Daily Scripture

Scripture:   

Job 1:6-22      
Luke 9:46-50

Reflection:

Our readings open with the story of Job.  At the very beginning the narrator cleverly draws us into this ancient epic tale.  Opening with the Lord calling the angels together,   the story-teller then presents Satan not as the demon of later writers, but as a sort of black sheep of the family, who manages to get to the gathering and present himself to the Lord.  What ensues is like a conversation on a boardwalk bench in Brooklyn’s Coney Island. 

With his elbow the Lord nudges Satan, "Have you noticed my boy Job?  How good he is, how exceptional he is?  No one like him, eh?  Have you noticed?" 

"Is it for nothing that he’s so good?" scoffs Satan.  "Haven’t you lavished him with every blessing, and protected him and his from the slightest breeze?  In these conditions he’s to be congratulated?  Let me have him for a week – then we’ll see how good your boy is.  Exceptional?  Just a week, we’ll see." 

The Lord agrees – the contest is on.  That first day Satan delivers four swift blows to Job, one right after the other.  The Sabeans steal his cattle and kill his herdsman; a lightening storm kills all his sheep and shepherds; the Chaldeans carry off his camels and put the tenders to the sword; and finally a tornado kills all his sons and daughters.  Job is forced to his knees; prostrate, he says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!"  "In all this, Job did not sin," the narrator tells us. (The Book of Job is read all this week.  Tune in tomorrow for the next chapter.) 

In the second reading we move into a very human factual story about the disciples and Jesus.  The disciples are arguing among themselves about which of them is the greatest. We can try to imagine how Jesus must have felt: how tired, how disappointed, how frustrated with their failure to grasp what his mission was all about.   Teacher that he was, he didn’t reprove them, didn’t rebuke them.  He simply placed a child by his side, and looking at them, told them that whoever receives this child, receives him, and further, that whoever receives him, receives the One who sent him.  The message is both clear and profound – something for them to ponder quietly, alone, in prayer . . . and something for them to discuss among themselves after they have pondered it.  "For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest."

An undercurrent of how much God truly loves us runs through both these readings.  Today is the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, who died at 24 of tuberculosis in a small Carmelite convent.  Through her "Little Way" she lived her short life with the loving simplicity of a child who knew in faith, often without consolation, that God loved her.  May she now obtain for us the grace of becoming more and more like that small child. 

 

Br. Peter A. Fitzpatrick, CFX, a Xaverian Brother, is a Passionist Associate at Ryken House, across the creek from the Passionist Monastery, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Numbers 11:25-29
James 5:1-6
Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

Reflection:

I don’t have more recent statistics.  But I offer the following stats from the year 2000 for reflection on today’s second reading.

     Mississippi: Rank in average gross income: 49th

                              Rank in average itemized charitable contributions: 1st

     Massachusetts: Rank in average gross income: 4th

                                     Rank in average itemized charitable contributions: 50th

Today’s gospel sounds like a lecture in radical surgery.  Fortunately, I think we can assume the Lord was exaggerating a bit to make a point.  But what was the point?

Maybe we can take a lesson from the Olympics.  If you want to obtain the gold, you have to be focused.  You can’t let anything distract you.  You have to study, train, practice, eat right, sleep right, sacrifice, stay in shape, — in other words, don’t let anything get in your way of reaching mastery.

Today the Lord is telling his followers to get focused. Don’t let anything deter you from seeking the kingdom.  Don’t let anything lead you into sin.  Don’t let anything keep you from loyalty to him and his mission.

Does prejudice get in the way?  Lop it of.  Is unforgiveness in your heart?  Remove it.  Does greed have control of you?  Eliminate it.  Is gossip your problem?  Delete it.  Does laziness have the best of you?  Get enthused.  Do riches make you selfish (see above)?  Dump them.

Once these obstacles are removed, then hang on.  The Spirit will do great things through you.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels. 

It’s a great day to sit back and remember how much God loves us.  God loves us enough to have angels like Michael fight battles for us, Gabriel to bring us the good news about Jesus, and Raphael to walk with us through the journey of life!

It’s a great day to experience the "blessed assurance" that God’s love and power will defeat the power of evil.  The battles we fight every day against injustice, poverty, addiction, materialism and hatred will in the end be won by God’s goodness. 

It’s a great day to realize the world is more than what we physically see around us.  God’s angels are standing by us in the integrity of creation.  Our "better angels" can be experienced in the smiles of our neighbors, the helping hands of those who minister, and the comforting prayers of our wise and compassionate seniors.

It’s a great day to just take a few minutes and let God love us more deeply into the beauty of life.  The angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael indeed are blessed assurance of how much God loves me.  I know this is a simple message, but it may be the most important message I ever hear.  God grant me the humility to accept this message in my heart and share it with others.

From the old hymn "Blessed Assurance"

"Angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love."

 

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

Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Luke 9:7-9

Reflection:

Sometimes, I suppose we’re all like Herod the Tetrarch; we keep trying to see Jesus. But like Herod, or like Jesus’ disciples, it’s a Jesus of my imagination and my creation. And the seeking is on my own terms. In the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Herod sings:

Jesus I am overjoyed, to meet you face to face.
You’ve been getting quite a name, all around the place.
Healing cripples, raisings from the dead.
Now I understand you’re God,
At least that’s what you’ve said…
So, you are the Christ, you’re the great Jesus Christ.
Prove to me that you’re divine; change my water into wine.
That’s all you need do, then I’ll know it’s all true.
Prove to me that you’re no fool;
walk across my swimming pool.
If you do that for me, then I’ll let you go free.
Come on, King of the Jews.
I only ask what I’d ask any superstar.
               
                © 1970 Timothy Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber

 To evolve from a faith in an omnipotent God who protects us and whom we worship and obey and fear –  to faith in a God who becomes like us, human and vulnerable  – is a move too great for some people to make. Like Herod they turn away. Or when Jesus’ demands are too great (following the feeding of the multitude in John 6, e.g.), and he’s wounded because so many turn away, he turns to the twelve and questions, "Do you want to leave me, too?"

Maybe they want magic, maybe power. But adult faith asks more of us. L’Arche founder Jean Vanier says, "People want a Jesus who makes things right for the world; but Jesus wants us to make things right for the world."  In Mark 15:39 the evangelist tells us that when the centurion saw how Jesus breathed his last, he cried out, "Truly this was the Son of God!"  Unlike those jeering Jesus, "If you truly are the Son of God, prove it! Come down from the cross!" the centurion is given the gift of faith precisely as he experiences Jesus’ suffering love.

With all the political jousting going on these days, the polarization in government and church, a mean-spiritedness in some relationships, …todays’ readings invite us to find Jesus Christ – in the goodness of a next-door neighbor, the dedication of my child’s teacher, the compassion of a pastor.

 

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. ministers as a preacher of parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Scripture:

Proverbs 30:5-9
Luke 9:1-6

Reflection: 

For most of us the classical Greek axiom, "moderation in all things," seems a reasonable tenet to live by.  It seems all the more reasonable during this election cycle when moderation seems sorely missing.  Incredibly, even to be labeled "moderate" places a political candidate at risk.  Yet we know in our daily lives, that moderation seems wise counsel when we consider our eating and drinking and working habits.

Our first reading from Proverbs echoes this seemingly obvious virtue when the writer implores God:  "Give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need; lest, being full, I deny you, saying, who is the Lord?  Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God."

The commission to the apostles in Luke’s Gospel to go forth to proclaim the Good News and cure disease includes Jesus enjoining those who go in His name to take nothing extra for the journey.

The things in our lives really do get in the way.  But so do lack of things.  How do we proclaim the compassionate love of God to those who either think they have everything they need or who are so consumed with struggling through the day they have no time to consider the abundant love of Jesus?  It is not the number of things we have in our lives.  It’s the attitude we have about the things in our life.  We become so easily distracted by what we have or don’t have that we cannot hear the Word of God as it is proclaimed to us.  Nor will we be very good at proclaiming God’s Word when distracted by the excesses or the deficiencies we experience in our lives.

Perfection is not to be found in this life, either in our personal lives or in society.  We strive for excellence certainly, but perfection comes only in our union with God.  The search for excellence is full of false starts and dead ends, of pendulum swings from one extreme to another, of trying to find a balance in life – that moderation, that temperance – that allows us to be free to hear God’s Word and to live that Word honestly and openly.

We have become a people of extremes in all manner of life.  Look at the extremes of wealth and poverty, all while the middle class is reported to be shrinking.  Look at the extremes of fundamentalism at both ends in religion and politics that leave moderates sidelined.  Perhaps if we focus first on God’s Word, Jesus will help guide us through the traps of extremism to find a moderation that allows us to see God in all things and all people.

 

1. 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.

Scripture:

1Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection:

"What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies." 1 Corinthians 15:36

 

I’ve been thinking about seeds lately – actually marveling at them. It’s mind-boggling to me that a tiny little seed has the potential hiding within it to produce a tree, or a bush, and then flowers and fruit! How can something so small end up so big?

We too began as a seed and look at us now! Besides physical growth, we grow emotionally and spiritually, and often that growth comes from dying – dying to ourselves. Most of us still have some dying to do . . . not just at the end of our earthly lives, but each day as we try to become more and more like our Lord Jesus.

I love caffeine. I love how it makes me feel – energetic and motivated. The problem for me is that it ends up controlling me: if I run out, I have to go find some, if I have any after 3 p.m. I have a hard time falling asleep, and it elevates my blood pressure. What’s also interesting is that when I’m on caffeine I’m not as sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I just power through my day and don’t stop to pray as I go.

I have finally faced the music, and realize this is an area of my life where I need to die to myself and go against the flow. It’s hard because it’s so readily available, plus people like Dr. Oz say that some caffeine is good for you. Still, God has shown me repeatedly that it isn’t good for me, so it’s got to go! Today I am 64 days caffeine free and recently my blood pressure was 108/80!

I’m sharing this with you because maybe you too have felt a nudge to get off caffeine, but the world keeps you hooked! I want to give you permission to join me and quit being controlled by the need for caffeine (or alcohol, or food, or too much TV, or whatever your problem area is). As we die to ourselves, we become more and more the person that God created us to be, and we will be able to bear more fruit for the Kingdom.

 

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, OR and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. Janice also leads women’s retreats. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 6. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.jcarleton.com/ or email her at [email protected]

Feast of St. Matthew

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13;
Matthew 9:9-13

Reflection:

Usually we like to put our best foot forward when we’re meeting someone for the first time, or entering a situation that is new to us.  We dread making a faux pas or a remark that is out of place.  This tendency of ours differs somewhat from what we meet in the biblical account presented today, on this feastday of the apostle and evangelist, St. Matthew.

We hear of his first encounter with Jesus, Who meets him "at the customs post", where Matthew, also called Levi, worked.   In the Jewish circles of the times, given the volatile atmosphere surrounding it, this was probably not the place Matthew, who had likely already heard about Jesus,  would have preferred to initiate his first meeting with so famous a person.   Given that customs officials/tax collectors were on the Roman payroll, this didn’t set well with Jewish citizenry, who resented their subordinate status within their very own nation.  But Matthew didn’t have much say about this event since it was Jesus, apparently, Who initiated the encounter.

 Matthew, however, handled whatever embarrassment he may have suffered on that occasion with aplomb, as he proceeded to throw a banquet to celebrate his good fortune,  and without more ado he invited Jesus to attend, along with his (Matthew’s) friends-more tax collectors and "sinners", as they are described in the account.   Jesus, for His part, accepted.  Apparently neither Jesus or Matthew felt it out of place to have the epithet "sinners" applied by Jesus to the whole motley group in a subsequent remark aimed at the critical Pharisees: "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

The tenor of this gospel is in line with a letter Paul, in later years, wrote to the church in Ephesus, which he had evangelized.  It begins with the autobiographical remark: "I, then, a prisoner for the Lord…"  It is likely that someone unfamiliar with the Christian scriptures, but coming upon these accounts for the first time, would wonder what manner of person the Christian is who reverences as religious/inspirational literature these snippets, revealing less than complimentary glimpses of persons  cherished and revered by these Christians.  Matthew’s status as a sinner and Paul’s situation as a prisoner don’t seem to speak highly of the leadership of the Christian community.

Of course, we could extend this surprising element to Jesus Himself, Whose final hours on earth were those of a criminal dying in shame and ignominy.  It can serve as a powerful antidote to our own tendency to be on our best behavior, as we carefully groom our appearance and reputation to establish our true worth, both in the sight of God, and of others.  As Paul goes on, in his letter to the Ephesians, to describe the manner of life worthy of the call we have received from God, and which he hopes will prevail in the church/the body of Christ, it suggests that whatever first impressions we might have of others, such as those presented above, don’t always capture the entire situation.  And we are led to reflect on our own experience of first impressions, both those we give, and those we receive.

The axiom that we can know a person by the friends he or she has may call for us to reevaluate those whom we would like to have as friends-any room for sinners and prisoners?

 

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

Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Taegŏn, priest and martyr and Saint Paul Chŏng Hasang, martyr, and their companions, martyrs

Scripture:

I Corinthians 15: 1-11
Luke 7: 36-50

 

Reflection:

Most of us are quite familiar with the stories of the growth of faith in the U.S. and in Europe and South America.  But stories of the introduction of our faith in Asia, though less familiar, are equally compelling.  And today we celebrate the early days of Christianity in the country of Korea on this feast of St. Andrew Taegon and Companions.  St. Andrew is a "new" saint for he was canonized by Pope Paul II.  Though St. Andrew and his Companions are new to the liturgical calendar, they are powerful witnesses to living the Gospel in real life.

St. Andrew wasn’t the first Korean Christian by a long shot.  By the time he was born in 1821, Christianity had been growing in Korea for about fifty years.  It is believed that Christianity had been brought into Korea by some Christian Japanese soldiers in the latter part of the 18^th century.   The Christian Japanese soldiers baptized the first Korean Christians and the Christian community began to grow quickly.  By the time the first foreign priest arrived in Korea in 1836 there was already a substantial Christian community flourishing there.  The Korean Catholic Church is the only known Catholic Christian community that first developed completely from the witness and work of lay Christians.

The rulers in Korea were not at all pleased to have this foreign religion thriving in their country.  At first they just discouraged it but soon enough outlawed this practice and began to actively persecute anyone who took it up.  As Christians were arrested, tortured and put to death the Church quickly moved underground

St. Andrew’s parents, members of the Korean nobility, were an important part of that early community and secretly remained faithful to their life with Christ.  Andrew was baptized at fifteen and soon expressed his desire to become a priest.  He traveled to Macau to attend the seminary and was ordained in 1845.  He was the first Korean to become a priest and returned home shortly after his ordination to help organize the Church and bring the sacraments to the faithful.  He ministered in Korea only a year before he was arrested and put to death.

There were intense persecutions of Christians in Korea in 1839, 1846, 1866 and 1867 and 103 Christians were martyred for their faith.  We celebrate these heroic martyrs on this day.

May their faith and courage inspire us to live our lives faithful to the Gospel and have the strength to be fearless witness for Christ in our everyday lives.

 

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of the Development Office for Holy Cross Province and is stationed at Immaculate Conception Community in Chicago.