Daily Scripture

Feast of Saint Paul of the Cross (USA),
Founder of the Passionist Congregation 

Scripture:

Romans 6:19-23
Luke 12:49-53

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Paul of the Cross.  Paul Daneo was born in Ovada, Italy in 1694 and died in Rome in 1775.  During his remarkable life, St. Paul not only founded the Passionists but also became one of the most famous preachers of the 18^th century.  He was a sought-after spiritual guide for lay women and men, priests, bishops, several cardinals and even two Popes!  He was a mystic who experienced such a profound and intimate relationship with God that he grew into a compassion and a wisdom that nourished all who knew him.

One of his bits of wisdom that has always challenged me is his deep conviction that everything that comes into our lives comes from the hand of God.  He often advised those who came to him due to the suffering in their lives, "accept all as coming from the hands of your loving Father."  When suffering touches those we love or tragedy strikes us, it is so difficult for us to understand what’s happening.  Often enough we even wonder how a loving God could let such a thing happen to us.    St. Paul of the Cross, as a result of his long hours of contemplating the passion of Jesus, advises us to accept everything, even our greatest sufferings, as from the hands of our loving Father.

What great faith such a conviction requires.  St. Paul of the Cross lived out this deep conviction of God’s presence in his life and his example and teaching invite us to pray that God give us such faith as well.   May the passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts!

 

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

Scripture:
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Mt 22:15-21

Reflection:
I love the sparseness of today’s Gospel; Jesus’ deftly reframes the trap that has been set for him:

Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

End of story. Except it isn’t.  It is true that Jesus has skillfully moved beyond the false dichotomy set up for him and infers that the Pharisees should focus on what is really their concern: not people’s money but their souls.

But the question isn’t definitively answered, and the tug and pull between civil and spiritual remains. Today, many of us grapple with the conflicts that may arise between Church law, civil rights, political agendas, and our personal relationship to God.

Yesterday was indescribably beautiful in Chicago. The leaves were bursting with color against a clear blue sky. On a scenic car ride with a friend up toward the tree-lined, winding roads of the North Shore, black graffiti was scrawled on one of my hometown’s viaducts: Whites: Do you want to be a minority? Say NO to mass immigration.

It was like an ugly scar went ripping across the beauty and tranquility of the day. My friend and I literally stopped in the track of our conversation.  I kept trying to imagine the person who had written it – certainly we could agree or disagree about the policies of immigration – but it was the naked brutality of the words that were really shocking.

Maybe it is disingenuous to feel that one can have a civil, nuanced, even a Christian, conversation about immigration, the death penalty, abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, race, feminism, income distribution or any of the other hot button issues that have civil and/or spiritual repercussions. Maybe that tagger was just saying what lots of people want to say but don’t, except anonymously. And maybe the truth is this brutal elsewhere, too: maybe women who get abortions really are murderers; maybe gays should either change or go back in the closet or be celibate, maybe killers deserve to be executed, maybe poor people are poor because they just don’t try hard enough.

Whatever positions our Church, our government or the guy next door take, Jesus calls us to be compassionate. He calls us to love, to see beyond the exterior and into the heart. He asks us to rage at injustice only, and to bear, lovingly and humbly, the journey to name and address real injustice without resorting to angry labels and hateful characterizations. Jesus knows there are difficult conflicts we face, and his answer to the Pharisees proves that. But in the end, it is our right relationship to God that informs all else. I can only pray to get that "right relationship" right.

And so, difficult as it may be, I must now find in my heart the willingness to feel compassion for the person who wrote that graffiti. I can reject the message and its inflammatory call to action, but I still need to act in a way that helps Christ’s message of love continue to be made real in this sometimes very confusing world, which often seeks simple black and white answers that just don’t exist.

 

Nancy Nickel is director of communications at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago, Illinois.

Feast of St. Teresa of Avila

Scripture:

Romans 4:13, 16-18
Luke  12:8-12

Reflection:

What is the role of faith in your life? Does your life, by its words and actions acknowledge Jesus? Or do your words and actions disown the Lord? How you answer the question is of the upmost importance because of the consequences. Jesus in this passage reminds us that he is our ultimate judge. He will either judge us worthy or unworthy before the angels in heaven. Jesus says that all sins can be forgiven. This of course is consoling, but then comes the caveat. The sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This sin must be a final rejection of the last grace offered us, the ultimate refusal of love and deafness to the voice that invites us to come to Him and find rest for our souls. The possibility of this "sin against the Holy Spirit" is the mystery of human freedom. In Matthew 12:31 and Mark 3:28-29 we find this saying immediately after the scribes and Pharisees ascribe the healings of Jesus to the prince of devils instead of God. A refusal to see what is right before their eyes!

Paul points to Abraham as the first believer. He is the one whose faith in God’s word made him righteous. Abraham showed the depth of his faith by his unwavering hope in God’s promises and his obedience to all that God asked of him. Can we, who contemplate the cross of Jesus who held nothing back out of love for us, be any less faithful?

 

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

Scripture:

Romans 2:1-11
Luke 11:42-46

Reflection:

The message of today’s readings seems easy enough to figure out, as we’ve heard it many times before: don’t pass judgment. Simple enough…and yet here they are, yet again, both Paul’s letter and Luke’s gospel staring us right in the face with this message. Don’t pass judgment, don’t pass judgment…it appears that someone thinks we’re not completely getting this message.

The imagery from Luke’s Gospel is a bit challenging within our modern-day culture yet I am enthralled by it. Jesus is a guest at a Pharisee’s house and has just been reprimanded by the host for not following the rituals of cleansing. So Jesus simply compares an encounter with a Pharisee-a member of the Jewish faith highly versed in all of the outward practices and rituals of that faith-as to an encounter with an unmarked grave. It’s easy to overlook the power of this comparison. In our culture, the dead are separated from the living and buried in marked graves so that families may come and pay tribute to the loved one. An unmarked grave is purely something unfortunate that may perhaps be rectified with the grave’s discovery in the near future.

In Jesus’ time, great care was made to separate that which was living from that which was dead, for anything considered dead and without life was considered, "unclean." An encounter with anything dead required ritual cleansing before being considered "clean" once more. Therefore, to walk over an unmarked grave was to have an encounter with death and to be made unclean without being aware of it. Therefore, all of that person’s actions would be negated due to their uncleanliness.

And that’s what Jesus is equating to a Pharisee? Ouch! What a deep, disturbing comparison for the Pharisee!

The actions of the Pharisees perturb Jesus because he continually saw, time and time again, these men of "faith" perform the outward practices of Jewish tradition, yet there was nothing substantial on the inside. Nevertheless because of their positions of power, these Pharisees felt justified in condemning and judging others that were not as law-abiding as they were. It’s no wonder that Jesus felt justified in putting this man (and the Scholar mentioned at the end) in his place. Jesus emphasized throughout his ministry that God is far more interested in interior conversions of the heart rather than outward signs of faith, something that the Pharisees never seemed to quite understand.

Paul isn’t shy about confronting similar issues with his audience in Rome. Although writing from Corinth, he is highly aware of the disputes erupting between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians see their places of worship have been taken over by the Gentile Christians, those people that had once worshiped at pagan alters. Gentile Christians see Jewish Christians as still partially belonging to a religion responsible for the death of Jesus. The judgments and accusations fly without boundaries.

Paul’s Epistle is written to remind the Roman community of God’s love and mercy as shown through the life of Christ, but he takes the time to point out those past stereotypes and grudges won’t work in this new community. His strong counterargument, that those that judge others hold God’s patience and love in low self-esteem, hits a chord with his community. How quick are Christians, both Jew and Gentile alike, ready to cast aside the fact that, "there is no partiality with God", and continue to see things with their physical eyes instead of the eyes of their hearts? How quick are they to be like the Pharisees, who judged according to outward practices and places of origin, instead of being like Christ, who looked past all things to see the glory of the person on the inside?

When praying today, ask God to help you identify periods in your life when you are unintentionally passing judgment on others. When do you in your own community judge by outward appearances-those indicated by sex, race, ethnicity, social class, medical illness, or religious beliefs-rather than by what is on the inside of a person’s heart?

 

Sandy Smith is a volunteer at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

Romans 3:21-30
Luke 11:47-54

Reflection:

Paul’s great letter to the Romans was written in 58AD from Corinth as he prepared to go to Jerusalem with the collection from the younger churches for the needs of the mother church. It was a letter of introduction. Paul planned to move west and set up a new base for his missionary efforts. "I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome" (Romans: 1, 15). He wanted to prepare the Romans for his coming.

The section which we have to reflect on is theologically rich in meaning and expresses the heart of Paul’s conviction that the righteousness of God is ours by the free grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We have this redemption because Christ Jesus shed his Blood in the sacrifice on the Cross.

And we certainly do not deserve it: "all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God". No one has reason to boast. "A person is justified by faith".

For Paul faith is the way of utter trust and utter yieldedness. We have to take God at his word, and cast ourselves on his mercy and love. The important thing is, not what we can do for God, but what God has done for us. The whole matter is one of grace.

In our own hectic life we have to slow down and let God be God for us. Everything does not depend upon our efforts. When we realize this there is a freedom and peace of heart that makes the journey easy.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Romans 1:16-25
Luke 11:37-41

 

 

 

Reflection:

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel"

The other day, I listened to an interview conducted in the year 2000 with author and atheist A.N. Wilson on the theme "The Age of Doubt."  In it, Wilson asserted arrogantly "how contemptible and foolish the early Christians were…"  I expected at least a semblance of a balanced discussion.  Not this.

I shouldn’t have been surprised.  We live in world that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religion.  Most of the media and entertainment celebrities – our modern day philosophes – ridicule religion; Catholicism leads their mockery.  Recently on late night television, a comedian sang in mock tone a Catholic hymn about the bread becoming the Body of Christ, to the uproarious laughter of the audience.

Two thousand years ago, Paul wrote to the Jewish and Gentile Christian community of Rome.  He addressed the tensions between them regarding the role of Law with reference to sin and the meaning of salvation for Gentiles.  But Paul also was writing to a community living in a Roman culture seeped in pagan gods, civic religion and Christian hostility.

To Christians struggling in that world – and we in our world today – Paul boldly proclaims: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel…"  In other words, he calls us to speak the words and live lives that communicate what God has done for the world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and to show how God’s saving work is working in our lives right now.

It’s not easy.  It’s not "cool."  Nevertheless, in our hostile culture, we are admonished to witness to the Good News.

How important is our witness?  Consider this.  A.N. Wilson, the fiery foe of Christianity, became a Christian two years ago.  He was influenced slowly by the lives of St. Thomas More, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, C.S. Lewis, and many others.  Today, Wilson himself is the target of ridicule and attack.  But now he too proclaims: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel."

 

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

 

Scripture:

Joel 4:12-21
Luke 11:27-28

Reflection:

Once when I was about to process in at Mass, the lector held up the Gospel book and started to walk in. A jolt of energy went through me. His right arm was  prosthetic. We processed in as everyone in the assembly watched. When the Mass was complete I approached the man and asked what happened to his arm. He replied that he lost it in the war. I thanked him for his service to our country and will never forget how he was "not ashamed of the Gospel."

As I travel I meet people everywhere who are in love with the Scriptures. Scores read it daily and derive much inspiration and encouragement from its pages. As Jesus taught, "Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it." Yet, there are many who do not read the Bible and are very unfamiliar with it. I personally have been so touched and strengthened by the teachings of the Bible that I want everyone to read it. This is something the Pope and Synod of Bishops met about two years ago. They wanted everyone in our Church to read the Scriptures. This echoes the Vatican II document on the Word of God which said, "we forcefully exhort all the Christian faithful to read the Scriptures."

Years ago I contacted the people at "The Word Among Us." This Catholic magazine contains the daily Mass readings, reflections and articles each month. I have them mail some 300-600 copies at each of my missions, free of charge. People love receiving these free as a gift. The Word Among Us benefits by getting many more subscriptions. As a priest and as a Christian I delight that many more people are including the Bible as part of their daily devotion. Now I labor at trying to get them not just to read the Bible, but to keep it!

 

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/

Scripture:

Isaiah 25:6-10a
Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Matthew 22:1-14 or 22:1-10

Reflection:

In the parable of the Wedding Feast Matthew again addresses the chief priests and elders of the people. It appears as an allegory that would be clear to his community: the King’s invitation is rejected, messengers are treated violently, their cities destroyed, and there is a new invitation that includes everyone, especially the poor.

Why would a guest be thrown out without a wedding garment? Barbara Reid, O.P. in her column on the Word [America Magazine, Oct. 3, 2011] sees Matthew’s use of the wedding garment as similar to Paul’s metaphor of putting on clothing to describe our embracing the values of Our Lord. "All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with him [Gal.3:27, and Col.3:13, Rom.13:14]. Those invited who do not put on Christ are put out into what seems to be a dogfight, where there is wailing and the grinding of teeth.

Paragraph 11 in Pope Benedict’s encyclical, "Love in Truth", gives a description of putting on Christ: Without the perspective of eternal life, human progress in this world is denied breathing-space…humanity loses the courage to be at the service of higher goods and the disinterested initiatives called forth by universal charity. Human development is primarily a vocation requiring a transcendent vision of the person; it needs God.

We celebrate in the Passionist family the feast of  Innocencio Aruna, C.P., martyr. He was killed along with five De la Salle Brothers 1934 in Turon, Spain, in the Northeastern province of Asturias. The political situation was raw following the change of government in 1933. Changes made by the previous, more leftist government were threatened. Labor unions feared for worker’s rights and there was talk of a revolution imitating that of Russia.  A general strike was declared but did not succeed. However, in the coal mine region of Asturias, the strike turned into violence. In the fighting that followed mercenary troops were called in, 3,000 miners were killed and 35,000 people were taken prisoner.

On the evening of October 5, Fr. Innocencio was celebrating Mass with the community of brothers who conducted a school in Turon. Strikers invaded the residence, seized Innocencio and the brothers whom they held without trial, then, on October 9, summarily shot them in a cemetery in middle of the night. The violence directed against them was strongly anticlerical and targeted priests and religious. Attacked because they supposedly hid weapons, it was the exercise of religion and their teaching it which led to their deaths.

Matthew’s parable becomes for Innocencio the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. He is a man who is not put out for lack of a garment. He was clothed in the habit of his religious order, and clothed in the works of Christ as a Passionist religious; he vowed to preach Christ Crucified. We see in the violence of the ‘Revolution of Asturas’ what Pope Benedict’s encyclical says, the human works of social reform and worker justice, all of our aspirations to make a better world, without charity lose vision and the courage needed to reach such high goals. Indeed for those not clothed in Christ it can become a dogfight. And that so aptly describes the attack upon Innocencio and the Brothers. The blood of the martyrs gives nourishment to the earth upon which it falls. May their example lead us to put on Christ, to love, and to bring our human family to the Banquet that God sets for us.

 

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