Daily Scripture

Scripture:

2 Kings 2:1, 6-14
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

We live in a culture – in a world actually – where not talking about what someone/ somewhere is doing is nearly impossible! On the upside, when something good or positive happens and the media gets a hold of it, masses of people have their awareness tweaked and may want to roll up their sleeves and get involved.  

Today’s Gospel is cautioning against a very specific kind of public awareness, however, the kind that says, "Look at me while I’m doing something good or taking a position that is ‘righteous.’ Aren’t I great or holy or (fill in the blank)?"  We are being asked to avoid what is basically narcissistic behavior; the narcissism that elevates self over God.

There is a compelling image in today’s reading: But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. It’s difficult to forego public attention or praise! My ego loves it; maybe yours does, too. To let go of the world and the intoxicating effects of its regard in order to be formed in a quieter and deeper way is a choice based in humility but is also grounded in trust and relationship.

We have an "inner room" where God resides, and it is this loving connection that forms us as spiritual beings. The good we may engender flows from that intimacy and reflects back the image of God, not us.  Certainly the story of Elijah being taken to heaven in the first reading is not about Elijah’s power, but God’s. And Elisha’s request to receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit is not so he can be more holy or powerful, but so that he can carry on in Elijah’s place doing the work that God commands.

Oprah, Facebook, the Nightly News: they have their place. But they do not create goodness or good people. God does; in God’s time, in God’s way.

 

Nancy Nickel is the former director of communications at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

Scripture:

Ezekiel 17:22-24
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Mark 4:26-34

Reflection:

The readings this Sunday speak to the growth of the Kingdom of God through the idea of trees and plants. From the tiny mustard seed to the Cedar of Lebanon we are given earthly examples that give us solid ground to stand on. As the Gospel reading points out today, Jesus spoke to the people of that time and continues to reach us through scripture with parables and examples. "With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it." Mk 4:33

Cedar trees are prevalent in the bible and we see them twice in today’s readings.

 I, too,will take from the crest of the cedar…It shall put forth branches and bear fruit and become a majestic cedar. Ez 17:22-23.

The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. Ps 92:13-14.

Today, these cedars of Lebanon can still be found, some standing as high as 300 feet! These trees represent strength, majesty, stability and security, and it is no mystery why they were used by the great kingdoms to build and sustain.

How can we stand as tall as cedar trees daily? As I continue on my faith journey, I encounter many more stories about faithful men and women who lived and died for their faith. These martyrs stood and as members of the church triumphant continue to stand tall for the faith and Church in their own unique way. Blessed Niceforo of Jesus and Mary (Diez Tejerina) and his 25 martyr companions were all members of the Passionist Community of Daimiel. Their martyrdom took place against the background of the strong anti-clerical climate that was sweeping Spain during the time of the Spanish Civil War. Blessed Niceforo even called this their own "Gesthemene" because they knew what was to come. These men did not run or hide from their persecutors but faced them head on. Even the soldiers admitted that some of them died with the crucifix in their hands and crying out ‘May Christ the King Live! (Mercurio, Roger, 1991. The Passionists).

When I read these stories, I think to myself "If I could just have an ounce of that passion and courage."  We already all posses that passion and it has been instilled in our souls. God has implanted us with this spirit and it has the ability to grow and live. "It is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow."Mk 4:26-27

Just as the tender shoot from the cedar of Lebanon possess the great qualities to become majestic and strong, we also are able to become and build up the kingdom of God.

While we are to be the great glory that God has called us to be, we are not to become proud in ourselves, but proud of our faith and to encourage that same growth around us. To lift up the lowly of spirit, mind and heart so that each person can flourish, and become strong in their faith. Even the smallest of all the seeds can sprout and become majestic. It is like a mustard seed that , when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown it springs up and becomes the largest of plants. Mk 4: 31-32

As we learn to become this great cedar, we aspire to be like our Creator, from which we came. Like growing children who are eager to please their parent, so we are to our Father. May we always strive to please Him and not solely ourselves. We are called to be strong and faithful, and as St. Paul says in the second reading "We are always courageous…for we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Cor 5:6-7

Let us be like these trees, bearing fruit for the kingdom of God, encouraging growth around us, standing tall and securing a future for the Church.

 

Kim Garcia is the Pastoral Associate at Holy Name Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

 

The Immaculate Heart
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture: 

1 Kings 19:19-21
Luke 2:41-51

 

Reflection:

The Letting Go and Letting God of Our God-Given Call to Serve

Sometimes I hear young men and women, who financially sustain their families, say how difficult it is for them to let go of things that hold them back from pursuing their vocation to consecrated life and/ or priesthood, and yet they express their willingness to let God be their guiding light and companion throughout their discerning journey.  Perhaps most, if not all, of us who are at the service of God and the Church have found ourselves in such situation discerning the way of life we are to live our faith. 

Today’s memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary indeed invites us to reflect on the "letting go" and "letting God" of our listening and responding to God’s call to serve, which entails an act of total trust in and self-surrender to God’s will and providence.  For the readings show us that, the more we trust in God, the more we are to surrender ourselves to God’s loving care and salvific will by both admitting and letting go of our own personal agendas, fears, doubts, refusals and unnecessary material possessions.  We may thus be able to say with the psalmist: "You are my inheritance, O Lord. . . for in you I take refuge. . . and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence."

The first reading gives us a clearer notion of the human trust in and self-surrender to God’s will and providence by showing us how the prophets were given the divine capacity of conveying, interpreting, and responding to God’s call to serve in and through words, behaviors, aptitudes, and gestures. For Elisha’s response to Elijah’s invitation to follow in his footsteps proves his determination to serve the Lord and his people without reservation and returning to his past life.  No wonder he sacrifices "the yoke of oxen" and uses "the plowing equipment," which are the source of his livelihood, to serve his people.

The gospel also shows us Jesus’ obedient commitment to his heavenly Father’s affairs and his earthly parents’ care.  For Mary and Joseph were faithfully committed to bringing about God’s saving plan by taking good care of God’s only begotten Son, although Mary was to keep in "her heart" the unfolding, mysterious events of such divine plan.  We are therefore invited to let go of everything that hinders the fulfillment of God’s saving plan in our lives and let God reveal it in and through our unreserved and total commitment to our call to serve God and God’s people.    

 

Fr. Alfredo Ocampo, C.P. preaches and is a member of the Passionist Community in Houston, Texas.

 

Scripture:

1 Kings 17:7-16
Matthew 5:13-16

 

 

 

Reflection:

"You are the light of the world." – Matthew 5:14

Thomas Merton had a sudden insight on the corner of 4^th and Walnut Streets in Louisville, Kentucky. He was stunned with a deep realization that every person walking on the street was "shining like the sun."

Each of us has an inner radiance of Spirit. Yet few of us realize it. We so often seek God in the distant and beyond. Generally we imagine God looking down upon us from heaven. Thomas Berry makes the observation that this identification of the Divine as transcendent to the natural world negates the natural world as the place where we can meet God.

In a lecture to his novices, Thomas Merton asserted: "Men, before you can have a spiritual life, you’ve gotta have a life!" According to Merton, the spiritual life is not about scrambling toward another realm of existence or bypassing what is at hand. Similarly, Meister Eckhart put forth the proposal: "If the soul could have known God without the world, the world would never have been created." Both mystics are telling us to stop fighting with reality and do something more difficult – embrace the life we have. Reality, including one’s own being, radiates the divine.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP is the director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky. See his website: http://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/

Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle 

Scripture:

Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Reflection:

Today, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Barnabas.  His name was actually Joseph, but Barnabas – the Son of Encouragement – is the nickname the Apostles gave him.  It’s a great nickname.  His warmth and way of bringing out the best in others was infectious.  That’s why he was tagged with that name.  But I think I might have given Barnabas a different nickname – The Body-Builder.  I don’t mean the kind you find in gyms and exercise workout rooms.  I mean a Church Body-Builder.

The Apostles saw this virtue in him.  Antioch, 200 miles from Jerusalem, was a fledgling community.  They may have felt forgotten.  They needed help.  So the Apostles sent Barnabas.  What happened next was this:

"When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
And a large number of people was added to the Lord."

That’s body-building.

Soon after, Barnabas went to Tarsus "to look for Saul."  This is the Saul whom the disciples feared because of his fierce persecution of them.  But Barnabas, unlike the others, discerned something special in Saul, discerned his deep conversion. It was Barnabas who introduced Paul, to the Church and to the world.  That’s body-building.

A young man, John Mark, later accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey, but his fears got the better of him.  He cut short his journey and returned home.  Paul rejected Mark for the next missionary journey, but not Barnabas.  Where Paul saw only temerity in Mark, Barnabas saw great potential.  He took the young man and together they embarked on their own missionary journey, one that would be life-changing for Mark.  That’s body-building.

But soon after, Barnabas would recede into the background.  At first, Acts referred to "Barnabas and Paul."  But later, it became "Paul and Barnabas."  And unlike Mark, his more famous protégé, Barnabas wrote no Gospel.  This is typical of Body-Builders.  They see great potential in others and accept them, even though it may involve risk.  They rejoice in the success of others.  They don’t mind working behind the scenes.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us with the Beatitudes.  Many may say they’re impossible to fulfill.  Not Barnabas, not the Body-Builders.

We each need a Body-Builder to help us develop our spiritual muscles, especially when we feel forgotten, rejected and fearful.  But having been built up, we too are then called to be Body-Builders for others, to encourage, speak a kind word and lift up spirits.  That’s what it means to be Church.  That’s Body-Building.

 

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

The Most Holy Body and Blood
of Jesus Christ (Corpus Christi)

Scripture:

Exodus 24:3-8
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Reflection:

We are connected through God in ways we do not understand and cannot comprehend. St. Paul tried to explain that to the Corinthians in eloquent letters comparing our inter-connection to an actual human body, but I wonder whether the message sunk in then or whether it has yet sunk in 2000 years later. 

WE are the Body and Blood of Christ. Therefore, when we receive communion we receive Christ and we also become more deeply a member of Christ’s Body and  Blood, which includes everyone else  – living and dead, whatever ethnicity, class, gender, age, or status, whatever degree of sinfulness or grace. We visibly remember and enact the understanding that everyone God created and loves is integral to our very body and flows with our very lifeblood. And when Mass ends we are sent out to live in the world as if we actually believe it.

The sacrificial blood that sealed the first covenant pales in comparison to the sacrificial blood that seals the everlasting covenant. The first covenant was one of obedience; the everlasting covenant is one of self-sacrificial love.  The first covenant drew boundaries and cast unbelievers out; the everlasting covenant draws people in, serving and forgiving everyone. The first covenant embodied the letter of the law; the everlasting covenant embodies the Spirit.

We too often live under the first covenant. For instance, Jesus was never one for strict purity, yet we have turned the consecrated elements into strictly pure objects that can only be received by those in a state of grace. Did Jesus’ life model that for us, or did his words, actions, and sacrifice of his own body and blood indicate that God’s desire for purity is an unending desire for pure love? At the Last Supper, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist we celebrate, there was no litmus test for a state of grace or worthiness to receive. Jesus offered his precious Body and Blood to Judas who betrayed him, Peter who denied him, Thomas who doubted him, Matthew the publicly despised tax collector, and James and John who were sometimes far more interested in their own status in the heavenly kingdom  than in bringing God’s reign to earth.  In fact, the early church taught that receiving the Eucharist was an opportunity to be cleansed of offenses and a means of healing the soul (a belief we proclaim at every Mass before we come to the table).

God’s passion is for inclusion, for reaching out to the margins, the broken, the impure, and those whom the powerful deem unimportant. To use Jesus’ images, God longs to gather her chicks under her wings like a mother hen, bring every sheep into the fold, drop the first stone before throwing it, and extend profound compassion and forgiveness without condition. Our highest calling as members of the Body and Blood of Christ is to live the self-sacrificial love that membership entails. For it is love that saves, love that redeems, love that unifies, and love that defines us as disciples of Jesus Christ. We only imperfectly participate in the sacrifices that Jesus’ brand of love demands. 

Jesus asked his disciples whether they were willing to drink of the cup from which he drinks. In trembling and fear, I fall on my knees and admit that too often, I am not. May God increase my capacity for pure love, my vision to see all people in the communion I receive, and the courage to go live it out despite the cost it will inevitably exact.

 

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:

2 Timothy 4:1-8
Mark 12:38-44

 

 

 

Reflection:

A Little Stone Rejected

Today’s gospel from Mark concludes our yearly reading of Mark in the weekday lectionary. We have ended on a very profound note. We can see this past week’s readings as a reflection on love. Beginning with the parable of the vineyard owner’s son who is put to death, to the answer that we ought to render to God what is God’s, and the Greatest Commandment, the theme of love runs through them and our generous widow includes them.

The widow today is a visual example of love. Her two coins, all she possesses, are her offering to God. It shows us where her treasure lies, to what her heart is directed. If all belongs to God, as we heard questioned in the ‘what goes to Caesar/God discussion’, we see that she knows with her heart the answer. Poor she might be, but she loves God with her whole heart.

Mark may also be telling us something this woman’s strength. Our week began with the parable of the love of the father who sends his son. Why this persistence on his part? Could it be the desire to open up communications? So far in the parable there has been no sharing. But the son is killed and they dragged him outside the vineyard. This stone, rejected becomes the cornerstone. It is marvelous! So we can see the love of the Passion.

But the one killed is dragged outside the vineyard. What was dearer to God than the place where the Vine of David was nourished, Jerusalem, the place of the temple in which was housed the Holy of Holies. We see our widow also in the temple, there showing us herself as woman radiant with love for God. She stands against the scribes who like to parade around in their robes and who devour the savings of widows. Like Jesus she is also a target in the holy place.

As we end Mark today we have a heroine to remember. She is a lover who has given her heart to God; it is visible in what she does. And she imitates Jesus; she is a suffering servant. Recognized by Jesus, she is not nourished or cared for in the vineyard of the Lord as she should be. She is maybe just a little stone, but none the less a foundation that helps us all today. May we draw strength from her example of love and join the many little stones to be foundation for the feet of fellow pilgrims. 

 

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

Scripture:

2 Timothy 3:10-17
Mark 12:28-34

Reflection:

Both readings tell us that the Scriptures are "inspired by God." The Word of God that comes through the Bible has been so crucial in my own conversion and ongoing growth as a disciple.

For the past ten years, I have boxes of The Word Among Us Mass devotional with daily Scripture readings sent to each parish mission that I preach. I distribute these booklets free of charge to all the people who attend the retreat. I want all to read the Bible. I think the daily Mass readings are a good place to start.

My parents used to have a machine commonly referred to as a treasure finder. Perhaps you’ve seen people scour the beach with these hand-held devices looking for buried coins, rings, and even paper money. (Some machines are sensitive to the metallic ink on the paper money.) When the machine is directly above something metallic, it emits a loud sound. Through this method, it lets you know there is something underneath. Hopefully a ring or silver dollar, not a bottle cap, will be found after digging.

Most of the time is spend in patient, silent sweeping with this instrument. Then, suddenly and inevitably comes the "urrrt" sound followed by excitement and digging.

Reading the Bible is a treasure hunt. We are on a quest searching for something of worth and value. We hunt for encouragement, comfort, inspiration and direction. Most days are spent in silent sweeping (reading) with not much happening. But every once in awhile the "urrrt" sound comes. Something touches us and jumps out at us. God speaks to us through a word, a phrase, or story. This touch can encourage and even change our life. When we keep sweeping, moments of grace will eventually come.

 

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