Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Titus 1:1-9
Luke 17:1-6

Reflection:

Paul begins his letter to Titus by introducing himself as a "slave" of God. Some versions translate this word as "servant," but slave has the fuller meaning. Paul had taught that we have been "bought with a price." We are the property of and owned by God. We do not belong to the world or even ourselves. Slaves are 24/7 at their Master’s beck and call. Discipleship means more than just "following" Jesus. It means abandoning your will to the will of your owner. Paul had written this in Romans, "Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?"

Because of our country’s negative history with slavery, we don’t like the word "slave." Years ago the movie Roots showed the horrors of those bound by that unjust institution. Yet, ironically, Paul talks about our slavery in God as a position of true freedom. There are none so liberated as the children of God. As Jesus taught, those in true captivity are "slaves to sin." Children of God avoid sin, live in peace, and are not controlled by circumstances, events, and people.

One area where many are bound is in non-forgiveness, bitterness, resentment, and anger. After teaching about the necessity to forgive even many times, the apostles respond with "increase our faith." Jesus taught that even some faith in God has the power to uproot, not mulberries, but mulling over past wrongs and hurts. Resentment, bitterness, and codependency lead to slavery and misery.

Because we are slaves of God, we are not bound by sin or any way of behaving which our culture tries to infuse in people. We are a people owned by God. We are God’s property. Because we have faith in the one who has "bought us," we can live liberated, emancipated lives. The evil roots of slavery are planted in the sea. We can live in serenity even when offended. 

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 16 books and creator of television and radio programs airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

 

Scripture:

1 Kings 17:10-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44 or 12:41-44

Reflection:

When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown Washington, DC McDonald’s, he bought the man a cheeseburger.  No one noticed, except a sociologist doing a study on the poor.  And there was nothing unusual about this, except that Richards was homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger represented a lavish chunk of the $9.50 he had earned that day from panhandling.

Like that sociologist, Jesus was in the Temple doing his own study on the poor – and rich.  He "sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury."

In Temple area, scholars tell us, were 13 collection boxes, each fitted with a brass horn-like funnel.  The people would throw in their brass coins, which by their very weight and force would make a loud clanging noise.  The noisier the clanging, the more obviously generous, wealthy and powerful were the donors.  And all could admire their public display of generosity.

Then came a widow, who tossed two pitiful mites (Greek lepta), the smallest and least valuable coins into the brass funnel; they barely made a clink.  No one heard, no one noticed.

Except for a sociologist who observed the homeless Washington, DC beggar buying a cheeseburger for a fellow homeless person, no one noticed; there was no loud clanging to mark his remarkable generosity.  Except for Jesus, who observed the widow tossing her two coins, her mite, in the box, no one noticed; there was no loud clanging to mark her lavish trust in God.

Jesus was clearly unimpressed by the world’s ostentatious clanging of wealth and power and honor.  Instead, he calls us, like the widow, to lavish him with our trust in God.  To all the world, it will sound like the insignificant, weak clink of a widow’s mite.  But to the ears of Jesus, it will thunder with the deafening clang of a widow’s might.

 

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

Feast of the Dedication
of the Lateran Basilica

Scripture:

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17
John 2:13-22

 

 

Reflection:

In the Lectionary the Common of the Dedication of a Church precedes Mary, the Martyrs and the other saints. If there is a hierarchy as I think there is, why would the Dedication of a Church precede Mary? Is it that the celebration of Church, the holy assembly of God’s people, includes Mary along with all of the saints in its celebration? It is also a good reminder to us that we celebrate not a church building but the primary symbol when we gather for liturgy, the people who are Church.

The Basilica, really Archbasilica in that it is the oldest of the four major basilicas of Rome, is the Episcopal seat of the Pope as the Bishop of Rome. It is called the Mother and Head of all the Churches of Rome and the world. As we have celebrated All Saints and our beloved dead, All Souls, we could see today’s feast as celebrating all the living, the Church, gathered symbolically with it’s head, the Bishop of Rome.

There is a selection of readings to choose from for the feast day. Paul to the Corinthians tells us ‘the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.’ We are the living body of Christ. The Old Testament selection from Ezekiel is particularly beautiful. He speaks of hearing the sound of water, being led by an angel to the gate of the temple that faces east. Ezekiel falls face down as the Lord enters the temple from the east. He hears God say, ‘this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the Israelites forever.’ We can think of Baptism, the early church facing the east making their profession of faith in the direction of the rising sun, the symbol of the radiance of Christ whose coming would be from the east. This is the Lord God who has threatened Israel by saying that he would leave the Temple and go off to the north, to the land of Babylon! How solid and reassuring to Ezekiel the image of the soles of God’s feet now being planted in the temple. God has returned. God does not abandon Israel.

I will choose John’s gospel of the cleansing of the temple. Jesus becomes the temple, he replaces it with himself. When asked for a sign authorizing his actions Jesus replies, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ John will interpret for us, ‘Actually he was talking about the temple of his body.’

Today is our celebration and we are honored. At baptism our places at the banquet table of the Eucharist were reserved for us. We could see the Basilica of John Lateran as one large gathering of all the Baptized, sort of the yearly family reunion, remembering our connectedness, gathering at a place that is meaningful to us all. At the reunion we hear the story of God marching into the temple from the East, making a wondrous display, as God takes up residence in our midst. But the story grows more exciting. God’s presence in our midst becomes living, Jesus, Our Savior. (The Lateran was first dedicated to Our Savior and bore that as its name). And as he is the Temple, we who are coheirs with the saints, we are temples of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us.

Very happy feast day to all!

 

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

Scripture:

Philippians 4:10-19
Luke 16:9-15

Reflection:

Jesus teaches that those who prove untrustworthy in small things will be untrustworthy in greater ones, while those you can trust in small matters are trustworthy all the way around. This simple statement points out that no one becomes a disciple nor a cad in one easy step. It is always a series of small choices, each of which create patterns that form us and determine our character.

An illustration: As I was growing up I often told "white lies", whether to spare someone’s feelings, save my own hide when I’d done something wrong, improve someone’s perception of me, or invent an excuse to get out of doing something I didn’t want to do. Yet I still thought of myself as an honest person. After all, everyone around me, even the people I admired, did the same thing on a regular basis. And how could an occasional little lie hurt, especially if it made my life easier?

But where does the line get drawn? When is it OK to stretch the truth or to lie a bit, especially given the reality that telling little lies made it so much easier to tell slightly bigger ones? Telling Nazis I am not hiding Jews when I actually am is sufficient justification to lie, but does my comfort or my avoidance of conflict meet the standard? I always know that if something about my behavior causes me to rationalize it or to cringe before God when bringing it to prayer, I need to change.

I decided not to allow myself to lie at all. If I didn’t want to do something, I could say "No, I have another commitment" even if that commitment was to my own time off, but I could not invent an excuse. If a friend asked whether I liked her dress and I didn’t, I’d say it was not my first choice and she had others that I liked better.  If I was asked about something I had done, I needed to fully admit my part in it without deflecting the blame. I could go on with infinite examples, but suffice to say that this proved to be exceptionally difficult. I didn’t realize how many times I was telling little "harmless" lies, or how much those lies were supported in our society.

Even more disturbing was the level to which the principle behind it was creeping into my life. Cutting the hardest part of my workout short on one day made it so much easier to cut it out on another day. Allowing my schedule to get in the way of prayer time for a week made it infinitely more difficult to get back to my regular prayer time. I thought of all the business CEO’s and managers who made small and seemingly harmless choices in order to line their own pockets or artificially increase profitability, and when they got away with it, making bigger and bigger ones until the company or even the system collapsed. The higher the stakes, the easier it is to slide down that continuum. It is far better to not even venture onto the slope. 

Although no one would have called me a dishonest person at any point, I am living with more integrity since I decided to stop those little white lies. The temptation remains, and I still fail on occasion, but Jesus taught me a lesson. I hope I can apply that lesson to every aspect of my life so I can stand tall before God and others as a trustworthy person in all ways, big and small.

 

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s website: http://www.amyflorian.com/.

Scripture:

Philippians 3:3-8a
Luke 15:1-10

Reflection:

During his public ministry Jesus reached out to sinners – and provoked the Pharisees!  Jesus proclaimed that he had come to call sinners, and not the self-righteous…and so the Pharisees made their judgments and murmured about the kind of company Jesus was keeping – complaining that Jesus even eats with sinners (if Jesus had not eaten with sinners he would have had to eat alone…)!

God values each human being, saint or sinner.  God doesn’t want to give up on any of us; we’re worth more than a single sheep or a single coin.  That message of Jesus touched St. Paul the Apostle and motivated him to change from being a persecutor to a zealous apostle preaching the Gospel to as many as possible…a living witness that God loves each human being!

As we hear Jesus preaching about the preciousness of a single sinner, we should not be passive spectators wondering whom Jesus is talking about…he is talking about us!  We each have been a lost sheep, but a very valuable lost sheep; Jesus the Good Shepherd diligently searches for each of us, calls for a change of heart – and then joyfully puts us on his shoulders and leads us back to the fold which is the Church. 

The value of all humans is witnessed by St. Charles Borromeo, a 16^th century disciple of Jesus / man of the Church who devoted himself to the people of God and the reform of the Church about the time of the Council of Trent.  He was called to utilize his youth, his education and influence to become a leader who taught as much by example as by learning and words.  He reached out to the poor and needy of his day, sacrificing wealth, honor and influence to serve them – even in the challenges of the plagues and famines of his day, ministering to the sick, the hungry, and the dying.

We are all part of sinful humanity, needing redemption by our loving Savior, Jesus.  Despite our unworthiness, Jesus seeks us out, lights the lamp, sweeps the house – and rejoices with us!  A simple meditation on the Cross of Jesus puts it all into perspective:  Jesus’ arms lovingly embrace us all.  Thanks be to God for St. Charles Borromeo, St. Paul of the Cross, and all those "official" and "everyday" saints who call us deeper into God’s Love.

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky. 

 

Scripture:

Philippians 2:12-18
Luke 14:25-33

Reflection:

Looks can be deceiving, Take for instance, Fr. Randal Joyce, C.P. On the outside, he looks like the perfect monk, quiet, reflective and obedient to his superiors. He even looked that way in the 60’s when I first met him. He was my first spiritual director. That’s when I learned what he was really like though. He gave me subversive books to read that modern day terrorists could learn from, about people who changed their worlds.

One book told of a guy who had a plush job with those in power. When they suggested that he had to go against his beliefs, he told them to get lost. They legally (today we don’t always bother to make it legal) beheaded him because he refused to accept their authority. Then there was the book about a well-respected scholar of his day who was drawn and quartered for his beliefs that happen to be contrary to his accusers’. Unlike modern day terrorists who cause suffering on others, he did not physically cause anyone violence but went to his death singing God’s praises and praying for those in power. Those are just two of the many books he gave me to read over the four years that I knew him.

Then along came Vatican II and another great imposter.  He was a 77-year-old has-been who was elected Pope, probably because everyone figured he couldn’t do much harm. Hum? He was inspired to call for a council and he invited not only Roman Catholic Bishops but also people of different faiths and even lay people. OMG! He told those gathered there that they were to listen to the Spirit among them and come to consensus in resolving the issues of the day. He would not give them any easy answers. Wow! There were probably many, then and now, who would have like to do away with this humble, compassionate man for his beliefs.

Thank you Father Randal for introducing me to so many great men like the above St. Thomas More and St. Edmund Campion. Thank you Blessed John XXIII for showing us a new way of being together, not only with those who believe like us, but also with those whose beliefs are different. Thank you Jesus for warning us in the scriptures we read today, that this following you wasn’t going to be easy. At the very least it would probably mean going against the main stream, accepting the consequences and yes, changing the world in the process.

 

 Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago.  

Scripture:
Philippians 2:1-4
Luke 14:12-14

Reflection:
"Complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love," Paul writes.  Have you noticed how much joy can be participated in merely by staying in God’s will?  Paul takes it a step farther.  Somehow, as other people do this, he finds joy. 

A few weeks ago in an evening RCIA class, the instructor, a professional therapist, was talking about images of Christ. He mentioned his own personal image of how frequently Jesus chooses marginalized people and those who society had rejected.  Additionally, he shared how he was at his best when he was doing what Jesus has always done.  I thought back to our founder, St. Paul of the Cross, who talks about aligning our will with the divine will of God.  It seems that if we find ourselves doing what Jesus did, that should be a good definition of holiness.   

As this instructor was speaking about the poor and the marginalized and how he personally felt called by the Lord to this work, I couldn’t help but think about John 12:8.   "The poor you always have with you, but me you will not always have."  Some have interpreted this as a judgment back to Dt. 15 especially verse 11 with the covenant relationship the people made with the Lord.  However, this particular night, this statement inspired me in a new way.  For if someone finds fulfillment in helping the poor, and Jesus promises to have the poor with us always, then there’s also not only a lot of good work to be done, but also a lot of joy in that there will be plentiful opportunities to be in God’s will. 

In the Gospel, when Jesus instructs us to throw parties for people who cannot repay, then there is truly something there that is not self-serving.  Those who are always seeking a quality return on their investment won’t be able to find joy or delight in a one way gift or an un-repayable act of generosity.  God will NEVER be outdone in generosity.  So by inviting those who can’t pay you back, they can only share with you something beyond material possessions, they can share with you their gratitude and their joy.  And as the commercial says, "That’s Priceless!"

 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 6:2-6
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 12:28b-34

Reflection:

All-Inclusive Love

The scribe in today’s Gospel selection puts an interesting question to Jesus:  Which is the 1^st of the commandments?  No doubt the scribe knew the many regulations in the Hebrew Scriptures, some 613 distinct commandments; the scribe was truly seeking insight and direction by asking which commandment is the greatest.

Jesus did not hesitate!  He quoted from the Book of Deuteronomy our 1^st reading:  "…you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…".  He didn’t dismiss the other regulations; rather Jesus taught that they were all summed up in the one great commandment of love of God.  And, Jesus then took the scribe’s request one step further:  the 2^nd commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself…a quote he took from the Book of Leviticus.

There’s also one serious "catch" in the statements of Jesus:  a tiny, three letter word…"all" your heart…all your soul…all your mind…all your strength":  a serious challenge!!  Then, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves… Jesus implies a total love, giving myself completely to God — nothing left out, no holding back…as He Himself loves!

Today, Jesus challenges us to take his words to heart and love without holding back:  to love God, neighbor, and self.  We hear this commandment as we gather as a worshipping community this Sunday in later Ordinary Time.  We are human; we proclaim our need of God’s Love and Life, and we promise to carry this selfless, Godly-Love to our sisters and brothers in our needy 21^st Century world. 

Let’s be grateful for our faith and fellowship this day.  May Jesus look at us with love and understanding and encourage us that we are not far from the Kingdom of God.

 

Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky.