Daily Scripture

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Scripture:

Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8:1-11

Reflection:

In Gospel reading today, we are given the three main characters: Jesus, the woman accused of adultery, and the Pharisees. The Pharisees wish to expose this woman of her sin in the public realm, bearing down their own judgment on her crime. Yet in the end they walk away shamed after Jesus says, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone."  How many times have we judged other people for their wrongdoings? We cannot shame others, because we too are sinful. Then the woman caught in adultery who has been brought forth to be stoned. We too have been like this sinful woman, and by the grace of God are saved. We are called to be like Christ in this scenario, to forgive. The Gospel reading calls us out of our judgment, selfishness, brokenness and sin, into a new life with Him. He continues to love us not matter how many times we fall. His great love is at the heart of the Gospel and we are called to strive towards an intimate relationship with him. We are to have faith that he will lead us out of whatever terrible situation we face. If we have this faith why do we panic and fall back to our sinful comforts?

It is not always easy. The reading from St. Paul poignantly reminds us of our sinful nature and God’s mercy by proclaiming that he (Paul) is not perfect, but continues in pursuit of hope. We are not perfect! How refreshing! St. Paul calls us to not only admit that we are sinful but to also continue to strive towards our ultimate goal, Jesus Christ. We continue to fight the good fight, to withstand the temptations of this world with His help. The reading from Isaiah reminds that God will make a path for us, and provide for us not matter how often we turn away. He provides for us not because of our faithfulness but to fulfill His promise. No matter how broken we become or allow ourselves to be, He continues to welcome us back. Our job is to have faith in Him and his constancy.

The theme of reconciliation is prevalent throughout the season of Lent. It is a time of purification, where we can prepare our hearts and refocus our lives. As we journey through these last days of Lent, let us remember our own brokenness, allow Christ to lift that burden through reconciliation, and to revel in the light that is Christ at Easter.

 

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

 

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Jeremiah 11:18-20
John 7:40-53

 

 

Reflection:

Interpreting the Signs of Our Time with God’s Judging Attitude

"Never before has anyone spoken like this man."  How do we judge what is right and just even when that does not comply with the rules and traditions of a society or fulfills our expectations?  How do we let God, the "just Judge [and] searcher of mind and heart," help us judge justly what is acceptable and satisfying even when it is uncommon and unconventional to the popular mindset?  Do we remain open and true to the vast horizon of possibilities that our faith offers us, just as it happens to the guards who acknowledge in and through Jesus’ words and works the many possibilities of their Jewish faith?  Or do we remain close-minded and, therefore, limit our judging criteria to our biases and expectations, as the religious and civil authorities of Jesus’ time did?  To judge things and people by their appearance which is a common human tendency and not be able to see their cause and state of being or to disregard, as the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah suggests, what is in the minds and hearts of people, as God does, can leave us surprisingly embarrassed before God and others, to the point that we will have to take our words back. 

Today’s gospel, especially the guards’ aforementioned statement and that of Nicodemus, who eagerly addresses his Jewish brothers with the question: "Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" reminds me of the first public appearance of our newly elected Pope Francis, who appeared motionless, quiet, and inexpressive before the big crowd at St. Peter’s Square and all TV cameras capturing the moment for the rest of the word to see.  Perhaps many, including myself, misunderstood the stillness of his posture and promptly and wrongly judged him as a timid, old, and tired fellow who was unsuitable for such a ministry he has been chosen to carry out as the leader of our Roman Catholic Church.  However, once he started addressing and smiling to the crowds, which were in expectation of his first words and blessing, and showing gestures of humility and simplicity that connected him with God’s people, many in the crowds changed our biased, judgmental attitude for one of affirmation and possibilities. For soon after, we began to say that never before a pope has done what Pope Francis did during his first public appearance at St. Peter’s papal balcony.

As the optimistic people say of Jesus in John’s Gospel, "this is truly the Prophet. . . This is the Christ," let  us trust God who inspired the cardinals’ election of Pope Francis, who, in many ways is a pioneer which makes us believe and hope that "he is the right man for the right time for the right job of the Catholic Church," as one of the journalists put it.  Otherwise, we will be putting our hopes and expectations in what is predictable, familiar and acceptable which will make us think that the Pope cannot come from the New World, just as the Pharisees thought of the Christ, who "will not come from Galilee, will he?" Let us, therefore, look beyond what is before us, so that we do not dismiss the world of possibilities that our faith can certainly afford us because "faith makes things possible, not easy, so let us keep on going."   

 

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

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Reflection:

Usually when it comes time to sit with the readings of the day the Church is sailing along in rough or more or less calm seas with the steady hand of the successor of Peter at the helm. But unless white smoke has come from the Sistine Chapel we are still waiting and praying. March 15^th is, or would be, the fourth day of the Conclave to elect the 266^th bishop of Rome.  So as your read this I don’t know if we are still praying in hope, or rejoicing with the announcement of "Habemus Papam!"  Either way the readings for this Friday in Lent are a sober reminder of the opposition and hatred that Jesus faced in his ministry. His enemies would finally succeed in killing him on Good Friday. Maybe the readings also give us a sense of the opposition and hatred that the Church and its leader face from those who do not walk in the light.

The Book of Wisdom sets the scene as the just man is reviled by the wicked. Their hatred culminates in a  plot to kill him and condemn him to a shameful death.  But the wicked do not take into account that God has the final say and will reward the just man for his faithfulness. Implied is that the wicked do not see their own eventual punishment.  For men and women of faith we must always remind ourselves to take the long view. Evil can appear to win, but appearances are deceiving. When time runs out in this world everyone faces the Lord God who will judge them justly.

The "just man" is a type for Jesus. In the gospel reading we see him very much aware of the plot by the leaders in Jerusalem to kill him. So prudently he is restricting his ministry to Galilee.  However, as a faithful Jew, he feels in his heart a desire to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles and goes up to Jerusalem alone "in secret."  There he is recognized. The whisper goes around: "Is he the Christ?" No, he can’t be, "we know where he is from."  At this point Jesus takes matters into his own hands and boldly proclaims in the Temple area that he has not come on his own, but he has been sent. He affirms a special relationship with the one who sent him. At this his enemies seek to arrest him, but fail, because "his hour had not yet come."  We are reminded in this scene that Jesus always stood up for the truth and wasn’t afraid to proclaim it when necessary.  Can we say the same for ourselves?     

 

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

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Exodus 32:7-14
John 5:17-30

Reflection:

In the first reading of Exodus we hear the story of Moses and the Israelites.  I often think of the Israelites being led out of Egypt and feel that I act the same way on my life journey.  In Exodus, God does these amazing miracles, but it time they forget, wonder where God is, and turn to idols and bad behavior.  While I may not act with the very same bad behavior, certainly there are parallels with my life.  God has been miraculous in my life, in big ways with the miracle of the birth of my children, but also in every day ways where I feel amazed and certain of His inexplicable presence in a situation where I sought His help or His answer to a prayer.  Yet despite this, how often I find myself feeling abandoned by God when life’s circumstances turn difficult or prayers seemingly go unanswered.  Barely off my knees in thanksgiving, I am worried about the next issue as if God no longer was there or no longer cared.

But as much as we respond in ways similar to the Israelites, I wonder if we truthful have it a lot easier than they did.  While God came to them in very powerful ways like the parting of the Red Sea, having water pour forth from a rock, or receiving manna from heaven, these events came intermittently and came through another person, Moses.  We have a much greater gift.  We have Christ.  We don’t have to wait until we are famished or thirst greatly to receive the healing presence of God.  Nor do we have to be shown God through another, like Moses.  Through our relationship with God’s son, Jesus, we can be constantly fed and nourished.  We don’t even have to wait for Sunday mass.  We have prayer.  We can attend daily mass.  We have the sacraments.  We have adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  We have Mary who can lead us to her Son. We can even find and know Christ when we love one another in acts of service.  All of this makes God much more present in our lives and can help us through life’s challenges.  Our role though is not to sit back and let things happen, but to reach out in a spirit of faith to the One who can save us.

 

Steve Walsh is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre ,and a good friend of the Passionist Community. 

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Isaiah 49:8-15
John 5:17-30

 

 

 

Reflection:

The reading from Isaiah is from the section called the Book of Consolation. The prophet announces that the people will return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. They are still in exile so Isaiah wants to strengthen their hope in the midst of their hardships and backbreaking experiences. Better times are on the way.

God hears the cry of the poor and will respond to their prayers for deliverance. The prisoners will be set free, light will come into the darkness, water will be given to the thirsty and food to the hungry. No more will they have to labor as slaves in the harsh sun. The people, and all of creation, will soon rejoice…turning their weeping into cries of joy.

When we feel let down by others, defeated by life and its unfairness, when all our good efforts end in failure or misunderstanding, when we wonder if God is on our side or has God forgotten about my plight, that is precisely the time we are called to a "naked" faith (as St. Paul of the Cross describes it), a faith that does not depend on signs and wonders, a faith without props and guarantees. This is the faith that Isaiah encourages. In spite of darkness, harshness and impossible conditions, God is with us and will never forget us.

These are the experiences that bring us closer to Jesus Christ. They allow us, if we let them, to journey with Jesus in the desert for 40 days, to pray with Jesus during his agonizing prayer in the Garden, to be nailed with Jesus on the cross and cry with Jesus: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" It’s on the dark side of life that our faith is tested. When God seems so far away, do we have the faith that Isaiah describes, the resilient faith that Jesus possessed? The journey back to Jerusalem challenges us to be people of faith, to believe beyond what we can see and touch, beyond our experience of exile. At these moments, for however long they last, we confess in our hearts that God has not forgotten me. I’m not in Jerusalem yet; dawn has not arrived; resurrection seems like wishful thinking; still, I believe God is with me and act accordingly.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

 

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12
John 5:1-3, 5-16

Reflection:

Haridwar is a pilgrimage city in the Haridwar District of Uttarakhand, India. It is associated with both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. Haridwar is among the seven sacred cities of India. It is also one of the four venues for the Kumbh Mela, held in its magnitude every twelve years where the Ganges enters the plains is a very religious, Hindu spot. Millions of people gather there, put ashes on their body and bathe in the river Ganges to wash away their sins and be liberated from the chain cycle of life – birth, death, and rebirth. Every human person’s heart wants to cleanse oneself from sinfulness -like the Hindus bathing in the river Ganges.

In Jerusalem, there was a pool by the Sheep Gate, where it is believed that anyone who dips in first when the water is stirred would be healed. There were many who were blind, lame and paralyzed who were laying at the porticos.  Among them, Jesus meets a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years and could not get into the water before others and tells him, "Pick up your mat and walk." Immediately he began to walk and experienced healing in his life. Jesus, instead of throwing the paralyzed man into the waters of the pool, cures him by the strength of his word: "Pick up your mat and walk." The man does not even know who cured him. Jesus’ salvation is a free gift for all who believe in the power of his word and want to be cured of their many paralyses.

When we approach Jesus in faith, He heals us as he healed the man who was sick for 38 years. We are also called to take this blessing in other people’s lives – as the river of God’s grace that flows in our lives. In Palestine, the river Jordan always mixes good water into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea allows no living creatures to live in it because it does not give to others what it has received. As Christians we are invited to share the grace that God blesses us with and not hold onto ourselves. This miracle of Jesus in our life is a grace-filled event which demands an active response from us, a response that has to effect the whole of our life.

 

Fr. A. Justin Nelson, CP,  is a member of our Indian Vicariate and temporarily stationed at St. Mary’s Parish, Fairfield, Alabama. 

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Scripture:

Isaiah 65: 17-21
John 4:43-54

Reflection:

The people of Judah once had a way of life they thought was like a paradise.  But now it was lost. The Babylonians had swept down upon them, slaughtered many of their loved ones and friends, carried off the youngest and the best into a foreign land.  Judah was crushed, Jerusalem demolished, the Temple destroyed. The world they had known and loved was lost.

Eventually they were allowed to return, but things were not the same as they had been before. For half a century they worked to restore the Holy City to its former splendor, but they found themselves still living in the despair that comes when life is not — and seemingly never will be — the same as it once was.

They rebuilt the temple. But it was a shabby building.  They had done their best to build God a decent house, but admittedly, it wasn’t much. At least it’s not what it used to be. The walls surrounding the city still lay in rubble, and their hearts and spirits felt the same.

It seems that life is always having to be rebuilt.  But it’s never the same. Just ask the people of Judah.

Yet, it is in the midst of this despair, that God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, offers his people words of hope: "Pay attention now," He tells them.  "I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.  All the earlier troubles, chaos and pain are things of the past, will be forgotten.  Look ahead with joy!  I will create Jerusalem as sheer joy. No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; no more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime."

How often have we felt like the people of Judah — when tragedy or crippling illness swept down on our lives, leaving behind only rubble.  We try to rebuild; but, of course, it can never be the same.

It is precisely in these moments, when God breaks into our lives and speaks to us words of hope:  Pay attention now, God says to us. Look ahead with joy to the new life Jesus came to create for us.  That chaos and pain?  They’re things of the past.  Old people will live long lives; no more babies dying prematurely.  Pay attention to what Jesus said to the royal official in Capernaum, and just as surely he says to you today: "Go home. Your child lives."  Isaiah’s prophesy of hope has been fulfilled in Jesus.  Today’s Psalm 30 underscores it: "I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me."

As we continue our Lenten journey, we are reminded that we have a choice. We can pine for the good old days that will never return, or we can in faith consider the possibility that God has something new in store for us, new life — if only we will pay attention now!

 

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

 

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

Scripture:

Hosea 6:1-6
Luke 18:9-14

 

 

Reflection:

Letting the Light of Christ Shine Within Us

In so many ways the axiom, ‘the brighter the light, the greater the shadow’ is seen:

success can blind us to our weak spots; victorious we can forget we are vulnerable. While we need to keep the light before us when we walk in shadow times, we also must be aware that our brightness can make it difficult to see in the shadows what can do us harm.

Jesus tells his parable to those who believe in their own self-righteousness. A shadow has crept into their lives. The Pharisee recognizes the other man at prayer and knows him to be a tax collector. In judging he is not aware that he also judges himself. His shadow blinds him to the good quality of the tax collector – humility. Something that the Pharisee needs in his own life

Righteousness is being one with God’s will for us, listening and responding to God’s unfolding plan. But self-righteousness seems to obscure God’s light by our own. The 1961 award winning play by Paddy Chayefsky, "Gideon", presents an Old Testament example of our good blinding us to the good of God. Gideon, who is voted the least likely to succeed becomes a great military leader. It is a story of intimate friendship. God loves and has chosen Gideon. God, who would be Gideon’s best friend, who accepts him with all his limitations, enjoys nothing more than sitting and talking with him. In the end, dressed in a golden uniform and truly blinded by success, Gideon can no longer see God. The ending so sad, as God says to Gideon, ‘I am right here where I always am. Can’t you hear me or see me?" Gideon sort of hears something, vaguely sees a glimmer, but dismisses it. He is busy being important.

Hosea keeps us on our Lenten journey. We walk with Our Lord with whom we have a relationship established in Baptism which we will renew at Easter. If we imitate the humble tax collector, we may hear in our hearts, ‘Come back to me. Like the spring rains that fall upon the earth, with the certainty of the dawn, the Lord is coming to us.’ This refreshing, welcoming and shadow dispelling light shows us that love is what God wants, not sacrifice. Our successes and good works God does not need. But all of these good things seen in the light of Our Lord, flowing from his guidance, made possible with his help, and done by hearts that are in dialogue, these God welcomes because they flow from his love.

May the light of Christ burn away self-righteousness. As we move to Easter the words of Hopkins draw us on, ‘let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us’. 

 

Fr. William Murphy, CP is the pastor of St. Joseph’s Monastery parish in Baltimore, Maryland.