Daily Scripture

Scripture:

1 Samuel 1:9-20 or 1 Samuel 1:1-8
Mark 1:14-20

Reflection:

My brother-in-law Emil is a wonderful man.  He is free of any addiction to drugs or alcohol, highly ethical in his work and personal life, devoted to his family, generous in giving of his time and talent to the community, and overall the kind of guy you’d feel privileged to have as a friend.  In 2011 Emil was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. There is no cure for this.  The best anyone can hope for is remission, a state that buys time in increments of months or years before the cancer returns again.

Such a grim diagnosis puts all of life into perspective.  Though Emil is clearly not a bad person, he decided that the shortening length of his days require deeper reflection to see where his longings, activities, and behaviors fall short of what they should be. He sees more clearly now what is truly important and what can easily be left behind. He also sees what cannot so easily be left behind, but which must be released from his too-tight grasp in order to stay true to his newly honed priorities and the vision he holds for the remainder of his life. Slowly and with great effort, he feels himself being transformed.

Today’s readings, like Emil’s cancer, are wake- up calls about what is truly important.  Is it a priority to fit into society’s definitions for our value? I loudly proclaim the contrary, yet how often do I lament and weep because I am chasing goals to which society or church or friends attribute esteem and status? Though I do not have visible demons on regular public display, what are my deeper unseen demons that need to be exorcised? 

In practical terms: If I was diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow, what would be easy to let go of? (OK, let’s start there and let go.) What would be my highest priorities? (OK, why aren’t they my highest priorities right now?)  To what am I clinging that, while not manifestly evil, needs to be released in order to further grow into the person God created me to be? (Ah, that’s the hard part!)

Salvation history repeatedly demonstrates that our God has a habit of turning the world upside down. Emil’s world is certainly turned upside down. Perhaps my world needs to be. After all, the truth is that any one of us could die in this new year without the warning that Emil has been given. 

I pray that it will not take a terminal diagnosis to open our hearts to God’s ways of transformation. It will not be easy; in fact, such piercing self-scrutiny is usually intensely painful and often requires spiritual direction and guidance.  Yet what pursuit is more important?  Time is short.  Let’s truly "repent and believe in the gospel ", becoming ever more authentically the persons God created us to be. 

Poor Hannah. Her husband loved her, she had a good life free from want, and she was devoted to God. Yet she was miserable, unable to eat and constantly weeping, because she did not have the status that society expected of a woman.  She did not have a child (and a male child at that).  And her husband’s other wife, the mother of several children and two priests, never let her forget it.

In the gospel, Jesus calls disciples who leave everything behind in order to follow him. They leave behind society’s expectations of them, their family and religious obligations (as Jewish sons they had a mitzvot to honor and take care of their fathers, yet they left the patriarch to fix the nets alone), and everything they had. 

 

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 John 5:14-21
John 2:1-11

Reflection:

I’ll never forget the little sign over the altar that read, "Expect a miracle."  It hung in a made-over parlor chapel of the "Teen Challenge Center" located in an old mansion on Chicago’s South Ashland Avenue. Fr. Joe, C.P. had heard about this David Wilkerson, a pastor of a small church in rural Scottdale Pennsylvania, who in 1958 read an article in Life Magazine about teen gang members killing each other in New York City. Using the Cross, Rev. Wilkerson decided to bring the Good News to these gang members. Nicky Cruz, leader of the Mau Mau gang later became a minister and wrote his own life’s story "Run Baby Run" because of Rev.Wilkerson’s work. It was a miracle!

David Wilkerson’s work spread to Chicago, and Fr. Joe coaxed me that day in 1970 into accompanying him to see what this Teen Challenge thing was all about. I was one of Fr. Joe’s high school CCD teachers.

In today’s Gospel Mary expects a miracle. I love Mary’s boldness and confidence when she simply tells her son, "They have no wine."  She doesn’t discuss the issue when Jesus responds, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come." She simply tells the servers, "Do whatever he tells you." As we all know, Mary got her miracle.

I remember expecting a miracle in my own life. I was a relatively new life insurance agent, in my third year of business. I had presented a proposal to an owner of a rather large business domiciled in Chicago with offices all over the world. I was truly out of my league. If he bought the policy, my commission would be more than double what I had ever made in any single year of my life up to that point. I got the business underwritten after two years of going back and forth with my prospect and the insurance company and called to deliver the policy. Ray, my prospect (not yet my client) said he had been thinking it over and he didn’t want the policy. I remember simply telling him, he couldn’t do that without letting me come to his office one more time to review the plan. If he still didn’t want it then, I wouldn’t bother him any more. He allowed me to come to his office, bought the plan and I made all that money.  It was a miracle.

In today’s scripture selection, Mary teaches us how to live our lives. Expect a miracle and not just in the major issues in our lives, like spreading the Good News of the Cross, but even in the relatively unimportant things like having enough wine or making a living.

 

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

Memorial of St. John Neumann, Bishop

Scripture:

1 John 3:11-21
John 1:43-51

Reflection:

I am Nathaniel.  Also found dozing under the fig tree, full of blessings. I am quick to question and doubt the presence of God.  "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"  How can God be found in my life?  Where can God be seen in my mundane world of work and strife?  How can my introduction to God be made within the circles I keep? Can anything good come from Nazareth, surely not?  "How do you know me?"

By truly looking into the green eyes of my 13 year old son.  My wife’s holding of my hand after a bad day at the office. Watching the kind and loving interactions between a mother and her young child at a restaurant. Hearing my children laughing with one another in their bedrooms hours after bedtime.  Sharing a meal with a dear friend.

"…You will see greater things that this… Amen, amen I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." 

Our challenge is this…to simply look.

Philip said to him, "Come and see."

 

Paul O’Daniel is on the Pastoral Council of St. Agnes Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

Scripture:

1 John 3:7-10
John 1:35-42

 

 

 

Reflection:

The Christmas Event & St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Today’s Gospel selection features John the Baptist and two of his disciples meeting Jesus as he walked by – "the Lamb of God".  The encounter led to Jesus’ invitation to "come and see" where he was staying – and ultimately, those first few hours with Jesus led to lives of life-changing discipleship. 

Over the centuries countless others have heard Jesus’ invitation to "come and see".  One such 18^th Century American woman-disciple is the saint we honor today:  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton…the first American-born saint.

Married to William Seton and mother of their five children, Elizabeth Ann was reared an Episcopalian but was drawn to the Catholic faith by an Italian Catholic family whom she met while in Italy traveling with her husband.  After her husband’s death from tuberculosis at the young age of 30, Elizabeth Ann embraced the Catholic faith – and subsequently opened a parish school in Baltimore to support her family and express her faith. 

Drawn by Elizabeth’s fervor, a group of young women joined Elizabeth Ann in her approach to education and Christian life.  In 1809 they formed the American Sisters of Charity, following the rule of St. Vincent de Paul and later founding other schools and orphanages.  By the time of her death on January 4, 1821, the community had expanded their ministries as far west as St. Louis.

Elizabeth Ann Seton was called to help build up the Church in her time.  As noted in today’s Gospel, Jesus drew disciples to himself and began the Church; Elizabeth Ann joined those early disciples in saying "yes" to Jesus and working tirelessly to build up the Church.

As we embrace 2012, God continues to bless us with our Passionist charism as enfleshed by St. Paul of the Cross.  May we deepen our relationship with Jesus these days – and encourage others to "come and see" God’s love present in our world.  With St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, we pray the words of Psalm 98:  "Sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done wondrous deeds…"

(N.B.:  January 8 to 14, 2012 is National Church Vocations Awareness Week.  Join us in praying for priestly and religious vocations.)

 

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

Scripture:

1 John 2:22-28
John 1:19-28

Reflection:

In today’s selection from the 1^st Letter of John, we continue a reading that actually began with the feast of St. John the Evangelist, on December 27.  However, today’s selection begins with what seems like a bit of acrimonious rhetoric (Perhaps the Iowa Caucuses are influencing this reflection….).  The author asks, rhetorically, "Who is the liar?"  Then, he answers his own question, "Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ."  Strong talk for the author who began this letter by stating, "We are writing this so that our joy may be complete."

It is believed that 1 John is a response to a growing heresy, one which held that Jesus was not a truly human being, but a divine spirit or a divine apparition.  This may be the logic behind the use of this text throughout the season that celebrates his incarnation, his birth, his entry into the human family through the Holy Family.

As we read the Christmas narratives of his birth, followed by the events of early childhood, including his flight to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s plotting to take away his life, we are immersed in the life of a real-life child, a truly human baby who was subject to the violence that human beings worked on each other.

So, we acknowledge that Jesus is truly God and human, Emmanuel; which is what the author of 1 John is striving to assert, with such conviction that in today’s reading, he has no qualms about naming those who would deny that the person, Jesus, is the Christ, are liars.

As we stand at the starting line of the new year, as we peer down the timeline of the year ahead, some with resolutions, some with optimism, some with caution or even anxiety about the year ahead, the Liturgical reading of the Gospel is a reminder to us that "there is one among you whom you do not recognize"; we need the reminder of our faith, of our liturgy, of our parish community, that Jesus walks among us and goes unrecognized because Jesus is with the poor, the sickly, the ignored, the hungry, and the homeless.

May we recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives throughout the new year 2012. 

 

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

Scripture:

Numbers 6:22-27
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21

Reflection:

Last Sunday we celebrated the birth of Jesus – Christmas Day – the day Mary brought forth her Son and God became fully human, became a little baby, laid in a manger by his mother.  All through this week we have followed the mysterious events that preceded this birth and immediately followed it.

Today, Sunday, the first day of the new year 2012, we celebrate the solemn feast of Mary the Virgin Mother of God.  We begin our joyous praise at our entrance hymn: "Hail, Holy Mother who gave birth to the King, who rules heaven and earth forever!"  We remember perhaps those wonderful words which began the season: "Hail Mary, full of grace. . . ,"  ". . . how does  this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" 

Then Luke in his gospel shows us once more the infant lying in a manger watched over by Mary and Joseph. Entering upon that scene, the shepherds made known the wonderful news about this child that they had received from the angels.  Mary his mother kept all these things in her heart, reflecting on them.  And when eight days were completed, the baby was circumcised and given the name Jesus – Savior – the name pronounced by Gabriel at his first meeting with Mary.

Through the liturgical readings of the past week (the nativity scenes, the flight into Egypt, the  slaughter of the innocents, the meeting with the old man Simeon in the temple) I have been struck by a theme that I had heard  many years ago on my first directed retreat..  In praying the mystery of the annunciation, the director asked me to ponder what was really going on – what was Mary thinking, what was she puzzling or wondering about, what did she really do?  He phrased his theme in this fashion: Mary said "Yes" to the unknown certitude of Love.  Mary did not understand fully what Gabriel was saying to her.  She asked him how it could be, how could she bring forth a child, for she had no relations with a man.  The answer Gabriel gave her could only have puzzled her more – "the Holy Spirit will overshadow thee."  What did this mean – what was going to happen to her?  How much could she have understood?  But one thing she did know, one thing she fully understood – God loved her.  God loved her most certainly, with God’s own mysterious,  unconditional love.  She did not know what that Love would do to her, what it would cost her, how it would work in her.  But she was certain of it.  Mary said "Yes" to the unknown certitude of Love.  She entrusted herself, committed herself fully to the unknown certitude of that Love – and to all the unknown demands of that Love, then and in her future. 

Mary today lays out her child in the manger for us to look upon.  She doesn’t hug him to herself – she gives him to us, shares him with us.  She asks us to join her in saying "Yes" in our lives to all the unknowns involved with following him 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:

John 2: 3-11
Luke 2: 22-35

Reflection:

In today’s Gospel we see Simeon, a man who has lived his dream.  "Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled; my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."  What a wonderful feeling Simeon enjoyed, living his dream and walking in the light!

Today John reminds us we too can "walk in the light" in our relationship with Jesus.  All we have to do is love our brother and not hate anymore.  Pretty simple huh?  Reminds me of some earlier idealism we celebrated in the 60’s; peace, love, rock and roll, etc.  In the words of the Beatles, "all we need is love"!  Too bad it’s not that easy, especially in our world of drones, torture, addiction, 24 hour hateful comments on the news, social injustice and poverty.

Facing all these realities, maybe we must simply begin loving exactly where we are. We have to love today, right now, the people God places in front of us.  I am reminded of the song from the musical "Hair" which laments that it’s "easy to be hard" to those who are closest to us while at the same time passionately attacking the dragons of inequity and injustice.  To borrow and amend some more lyrics, we have to "love the ones we’re with"; and this includes the very next person we see.

If we do love the people God puts in our path today, then loving our brothers and sisters and our relationship with Jesus become a marriage in which God’s light is revealed.  This light then illuminates the injustice and inequity in our world with hope and the glory of God!  Indeed we become with Jesus, in the words from our Alleluia verse, "a light of revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel!"

 

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

 

Feast of the Holy Family
of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Scripture:

Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3 or Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19
Luke 2:22-4 or 2:22, 39-40

 

Reflection:

Before she gave birth, Mary visited her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth.  When Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in her womb leapt for joy!  The baby was John the Baptist.  It was the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary that caused John to leap for joy.  Christmas reminds us of our vocation to be like Mary, that is, to bring joy to others by bringing Christ to others.

How do we do this?  One way is with words.

We bring Christ to others whenever we share the Word of God.  We bring Christ to others when we use words of affection, like those written in our Christmas cards.  We bring Christ to others when we speak kind words, words that build up and don’t tear down.

We bring Christ to others when we speak those beautiful words "I’m sorry" and "I forgive."  We bring Christ to others when we speak the simple word "Welcome" at the door of our house, at the door of this church and at the door of our hearts.

We also bring Christ to others by our actions.  We priests and Ministers of the Eucharist bring Christ to others when we give Holy Communion.  But we also bring Christ to others when we give food to the poor.  We bring Christ to others when we give the gift of a smile.

We bring Christ to others when we give the gift of our time, a listening ear and an understanding heart.  We bring Christ to others when we comfort the bereaved, work for peace and help those whose hearts are broken.  We bring Christ to others when they see us practicing our faith, going to church and keeping the commandments.

Would you like to be an artist?  Henry David Thoreau said, "It is something to be able to paint a particular picture…but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look.  To affect the quality of the day – that is the highest of arts."

"To affect the quality of the day…" 

Is there love in our hearts?  That affects the quality of the day. By our loving words and loving actions we bring Christ to others.  We can make everyday Christmas.

 

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