Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 5:27-33
John 3:31-36

Reflection:

I must admit I occasionally find the Gospel of John difficult to comprehend.  Some passages can be obscurely mystical, enigmatic, even downright Delphic.  Today’s gospel falls midway between “I think I understand it,” and “what’s the evangelist trying to say?”

That is why I immediately clung to the words: “The one who is of earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.”  At the risk of reading too much into that statement, I think the evangelist is referring to John the Baptist, who a few verses before, proclaimed: “He must increase; I must decrease.”  Those earthly words from a very earthly man — he repeatedly said he is not the Christ — opened today’s gospel passage for me.

“The one who comes from above is above all” — this is the Logos, the Word of God, Christ incarnate.  And whoever “accepts his,” that is Christ’s, “testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.”

It was John who accepted Christ’s testimony and affirmed that it is trustworthy.  And it was John the Baptist who pointed to Jesus as the Messiah.

In this Easter Season, our calling is to point others to the Risen Jesus.  The only way we can authentically point to the Christ, however, is to decrease so that we can make room for Jesus to increase.  And in doing so, we will find ourselves in new life.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,” the evangelist declares.  As we celebrate during this Easter Season, we also celebrate our belief, our hope of new life in the one who died to death and rose to new life. 

Such belief begins with the earthly words: “He must increase; I must decrease.”

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

Scripture:

Acts 5:17-26
John 3:16-21

Reflection:

There were things about my childhood that were difficult and even traumatic. In the hard work of coming to terms with them, I learned that when we are hurt or betrayed, especially if we’re too young to understand, we build defenses of anger, resentment, and fear as protective mechanisms. Over time, those defenses can become so thickened that the original wound remains hidden – imprisoned in the cell of our own making, where it lies unhealed.

Then, as we grow up, those defenses can easily trigger whenever our vulnerable selves sense danger, even if the danger isn’t real. We instinctively react out of those defense mechanisms rather than out of a whole and centered self. The longer these wounds and defense mechanisms remain unconscious, the longer our hearts remain imprisoned by them.

What I now know is that God so loved the world, and God so loved ME, that God became human. God, in the person of Jesus, endured deep betrayal, misunderstanding, abuse, and torture to the point of death. Yet Jesus did not build a prison of defenses around unhealed hurts and wounds. Instead, he maintained integrity and faithfulness to his mission of love, laying his pain at the feet of God and walking in trust. Of course, that doesn’t mean he always FELT loved and held by God, and in fact cried out his sense of utter abandonment. But even in those moments, something deep inside knew and trusted the Divine Presence and the One who gave him what he needed to endure.

That same One, the ever-loving, ever-present God is continually working to free me from my prisons. God is melting the thick cords of anger and resentment wrapped so tightly around my heart. In the process, my heart can expand, light can enter to chase away the darkness, the pain and grief can be given their due, and I can gradually heal.

What are your prisons? Can you allow yourself to genuinely, deeply believe that God loves YOU? In what ways are anger, hurt, resentment, and fear keeping you bound? Who can be a wise guide helping you to work with God to soften, melt, and release those bonds so love, peace, and joy can fully enter?

As we continue our journey through the Easter season, this is our task. Resurrection is not an event; it is a process. Healing is possible. Experiencing deep and true love is possible. Anger and pain can be acknowledged, safely expressed, and then released. God calls us to be free. Let’s keep walking on that path out of the dark prisons in our lives and into the light of our 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.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

Acts 4:32-37
John 3:7b-15

Reflection:

Hello Nicodemus!

We are with Nicodemus, the man who first came to Jesus at night. He moves from darkness to the light, faith in Jesus. He will grow to accept a “gift from above”; he will look upon the Son of Man lifted up; with Joseph of Arimathea he places Jesus in a tomb sealing in its darkness, a darkness chosen by men because of wicked deeds.  Nicodemus’ faith grew. As a follower of Jesus he touched the Cross and was enveloped by the light, the light that burst forth Easter morning.

‘No one has gone up to heaven except the One who came down from there…who must be lifted up, so that all who believe may have eternal life in him.’

We can identify with Nicodemus as we grow in faith, navigating ourselves through times of darkness, touching the Cross before the victory of the cross touches us.

But we are also already men and women of faith. We are blessed because without seeing the Lord we believe.

If we find ourself thinking, ‘I have faith but I know my faith can grow’ and ‘can I really celebrate the light and glory and joy of the Risen One? Maybe I’m not quite there yet..’. How our liturgy wants to teach us! On Pentecost Sunday we hear the Easter Gospel of Jesus appearing to those locked in for fear, and how Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of these fearful friends. Acts tells us all of these Easter days the powerful work of the Holy Spirit a work among us, it is ours – to use the words of Emily Dickinson – we who are ‘the meek members of the Resurrection’ – or the ones hesitant to let out, !alleluia!, The Spirit will surprise us and guide us and un-fear us.

Let us get to know Nicodemus much better, that is to say, the Nicodemus of the Resurrection, the one whose house is always lit up!

The invitation to pray Eucharistic Prayer these days tells us: we are overcome with Paschal joy! This is the time to acclaim more gloriously our ransom from death and the time of eternal life! The sacrifices of old are fulfilled in the raising up of the Cross! Angels gaze in wonder and we share in His destiny! ….there will always be new words to remind us to celebrate with joy.

A church father has said the apostles did not see Jesus, rather Jesus showed himself to them. Hummm. He seems to be saying that Jesus, the risen one is always with us, but Jesus chooses when and how to show himself that we can see. We need never be disappointed that we did not ‘see Jesus’ like the apostles or women who were at the tomb. Always we have the opportunity of recognizing Jesus in the faces of our brothers and sisters. In them the risen Lord chooses to show himself to us. We see Jesus revealed now in those bearing his wounds. Jesus even invites us to touch them. Or as Matthew 25, puts it when he lists those on the margins, saying that to touch their wounds is to touch those of Jesus.

We have so many reasons to continue to celebrate. Our Risen Lord is that close to us!

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Acts 4:32-35
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31

Reflection:

There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.  -Acts 4:34-35

My all-time favorite song is “To Dream the Impossible Dream” from the 1965 Broadway Hit Musical, “The Man of La Mancha” which tells of a man who sees the world differently than most of his contemporaries. Relatedly, reading the Book “Don Quixote” (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes as a college student is the first classic I remember reading and thoroughly enjoying, even laughing out loud in the library where I often studied.

Growing up on the northwest corner of Chicago in the early 1950’s my mother decided we needed our own “summer home”. She talked my hard-working father into believing this was a good idea. I believe their ultimately realized dream, leading to building, and owning a second residence, did more for bringing our family of six children, soon to be seven, together than any other experience that we shared as a family. It also has served as the cement that sixty to seventy years later, continues keeping us together, loving and supporting each other.

Jesus, your followers as witnessed in the above scripture, were willing to dream and take you seriously (Go, sell all that you have and come, follow me) as many professed religious and lay people do today, living life supporting each other in every way. Often, you and today’s dreamers and doers are marginalized and ridiculed. Thank you for their witness and help me today to continue to dream and follow yours and their examples, no matter what the cost.    

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

Scripture:

Acts 4:13-21
Mark: 16:9-15

Reflection:

Tucked away in a grove of trees on the campus of St Anselm College in New Hampshire is a small cemetery where dozens of Benedictine monks are buried. It is a quiet spot with uneven grass on sandy soil. The headstones are identical, lined in orderly rows under tall, soft evergreens. Above the name of each monk is the inscription “Here Will Rise,” a stark reminder of our central belief as disciples of Jesus Christ.

During Easter season the readings are filled with provoking reminders of this foundational creed, including today’s readings.

The ugly scene on Calvary left Jesus’ followers deeply depressed and overwhelmed by despair. Who among us has not had such feelings when a terminal sickness, fatal accident, suicide, divorce, murder, addiction, bankruptcy, a house fire, a natural disaster, war or a myriad of any number of other tragedies befall us?

During such moments, when our discipleship pilgrimage with Christ aborts, we can sink into seemingly unending anguish and hopelessness, feeling alone and passive before the forces of darkness. We may well wonder if our faith has been little more than a well-meaning delusion all along.

The temptation in such pain-filled moments is to give up faith entirely, to manage our own lives on our own terms, licking our wounds, and finding our own way, perhaps returning to selfish lives of pleasure and accumulation of honors and possessions.

Or we might re-imagine our faith as an after-life hope with a triumphant Christ, limiting Him to our individual hearts in a comforting Jesus-and-me-alone spirituality.

The deeper challenge is to let Christ use our pain to be in solidarity with people who are also in the shadows of life . . . the sick, the grieving, the lonely, the mentally ill, the addicted, the shunned. I can ask Christ for the grace to lift me out of the tomb to a resurrection, to live differently, in deep trust and deep surrender to Christ. It is a call to follow a radical Jesus, carrying into us a radical hope that, in partnership with Him, we rise above our sorrows to confront the evils of our collective idolatries that cause so much human misery: possessions, competition, militarism, selfish pride, and social esteem.

We pray to the living Christ, our life partner in resisting evil and building a reign of love. He is a partner who is ready to take charge of our wills, our feelings, our talents, our intellects, all that we possess in order to conform us to the will of God.

Isn’t this deep spiritual response to life’s harshest sufferings what resurrection is all about? The resurrection isn’t just the top-of-the-tombstone inscription above those monks’ names. It is a radical transformation of a limited, superficial, self-focused life here and now into a loving union with a loving Christ. In fully surrendering to this risen Christ, all our sufferings are transformed into goodness, and, over time, by God’s grace, into inner peace and joy. Not fearing death any longer, we are truly liberated to fall into the loving arms of Christ, letting him guide our everyday choices, feeling his presence in our hearts and in the events and people that are part of our pilgrimage.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Acts 4:1-12
John 21:1-14

Reflection:

Experiencing someone coming back to life after you clearly knew they were dead has got to rock your world.  A week earlier you were walking to Jerusalem with visions of triumphalism in your mind. You didn’t know exactly what was going to unfold, but you were with Jesus, which gave you and the whole group confidence.  And then the bottom fell out.  Jesus was murdered.  This event shattered your hopes and expectations and left you asking, “Now what?”   The grieving has gone on for a couple of days and you are dealing with deep emotions, confusion and perplexity. 

The readings today are two snapshots taken at two different times after the resurrection.   The Gospel of John would be an account between the crucifixion and Pentecost.  The disciples are no longer in Jerusalem.  Instead, they are back north fishing in the Sea of Tiberius also known as the Sea of Galilee.  We find Peter, James, and John back doing what they grew up doing, fishing.  It makes sense that a person who experiences absolute chaos or trauma would go back to doing what they have known so well.  They would seek comfort. Getting back to something familiar, and into a familiar routine helps this discombobulation. Grounding this behavior in the serenity of nature can only help to settle the turbulence within.  So now they are on the shores, right back to the beginning where they originally met Jesus, fishing in the waters of familiarity.

What a contrast the account from Acts of the Apostles is from the Gospel.  The disciples are no longer confused or frightened.  Transformed by the glory of the resurrection and filled with the Holy Spirit they are challenging people to believe in the Resurrected Christ.  It is yet another classic Lukan narrative.  No one can deny the miraculous healing of the crippled man who everyone knew as he sat by the Beautiful Gate leading out from the city of Jerusalem. And Peter takes no credit. He is quick to give the credit for the healing not to themselves but to the Resurrected One.  This miraculous event doesn’t have a happy ending for everyone. Recall Jesus had promised his disciples as he has promised us, that persecutions will come if we are true to his name.   

In my overview of the resurrection stories this Easter Season, one of the things that stands out is the theme of believing.  Starting first with the disciples, Mark, Luke, and John highlight the disciples’ initial inability to believe.  Jesus will actually call them “Slow to believe.” The tension builds in Acts of the Apostles between those who believe and those who will not believe, as seen in today’s first reading.  This tension will continue to escalate in the early church, and years later, when John the Evangelist writes his Gospel, he will include it as a major theme in the expression of his account.   

My takaways from these readings are threefold:

• Because every day is unique and different, not every day do I walk past the Beautiful Gate; therefore, not every day am I asked to heal the man who was crippled.  But I do need to be attentive to the invitations of the Spirit and the presence of the resurrected Christ.  And this starts by not letting selfishness take the lead in my life.  There will be those days when the Spirit is certainly willing to do something extraordinary.  Am I attentive?
  
• In my daily attentiveness, I see acts of the Resurrected Christ in day-to-day life.  It may look like forgiveness, kindness, compassion or any of the fruits of the Spirit.  Recognizing them and realizing that Christ is present in those moments verifies the reality of the resurrection.  Certainly, this strengthens our faith as we indeed are believers. 
  
• The kindness of Jesus continues to seek us out and bring us back when we have traveled far. And the tenderness in Christ’s demeanor as he persistently connects with the fragility of humanity is highly reflective of the truth of who God is.

May God’s abundant goodness be yours in this Easter Season.

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

Acts 2:14, 22-23
Matthew 28:8-15

Reflection:

You know how when you have an amazing experience, you must share that story with your friends and family, telling it over and over? Well, the Resurrection story is so exciting and life changing that the Gospels for Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday each tell part of the story.

When I hear a story repeated, I usually discover something that had not previously occurred to me. That is the case with today’s Gospel. Two opposing thoughts stand out in Matthew’s account of the Resurrection: everything has changed, yet nothing has changed.

Everything has changed. Jesus fulfilled his promise that in three days he would rise again. He defeated death with the promise of Resurrection. As the Christ, Jesus, and not the temple, is the center of worship. Within a few weeks, the disciples will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and, as we see in the first reading, will bravely preach the Good News of the Resurrection. 

Nothing has changed. The chief priests refuse to believe that Jesus has risen. They bribe the soldiers to say that the disciples stole the body during the night and then spread that story among the Jewish population. They cannot admit the Resurrection without endangering their economy, authority, and lifestyle. Instead, they will continue to persecute, imprison, and execute Jesus’s disciples.

As we consider our world today, it is easy to conclude that nothing has changed. We have national and international conflicts, migration crises, street violence, terrorism, and significant economic disparities. Individually we still witness physical and mental health crises, separation and divorce, homelessness, disease, and death. Yes, if we stop right there, nothing has changed.

As Passionists we know that the story does not stop at suffering and death. Everything has changed because we have the gift and hope of the Resurrection. When we share our charism, we walk with those who are enduring pain, sorrow, and disappointment. We point to the cross where Jesus suffered, and then we show them the empty tomb and the glory of Him rising from the dead!

Mike Owens is the coordinator of the Passionist Formation Alumni Association and a member of the Province Commission on Migration.  He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.