Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45

Reflection:

To our modern minds we find the treatment of lepers as set forth in Leviticus very harsh. The leper must live apart, outside the camp, and should a healthy person pass by the leper must cry out: "Unclean, Unclean!" This was still the law when Jesus walked the roads of Palestine. The leper in this story comes to Jesus (a bold action) and knells before him (a humble posture). His request is respectful: "If you wish, you can make me clean."

For a brief instant, everything hangs in the balance. The apostle must have been watching in shock. What would the Master do? Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the leper (a bold action that in the law makes Jesus ritually unclean) and he says. "I will do it. Be made clean."  Mark makes the judgment that Jesus was "moved with pity." The cure was instantaneous.

The power of Jesus to heal even the "living death" of leprosy was clear for all to wonder at. It was impossible to Jesus to enter a town openly.

We might first reflect that we must boldly go to Jesus as the leper did. Even that action will be an inspiration of the Spirit. We need to sense that Jesus has power. But must we go as humble supplicants, simply presenting our needs, demanding nothing. This passage of Mark’s gospel invites us to trustin the loving heart of Jesus.   

A final thought: who are the outcasts in today’s society? Are they the homeless?  Are they the prisoners in overcrowded jails?  Are they the undocumented immigrant? Are they the child that our schools leave behind?

Are they the abandoned in our nursing homes? If we are true followers of Jesus we will reach out as he did to relieve and help the least of our brothers and sisters.

 

Fr. Mike Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Kings 11:4-13
Mark 7:24-30

Reflection:

The miracles in the gospel of Mark serve as parables. They bring to light what Jesus is about. In today’s miracle where we do not see the daughter who is cured, are fascinated with the repartee between Jesus and a pagan woman, and where Matthew will alter the miracle/parable of Mark with explanations, we are at the center of a beautiful revelation.

Jesus begins a journey into the territory of the Gentiles. He has fed five thousand, and just finished a great argument with the Pharisees over the observance of meal rituals.

"You disregard God’s commandments and cling to what is human tradition" (7:8). Soon to follow is another multiplication of bread and fish, this time feeding four thousand.

In the midst of meals and talking about them Jesus tries to get away and be ‘unnoticed’. Without the disciples present a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus. Is she rich or poor? The grammar of Mark suggests that she may be a woman of means. All the more then is her humility revealed as she crouches at the feet of Jesus putting aside any pride. If she is poor then we knew she is still rich with the love of her daughter that drives her to come before Jesus. We have to like this woman, and could Our Lord not admire and love anyone who comes so humbly motivated by love?

In this section of the gospel Mark takes us to the ‘house’, a symbolic place in which Our Lord gathers his disciples to hear his word, a place at times of miraculous healing. It is a place that speaks to the gathering of Mark’s community. In our miracle it seems that for Jesus as well as for the community a miracle/parable is about to explode. All the more so when we see that in the midst of the multiplication stories Jesus will say to his disciples, "Do you still not understand?"(8:21).

Our pagan woman first tells Our Lord that the barriers of food are broken, repeating what Jesus has argued with the Pharisees. Whatever the barriers, they cannot stand between him and her, between healing power to do good and her loving request for her daughter.

She tells Jesus more. Little children give the scraps to their pets. We think the conversation between the woman and Jesus thorny, but isn’t this a gentle example? Behind her words is such gentleness and love. Our Lord’s solitude was interrupted by a privileged grace, a woman who could be prophet. As he begins his journey among the pagans Jesus hears from her lips that we are all the children of God, and as those children we all are loved. Jesus must have thanked the Father.

We all look for days of solitude and hate intrusions, but doesn’t the surprise of God’s gifts come often at inconvenient times? But Mark’s gospel is best seen through bifocals: part for remembering Jesus, part for focusing on the community (his and ours today). And as we are surrounded with ‘meal thoughts’ we think of the Eucharist. We may gather with differences comparable to the pagan woman or Pharisees and Jesus. True, love was present with one but absent in the other; and differences would seem far greater between Jesus and the woman than with his fellow Jews. At the table of the Eucharist we gather as saints and sinners, ideally humble as the Canaanite woman but sometimes like Pharisees. But at that table we too meet Love. May the Eucharist be the cause of unity even as we gather in our diversity.

 

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

 

 

Scripture:

1 Kings 10:1-10
Mark 7:14-23

Reflection:

Recently I was taken out to lunch by the golf pro from the Houstonian Country Club. I’ve known him for some five years, and we have a great symbiotic relationship. I used to be his spiritual director, and he used to give me free golf lessons! He is in training to become a permanent deacon and should be ordained next February.

During our lunch, we talked about golf and playing with others. He said, "If you want to get to know what a person is really like, spend five hours with him on the golf course." I so agree. The game of golf tests our honesty, integrity, patience, values, as well as your language. I play golf with a variety of people, some of whom are regular church goers. Under pressure even the best can mutter God’s name in vain or berate themselves mercilessly. What Jesus taught is true: "What comes out of us can defile us."

However, what comes out of us can also ennoble us. Solomon’s wisdom brought him great prosperity and the wonderful admiration of the Queen of Sheba. She lavished him with gifts after hearing him speak. In community, we can tear people down (and thus defile ourselves) or build them up by our words. Our main Passionist ministries have to do with what we say. We are ministers of the Word. A few weeks ago, I invited our newly ordained Father Alfredo Ocampo to team with me on a parish mission. After the mission, we had a good discussion about the role of preaching and the goal of a mission. I shared that the purpose of a mission is to inspire, encourage, and persuade others to become the best they can be. Much can happen through the use of words.

Words are powerful. They can defile or ennoble us, as well as others. Like Solomon, we pray for an understanding heart, a heart of wisdom so we can rightly live in community as well as guide the people of God.

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 15 books and creator of television and radio programs airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

Feast of Saint Scholastica 

Scripture:

1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19
Mark 7:31-37

Reflection:

I pray to follow God’s will and be God’s instrument, but it would be a whole lot easier if God would tell me clearly and specifically what to do to accomplish that. There are so many decisions, big and small.   Do I go to an event at the parish or should I take some quiet time at home? Do I sign up for this retreat or that one? Should I make the time to write a book or devote more time to teaching?  What I really want from God is a text message, an IM, an iPad app, a TED video, or something that spells out what I should do.  Surely with the array of digital media available, God could find a way to use one of them.

But then I remember Evelyn Glennie of Scotland. She gradually lost her hearing as a child until by the age of 12 she was profoundly deaf.  She loved percussion instruments – marimba, drums, and more – and she loved music.  Could she still play?

Not only does Evelyn play, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Music (after a fight to be considered for her talent apart from her hearing disability), won a Grammy and a whole host of other music awards, and is the first person in modern times to make a living as a solo percussionist.  How does she do it?  She says she simply learned a different way to "hear" the music.  She regularly plays barefoot so she can feel the rhythm through her feet, and she talks of how particular pitches resonate in different places – a spot on her right index finger, for example. She "hears" the music through her body, her skin, her fingers and toes, and her heart. When she plays, she truly feels the music and the result is profoundly beautiful.

Listening to Evelyn, I realize how severely I am limiting God.  After all, God doesn’t speak to us in a voice coming through an iPod, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t speaking constantly. I need to develop different ways of "hearing" the music that God plays always and everywhere.  I need to allow God to soften my hard heart so it vibrates to the divine tune. I need to "listen" with all of my faculties, all my senses, all my body, mind, and soul.

Jesus made the deaf hear and the mute speak. Yet he didn’t force them; he answered their desire. Perhaps if I can develop such a desire to hear God’s voice that nothing can stand in my way, if I can attune my entire being toward the music with which God surrounds me, then perhaps my deafness will cease to be a disability and I too will hear the divine voice of God.

 

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:

1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
Mark 7:1-13

Reflection:

Teresa of Avila said, "You find God in yourself and yourself in God."

My earliest memories of "going to church" involve my father taking two of my four brothers, Dave, Tim and me to 6:30 am Mass on Sundays. Mom got to sleep in. We would go to what then looked like a big building to me. Today, it’s not even a decent size gym and a new truly big beautiful building has replaced it. At the Offertory, my father would give us each five cents to put in the basket. The best part of going to Mass with my father though was afterwards we would go home and Dad would make breakfast. He would make bacon and eggs and not that oatmeal or Cream of Wheat stuff we had during the week. Oh, I loved going to church with my father where I truly found God.

At that same small church, I was attending Mass one Saturday morning, the day after my mother died. I was ten years old. Fr. Casper, C.P. was saying the mass. He had visited our home on Thursday that week to be with us as we kept vigil, waiting with my mother as she lay dying of cancer. He spoke with me that evening, making sure I knew what was happening. Being the mature ten-year old that I was, I assured him, I knew. Of course, I had no idea-it would be years before I fully integrated my mother’s death into my life.

After mass that Saturday morning, Fr. Casper invited me to have breakfast with him at the monastery attached to our parish church. I went and found a new mother, a church. A few years later, I would enter the minor seminary associated with that monastery where I continued to experience church, God, i.e. people who loved and cared for each other.

Today, I try to experience church on a daily basis by loving and caring first for myself and then treating everyone who enters my life that day with the same love and care. Once in awhile, I believe, I actually succeed.

In today’s scripture, we read how Solomon builds this big beautiful temple and then wonders: ""Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!" Poor Solomon, he had no one to go to breakfast with after attending temple. 😉

Today’s psalm says it all for me. "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!"

 

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

Scripture:

1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13
Mark 6:53-56

Reflection:

The Catholic Catechism is divided into four main sections. Each section is introduced by a picture of a fresco or statue. The section on the celebration of the Christian mystery, or sacraments, is introduced with a fresco dating from the beginning of the fourth century A.D. The fresco, taken from the catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter in Rome, shows the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark 5 reaching out and touching the bottom of Jesus’ garment.

One would think that in order to depict a sacrament they would show Jesus touching someone or feeding a person since liturgies are meant to heal and nourish. But I believe what the authors wanted to depict with this fresco is that the power and grace of a sacrament must proactively be received. The primary way we receive grace is through simple faith.

What this fresco shows is the same truth revealed in today’s Gospel. People reached out to Jesus in simple faith and received power to become whole. The glory cloud can inhabit our liturgies and sacraments when they become more than simple rote rituals. We must reach out in expectant faith to realize their power. The next time you participate in a sacrament, reach out and touch him and I believe you will receive something special.

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 15 books and creator of the TV program Live with Passion! airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

Scripture:

Job 7:1-4, 6-7
1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Mark 1:29-39

Reflection:

Today’s readings seem to say a lot about how people choose what they are do with their lives. In Job we encounter someone who has lost everything.  He cries out in his brokenness, "What am I to do? My entire life is drudgery." The psalm tells us that this is where God comforts us. He binds up our wounds and heals the brokenhearted. Further on in the story of Job, that is exactly what happens.

St. Paul on the other hand says,"’What am I to do? I’ve made myself a slave for others." Out of his brokenness on the road to Damascus, he has chosen his life’s work. But it appears as if once his blindness was removed he had no choice. His faith in the Gospel required him to go forth and preach it.

The gospel reading provides a clue for how we can deal with life’s choices, especially when they are difficult or unclear.

In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus cures Simon Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. She immediately gets up and begins to serve the people around her. (An interesting side note, the word that is here translated  ‘to serve’ can also be translated ‘to minister to,’ so we don’t really know if she was serving them lunch or helping in another capacity.) And so we have the image of someone lying in a fever, unable to stand on her own, and through the healing of Jesus she is able to get on with her life’s work.

Later Jesus says,  "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." You would think that given all the healings and cures in Mark’s Gospel that healing is the work of Jesus.  But it is the sharing of the Kingdom of God that is the most important. The healings are just to clear the way so that people can hear that the Kingdom of God is at hand and then to get on with their own purpose in life. 

My prayer for today is that I allow the healing Christ Jesus offers to remove anything that keeps me from hearing God’s word and finding my purpose.

 

Talib Huff is a volunteer at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

1 Kings 3:4-13
Mark 6:30-34

Reflection:

"Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while…"

 

King Solomon’s prayer in the first reading was indeed an unselfish prayer.  The young king asked God not for riches or power, but rather for a practical wisdom and an understanding heart to help him shepherd the people God had entrusted to him. 

In today’s Gospel selection, Jesus manifests an even greater unselfishness and generosity.  Wearied from his preaching and care for the people, Jesus sought some moments of rest and quiet with his apostles in a deserted place, but the crowds saw where He went and quickly followed.  Seeing their desire for change and healing and forgetting himself and his fatigue, Jesus turned his attention to the needs of the people. 

The two readings combine to give a practical encouragement for life and ministry in this 21^st Century:  our genuine Christ-like care for all God’s creation flourishes with God’s gift of both practical wisdom and an understanding heart, enriched by a blend of contemplative quiet and prayer.  To skimp on any one dimension is to diminish the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus in our needy world.

With the great renewal season of Lent just weeks away, perhaps Jesus’ invitation in today’s Gospel can prod us to open our calendars & planners and schedule ourselves some quiet time of personal growth:  a blend of physical renewal, intellectual opportunity, emotional integration, and spiritual enrichment.  Perhaps we are blessed with a nearby retreat center or house of prayer, or a quiet corner of our parish church, or even the solitude of a "sacred space" in our home; that "out of the way place".  Jesus knows us well – and loves us, as He bids us join Him for the renewal of our hearts and lives…and our world!

An understanding heart…solitude…rest…Jesus…  Priceless!!

 

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