is stationed at Holy Name Passionist Community in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Acts 5:27-33
John 3:31-36

Reflection:

On this first day of May when people throughout the world celebrate the importance and dignity of labor, the readings from our liturgy remind us of our mission as Christians-as they do throughout this post-Easter season.  Pope Francis has made this a constant theme of his pontificate-not just in what he says but in what he does.  The Church must not be turned in on itself.  It has to avoid the "stale air" of a closed room.  Christ calls us to reach out to the world in love and compassion, especially to those most in need.

As the biblical readings today testify, the Pope’s call to mission is not something new but reaches back to the very heart of our Christian faith.  Today, for example, we hear of the irrepressible zeal of Peter and the other apostles.  The religious authorities were deeply disturbed by the apostles’ preaching and had warned them to be quiet, but to no avail.  Finally, in the segment right before the passage we hear today, the authorities had thrown them into prison.  But no prison could bottle up the Spirit of God and the apostles are miraculously freed from their cell.  When the authorities tell the guards to bring the prisoners to them for interrogation, the amazed guards have to report that the apostles were somehow freed and were back preaching the gospel again!

When finally the apostles are brought before the council and reprimanded for not keeping quiet, the apostles still refuse to be silent!  "We must obey God rather than any human authorities," Peter boldly says.  Like Jesus before them, they live under the threat of death and are scourged for punishment, but their witness to the gospel continues without hesitation.

The gospel passage for today has a similar theme.  It is taken from Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus early in the Gospel of John.  Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about himself and the mission God has given him:  "The one who comes from heaven…testifies to what he has seen and heard."  "The one whom God sent speaks the words of God.  He does not ration his gift of the Spirit."

The early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles describes the witness of the early Church in dramatic terms: Peter preaching to the crowds of pilgrims who come to Jerusalem for the Jewish feast of Pentecost; Peter and the other apostles bursting out of prison and preaching the gospel despite the threats against their lives posed by the authorities; Steven giving witness even as he is being stoned to death as the first martyr of the young Church.  Later in Acts we travel with Paul as he fearlessly proclaims the gospel throughout Asia Minor and on into Greece and finally Rome itself. 

There are still Christians today who are called upon to give courageous witness to their faith and to the gospel message, even in the face of threat.  But for most of us, witness to the gospel may come in less dramatic but still demanding settings.  Learning to forgive and seek peace when we have been hurt by someone’s harsh words to us; supporting efforts to bring justice to the poor in our society; taking responsibility for caring for the environment-seeing it as God’s sacred creation; being willing to share our faith with friends or neighbors when the opportunity presents itself; nourishing that faith with prayer and reflection.

The readings today urge us to make our own the words of the responsorial Psalm for this beginning of May: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth."

 

Fr. Donald Senior, C.P. is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union.  He lives at the Passionist residence in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Monday of Holy Week

Scripture:

Isaiah 42:1-7
John 12:1-11

Reflection:

Our readings for this Monday in Holy Week are so rich and filled with wonderful imagery, some of the best that we can find in Isaiah.  Of course it is Isaiah who ushers in for us the very beginning of Holy Week immediately after Passion (Palm) Sunday where, in the Gospel, we journeyed with Jesus from the Passover Feast to Calvary.

The words he speaks to us today are in such contrast to the image of the crucified Christ on Calvary:

            Here is my servant…whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
            upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations,….(and)            
            establish justice on the earth,

            I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand;
            I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the      
            eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live 
            in darkness.

What amazing imagery, a far cry from what artists over the centuries have portrayed when they try to show us what the crucifixion of Jesus must have looked like.  Yet that is what is to come and Isaiah lures us first into the glory and the beauty of the mission entrusted to Jesus by the Father.  We get just a glimpse as we only see in the Gospels very rarely the intimacy that exists between the Father and the Son.  And then only a few short days later the glory and beauty are gone and we are immersed in a moment that is filled with darkness and death.

Then in our response we pray: The Lord is my light and my salvation …we need these words if we are to stay with Jesus in the midst of his Passion and death and not run away as others did.  We need to remember that even in our greatest darkness the Lord is our light.

Even Mary in Bethany seems to sense that something terrible is coming during what was surely Jesus last visit to the home of his dearest friends.  Mary, through the anointing, gives Jesus great comfort and honor just days before he would celebrate the Passover, be betrayed, arrested, and humiliated by the abandonment of those he loved so very much.  Yet, such pristine and pure love was too much for Judas to understand!  John’s Gospel calls him a thief!  How could he comprehend things clearly if he was a thief and concerned with money rather than with the Lord?  After all that time together and Judas still could not see the Lord standing before him. 

These are special days we are entering into.  What a great opportunity to accompany the Lord from the Hosanna’s to the shouts of the mob; what a profound invitation to walk with the Lord each step of the way this Holy Week and to know the power and the terrible beauty of his Cross.

 

Fr. Pat Brennan, C.P. is the director of Saint Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

 

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Scripture:

Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66

 

Reflection:

On Sunday we celebrate Passion Sunday, and our account of the Passion of Jesus comes from Matthew’s Gospel (26:14 – 27:66). I would like to reflect on the Passion of Jesus in the context of some words we find in our first reading from Isaiah (50:4-7): "The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them." 

Is the Passion of Jesus a word that can rouse people? The answer is "Yes!" Yes, because in the Passion of Jesus we find God’s love demonstrated in a most significant way: the Son of God sacrificing Himself for our salvation! In the words of our second reading from Philippians (2:6-11), Jesus "emptied himself" so that we could attain the fullness of life!

The Passion of Jesus shows us that God can transform evil into good; that suffering can bring healing, and dying can lead to life! By dying on the Cross and rising from the dead, Jesus has overcome for us the power of sin and death!

There are times when we can get weary. We can get weary of a seemingly endless struggle to survive. We can get weary of fighting one illness after another. We can get weary of constant pain. We can get weary of the injustice and violence in our world. The Passion of Jesus may not offer some miraculous cure, but when we reflect upon Jesus on the Cross, we know we are not alone. We know that Jesus is there in the midst of our pain, and will help us carry the crosses that come in our lives. We know that somehow, some way, Easter will come! We know that Jesus will take us through the Cross to the other side.

When we get in touch with the love Jesus shows us on the Cross, we can be roused out of despair and exhaustion. But Jesus’ Passion can also rouse us out of fear. We need not be like Peter, who became scared and wound up denying that he even knew Jesus. We can’t deny that we are connected to those who are "crucified" today.

If we let Jesus love on the Cross get to us, we will be roused out of apathy and complacency. We can’t be like Pilate, and pretend that we can "wash our hands" of what is going on in the world. Too often, the choices we make have some bearing on the rest of creation, including the lives of people thousands of miles away.

May the Passion of Jesus also rouse us out of a mob mentality where people are oh so ready to attack others. Many of the same people who sang hosannas to Jesus when He entered Jerusalem cried out that He be crucified. We can be susceptible to the same thing. Here in Detroit, we are still reeling from an attack on a man who accidentally hit a young child while driving his truck. Personally, I can’t even be sure you could call it vigilante justice. It seems to me to be more of just plain mob anger at what happened to the little girl. The driver did not hit her and run, but got out of the truck to help her, and that was somehow lost on the people who attacked him. So we can’t be like the crowds, either.

The founder of the Passionists, St. Paul of the Cross, had a motto that has stayed with us Passionists throughout the centuries: "May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts!" May the Passion, and the great love which it represents enter more deeply into our hearts, and rouse us out of weariness and fear and despair and complacency and anger, and move us to love and peace and justice.

Have a Blessed Holy Week!

 

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

Tuesday of Holy Week

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:1-6
John 13:1-33, 36-38

Reflection:

Jesus had just washed the feet of his apostles and takes his place again at the table. No doubt that action had deeply impressed these men who had followed him for three years.   Looking at him they could see a seriousness and almost a pain in the Master’s face. Maybe Jesus even let out a sigh as he speaks the fateful words: "Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."  There it is. They look at one another. Who can be the betrayer?  Then Jesus does a most intimate gesture. He takes a morsel of food, dips it in the sauce, and hands it to Judas.  Taking the morsel from Jesus, Judas looks into his eyes and realizes that Jesus knows who it is. It’s me!  What is he saying? "Do it quickly." 

Judas rises from the table and goes out into the night.

Immediately Jesus begins to speak of his "glorification" that is beginning and of his going away. This leads Peter to proclaim that he will follow Jesus anywhere, even to laying down his life for him. In the final irony of this scene Jesus answers: "Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times!"

In these days of Holy Week every Christian is confronted with their faithfulness to the Lord. The sin of Judas seems so deep. "Satan entered him."  So complete is Judas separation from Jesus that in despair he will end his life by hanging himself.  The sin of Peter, caught by fear, "I do not know the man!" is more understandable, more like our own sins. Who of us has not denied the Lord by our actions?  We thank the Lord for the sacrament of Reconciliation.   

 

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