Daily Scripture

Scripture:
Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13
Matthew 9:32-38

Reflection:
Humans have created and worshipped idols from the time of antiquity. Today, you do not walk into a Catholic Church and see golden images that people worship as gods. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean we don’t still worship idols.

Everyone recognizes the U.S. tendency to create idols of celebrities.  Endless ink has been spilled on the perils inherent in this fame-and-money worship, yet it seems we can’t help ourselves. (Think of "American Idol", which attracts competitors and viewers with the premise that the next object of our worship will be discovered there.) Regardless of its dubious wisdom, at least we are aware that we do it.

More insidious are other types of idols we create, especially those generating so little ink that we remain unaware of their existence and therefore oblivious to their damage. These kinds of idols can be misrepresentations of God, of ourselves, of Catholic teaching, or any combination.

One example is the idol of perfection. We believe that if were are perfect, then we are worthy of love. Since such perfection is unattainable in this life we endlessly strive after an impossible goal while being endlessly reminded of how unlovable we are. You may know the refrain: "If people really knew me, they wouldn’t love me anymore."  This applies to God as well. We believe God can tolerate us when we sin, but God can only truly love us if we are the epitome of the perfect Catholic (by a narrow definition of "perfect Catholic").

So we create a molten idol of perfection, a god before which we worship every day. And every night, we chastise ourselves for falling so far short. We grow farther away from God, believing God would want to enter into a deep relationship with such an unworthy creature.

Jesus weeps for us because we are like sheep without a shepherd, chasing a molten image of God based on human ideas of perfection instead of listening to the Gospel truth. We keep looking up to heaven for the enthroned judge of all, wondering why God is so far away, instead of getting in touch with the real God, the immanent God who became incarnate in our world and who loves us beyond anything we can comprehend.

We need to dismantle such idols and turn the broken shards over to God to be recast into gifts of love, acceptance, challenge, and hope. If I were already perfect, I would have no need of God. In my flaws, in my sins, in my weakness, God can act even more strongly if I allow it.  (As St. Paul says, "When I am weak, then I am strong.") In fact, admitting my own imperfections helps others admit theirs. Embodying the unconditional everlasting love of God in the midst of my weakness witnesses to those whose idols still stand but who long to melt them down. Jesus can work through me to help cast out demons from those held in the grip of unworthiness, fear, perfectionism, self-loathing, and grief.

Jesus tells us the harvest is abundant but laborers are few. Perhaps that is because of all the false idols we spend our time, energy, and money worshipping. Perhaps we need to create a new "idol" that we actively strive to please every day – an idol of vulnerability and love. If we worshipped that idol as actively as we worship celebrities, perhaps our Catholic Christian communities could be places where the imperfect are welcomed and affirmed, where sinners come to the table, where those cast out are brought in, and every single one of us is assured of the unconditional, unimaginable, overflowing love of God for us. Perhaps we could work toward becoming parishes not of perfect people but of perfect love, where we cast out demons, heal the suffering, and lay down our lives for each other. Think of the harvest we could reap in our church and our world if we did that.

An idol made of vulnerability and love is truly worthy of our worship. In fact, though, it is not an idol at all. It is Jesus. Believe in his Gospel. Believe in God’s ability to work through your imperfections and weakness. Dismantle false idols and turn them over to God. Then go out into the fields to plant, nurture, water, and harvest. We need more laborers.

 

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:

Hosea 2:16, 17b-18, 21-22
Matthew 9:18-26

 

 

 

Reflection:

Don’t Forget the Honeymoon

Recently I recommended a book to over a thousand people. I should have read it first! Oops. I would like to talk about honeymoons. Sure enough, I’ve never had the joy of being on one. But here a few things I heard from friends.

One remembers his first argument with his new wife. Not sure who won, but it hit him in the face that he was not totally the center of her universe. Another talks of their first day at a beautiful beach. They enjoyed the water and sun. They slept after the work of a wedding. Then, for the next few days of their honeymoon they could barely stand any sign of affection that included touch. And I was with a group that accompanied a third couple to the airport when they were leaving for their honeymoon. At the gate and ready to board they learned they were about to step into the wrong flight!

Hosea talks about Israel’s honeymoon. Their first one lasted forty years. You know the story – many fights with their lover, running out of food and drink, idols and invasions.  Yet Israel remembers their honeymoon fondly. God was with them in a special way, they were the Beloved, and God was a jealous lover. And now Hosea tells Israel that God would like to call them back to the desert to experience justice, fidelity, love and mercy. What a romantic God Israel has. Who can say no? One might question the venue. Tradition says that none of those who set out on the Exodus journey, even Moses, entered the Promised Land. They had all spent their lives on a honeymoon!

Honeymoons last days or weeks, but perhaps they contain within themselves a married lifetime in miniature? Hints of decisions to be made, that mistaken paths will be followed, sufferings to be wrestled with together? Israel had a long honeymoon with God. Perhaps it took that long to fill them with the hopes and promises and love that they would need to draw on in the centuries and sufferings that would follow? Hosea calls them to remember. Remembering is to experience anew the love affair that God wants to have with them.

What might our honeymoon be with God? I think of the sacraments as humanly meaningful experiences where we encounter the mystery of God’s love. Each has its own way…the accompaniment of a Good Shepherd for those sick, a new openness to the Spirit and God’s gifts to us at Confirmation, God’s on going creation that we share in through the love we give and receive in Marriage….These may be moments, some we repeat some we do not, we may feel the presence of God’s mystery or we may be caught up in some mundane distraction. But there are seeds that may blossom to be harvested by faith in another moment of life.

Let us take Hosea’s invitation to heart. Remember the honeymoons, the intimate encounters with God, and how God invites us again to the love of those meetings.

 

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

Scripture:

Ezekiel 2:2-5
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6a

Reflection:

Do you have a thorn in the flesh? Perhaps it is fear, a feeling of rejection, or a physical ailment. It could be an irritating person who is a thorn in your side. For Jesus in the Gospel it was a familiarity that bred contempt. For other prophets it meant loneliness and misunderstanding. We aren’t quite sure what Paul’s thorn was. Since something like scales fell off his eyes at his conversion, some think he had an eye problem. Whatever his thorn was, he didn’t want it and pleaded that God would remove it. God didn’t take the affliction away, but as God so often does, he used it for good.

Perhaps the greatest things our sufferings do for us is bring us to the awareness that we are not in control. We must rely on grace. Our weaknesses can become strengths when mixed with God’s grace. Every day, including holidays, our retreat center in Houston is a meeting place for the 12 Step program. People affected by the disease of alcoholism gather, share, gain perspective, and surrender to God’s grace. Their so called weakness becomes a platform of new strength and renewed life. A common saying in the program is: "There, but for the grace of God go I."  

Whatever affliction or thorn you may be facing, it can serve a purpose. Your pain will humble you and make you rely on the grace of God that really is sufficient.

 

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:

Amos 9:11-15
Matthew 9:14-17

Reflection:

My father made a very good living in the 1950’s as a laundryman. For you young Passionists who don’t know what a laundryman does, he drives a truck in the city and goes from door to door picking up dirty laundry and later in the day brings it back fresh and clean. Those were the days before we all had washers and dryers in our homes. Now, not all laundrymen made "very good" livings. Most made enough to raise a family comfortably, but you had to really hustle, getting new customers to make a "very good" living.

In the early ‘50’s there were two types of laundry service. With one service, wet wash, your laundry was picked up in the morning and delivered later in the day for you to hang in the basement to dry. This was cheaper than what was called a three quarter bundle where your laundry was not only washed, it was also dried, folded, and your linens ironed. Three quarter bundles were usually delivered a day or two later. The two processes together were labor intensive and a very inefficient use of the laundry machines and personnel. The bulk of every laundry’s business was "wet wash".

The laundry owners all knew each other and recognized my father as a hustler and one who could bring in lots of new business. Two owners looking to regenerate their business took my father to lunch one day and asked if he would come to work for them. They had been losing money and had to change if they were going to survive. My father, having made these moves many times before, tried something different. He told them he would go to work for them if he could have a third of the profits and complete autonomy in running the business. The owners looked at each other and said a third of nothing is nothing and so they agreed. Then, my father told them how he planned to turn their laundry around. He would do away with the wet wash and concentrate solely on the three quarter bundle, offering all current wet wash customers the three quarter bundle service for the same price they were used to paying for wet wash. The owners could only see doom. Now they figured, they were surely going down the tubes. Eventually however, the simplification of the process not only saved the laundry, it made them a leader in the business, with all laundries quickly following suit or going out of business.

I’m not sure this has anything to do with new wineskins, but maybe so. Each new day brings new challenges and opportunities. Doing things the way we did them yesterday, using the same old wineskins to package the new day doesn’t work. Eventually the old wineskins burst and we lose all. Twelve step programs have a nice way of saying this. They define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Father and mother in heaven, give me the vision to recognize the activities in my life that no longer serve me and my fellows and the courage to try something new.

 

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

Scripture:

Amos 7:10-17
Matthew 9:1-8

Reflection:

Last week we had two significant readings from the second book of Kings. On Tuesday we heard how the Assyrians marched against Israel destroying the northern areas but were turned back shortly after getting to Jerusalem. Then on Thursday our first reading retold the story of the Babylonian captivity which led to the exile. These two events, the first in 722 B.C.E. and the second in 587 B.C.E. made an enormous impact on the collective mind of the people.  No one likes to be reminded of painful events in their life, nor do we like it when people begin to predict them.  The more we understand the seriousness of these two events the better we can understand the deep rootedness the religious leaders had in the days of Jesus.  

Amos, a prophet of the northern kingdom, speaks to us in today’s first reading about these events before they happened. And for his prophecy he receives mockery, and scorn. It seems no one wants to hear or listen to the doom impending upon Israel. His prophecy certainly comes true over the next 200 years. In all truthfulness,  Amaziah, the priest of Bethel who rejected Amos, won’t live long enough to see it.  As I think about this, I notice the same is true for us.  We sure are quick to dismiss or criticize bad news when things are going well, yet look how quickly we welcome good news when things are going poorly.  

Matthew’s gospel has similar voices.  In his desire to heal the man on the stretcher, Jesus needed to confront the voices which diminish and discourage.  Yet Matthew says Jesus caught sight of the faith of the people who carried the paralytic to him.  It was their faith which allowed Jesus to speak words of forgiveness.   At some point Jesus chooses the motivation of the man’s friends over the discouragement of the scribes.  The scribes claim he is blaspheming.  They could only focus on and hear that which disagreed with their theology.  But what else can you say when the man who previously could not walk gets up and walks out of a gathering of people? The criticizing scribes are silenced and the crowd glorifies God.

The opening prayer of this week, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary time says that God chose us to be children of light.  It goes on to ask God that we "may NOT be wrapped in darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth".  

 

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

Scripture:

Amos 5:14-15,21-24
Mathew 8:28-34

(optional readings for Independence Day):

Isaiah 57:15-19
Philippians 4:6-9
John 14:23-29

 

Reflection:

Celebrating United States Independence Day 

Today the liturgical guidelines encourage us to use the special prayers for Independence Day, and to chose from a variety of Scripture selections related to "public needs" and "social justice".

Interestingly, the "regular" readings encourage us to abandon our evil ways, to seek justice for all people – following Jesus’ example of sacrificial, redemptive love.  These Scriptures call out to us today to be Christ-centered messengers of justice and freedom…founded in true gratitude for our many blessings as 21^st Century citizens of these United States. 

The optional readings chosen for Independence Day highlight another dimension of our American heritage and our mission:  peace.  Isaiah calls out for peace, especially for those struggling or dejected in spirit; St. Paul writing to the Philippians reminds us to have no anxiety, but to daily turn to God in prayer for our personal and communal needs; Jesus at the Last Supper gifts his disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you".  True reason to rejoice and celebrate!

Jesus gives us his peace – not simply the experience of total tranquility or the absence of suffering or the absence of uncertainty.  He offers His peace that comes from the experience that God is with us, here and now and in all things and with all peoples — loving us unconditionally.  As contemporary disciples, we look to the Cross of Jesus, seeking peace and freedom from our hectic pace of life, our uncertainties, our personal and communal suffering, and even the violence and death which is so much a part of our culture.  And the unconditional love of Jesus showers each of us with his peace, with a sense of presence, freedom and redemption that transforms the challenges of each day into blessings for both today and tomorrow.

May today’s celebration of our United States "independence" help us be grateful and share our God-given blessings with all people!  In Jesus, may we live at peace with our sisters and brothers worldwide.  May God bless America!

 

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

Scripture:

Amos 2:6-10, 13-16
Matthew 8:18-22

Reflection:

Today’s gospel selection is very brief.  In the context of Matthew’s narrative, Jesus is establishing his credibility as "Son of Man", as the expected Messiah, as someone whom the people can approach for wise teaching ("Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."), and for the miraculous signs of God’s favor (the preceding cures, including that of Peter’s mother-in-law).

As a young boy, I can remember my reacting to the harshness of Jesus’ response to the anonymous disciple’s entreaty, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."  It did indeed seem un-caring of Jesus to insist on fidelity to himself against the fidelity one owed one’s own parents.  "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead" seemed too binding a command to be followed by someone with genuine affection for his father."

Even then I could remember when my parents received word that my great-grandmother had died in El Paso, Texas.  I was only about 9 years old, but my parents pulled the kids out of school, and loaded up the 1938 Plymouth (leaking gas tank considered a peril to be endured because of the urgency of the trip) with kids and sandwiches and sodas, as we headed east through the desert to El Paso.  It was a witness of the family ties that could not be ignored or dismissed.

But Jesus said: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

My eyes began to open to the meaning of Jesus’ words when later in my elementary education, shortly before graduating from Resurrection School, the father of my Franciscan Sister classroom teacher died in Switzerland.  There was never any question but that she would continue teaching us day after day, and her father would be buried without his missionary Sister daughter’s presence.  As a matter of fact, I still remember that her family sent her a photograph of her father in his casket, and she shared that photograph with us.  It was the first time I’d seen such a photograph.

Long afterwards, as I began to have more contact with missionaries-Passionists and others, I realized how common it was for many family events to pass by without the missionary’s coming home to share in the family grief, or the family celebration.  The commitment to the missionary life, the commitment to the community in which one served, the desire to follow Jesus wherever His path would lead one, these are the priorities of the Gospel and of the disciple of Jesus.

The parallel passage in Luke 9:57-62 ends with the familiar admonition, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the kingdom of God."

This is the message of today’s Gospel passage: Jesus, who has no place to call his own, calls us to follow him, to take on the mission of announcing the Kingdom, and we are not guaranteed that our life will have the conventional dimensions of one who picks and chooses his engagements.  To follow Jesus is to embark on a life-long following of Him who is our life’s purpose and completion.  The true disciple does not look back because he has already discovered that life lies in the direction he has taken in the following of Jesus, the Christ.  God will not disappoint.

 

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P.  is the director of the Office of Mission Effectiveness for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Wisdom 1: 13-15;  2: 23-24
2 Corinthians 8: 7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5: 21-43,                                                   

Reflection:

Today’s  readings are all about God’s great healing love for us, everyone of us, and God’s call to us to do the works of love for each other. 

The gospel opens with Jairus stepping forth from the crowd and begging Jesus to heal his daughter: "Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live."  Jairus begs Jesus for his healing touch of love, not for himself but for his daughter.   And Jesus goes off with him.

But before we can get to Jairus’s house, we have the strange incident of the hemorrhaging woman.  As I begin to get into this incident, I am moved with compassion.  For twelve years she has suffered these hemorrhages.  Doctors have just made her worse.  After spending all of her money on them, she has nothing to show for it.  Moreover, she is filled with shame, for this is not just a health problem.  She has an ailment that defiles her – according to the law she is ritually "unclean."  It is unlawful for anyone to touch her, and it is unlawful for her to touch anyone.  As long as the flow of blood continues, she remains "unclean" according to the law – an object of pity, but also an object of scorn and revulsion.  She moves hidden in the crowd, a non-entity.

But "she had heard about Jesus."  Still hiding in the crowd she comes up behind him and touches his cloak.  "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."  She has such tremendous faith in the power of Jesus – just furtively touch his cloak.  She has such tremendous faith in the love of Jesus – that it exudes from his very presence, without his willfully directing it.  He lives and moves in his love for others, with a power that promptly answers the needs of love.  She is immediately cured.   "She felt in her body that she was healed."

When I turn from this woman to look at Jesus and his disciples, I am again caught up in the mystery of this incident.  He knows that he has been touched in a special way, a different way, and he doesn’t know by whom.  He stops, turns, looks, and asks, "Who touched me?"  The disciples are incredulous, and practically say to him – "Everyone’s jostling you, and you ask us who touched you? Who touched you? In this crowd?"  

But the woman knows, and despite all her fear of the scorn of the crowd, she comes and falls down before him, pouring out her whole story – her twelve years of uncleanness and bleeding and misery and shame .  .  .  her desire to touch his cloak to receive his healing power.

Let us glorify this very human Jesus who realizes that his Father has given him such loving power to respond to every call of faith even when he is unaware of the caller – and that moves him then to seek her out.  And let us glorify this very human Jesus who responds directly to every call when asked, and lovingly touches the daughter of Jairus who pleads for his healing power.  May Jesus touch us all with his healing power of love.

 

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