Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 13:44-52
John 14:7-14

Reflection:

The Word of God is something nourishing. 

The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and glorified the Word of the Lord.

Acts of the Apostles testifies the Gentiles were people who could hear the Word of the Lord, accept it and find joy in it.  As I ponder this, I’m left with the question how to recreate this? What would it take for us to find tremendous joy in the Word of the Lord? Can we do so in a way that others want it and desire it?  The entrepreneur in me wants others to have this experience, yet it is an experience of the Holy Spirit.  Luke affirms this as he concludes, "the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit."  Frustrating as this is in a consumeristic society, the Holy Spirit can’t be bottled up or kept on the shelf for when we have one of those bad days. And while the Holy Spirit is always with us, it can seem at times elusive.  We do know, and scripture reminds us, it can still be fanned into flames.

This Easter I had one of those firsts in my life which was the real culmination of these readings. Throughout this year I’ve been privileged to walk with a group of people through the RCIA. 

I was mesmerized by how some in their early 20’s were bringing their friends to come to the evening sessions.  I was delighted at how close the group grew during the year.  I was captivated with their ability to share faith and ask down to earth questions.  I was charmed at their stories and experiences.   They were hungry and found nourishment in the Word, instruction and community.   In many striking similarities, the faith of the people in Acts of the Apostles was being recreated and relived in this small faith community. 

They would speak about how they looked forward all week to their weekly formation evening. They contributed to the larger parish community their time, talents and treasure even when they weren’t even full members, nor was it ever asked or expected of them.  They truly enjoyed being together. 

The spirit was building in these people of God for many months and during the night of the Easter Vigil it burst forth and bubbled over till everyone in the whole church was glowing and filled with joy.  There were no questions of who the Father was, it was a profound encounter with the resurrected Christ.  Every person in the church knew it, felt it, and glowed with that Joy of the Holy Spirit.    And all of these neophytes, after spending three hours in the church for the Easter vigil, came back the next morning. 

The other night I was eavesdropping on their conversation.  They were conversing about which mass to go to on the Forth Sunday of Easter.  They were doing so with the enthusiasm of a teenager who just got their driver’s license complete with a car and a full tank of gas.  They were eager and still hungry for more. What peaked my curiosity most was, they were choosing to make Sunday Eucharist the highlight of their Sunday. None of them were looking for a convenient mass to fit into their busy schedule.   

I can remember when it was that way for me.  And I wonder how did it slip away?  Has this absence of beautiful and simplistic joy clouded my ability to see the lived expression of Acts of the Apostles today?  

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 13:26-33
John 14:1-6

Reflection:

Jesus:  Our Way, Our Truth, Our Life

Today’s Gospel selection is so true to life:  like the early disciples, we can easily be caught up in the details and challenges of life that we lose our perspective and wander afar.  Family, jobs, personal health, politics, the global reality, etc.:  all converge in our minds and hearts and we can seem lost — and perhaps even fearful of the future.  To whom can we turn?

Jesus reassures us as he did the early disciples:  "I am the way and the truth and the life."  Yes!  Without Jesus the Way, there is no going; without Jesus the Truth, there is no knowing; and without Jesus the Life, there is no living.  To have faith in Jesus transforms us and gives us a new outlook on life.  He is the most influential and important person in our lives.

I’ve heard it said that life without Jesus is like living in the largest airport you’ve ever traveled through…perhaps Chicago’s O’Hare, or Dallas-Ft. Worth, or LAX in Los Angeles, or JFK in New York, or Atlanta.  As an occasional airport traveler myself, I know that airports can be confusing, impersonal — and perhaps a madhouse at times.  Amidst the thousands of people there, you can feel very much alone, perhaps even lost as you seek your departure gate. 

With Jesus we are not lost souls amid a maddening crowd, but rather folks in union with an untold number of sisters and brothers in the worldwide family of God…all on the same journey through earthly experiences to our eternal destiny.  No need to let our hearts be troubled!  We believe…Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life!

And, as "Easter People" on the roads and airports of contemporary life, may we add our joyful "alleluia’s" (perhaps a bit off key at times….) to our song as 21^st century disciples!

 

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

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:1-8
John 14:6-14

Reflection:

For prayerful Easter consideration: Am I a Christian leader? Am I willing to be another Christ? Can I believe that I am such a leader? During Easter season we are celebrating the baptismal re-birth in Christ to which I have been called. Is not that the meaning of being "begotten from above," as Jesus explains to Nicodemus? Accepting the role of being a Christian leader in my every day? The Christian leader’s life has a practical expression, believe it or not. One role of a leader is to announce, proclaim, promote, and exemplify the particular mission amidst those who choose to follow. In other words, hold the ideal of the mission in my heart, and as faithfully, hopefully, and joyfully, live it. Assume situations that go counter to "the Ideal," assume as Paul that you have been "born" in an untimely fashion. Untimely?   not the first Atom Bomb dropped on the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus? Was not Osama bin Laden killed on Divine Mercy Sunday? In two different places in the Acts of the Apostles, including today, the "mission" of the Body of Christ on earth is proclaimed. It is the descriptions of the earliest Christian communities. Re-read it.  Ah, if only…"of one heart and mind…none claimed anything as his own…no one was needy among them." Yes, it is the ideal. Yes, it really didn’t last long. Reality became more of a challenge (translate = persecution, destitution, unexpected demands, acceptance of "foreigners," and, the refusal to change for another’s sake).  But as leaders, we keep the precious ideal of Christ, in mind and action.  It all is begotten from "above." That means, do not worry about the results, it is all part of the Plan. I will constantly come up against opposition and threats. Is that not why Jesus (along with us) is lifted up? Just do it. 

 

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is president of Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

Memorial of Saint Athanasius,
Bishop and Doctor of the Church 

Scripture:

Acts 12:24-13:5a
John 12:44-50

Reflection:

The Easter season readings that occur today, on the memorial of St. Athanasius (born around 296; died May 2, 373), are a just tribute to his dedication as a teacher and pastor challenged to overcome the Arian heresy of his day.  He was Bishop of Alexandria, the intellectual and cultural center of the Roman Empire.  He had become bishop of Alexandria five months following the Council of Nicaea, which was convoked in order to deal with the teachings of Arius, a priest of Alexandria.

Arianism taught that the Second Person of the Trinity was created sometime before the Incarnation of Jesus.  As created being, Jesus could not be equal or "co-equal" to the Father.  The Council of Nicaea responded with the declaration, enshrined in the Nicene Creed, that Father and Son were "consubstantial" ("shared substance"). 

In upholding the declaration of  Nicaea, Athanasius was caught in the political ramifications of the religious argumentation.  The Emperor Constantine, toward the end of his life accepted to lobby with Athanasius for the restitution of Arius to the priesthood in that See city.  Athanasius stood firm in opposition, and this led to the first of several condemnations of Athanasius by hearings which were led by influential Arian sympathizers, if not believers.  Successive emperors, after Constantine, might be Arian or sympathetic to Arians; there was never a doubt that political power struggles underpinned many of the efforts to keep Athanasius in exile.  Four periods of exile occurred in his life, but he recovered his See each time, and eventually expired on this day in 373.

What in these readings of the season honors the memory of Athanasius?  In the first reading, we hear of the Holy Spirit’s prompting: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."  And they did, in prayer and with the laying on of hands.  From the Apostolic times, the Church is convinced that the Spirit of God calls ("vocare", "vocation") singular individuals for a particular share in the Mission of Christ’s Church.  The brief synopsis I gave for the life of Athanasius tells us that he was the Bishop of Alexandria.  It should be added that he accepted this call at hardly the required age of 30; although relatively young, once ordained as the Bishop of Alexandria, and although sent into exile four different times, he never abandoned his people.  He lived his conviction that God had asked this service of him. 

Last Sunday the Church celebrated a World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  We acknowledge that vocations are the fruit of prayer.  With the example of St. Athanasius before us, we also acknowledge that a true vocational discernment, for every service in the Church’s Mission, requires age-appropriate maturity, reverence and a willingness to put all of one’s strength in the hands of Christ’s Church.  The Church had such a person in St. Athanasius. 

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 11:19-26
John 10:22-30

Reflection:

In today’s readings I am struck by the contrast between what is happening in Acts and what is happening in John – the startling contrast between the Greeks, non-Jews, joyfully and fully accepting the Lord Jesus as the Christ, and the Jews in the temple area disbelieving both the words and the works of Jesus himself, refusing faith and rejecting him.

These Greeks in Antioch took to the word of the Lord so eagerly that eventually news of them reached the disciples in Jerusalem, who then sent Barnabas to check on them.  He was so amazed and overjoyed at their faith that he took off to Tarsus to find Saul and bring him back to Antioch.  The two of them remained there a whole year, building up the church with these non-Jewish converts to Jesus the Christ.  And it was there that the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians.  This story in Acts is filled with the wonder and joy of the Resurrected Lord.

But in John we have the sad rejection of faith from the very ones to whom Jesus was first sent.  "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly," they demand of him.  But the kind of Christ they want is not the Christ he has to offer.  Thinking they are in the right, they, the chosen people, reject him and his Father – they know better.  Neither his words nor his works move them; he must conform to what they expect of the Christ.

Through this Eastertide I have been constantly struck by how much what is going on in our own church today parallels what is happening in the Scripture readings.  We have been contemplating first all the wonderful things the newly inspired disciples of the Lord have been working among the people as they proclaim the crucified and risen Lord.   Then, immediately upon that, we see the refusal of the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, to acknowledge their mistake and accept the wonders happening before them.  Instead of listening to people like Gamaliel and Nicodemus, they hound the disciples as much as they dare and try to shut them up.  In our church today are we witnessing the same thing with the Vatican and our American Sisters?  

The CDF has just unloaded the results of their three-year investigation upon the LCWR – and calls for them to submit to five years regulation by an Archbishop and two bishops, to have their rules and regulations revised, their assembly plans inspected, their proposed speakers vetted for approval or rejection, meanwhile accusing them of giving scandal. Yet the worst scandal ever to hit the church, the cover-up of the clerical abuse of children by John Paul II, the CDF, and our own hierarchy continues without a word.  The files remain sealed and locked, both in the Vatican and in our dioceses.  How do I, a member of this one body the church, "speak the truth to the Pope and Bishops honestly, in love," as St. Paul advises?  Is a letter to the Papal Nuncio in order?  How do I come to the support of our Sisters and the LCWR?  A letter to LCWR promising daily heartfelt prayer and penance?  "To speak the truth honestly – in love" . . .

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 11:1-18
John 10:1-10

 

 

 

Reflection:

"I am tired of hearing about men with the ‘courage of their convictions.’ Nero and Caligula and Attila and Hitler had the courage of their convictions…But not one of them had the courage to examine their convictions or to change them, which is the true test of character." – Sydney Harris

Yes, it is not difficult to find people who have the courage of their convictions.  What is rare to find are people who have the courage to reexamine their convictions.  St. Peter, the first pope, had this second brand of courage. 

Peter went through much of his life regarding Gentiles as unclean.  He thought they were unworthy of his association.  This was part of his tradition.  But new circumstances (and a dream) forced Peter to reexamine his convictions.  And he came to a new conclusion.  "I begin to see how true it is that God shows no partiality." (Acts 10:34)  This was such a significant change for Peter that Luke relates it twice in the Acts of the Apostles. (cf. Acts 10 and 11)

Today’s reading is a challenge to everyone in authority in the church.  They are responsible for teaching and defending the faith.  But they should not rely on blind obedience.  God has gifted human beings not only with wills to choose but also with minds to think.  Sometimes new circumstances and the Spirit working among the faithful requires leaders to reexamine their convictions. 

Jesus confronted the leaders of his time.  Some were "teaching as doctrines human precepts." (Mark 7:7)  It is an easy thing to do for those who seek security and order.  But when church leaders are open to listen, dialogue, and pray with their people, the church will be lead to "have life and have it to the full." (cf. John 10:10)

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.   Visit his website at : http://www.alanphillipcp.com/  

Scripture:
Acts 14:5-18
John 14:21-26

Reflection:
"He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him, saw that he had the faith to be healed, and called out in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet." He jumped up and began to walk about."  (Today’s selection from Acts)

My experience of healing has not been that dramatic, but I have seen how love can heal. I remember Johnny (not his real name). At one point in my teaching career, I was in charge of three reading labs and one math lab where we individualized the instruction for each student at our school. I felt very responsible for these labs. The school, along with a $10,000 grant had spent thousands more to set them up. Every teacher was daily taking their class into one or two of these labs. The Principal had made a big investment in these labs and commissioned me to make them work.

I was walking down the hall one afternoon when I heard what sounded like a riot, coming from room 201, the first lab we had set up. I rushed into the lab determined to find out what the problem was and to resolve it. There was Johnny, fighting with two other students. Now Johnny was a big, fat kid who didn’t pay much attention to his appearance and truthfully was not liked by many, if any, of his classmates.  What made it worse, Johnny had a younger brother, Petey who was cute, mild mannered and liked by most of his classmates. I could see that I had to straighten Johnny out once and for all. Before I could do that though, I had to reestablish some order. I told Johnny to go across the hall to an empty classroom and wait for me. I then proceeded in my professional teacher manner to reestablish order and get everyone back on task. I was good at that. What I wasn’t so good at is what came next. I proceeded across the hallway and into the classroom where I faced Johnny sitting there waiting for me. I was all ready to lay into him when he burst out crying: "Nobody likes me, I’m fat and I’m ugly." I was speechless. I started to cry. Everything he said was right. I put my arms around Johnny and held him for a moment and then said: "Let’s go back and start over."

Johnny did fine and I was healed.

The word "love" is used seven times by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. I’m thinking there might be some connection between this "love" Jesus talks about and the healing each of us along with Paul are able to effect in our worlds today.

 

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

Scripture:
Acts 4:8-12
1 John 3:1-2
John 10:11-18

Reflection:
"I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep." 

These words from today’s gospel reading are some of the most treasured in our Christian faith.  However I have to admit that I know very little about herding and caring for sheep.  I have attempted to "count sheep" but that’s about it!  So when John relates what Jesus said about the good shepherd, I have to rely on what others have told me about sheep and what I’ve seen at the Kentucky State Fair. 

Sheep are docile, produce wool and can be "herded", unlike our pet cats Solomon and Gabriel.  Sheep need a certain amount of protection from predators.  So, a "good shepherd" looks out for the sheep and takes care of them.  But "laying down my life for a sheep" (or either one of our cats), I’m not sure I could go that far!

"Laying down one’s life" for anyone or anything is a rare, remarkable, unique act of love.  I recently met an individual in my tornado disaster relief work for the Red Cross who did exactly what a "good shepherd" would do; he protected the lives of others and it cost him a broken back, great physical pain and life threatening injuries.  I was honored and humbled to meet and talk with him.  His only voiced concern was over the folks he tried to protect who did not make it.

Most of us will not experience this kind of a dramatic moment in time when we must choose to sacrifice our own life for the life of another.  However we all are "recipients" of the greatest sacrifice of all, the sacrifice of our good shepherd Jesus who gave his life for us on the cross.  I really don’t have to know about sheep to reflect on this sacrifice; I simply have to look toward the cross.  As members of our Passionist Family let us give thanks today and every day for the overwhelming act of love God has given us in Jesus crucified, our good shepherd!

 

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