Daily Scripture

Scripture:
Acts 6:1-7
John 6:16-21

Reflection:
The  Lord’s  prediction that his followers would accomplish greater things than he did came true with the coming of the Holy Spirit in conversions of 3,000 and growing to 5,000 with the cure of the crippled man.

The continued growth of the Jerusalem Community soon created new problems for the Apostles.  Jerusalem had long been the site of two distinct Jewish groups.  The native, who spoke   Aramaic, and the Greek-speaking Jews from the diaspora.  Christian converts came from both groups.  The majority, a better organized group of Aramaic speakers, took good care of widows and other needy members, but were not reaching out to the Greek-speaking widows and providing them with food.  Complaints reached the Apostles.

As a result 7 leaders from the Greek-speaking Christian Community were deputed to take care of the problem. 

It became clear that leadership and service needed to be broadly distributed.  Stephen and Philip proved to be eloquent preachers and gifted with the grace of healing.  This may be the original instance of the need for and the function of collaborative ministry in the Church.

It became a patter across the world.  Paul recruits Timothy, he has Aquila and Prisca. Chloe in Corinth. Epaphras and Onesimus in Colossae have been slaves, but they were also lay ministers for Christ.  At the conclusion of his Letter to the Romans, Paul mentions 25 coworkers!

So it definitely was not something new and strange that the Fathers in the Vatican II Council issued many statements on the calling of the laity to be about the work of Christ in our time!

No special imposition of hands is required.   Lay people’s right and duty to be apostles derives from their union with Christ their head by Baptism and Confirmation.  (Cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3)

In the two millennia the Church has functioned, the world has gone through many stages.  The Church was there to meet many a crisis.  We live in the most advanced and complex civilization that ever demanded attention.  The Council insisted the baptized Christian has many duties toward the secular world and these are Christian duties, moral duties.  God and the Church are concerned about human welfare, human freedom.  This area belongs more to the laity than to priests and bishops.  The laity are needed to do more than make sure all its widows are provided with food.  Christian Politicians, Christian leaders in business and human affairs are needed.

Lay missionaries, living their vocation in service to the Church, have given their lives for justice and are true martyrs.  Such heroism is not demanded of all. 

The need for lay help was clear in Jerusalem in the year 35.  The needs of God’s Church in the 21st century are much more evident.

It was only after the Polish laity rallied to the presence of Pope John Paul II by the millions, did the power of Communism shatter and crumble, even in Russia.  The Pope could lead but without the following laity nothing good would have happened. 

Christ is still with his Church and he is certainly with his laity. 

 

Fr. Fred Sucher, C.P. is retired and lives in the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky.  For many years he taught philosophy to Passionist seminarians.  

Scripture:

Acts 7:51-8:1a
John 6:30-35

Reflection:

In today’s readings, Stephen is stoned to death although he is innocent of any wrongdoing.  In his final breaths, he commends his spirit into God’s hands and asks God to forgive those who are killing him.  The psalm refrain reinforces Stephen’s words – "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"- and the verses claim God as rock and fortress. In the Gospel, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life and all who believe in him will neither hunger nor thirst.  As we read these words we know that Jesus, too, will soon commend his spirit into God’s hands and forgive those who have betrayed, abandoned, and killed him. 

These readings present for us the ideal toward which we are to strive – total surrender into God and unmerited forgiveness.  Today, I struggle to live up to that ideal and I don’t think I am there yet.

My niece’s 9-month-old baby died last week, a victim of "shaken baby syndrome" so violent that it fractured her skull.  Little Chelsea never regained consciousness, slowly slipping away as her brain swelled, until she died.  The daycare babysitter, a family friend, was arrested and charged. This bubbly, smart and active baby girl was betrayed by the woman into whose care she was entrusted.  Though innocent, she endured torture and death. 

My niece and her husband are heart-broken and enraged.  They, too, were betrayed.  Their precious child was ripped from their lives unfairly and unjustly by someone they thought was a friend. They have the crib, high chair, clothes, car seat, and all the trappings that go with having a baby, but now they have no child to use them.  The void is unspeakably huge.  We who loved Chelsea are nailed to the cross, with no indication that the resurrection could possibly follow.  Can we so easily commend her life into God’s hands and forgive the woman who killed her?

It is far easier to preach the charism of the cross and proclaim the Gospel than it is to live them when your heart is breaking. I want to scream "No!" from heaven to hell. I painfully realize anew that human beings are wonderful but sometimes terribly flawed creatures, that life on this earth is worth living but ultimately transient, and that while our desire to hold and heal each other is boundless, our ability to actually do so is limited.  Human hands cannot hold the immensity of this pain, heal these wounds, nor give the capacity to rise above the anger and betrayal to forgiveness. Only divine hands, those tender and infinite hands of God, can do that.

So when I have screamed and sobbed and poured out my anguish, when I am emptied and hollowed out, what is left to me? Nothing of this world remains, my own power and control is vanquished, and there is nothing to which I can cling, except God. And this foundation holds me fast. I cannot run to a place where God’s love doesn’t reach. The bread of life comes down from heaven for us who hunger and thirst for justice, for healing, and for peace. Our tears are but one current in the river of tears flowing from the aching heart of God, pierced again by the most horrific of human actions.  Jesus is nailed to the cross with us, walking us into the darkest of tombs while holding out the promise that eventually we will emerge. It is only into these divine hands that I can commend Chelsea’s spirit and my own.

I am not there yet. I still fight and rage and bounce back and forth. I pray for the grace, for myself and for all of us, to surrender our spirits into the steadfast, everlasting hands of the God who suffers with us, who knows our pain, and who has promised healing and peace.  I pray that although we seek the justice that is due, we may not be held bound by hate, anger, and vengeance.  I pray that we may free our hearts by forgiving, and move on to live a life enriched and made full by Chelsea’s memory.

Over and over again I pray: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend Chelsea.  Into your hands, O Lord, I commend the woman who killed her.  Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

 

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 5:27-33
John 3:31-36

Reflection:

Its day twelve of our Easter Season. Is anyone still celebrating?

For many of us, festivities ceased that Sunday night and have long since been pushed to the back of the mind. So many other things have taken precedence over remembering Triduum and our Easter celebration. I once heard that it is easier to practice repentance during Lent than it is to practice the joys of Easter (to remain an "Easter People") and there’s such a strong truth to that statement. As humans we tend to forget easily. Come Easter Monday, the world draws our attention back to the problems of our everyday lives, and suddenly everything that mattered to us on Sunday doesn’t seem to be there on Monday.

The church takes today’s opportunity to remind us to keep alive the message of Easter in every aspect of our lives. The Apostles certainly did this. Going back a few verses (5:14-25), it’s easy to see that they have been busy. They’ve been curing the sick and bringing "multitudes" to Christ. It’s hard to imagine that these are the very men who just a few weeks ago were fleeing at Jesus’ arrest, were absent at his Passion and Crucifixion, and were cowering when Jesus appeared to them bearing the markings of his death. By the first reading, the Apostles have been brought before the Sanhedrin who are furious because these men are converting hearts with their testimonies. The Apostles can’t seem to remain silent for their own safety. Why? They have opened their eyes and seen the fulfillment of Jesus’s time with them through his Passion and Resurrection. They have seen a God that loves them. They have been witnesses to resurrection in their lives and they have let that love work and transform their own lives.

That word-witness-is a double-edged sword for Luke’s community. Some have become like the Sanhedrin who were witnesses of Jesus’s work yet went out of their way to destroy him in physical form as well as within their own hearts. Others are like the Apostles, who have done the opposite. They are weaving the word God into their lives. The Apostles are bold enough to make a grand contrast between themselves and the council: "The God of our ancestors raised Jesus though you killed him…"

In the Gospel, John the Baptist sums the situation up quite well. When one witnesses the glory of God, his good news, one must testify to it. John the Baptist knows Jesus is doing exactly what the Father called him to do. He himself is one of the greatest witnesses; he is mentioned in all four Gospels as one whose entire life is spent calling people’s attention to the Lord’s Good News. But this "living the Good News" thing isn’t meant to be easy. Look at what happened to those that lived this kind of lifestyle-eleven out of twelve of those that stand before the Sanhedrin in today’s story will be murdered. John the Baptist was beheaded. Yet these people rose to the call to spread this news because it had changed, inspired and empowered them.

As an Easter People we are newly aware of our connections to our God and to our community. We’ve all witnessed rebirth in our Churches and homes as we put away the Lenten décor and brought out the glowing white of Easter. God has called us to give testimony to these things in the way we live our lives and interact with others. It’s something we cannot ignore.

Today is a good day to reflect back and meditate on your Easter experience from Sunday up to now. How are you different having come through? How are you different from last Easter? How are you continuing to incorporate the life of the Risen Lord into your own, and testify about it to others?

 

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 4:23-31
John 3:1-8

Reflection:

This is a wonderful Easter-season set of readings.  Two very basic truths of the Resurrection/Easter event in the Church are put before us for our edification and encouragement.  Connecting these two events is the "breath of the Holy Spirit" which is given and confirmed in these narratives of the challenges faced by the apostles after Pentecost (first reading), and of the instruction Jesus gave to Nicodemus regarding being "born of the Spirit-from above".

On Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, we remembered in the Gospel passage that Jesus appeared to the Apostles/disciples on the evening of the Resurrection, and breathed his Holy Spirit on them; it was a foreshadowing of the definitive giving of the Spirit at Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit shall take hold of them and empower them to proclaim the name and work of Jesus beginning in Jerusalem and continuing to the ends of the earth.

In today’s first reading (Acts 4, 23-31), Peter and John have been held prisoners by the "chief priests and elders" because of their healing of the crippled man, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  They received severe rebukes, and were told to cease from preaching in the name of Jesus.  "…And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
 and enable your servants to speak your word 
with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal,
 and signs and wonders are done 
through the name of your holy servant Jesus."  As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook,
 and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
 and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

The Community believed in the power of the Spirit of God to confront and overcome the resistance and the enmity which the name of Jesus would provoke in the public arena.

In the Gospel reading of today (John 3, 1-8), we see in Nicodemus one very public religious official, who must come by night, lest his interest in the person of Jesus undermine his place among the Pharisees.  He is courteous in his praise of Jesus.  However, once Jesus responds to his interest, "unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God", Nicodemus understands "birth" in the natural order, as physical childbirth.  Indeed, the word used by Jesus for this rebirth can mean either "from above" or "again".  Nicodemus takes it as "again"; Jesus clarifies, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God."

In making this affirmation, Jesus, invites all of us to be born, not "born again", but to be born from and for a spiritual awakening as members of the Kingdom of God.  This birth from above is precisely the gift of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all members of the Body of Christ.

Beginning with the beautiful symbols of the sacrament of baptism (water, immersion, anointing, light), we accept our rebirth from above through the conferral of the Spirit of God.

The same Spirit will continue to inspire (breathe into us) us throughout our sharing in the sacraments of the Church, strengthening us to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, at home, at work and in the parish life of our faith community.

This is the fruit of the Resurrection, it is the reason that the Spirit of Christ continues to call each of us to holiness, and the reason that the Church of Jesus Christ continues to witness to the Resurrection of Jesus to the present day.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 2:42-47
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Reflection:

"Rejoice to the full in the glory that is yours, and give thanks to God who called you to his kingdom, alleluia."  4 Ezra 2:36-37

The entrance antiphon for Sunday, May 1, shows what is going on both in our scripture readings and in our eucharist.  The first reading from Acts depicts the disciples and those newly added to their number devoting themselves to the Lord and to each other, praying together at the temple, "breaking bread" in their homes, exulting together, praising God, and fully enjoying their ministry to themselves and to the people. 

What is going on?  The resurrected Jesus has confirmed them in his love.  The Father has raised him up and sent him to appear to them to affirm his love and his Father’s love, and to promise the fullness of love in the Spirit.  Jesus loves them, God loves them – and they have fallen in love with God.

Peter’s first letter bears this out: ‘Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in his great mercy gives us a new birth . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."   He tells those who joined the disciples later "rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy."  Why?  "Although you have not seen him, you love him."  They listened to Peter, believed his word; they turned to Jesus in love.

The Gospel gives us the well-known story of Thomas: he falls in overwhelming personal love for Jesus, "My Lord and my God."  ("Notice the word ‘my’. . . .   Indeed it is the only time in the Gospels that we have such a declaration."  Michael. P. Gallagher, SJ, Faith Maps, p. 130).

Many years ago a friend of mine, then newly appointed Provincial of the Maryland Jesuits, sent me a card of advice that he had printed for the novices.  It had been written by the Superior General Pedro Arrupe, SJ, and was about "falling in love." 

"What you are in love with,
What seizes your imagination,
Will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
What you will do with your evenings,
How you will spend your weekends,
What you read,
Who you know,
What breaks your heart,
And what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

That line "It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning" really gets me every time.

 

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

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

On Easter morn Jesus rose from the dead.  When the apostles heard the news, at first they were doubtful, then they were excited…and then scared. They were excited to learn that he came back to life.  But they were scared, wondering if he would forgive them.  Would he even come to see them?  They knew they had blown it.  They didn’t deserve to be called his friends any more.  He certainly would be justified in ignoring them and recruiting new followers to do his work. 

So when Jesus appeared in the upper room where the apostles were gathered, they stared at him in anxious anticipation.  What would he say?  Would he denounce them?  Would he call down his angels to punish them? 

In today’s gospel from Mark, he rebukes them for not believing those who saw him earlier.(Mark 16:14)  In John’s gospel, he says, "Peace be with you." (John 20:21)  In both gospels he sends them forth to proclaim the gospel.

They were pardoned!  They were absolved!  They were still on his team.  Now the resurrection was Good News for the apostles.  The apostles not only saw the wounded hands and feet of Jesus.  They also saw the face of God, — the face of forgiveness, the face of love.

Freud said, "How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved."   After experiencing Jesus’ forgiveness, the apostles were sure of being loved.  So we read today in the Acts of the Apostles how people noticed the boldness of Peter and John. (Acts 4:13)

As we fix our gaze upon the crucifix we too can be sure of being loved.  We too can be bold.  Like Peter and John, we are the companions of Jesus.

 

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

 

Scripture:

Acts 4:1-12
John 21:1-14

Reflection:

"There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."  These words of St. Peter, which conclude our first reading today, thrill and disturb, depending at what point in history you are living.  For centuries, Europe and America prided itself on being "Christian" and readily accepted this belief.  But how things have changed!  Today, as some call all people to a "New  World Order," they are demanding that we give up these divisive beliefs of uniqueness and all go into a psychotic regression where we fall to pieces.  The "Big Daddies" standing by will then take the pieces and build a unified, look-alike human family.  Have you ever heard of anything so sickening and lacking in Gospel truthfulness?

When the early Christians moved into the Roman world, they were confronted with the same issues.  The Romans prided themselves on knowing how to create a unity and peace amid very diverse peoples and beliefs.  When this small, strange group of people called Christians came along, the Romans had the solution.  Their God was given a space on shelf 17, in the 23^rd spot among all the other gods.  The Christians said, NO.  There is but one God and we believe in this one God.  This immediately made the Christians troublemakers, disturbing the wonderful order established by the Romans.  This, along with other factors, like charges of cannibalism at worship services, brought persecution upon them.  Judaism lived peacefully in the Roman world even though it believed in one God.  The Romans had great respect for antiquity, so the Jews were well tolerated.

The defenders of the early Church tried to show that Christianity was but a blossoming of this antiquity and bringing it to its fullness.  I am not sure how well they sold this to the Romans.

With the conversion of Constantine, the great Christian era began.  This need to defend your uniqueness in a very pluralistic world subsided, until recent times.

We live in a world of movement and sound, that gets bored with silence and permanence.  Jesus was born as an actual human being, into history, into time and said certain defined things.  How Boring!!  This can get old very fast.  Wouldn’t it be better to have a religion defined by myths, which can change by addition whenever you desire.  Religion should have the changeability of a snake that sheds its skin and gets a new one.  Jesus is the same, today, yesterday and forever.  That sounds like one of those old bodies found in the frozen glaciers of Alaska.  The frenetic nature of the modern mind, which gets bored with its own boredom, can find it very difficult to believe that Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.  There must be many ways, doors through which we can enter, many vines to which we can be attached and draw our spiritual life!  Toleration is the great virtue of today.  Truth is all things, opinions, well tolerated and kept down with a heavy does of antacids or should we say, the lack of reflection. 

St. Paul tells us that Jesus ascended so that he can fill the whole world.  Our Risen Lord is not restricted to time and space but he fills the world, radiating his Holy Spirit, calling all people to God’s life and love.  There may well be many who do not know the name of "Jesus" but who feel and respond to the call of the Risen Christ, the King of the Universe.  They are saved through Christ.  Others may dislike the imagined arrogance of the Christians, telling them how they are saved but then just think of all the absolute statements they make that we must let be.  The unity that God seeks is the community of diverse peoples, living with and respecting each other in a loving way.  He is not seeking a unity that comes from the psychotic dismantling of humanity and a new putting together based on human greed and idolatry. 

  

Fr. Blaise Czaja, C.P. gives parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist Community in Houston, Texas. 

Scripture:

Acts 3:11-26
Luke 24:35-48

Reflection:

We are still in the midst of the octave of Easter, and yet today’s Gospel and the Reading from Acts both speak of doubt.  In Acts, the crippled man is cured and the people are amazed and they begin to praise Peter and John.  But Peter has to remind them that this man is not cured by them but by faith in Christ.  We wonder did they not hear the message?

And in the Gospel we hear of his very own disciples being overwhelmed by His appearance, even though they were just talking to each other about recognizing him in the breaking of the Bread.  Jesus seems to be trying to convince them that he is real and that all that he has told them would happen has happened.  But nonetheless, they are incredulous and he still needs to open their minds to understand the scriptures.  It is not through their own intellect or logic that they understand but only when Jesus opens their minds.  In fact, even though Jesus’ walks and talks, even eats with the Apostles after his Resurrection, their faith will remain weak until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will fill them with the gifts they need to fully live their faith.

Easter week more than two thousand years later and our spirits are again filled with the commemoration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.  We believe that Jesus died for our sins and that raised from the dead, he promises us eternal life. We celebrated the Last Supper, we walked the Stations, we listened to the Passion, we reverenced the Cross, and we sang the Gloria because Jesus who was dead has been raised.

But how strong is our Faith?  Do we live as though we really believe in all that happened this last week?  How would our lives be different if our Faith were stronger? 

Let us pray to grow in the gift of Faith during this Easter Season so that the Holy Spirit will fill our hearts and our lives and all that we do will be permeated with a deep Faith in the Risen Christ.  

 

Mary Lou Butler is a long-time friend and partner in ministry to the Passionists in California.