Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14—20
Luke 8:19-21

Reflection:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Luke 8:21

Jesus praises his mother for “hearing and doing the word”.  In the original Greek text, the words “hearing and doing” are placed together. Mary was first presented to us as hearing and receiving the Word.  “Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”  Lk 1:38   Hearing and doing the word is at the heart of our following Christ.

The critical question is where do we hear the Word?  God speaks to us in many ways.  The overwhelming beauty of nature eloquently speaks to us of the power and wisdom of its creator. “Every creature is a word of God.” Meister Eckhart “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”  Rom 1:20  “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made”, Ps 33:6

God’s word is especially experienced in Scripture.  It is the most precious and authentic way of hearing God’s voice!   “Your words were found and I ate them” Jer 15:16  We must have a big appetite when we encounter His Word.  We must have a passion to digest His word by study so as to know what He is speaking to us!  The SS often speaks of our hard hearts.  Our hearts are hard like a rock which resists any saturation.  Prayer is the great heart softener.

Prayer is essential to hear the word.  At its best prayer is speaking and listening to God.  It is “pondering the word” as Mary did in the Gospel.  “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering (sumballō in Greek to put together) them in her heart.” Lk 2;19  Again in Lk 2:51 we find Mary His “mother treasured (diatereo to deeply and carefully keep) all these things in her heart.” The word must get into our hearts.  The word brings a deep intimacy with God.  “Through the word of God to the heart of God” St Gregory the Great

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

Scripture:

Ezra 1:1-6
Luke 8:16-18

Reflection:

There’s an old song entitled “God Bless the Child.” I think it was first recorded by Billie Holiday and later by Blood, Sweat and Tears, among many others. I sometimes think of the lyrics when I hear our Gospel reading from Luke or its parallel in other Gospels: “Them that’s got shall get/them that’s not shall lose/So the Bible said/ but it still is news/ Mama may have/ and Papa may have/God bless the child/that’s got his own.”

I think when we hear Jesus say, “To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away,” many of us follow the interpretation that the song seems to make; “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” But before Jesus says the verse mentioned above, He says, after saying that what will be hidden will become visible, “Take care, then, how you hear.”

I can’t believe that Jesus is advocating, or perhaps more accurately, capitulating to, the reality of poverty and inequality. What the Scripture scholars tell us is that Jesus is talking about a desire for a closer relationship with God, and a subsequent desire to follow God’s will in all things. As we get closer to God, we want even more, and God will grant this to us! As we seek to do God’s will, we receive more and more insight into what that will may be for us. As we seek to know God’s love and are willing to share it with others, the more we will receive to do just that. But if we try to interpret God’s will to match ours, instead of the other way around, we will grow less close to God.

We have been given the light of Christ’s love, and as Jesus tells us, we are not to hide it, but share it! Indeed, God bless the child who receives this light, and God bless the child who lets it shine to others!

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Scripture:

Isaiah 55:6-9
Philippians 1:20c-24, 27a
Matthew 20:1-16a

Reflection:

Kindness of God

In today’s Gospel a kind owner of a vineyard gives workers a full day’s wage to people who only worked an hour!  In New Testament times, wages were given one day at a time.  Without a full day’s wage, a man could not feed his family.  We here see the kindness and thoughtfulness of the owner. Don’t you love a kind person?  

The landowner says: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’” Mt 20;15   The Landowner in the story is obviously an image of God “who is rich in mercy”!  “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” -Matthew 5:45 

We should never underestimate the riches of God’s mercy!  Most people are poor materially because of lack of opportunity, sickness, raising a family, or just plain lack of interest.   But today we see a far more threatening problem of lack of faith and religion!   Faith is a generous gift of God.  We are all workers of one hour in God’s vineyard!   We can never enter God’s kingdom with our merits alone, probably most of us don’t even put in a full hour at that!

But praise to God’s mercy we can reach the Divine embrace of Christ if we are children of God!   He loves us not so much because we are long hard workers in the vineyard but rather, He is exceedingly fond of us! I just love the quote of Pope St John XXIII.   “I live only on the mercy of God, everything I own is from it, everything I hope for is on it.”  

One of the most needed forms of love is kindness.

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

Scripture:

1 Timothy 6:13-16
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection:

In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable about a sower who goes out to sow his seed. The seed falls in different places with different results. Later on, Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. The seed that falls “on the path,” “on rocky ground,” “among thorns,” and “on rich soil,” represent different responses to hearing the word of God.

Only the last-mentioned condition, falling “on rich soil,” represents a positive response to God’s Word, and Jesus explains it this way: “But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

It is that phrase “bear fruit through perseverance” that struck me as I read this Gospel passage once again. It is through perseverance that helps us keep faith, even when we are like the seed that fell on the path and are led astray by the devil. It is perseverance that helps us when we are more like the seed that fell on rocky ground, and we falter in times of adversity. And it is perseverance that helps us keep faith when we are like the seed that fell among thorns and get caught up in worldly anxieties and desires, only to realize that fulfilling those desires still leaves our hearts restless and discontent.

And it is by the grace of God that we are able to persevere, and so we are called to do. The world needs us to bear good fruit. May God’s Word find “rich soil” in us, so that others may witness the love of God in action.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle

Scripture:

Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Matthew 9: 9-13

Reflection:

He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.  -Matthew 9:9

The Calling of Saint Matthew is a painting completed in 1599-1600 by the famous Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and illustrates when Jesus went into the custom house, saw Matthew the tax collector at his seat and called to him, “Follow me”. According to the gospel story Matthew rose and followed him. In the painting, Christ (on the right, behind Peter) points to Levi, the tax-collector (the bearded man wearing a beret and calls upon him to become the apostle, Matthew.

We can learn a lot from this painting. To begin with, when Matthew sees Christ pointing at him, Levi responds with a gesture, as if to say “Me?” indicating his uncertainty whether he is being addressed, or the younger man slumped on his right. Through the visual contrast between their reactions, Caravaggio displays psychological insight into two possible patterns of human behavior in the same situation of being called. (Famous Paintings: Analysis and Interpretation)

When God is calling us, do we respond “who me?” “You’ve got to be kidding.” “You can’t possibly want me.” Caravaggio shows us that miracles occur in the midst of our being called in the most mundane situations. In its capture of the exact split-second when Christ’s summons hangs in the air, and his listeners are still shocked and Levi himself is caught in suspended indecision. In another second, he will rise up, become Matthew the apostle and follow Christ out of the room. ((Famous Paintings: Analysis and Interpretation)

Prayer:

Lord, we are humbled that You call us as you called St. Matthew to serve, in ways big and small, to accomplish Your will here on earth. Help us respond without hesitation whenever we perceive Your voice calling us into action. In Your powerful and equipping Name, we pray, Amen.

Carl Middleton is a theologian/ethicist and a member of the Passionist Family.

Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn and Companions

Scripture:

1 Timothy 3:14-16
Luke 7:31-35

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn and Companions.  For many of us St. Andrew is a “new” saint, canonized by Pope Paul II.  Though new to the liturgical calendar, St. Andrew and his companions are fellow Christians that we need to know because they are powerful witnesses to living the Gospel in real life.

St. Andrew is tied closely to the foundation of Christianity in Korea.  He wasn’t the first Korean Christian by a long shot.  By the time he was born in 1821, Christianity had been growing in Korea for about fifty years.  It is believed that Christianity had been brought into Korea by some Christian Japanese soldiers in the latter part of the 18^th century.   The Christian Japanese soldiers baptized the first Korean Christians and the Christian community began to grow quickly.  By the time the first foreign priest arrived in Korea in 1836 there was already a substantial Christian community flourishing there.  It’s the only known Catholic Christian community that first developed completely from the witness and work of lay Christians.

The rulers in Korea were not at all pleased to have this foreign religion thriving in their country.  At first they just discouraged it but soon enough outlawed this practice and began to actively persecute anyone who took it up.  As Christians were arrested, tortured and put to death the Church quickly moved underground.

St. Andrew’s parents, members of the Korean nobility, were an important part of that early community and secretly remained faithful to their life with Christ.  Andrew was baptized at fifteen and soon expressed his desire to become a priest.  He traveled to Macau to attend the seminary and was ordained in 1845.  He was the first Korean to become a priest and returned home shortly after his ordination to help organize the Church and bring the sacraments to the faithful.  He ministered in Korea only a year before he was arrested and put to death.

There were intense persecutions of Christians in Korea in 1839, 1846, 1866 and 1867 and 103 Christians were martyred for their faith.  We celebrate these heroic martyrs on this day.

May their faith and courage inspire us to live our lives faithful to the Gospel and have the strength to be fearless witness for Christ in our everyday lives.

Fr. Michael Higgins, C.P. is the director of retreats at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

1 Timothy 3:1-13
Luke 7:11-17

Reflection:

So often in the gospels, Jesus finds himself smack in the middle of somebody’s pain, somebody’s sorrow and loss. That is certainly true in the poignant, heart-wrenching story we hear today. In great detail, the evangelist Luke vividly describes the scene. Jesus approaches the city of Nain, accompanied, Luke tells us, not only by his disciples but also by a large crowd. As they are about to enter the city, they encounter a funeral procession. The deceased was a young man, and “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.”

Our attention is understandably drawn to the miracle by which Jesus brings the dead man back to life, but we should not overlook that the first thing Luke tells us is that when Jesus saw the sorrowful mother, he was moved with compassion for her. If we focus only on Jesus’ miraculous power in this gospel story, we fail to see that compassion comes first. The fact that Jesus raised this mother’s son back to life only after feeling deep compassion for her suggests that the miracle flowed from compassion; perhaps we can even say that Jesus’ compassion made the miracle possible.

The great theologian of the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas, taught that compassion is the most important characteristic of God and the quality that most fully reveals to us who God is. He said that God’s power is a power of compassion and that we who are made in the image of God are most like God when we show compassion. This is one way of understanding the crowd’s proclamation about Jesus at the end of today’s gospel: “God has visited his people.” God continues to visit his people when we extend to others—especially the most distraught and desolate—the compassion that God in Christ has shown to us. What are we waiting for? After all, if we start with compassion, who knows what miracles might follow.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the extended Passionist family.