Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts: 25:13b-21
John 21:15-19

Reflection:

The Illusion of Control

I have been flying a lot lately, and I find there is nothing like a flight delay or cancellation to highlight how much we Americans value autonomy and control. We expect to go where we want when we want, and we deeply resent interference by any human or natural force.  (In fact, in most cases the word "resent" is far too tame.)

Oh, how hard we try to be masters of our own destinies!  We "control" the course of our days with carefully planned time management tools and tightly scheduled itineraries. We "control" aging with dye, lotions, surgeries, and toxins. We "control" our image with assumed masks and behaviors, to the point that many people believe others only like them because they don’t really know what’s inside. We "control" sickness with machines, medicines, procedures, and ever-new cures.  We even seek to "control" dying, preferring to kill ourselves rather than let death proceed naturally. We desperately seek to imitate the young Peter who, in typical "American dream" fashion, was able to dress himself and go where he wanted to go. 

Admittedly, there is much we do actually control, and I have a responsibility to make the best decisions I can in those arenas. Yet the circumstances of my life, especially lately, have reinforced the folly of believing that any of us actually wields as much control as we’d like to believe.  Babies die, dementia takes hold, floods defy levees, people make unpredictable decisions, recessions hit, tornadoes strike in random paths, accidents happen, loved ones are diagnosed with cancer, traffic snarls, carefully laid plans go awry, and we often end up in places or situations we never would have expected. Jesus warns that we cannot do what we want at every turn. Far more often we are bound by that metaphorical belt, and led somewhere we would rather not go. 

Am I willing to allow my illusion of control to be shattered? Am I willing to be led into difficult situations, confrontations, aging, and even death?  Can I surrender my life and learn to be drawn by something greater than myself rather than pushed by my desperate striving for control? Can I find grace and love in unexpected and even tragic events? Something deep inside me is terrified by those thoughts. Instinctively I know that more often than not, I will stretch out my hands and someone else will lead me where I do not want to go. I know that placing trust in my personal ability to control my life and destiny is an exercise in futility. I keep striving for it anyway. 

Yet if I assume that I am NOT in control, perhaps I can live with less stress and more freedom.  If I assume that there will be losses, glitches, and challenges at every turn, perhaps I can better appreciate what I have while I have it.  If I know things will not go as planned, perhaps I can be open to see new things unfold. Instead of spending energy raging against unwanted occurrences in my life or protesting that I don’t deserve what is happening, perhaps I can accept their inevitability and use my energy to cope and to heal. If I love freely and deeply even though I know I will be hurt and will eventually lose my beloved, perhaps the joy I experience will be worth the pain. If I trust that when I am nailed to the cross Christ is nailed there with me, perhaps I can also believe that with God’s help I can overcome and even reach resurrection. If I let go of the need for absolute control, perhaps I can live so fully that I will arrive at my death bed without regrets.  Can I let go?

I wish I could answer without reservation. For now, perhaps it is enough to know I am working on it and I hope I am getting better. Check back with me next week when yet another flight gets canceled.

 

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:

Acts 20:17-27
John 17: 1-11a

Reflection:

Can you recall your experience of seeing family members or dear friends leaving to return home after a wonderful vacation? The experience for me has always been mixed: "Thanks for coming!  We’ve had a glorious time!  But…I am going to miss you.  Let’s keep in touch by phone or email or mail.   Love you!" 

Paul has mixed thoughts and emotions as he says "goodbye" to the leaders from Ephesus.  There is joy, there is sorrow.  He won’t be seeing them again.  He is sad.    There is a cloud overhead.  Indications have been given by the Holy Spirit that imprisonment and hard days lie ahead.  But he is still driven by his call and desire to continue to spread the "good news" entrusted to him.  Paul has known a deep interior change since his conversion.  Life…what is it all about?  Paul’s answer is: "I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace." 

Each of us has been given the gift of life which has been graced through baptism to become a son or daughter of our heavenly Father.  We are family.  Jesus is our brother.  Each of us has been uniquely blessed with gifts, talents and, yes, with limitations.  So we are also challenged as Paul was.  You and I are asked the question:  So…what is my life all about?  The answer continues to unravel, to be revealed as we, too, undergo that deep internal change in our relationship to God, to others and to ourselves.   How do our faith, hope and love continually, ever so slowly, sometimes quickly, affect our thinking and acting.  Sometimes the changes come through joy filled experiences, sometimes through pain and sorrow.  And so we have kept growing, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes just holding on tightly to the Lord’s hand as He guides us though darkness, and still, at other times skipping along with joy and peace.     

Like Paul, you and I need to keep in touch with Jesus.  So much of what we see, experience and are challenged by, makes no sense unless we keep coming back to Jesus and his love for each and all of us.  His words, his teaching are backed up with his loving concern.  "Come, take up your cross and follow Me."  He will never abandon us. "Greater love than this no one has but that he lay down his life for his friends." 

 

Fr. Peter Berendt, C.P. is on the staff of Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center, Houston, Texas.

 

Scripture: 

Acts: 19:1-8
John 16:29-33

 

 

 

Reflection:

Paul arrives in Ephesus, which at that time was one of the great cities in the region. The ruins of the great temple to the goddess Diana are still standing. Ephesus was regarded as one of the finest cities in the empire, a center of politics, religion and commerce.

Paul seems surprised that the "disciples" had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were baptized in the baptism of John the Baptist. What is the difference and why Paul’s concern?

In a recent and intriguing article in a Chicago newspaper, researchers discovered that 80 per cent of people return to their old patterns after recovery from a heart attack, heart surgery or being diagnosed with diabetes. That is, when doctors prescribed to patients new diets and a routine of exercises to follow, most patients, within months, returned to their old eating habits and lack of exercise. It’s very difficult for people to change their old routines, the researchers discovered, even when faced with ill health if their lifestyles didn’t change.

The baptism of John was a ritual of forgiveness. The person sought God’s forgiveness and promised not to sin again. The person was sincere and struggled to fight against the temptation to sin. But within a few weeks, a few months, that person often was back to his/her sinful habits, attitudes and actions. Promises and will power were not enough. We know this experience from our New Year resolutions; they so often fall to the wayside after time.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit was not only a ritual of forgiveness, but a sacrament that bestowed the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who strengthens our will power, who enables us to fulfill our solemn promises. The Spirit enables us to become a "new creation." In John’s baptism, we are left to our own devices. In the baptism of Christ, we are gifted with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

As we celebrate Pentecost, we can give thanks for this wonderful gift of God, the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to be faithful disciples of Christ. "They spoke in tongues and prophesied." Let us be open to the Holy Spirit so that we make those lifestyle changes and speak the words of love, forgiveness and encouragement that we have been afraid to voice.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Scripture:

Acts 1:12-14
1 Peter 4:13-16
John 17:1-11a

Reflection:

Where is heaven? 

When I was a young child I had the idea that Heaven was above and Gehenna was below. This was confirmed and reinforced by the images of heaven I was shown. But as I grew older this didn’t seem to make much sense. I was a child of the space age. How far would we have to send out our spaceships before they found heaven? And as to the other place, well, Jesus never spoke of people being "cast down." In the parables about the kingdom of heaven the image was always one of being "cast out."

So the question arose for me, where is heaven? Today’s readings lead to other questions along the same lines: if Jesus said, "I am with you always," how is it that He’s taken up to some far off place and leaves the apostles? And what does it mean that, "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven." 

In the Acts of the Apostles today we read that, "a cloud took Him from their sight." In both the Old and New Testaments clouds are often used as a sign of God’s presence or kingdom. Jesus said the kingdom of God (heaven) is near, at hand, among you, within you, between you. If we weave these images together today’s readings begin to make more sense. Jesus has indeed entered into the kingdom of God–the kingdom of God that lives within us and between us as the Body of Christ. This is the Kingdom of God that is among us. This is "the cloud" that has hidden Jesus from our everyday eyes.

So a new question arises: can I learn to look with new eyes, can I allow Christ to enter into me, so that I live in Him and allow Him to live in me, so that I can experience and share the Risen Christ?

 

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

 

 

Scripture:

Acts 18:23-28
John 16:23b-28

Reflection:

The Father’s Love

Jesus’ words today to his disciples pack a "punch":  "The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God".  God’s Love:  the Father, in and through the Son, including disciples of times past and present.  No doubt this Last Supper talk with his disciples did help them get some renewed direction in their lives – and yet we know that Jesus’ Passion and death was later to turn many disciples away in denial of Jesus.  Oh yes, God’s love…unconditional; our love…so human.

Indeed, love needs constant affirming and nurturing.  These Easter days have helped nurture God’s love for us as we have followed the saga of the early Church in our readings from the Acts of the Apostles.  As disciples, we too await the gift of the Pentecost Spirit to help "love" the Church to a new birth in our day and age.  Jesus himself encourages us in love to "ask and you will receive so that your joy may be complete".

We each have accepted God’s love in our Baptism and in our personal vocation.  For our Passionist Family, God’s Love is oh-so-real in the recent priestly ordination of two fellow Passionists, Alfredo Ocampo and Hugo Esparza.  Together we respond to that Love by lives of fruitful and joyful service.  As we are about our Provincial Chapter these days, God’s Love will guide our discussions, decisions, and our election of new Province leadership.  On a personal note:  I today thank God for loving me on this my 35^th anniversary of ordination to Passionist priestly ministry.  God’s Love…and a spirit of joy…you bet!

May the Father’s Love continue to nurture and guide us all as we follow Jesus Crucified in this day and age, as well as on that day when we ourselves return to the Father with Jesus. 

Amen!

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 18:9-18
John 16:20-23

Reflection:

Passionists of the Midwest, Southern, Western U.S. gather this week in Detroit for 6 days to discern how the Spirit is leading us to reveal more expansively and boldly, the loving power of God that flows from the cross of Jesus Christ for the world. Is there any more powerful love that can heal, and restore harmony among all living things? To know the meaning of Jesus’ words, "you will weep, and grieve and mourn," we just have to look at the world about which we speak–in turmoil first, because of the huge, scandalous gap between the poorer and the richer, the true root of terrorism, twenty years of military inflicted loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, over control of natural resources by the First World: second, the on-going, frequency of the disappearance of natural species on the earth with air and water quality diminishing; third, the war against the innocents, through the deprivation of water and food, rape and destruction of villages, and genocide as weapons of warfare.

There is less and less common ground upon which to carry on dialogue that brings mutual respect and justice among governments and religions. Cultural wars, conservative/liberal labels taint the meaning of religion among intellectual people, including the young. Pope John Paul II named the deep roots of our modern struggle in Evangelium vitae (1995): "This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of life."

We go into these meetings with a spirit of abandonment to what the Spirit of God and the charism of St. Paul of the Cross are asking of us to make more accessible the message of grace that comes from the cross. Letting go is the only attitude that makes discernment of the Will of God legitimate and doable. And we have St. Paul as our inspiration, enduring hardship, persecution, ridicule, torture and jail time. The question I ask myself, "where, today, through word and deed, may I promote respect, justice, the recovery of harmony in relationships?" What a vision we see in the words of Christ to Paul, "Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you. You have nothing to fear."

 

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is president of Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

 

 

The Ascension of the Lord

Scripture:

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28:16-20

 

Reflection:

Today’s readings presume that the celebration of the feast of the Ascension will occur on the following Sunday (as is the case in most of the dioceses of the United States).

Today is also the day that the Passionists of Holy Cross Province begin their quadrennial Provincial Chapter, a meeting which elects leadership and considers the policies by which the Province is governed for the next four years.

Both of today’s readings offer us encouragement for the tasks at hand as members of Christ’s body, the Church.

In furthering the Mission of Christ and His Church, there are those moments when we feel that we may have aimed too high, had expectations that are now seeming unattainable, we may even have wondered whether this is really the path that leads to the Kingdom. 

The disciples mentioned in the gospel knew that feeling; they had had it before, and they know that they will feel it again.  "We do not know what he means."  However, "Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him…"  It is part of the following of Christ that we continue in our resolution to contribute to the building of the Kingdom of God, although there are days of doubts and questions.  Jesus knows what we want to ask, and He provides us with what we need for the Mission he has entrusted to us.

Paul personalizes this relationship of the disciple with Jesus in a way that has become the model for all missionaries and for all who proclaim the Kingdom of God.  Paul has experienced the conversion of his heart from adversary to apostle of the Gospel, the Good News of Salvation.  He has given his life over to the public proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Nevertheless, he is rebuffed by the Jews of Corinth, one more confrontation that challenges the meaning of his conversion from a devout Jew who persecuted the Christians, to a Christian Jew who longs to bring his people to the Good News sent by God.

Perhaps this is the most universal of the things taught to Paul by the action of the Holy Spirit in his life: that "his people" are to be all of "God’s People", and that means no longer a Jewish world of missionary outreach, but an outreach to the whole of God’s People, to the Gentile world.

God’s call to Paul broadened his perspective, widened his compass, made him more aware of the world beyond the Synagogue.  May God, in calling us to the following of Christ, also keep us from constraining the Gospel; may we Passionists, in Chapter sessions this week learn to proclaim the saving message of the Cross to a broader and wider world than we can even imagine today; may each of you, who share these reflections with us, find in your hearts the breadth and width of the power of God’s eternal and all-encompassing love to share with all of God’s people.

 

Fr. Arthur Carrillo, C.P. is the Director of Missions and the Director of Mission Effectiveness for Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Chicago. 

Scripture: 

Acts 17:15, 22-18:1
John 16:12-15

Reflection:

As I reflect on the first reading from Acts, I am struck with the similarity of St. Paul’s times to our own.  In the Areopagus, Paul is doing something different from his former work as a pious committed Jew.  He’s following a call entirely new, and one whose newness keeps growing.  An ardent Jew, he was first knocked to the ground to become an ardent Jewish Christian, preaching to his fellow Jews belief in the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth.  Working with the Jews spread through Turkey and the Middle East, he then heard himself called to preach Jesus Christ directly to the Gentiles.  This is startlingly news.  Jews never proselytized directly among the Gentiles.  The Apostles were called, as Peter had announced, to declare the good news of the true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, to their fellow Jews – those spread throughout the Roman empire.  And in those days the question of introducing the Gentiles directly to Jesus Christ without first leading them through Moses rapidly became a bone of contention.   The "Council of Jerusalem" settled the matter, with Paul standing forth firmly and reminding Peter of his own witness of the gift of the Spirit to Cornelius and his gentile family members without any circumcision.  The energy and commitment of Paul, his drive and intensity in those times of ongoing intermixing of races and diverse faiths and religions, remind me of our own days.

Shortly after the closing of Vatican II, theologians began to analyze the extent and the depths of the new call that the Council presented to the church.  It was a call to move from a European church to a world church – to move from a church of the hierarchy to a church of the people of God. (K. Rahner et al.).  It was a call to the laity to recognize anew the truly radical nature of their baptism and to assume fully their mission in the church.  It was a call to religious to study their sources and foundations to see how their mission must be accomplished in this new world. For it is a world on the move, evolving at tremendous speed, and in that evolution calling anew for the light and guidance, healing and inspiration of the crucified and risen Lord.  (For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. . . .  Jn 3: 16)

At that time our provincial told us that we had been given the call of Abraham: "Arise and go forth from your country . . . into the land that I shall show you."(Gen 12: 1)   We were called into the unknown, where we had never been before.  Trusting completely in the Lord, we were called to become church in new ways.  Now 46 years later, in my reflections I find myself asked how I am handling this call to be church in new ways.  How have I been doing – am I still an active contributing member to a world church?  Or have I grown weary and tired, become more or less passive and resigned?  Do my attitudes and my actions take me forward from a church of the hierarchy to a church of the people of God?  Where do I fit now in the "reform of the reform"? 

Am I really open to the new? Do I really listen with an open mind – and, more important, with an open heart?  Do I now enter into discussions with my mind already made up?  Do I enter eager to debate and to win, to have my idea prevail?  Do I want to convince people to my position rather than simply offer an idea that could be put forth with others for a common discernment?  Am I really willing to change? 

How really open am I to a new idea?  The Gospel prods me: Do I really believe that Jesus is in me – that His Spirit is in me?  Is His Holy Spirit really my spirit, prompting all that I do and am?  How can I tell? 

 

Peter Fitzpatrick, CFX, is a Xaverian Brother living at Ryken House, Louisville, across Bear Grass Creek from the Passionist Community Sacred Heart Monastery.