Daily Scripture

Pentecost Sunday

Scripture:

Acts 2:1-11
Galatians 5:16-25
John 20:19-23

Reflection:

Earlier this week, a 21-year old pawn shop worker from Leesburg, Georgia, was crowned the new American Idol on national television, after the casting of 132 million viewers’ votes!  The Associated Press later recounted how young Phillip Phillips "dissolved into tears as he sang the song, ‘Home.’" The AP went on to describe how "Phillips retained his humble, self-effacing demeanor to the end, and beyond."

While music critics struggle to find superlative adjectives to describe the young man’s extraordinary talent with guitar and voice, they are also quick to add that his humility and humanity are just as remarkable and inspiring. What a delight to experience a celebrity today – an entertainer or athlete – who radiates what St. Paul speaks of as the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, humility, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

Today, on this Feast of Pentecost, Jesus tells us what he told his disciples, "I will not leave you orphans." The Holy Spirit, our Advocate, will come to be with us, to guide us to fuller truth and deep-down-goodness. Pentecost invites us to share more deeply in our loving God by becoming aware of that God-Presence all around us. We are not orphans.

Recently I was privileged to spend about three weeks touring our missions in India. What impressed me most was the goodness of our young Passionist men… their willingness to sacrifice, to serve. They are tireless in doing good, they are unwavering in their commitment. The fruits of modesty in times of success and patience in times of trouble mirror this Pentecost Presence. If this feast is the birthday of the Church, what could possibly bring us more hope? 

 

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:

Acts 25:13b-21
John 21:15-19

Reflection:

"Do you love me?"

Thirty two years ago yesterday, my husband Tom and I promised to cherish each other for as long as we both lived.  We took vows to support each other in good and bad times and promised to love and be faithful forever.  As I count the years that have gone by in marital bliss, I am reminded of the avalanche of challenges we encountered along the way.  I remember early on in our marriage, when either of us felt we failed to meet the others expectations or we had an argument or disagreement, the familiar phrase, "How much do you love me," would enter the conversation – usually at the end.  The foundation of our marriage was in the formation stage at this time and we both needed assurance.  As I sit here today, I can say with certainty that over the years we have opened our hearts to each other and with that our love has grown strong and that strength has helped us to overcome the doubt and fear that lurked around many corners in the early days.  Now, we never ask, "do you love me," we state, "I love you."

When Jesus asked Peter Simon, "do you love me," maybe He was looking for the same assurance we looked for.  Or maybe, by asking that question, Jesus forced Peter to contemplate his devotion to their relationship.  Either way, the question is one that elicits strong feelings and prompts us to reflect on the importance of the love we have for each other and God. 

 

Angela Kwasinski, Director of Planned and Major Gifts for, The Passionists of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Zephaniah 3:14-18a or Romans 12:9-16
Luke 1:39-56

Reflection:

"…And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me…."

So many events in Scripture would never have occurred if humans had not believed enough to act in spite of their doubts and fears. In story after story we read that people are essential to carrying out God’s plan for humankind. From Abraham and Sarah to Mary and Elizabeth, and continuing right down through the centuries to the present day, God inspires us to speak those courageous words, to offer that consoling message, to say "Here I am" to what we are asked to do.           

Today’s Feast is the joining of the stories of two women, Mary, a teenager and Elizabeth, an elderly woman. The angel informs Mary that Elizabeth, her cousin, is pregnant, and immediately Mary begins her journey to see how she can help.  It was not easy or convenient for Mary to travel that long, lonely, dangerous road to the hills of Judea, but Mary knew that Elizabeth needed a helping hand to prepare for the birth of her son, John the Baptist.

Mary arrives at the door bearing Jesus in her womb.  That’s how simple it is sometimes to spread the Good News…show up with Christ formed deep within you…and you are indeed preaching,  without saying anything more than "Here I am."   

Mary, filled with grace, proclaims "…my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant….and has done great things for me…." 

When we come to Mass, we lay before Him all that we are, all that we need, and all that we can become.  We approach the Eucharistic table with a desire to become the best version of the person that God created us to be…to be FULL OF GRACE.  At the moment of Communion with the Lord, we become filled with the Divine Spirit…FULL OF GRACE, and in that experience of joining our lives to His, a spiritual connection between the Redeemer and the redeemed occurs, and God’s unconditional love abounds…AND CHARITY MUST FOLLOW….

Today’s Gospel is a celebration that seems to demonstrate that one of the blessings of a grace-filled life is a spirit of gratitude that results in generosity.  The MAGNIFICAT is an example of gratitude and the VISITATION teaches us generosity.

Salvation history ends up in the hands of a teenager and an elderly woman, both preparing to give birth, both miraculous in their conception, and both who responded, " Here I am."

 

Deacon Brian Clements was formerly a member of the staff at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California

Scripture:

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
John 17:20-26

Reflection:

Audacity of Courage

The world of faith is a scary one.  It calls for a great deal of courage! 

In today’s Scripture we read in Acts 23:11 "The following night the Lord stood by him (Paul) and said, ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’"   The original Greek word for courage is tharseō. It not only means courage but has a double recipe of boldness in it.  In Scripture courage has a lot of chutzpah. 

It is not surprising that Jesus often urges us to have the audacity of courage in the Bible.  "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart (tharseō); I have overcome the world." John 16:13 In the Hebrew Scriptures this concept of bold courage is expressed very often by the word batach.  It is used 120 times and means bold confidence.  Bold courage does not rule out fear; but it does eliminate out of control panic.   After all, Paul needed the reassuring presence of Christ standing by him when he said "courage."   Courage without fear is reckless stupidity!

 One naturally thinks of examples of courage on the battle field.  Not long ago I visited Gettysburg’s bloody angle where on the third day of battle there was about 8000 casualties!   There some 12,500 men charged over 1000 yards of open field to capture Cemetery Hill.   Out of these twelve thousand or so Confederate soldiers, headed by General Armistead who was quickly killed, only about 2,500 got over the wall.   The rest of his men were killed, captured, or retreated.  With his hat placed on his sword Armistead led his troops "from the front."   Certainly this man had courage and daring!  

But all of us in our frightening life of faith have to have even more audacity!  We all have to face daunting problems of health, family, and fate.  Even death itself we must face with chilling courage.  Paul needed Christ Himself to stand by him saying, "courage," and so must we!

 

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:
Acts 20:28-38
John 17:11b-19

Reflection:
In our Scripture readings for today, we have passages from two "farewell" events. In our first reading from Acts, Paul is saying good bye to his fellow disciples. In our Gospel reading from John, Jesus is praying to the Father in front of His                                                                                                                         disciples at the Last Supper.

What strikes me about both readings is admittedly a recurring theme for me – how the Gospel goes contrary to the wisdom of the world. In our reading from Acts, Paul describes how he lived among them and says, "In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give then to receive.’" That last line is so familiar, but it is so radical! It is radical because even though the world gives lip service to it, the world rarely operates that way, and when it does, it makes the news for being so extraordinary.

The Gospel calls us to a perspective that is extraordinary to the eyes of the world. That is why, I think, we hear Jesus say twice in our Gospel reading: "They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world." We are not to belong to the world, but to the Gospel, to Jesus. That doesn’t mean we don’t engage the world, because Jesus also says, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one."

We are called to love the world, but not to follow the ways of the world. The more we are willing to love, the more we stay away from evil, and the more the world learns of the Good News. The more we love, the more we bring the hope of the Resurrection and the joy of the Holy Spirit.

May we be willing to love; to give more than to receive, and may God bless the world through us.

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

Scripture:

Acts 20:17-27
John 17:1-11a

Reflection:

"But now, compelled by the Spirit I am going to Jerusalem." Acts 20: 22

My version of this verse is "But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Portland, Oregon."

Growing up in Newport, Oregon, our family bought our "forever" home when I was two years old. I never had to move until I left home to attend college. My parents lived in that home until they died. I loved living in the same house all those years, and I knew when I married and settled down, I would want the same for my family.

When Jim and I got married, we moved nine times in the first year! After that I was bound and determined to again have a "forever" home. After about ten years and three different homes, we finally built the home I had dreamed of. We built it on five acres with a huge sand box for the kids, a fruit orchard with 30 fruit trees, a huge backyard with a swimming pool, and an outdoor sanctuary with redwood trees and a life-size crucifix!

We dedicated our home and property to the Lord and called it "God’s Place". We held youth group at our house, back-yard masses, prayer groups, bible studies, and just had lots of fun times there. I believed that we would stay forever. But I was wrong…

One of our sons wanted to help a friend start a business in Portland, Oregon. They offered Jim a job and the chance to invest in this great new start-up. When we met with them and heard about their proposal, everything in me cried "NO!", but the Holy Spirit said to me, "Just say yes."  And so I said, "Yes." And Jim said "Yes." And within a few months we had sold our "forever" home, down-sized a great deal and moved to Oregon.

It wasn’t an easy move, and for a time I thought God would surely take us back to our home and community in California. But He had a plan which brought all three of our sons to live in Portland and we have again put down roots because we very much enjoy living near our kids and their kids. However, I’m no longer looking for a "forever" home here. We may move again; we may not. What I know for sure is that I will follow the Lord wherever He leads and I will have my true "forever" home when I get to heaven.

 

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, Oregon 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]

 

Scripture:

 Acts 19.1-8
John 16.29-33

Reflection:

Years ago when I studied in Rome, it was always an adventure to make one’s way from our monastery of SS. John and Paul to school (the Angelicum, in my case).  The most formidable part of the journey was crossing the road between the end of our property and the looming Coliseum directly opposite it.  Even in those days, Italian traffic was formidable.   With no traffic lights or stop signs in sight, nor any traffic patrolman, and with the roadway being some eight to ten lanes wide, one did as the Romans did: thoughtlessly plunge into the oncoming traffic without looking to right or left, disregarding the squealing  tires, and move undaunted toward the other side.   The only ones who never made it were those who stopped in horror.  This threw the ongoing Italian drivers into a tizzy, for they had acquired the race drivers capacity to dodge moving targets.  For the pedestrian it was a matter of blind faith in the wisdom of being neither here nor there.

Being neither here nor there is a message embedded in today’s bible readings.   When Paul journeys to Ephesus and encounters some disciples there, he inquires about their acquisition of the Holy Spirit.  When this inquiry stymied them, he asked about their baptism, only to learn it was one imparted them by John the Baptist.  Judging this to be not quite up to snuff, Paul baptized them "in the name of the Lord Jesus", for they were neither here nor there in their journey toward the safety of a fulsome faith on the other side of the "way" they were traveling.  For early on, this is how Jesus’ disciples were known: as travelers "on the way".

Similarly, when Jesus’ disciples engaged in self-congratulations that they finally understood what Jesus was saying, figuring that they had finally made it "there" ("now we realize…", they boasted), Jesus took them down a notch: "Do you believe now?", challenging their triumphant sense that they had "made it there".  "Behold the hour is coming …when each of you will be scattered…", He told them.   Perhaps they were no longer "here", in a maze of confusion, but they were certainly not "there" yet, where they could truly understand what was going on.

So the scriptures today present us two groups of people who thought they had made it safely across the ten lanes to the other side, only to learn that, though they may have moved away a bit from being "here", they were certainly not "there" yet.  Now we know why the early Christians were called followers of "the Way".

Thankfully, God takes us where we are at, often right in the middle of careening oncoming traffic.  Just as Paul was not taken aback by those whose baptism was incomplete, but simply completed the process with a baptism in the name of Jesus, and just as Jesus was not fooled into thinking that finally His apostles knew what He was saying, but simply remarked that "…you will have trouble…but take courage",  so we should settle for the situation in which we are neither here or there, but are on the way from here to there.  God takes us where we are at, even if it’s in lane five on the way to the Coliseum.   But it does help to be in the state of grace.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 1: 1-11
Ephesians 1: 17-23
Mark 16: 15–20

 

 

Reflection:

While today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, in many dioceses in the United States, the feast of the Ascension has been transferred from last Thursday to today.  Such is the case here in Chicago so my reflection today is based on the readings for the Feast of the Ascension.

This feast in a way summarizes all that Jesus, living as a human person in our midst, has accomplished and transitions the disciples of Jesus into their new role as living witnesses to the new life Christ has given us.

 In two of our readings today, the first reading from Acts and the Gospel from Mark, we hear accounts of the Ascension event.  In both accounts Jesus appears to his disciples and reminds them of his teachings, his passion and death, and of his resurrection.  He then mandates them to be his witnesses to the world, to tell the world what they have heard and seen.  In the account in Acts, Jesus also tells his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon them.  "Then, after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took his seat at God’s right hand."

In the second reading for today, from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul blesses his community by asking God to "enlighten (their) innermost vision that (they) may know the great hope to which he has called (them), the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the church, and the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe."

The early disciples of Jesus welcomed their apostolic task of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.  After the Holy Spirit came to them at Pentecost, they were unstoppable.  It was their heroic fidelity to Christ that transformed the world and began a community of faith that continues to live in us today.

The blessing St. Paul bestowed on the Ephesian faith community is a blessing for us as well.  May God enlighten "our innermost vision that we may know the great hope to which he has called us, the wealth of his glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the church, and the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe."  The world today needs our witness, may we, too, be faithful to our call.

 

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