Daily Scripture

Scripture: 

Genesis 16:1-12, 15-16 or 16:6b-12, 15-16
Matthew 7:21-29

Reflection:

When I was a seminarian, I had the opportunity to attend an evening of a Black Catholic Revival being held at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. When I got to the cathedral, up in front of the altar was an African-American woman giving a portrayal of Hagar, about whom we hear in our first reading from Genesis. The portrayal was sympathetic to Hagar’s point of view. In fact, when one reads this passage, it is easy to be sympathetic to Hagar and her son Ishmael, and Genesis tells us that God does indeed hear Hagar’s lament, and promises her that her son will be the ancestor of countless descendants. I think the woman portrayed Hagar in the first place because African-Americans could identify with the way Hagar was treated by Sarah.

It can be revelatory to hear Scripture being and interpreted by people of different cultures and backgrounds from one’s own. And it is in the context of being open to others, even when they are different, that can give us a perspective to our Gospel reading from Matthew. In the beginning of our reading, Jesus says something that probably would have startled His listeners: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." Jesus then talks about many people who will try to remind Jesus that they prophesied and did great things in His name, and He will say, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers." Unfortunately in the history of Christianity, there have been people who have done things in the name of Jesus that had nothing to do with what Jesus said or did. For instance, it is my understanding that some people have justified prejudice and discrimination against others by categorizing them as descendants of Ishmael, who is described as a "wild ass of a man, his hand against everyone."

We need to be careful when we say or do things in the name of Jesus. We need to make sure that we are listening to Jesus‘ words and acting on them, not letting any of our biases or prejudices drive our behavior. The more we put our faith into practice, the stronger our foundation will be, just as Jesus says. May we listen to Jesus’ words and act on them.

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat Center, Detroit, Michigan.

 

Scripture:

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Matthew 7:15-20

Reflection:

My most favorite place to be (after the ocean) is under the night sky enjoying all of the stars. "All of the stars" is a relative term considering that I now live in a big city where it rains a lot. But I’m speaking of the night sky where you can see a zillion stars and on many occasions you can see a shooting star.

When we lived out in the country we had a swimming pool in our backyard and sometimes late at night I would get up and go float in the pool on my back so that I could revel in that sight. It’s one of the easiest places for me to see and talk to God. We also had a hot tub on our deck just outside of our bedroom, which is where you could find me every night talking to the Lord. Night prayer in a hot tub – what could be better? Plus it’s warmer than a swimming pool!

The night sky is brilliant and breathtaking. But count the stars? Ha! I read somewhere that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the universe!!! I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around that number, but I know that one day I will get to explore them first hand. Wahoo!!!

One year we held our yearly dealer meeting way up in the mountains during the Perseid meteor shower. If you got up in the middle of the night, you could see shooting stars at the rate of about one per minute (sometimes more). That is a lot of shooting stars! So I got all of the kids and my reluctant husband up at about 3 AM and said, "Let’s go outside and watch the show!" We laid on the concrete parking lot and it was great! As one of the stars zoomed by I said, "I wish I could take a ride on one of those!" (And my husband said, "Can I go back to bed now?") Then it hit me, we were at that very moment hurtling through space on our own shooting star – the earth! Not only were we traveling through space, but we were also rotating at the same time.

At this very moment we are on an incredibly wild ride and we don’t even notice because of the speed! Isn’t life like that much of the time? We are going so fast, we miss the miracles that are happening all around us every day. SLOW DOWN!!! Open your eyes and the eyes of your heart and see the Lord weaving beauty into life at every turn. The miracles are too numerous to count, just like the stars in the sky.

 

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, OR and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. Janice also leads women’s retreats. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 4. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.jcarleton.com/ or email her at janice@frcedric/org

Scripture:

Genesis 13:2, 5-18
Matthew 7:6, 12-14

Reflection:

Offering compliments to others can be variously motivated.  We can do so to gain favor with another, even should we stretch the truth a bit in our comments to someone.  But we can also do so in genuine admiration of a person’s gifts or talents.  Especially in this case we can "make his or her day", by reminding such a one of the blessings adorning one’s life.

When we listen to the ongoing travels of Abraham, ever deeper into the land promised him by God, we’re able to appreciate how he has been gifted by God.  Though he has indeed made an ostensible sacrifice of his own life plans, as a result of the encounter he has had with God, he has accumulated his blessings: was he not already rich in livestock, silver and gold, thanks to his own diligence and shrewdness?  But all this is to pale before what accrues to him as he journeys into a new land, along with Lot, his kinsman.  A vast  territory falls into his lap, comparable in size to the furthest extent of what he can see to the north, south, east and west.  And the dust covering this land, could it be calculated, indicates the number of Abraham’s offspring that will eventually populate it.  All of this suggests the giftedness he has received from God.

This scenario presents helpful contrast with the gospel of the day, couched in the language of commandments: which commandment in the law is the greatest, asks the Pharisee?  And Jesus courteously obliges the questioner by responding that love is the greatest commandment: love of God, and then He adds, by way of bonus, another commandment: and love of neighbor, and of oneself as well. 

Now, should we confine ourselves to this issue of "commandment", we find ourselves in a familiar ethical context, since ethics frequently centers on laws and precepts.  It reminds us of what we are obliged to do, under penalty of violating the law, and suffering the consequence of doing so.  And we are occasionally troubled by the pressure of a law, even to do something as commendable as loving God, self and neighbor, should it be that we are not minded to do so on a given occasion.

But let us try working ourselves out of the context of the gospel to the point where we can bring to bear the bigger picture provided by the account in Genesis.  There we move in a different setting than commandments and obligations, and find ourselves before blessings and gifts.  We are presented with a man, our father in faith, who has been richly endowed with benefits bestowed on him by God.  There is no question here of a victimization mindset in Abraham at having to leave his homeland and travel to a new place (did God suggest or command this?).  He is now mesmerized by what he sees as he looks about and realizes that all on which he gazes is pure gift.  He has no sense of being "put upon" before such generosity on his behalf.  It’s not a question of command ethics; it’s one of  "good news" theology.

This was the mindset of Aloysius Gonzaga, the young Jesuit scholastic, memorialized today as a saint for the sacrifice he made, like Abraham, of leaving behind family pedigree and wealth, so as to be free to do what he could not have done as a young nobleman: serve the sick and dying.  He gladly did so, not to keep a law, but to embrace the gift (of a calling) bestowed on him by God, much as Abraham did.  Aloysius died doing so, and, in the process, fulfilling the law to love one’s neighbor.  Let us appreciate our blessings, moving beyond precepts and laws in virtue of the impetus received from God’s blessings in our life, comparable in abundance "to the dust of the earth".

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. 

Scripture:
Corinthians 12:1-10
Psalm 34:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Matthew 6:24-34

Reflection:
"I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me."  2 Corinthians 12: 9
"Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."  Ps. 34: 9

Kids can see things that many of us can’t.  I recall one of our younger priests telling me of one such incident.  He was hearing the confession of a little girl sitting in front of him.  She was having trouble trying to recall something to ask forgiveness for!  "How do you get along with your Mom and Dad?" she was asked.  "Oh, fine."  Do you have any brothers and sisters?  "Yes.  We get along just fine."  Have you ever told any lies?  "No."  And looking at Father Loran, she asked, "Have you?"  And after a slight pause she went on, "Hmmm, you have, haven’t you!  It shows on your face!"  Oh, kids can see a blush!

I am most grateful for friends.  There is an air of honesty among friends that can be of tremendous help in keeping a balance in our lives.  Do we accomplish good things in our lives?  By all means.  Do we make mistakes?  By all means.  An honest man and woman will face up to both truths.  Not always easy, though, to face the mistakes, to say that we are sorry.  It can bring tears and pain to both the offended and the offender.

Here is where we begin to see what love is all about.  St. Paul is trying to help us in this regard.  Paul would help us to remember that each of us has done good things for those whom we love.  Each of us has received many signs of love from those who love us.  At the same time we can’t forget that there have also been moments of weakness in all of us.  There are many weaknesses such as weariness, self centeredness, stress, lack of thanks, taking others for granted, blaming others for our limitations, and a host of other things. 

I have re-learned a wonderful lesson since I have lived here in Houston.  I am like everyone else.  I have gifts and talents, along with limitations.  I need to pay attention to the bigger picture.  No fair be selective in being who I am.  St. Paul was very much aware of his weaknesses along with his gifts and talents.  What a precious gift is that awareness of who I totally am.  It’s expressed in a Southern saying: "Be who you is, cuz if you ain’t who you is, then you is who you ain’t."

Loved ones make mistakes once (!) in a while.  A little child can often make a mistake.  A teenager can often make a mistake.  A young adult can often make a mistake.  Ah, yes, an older adult can often make a mistake, too.  And what do they need?  They need forgiving love.  Sometimes, it’s with tears, with pain.  Being hurt by a loved one can be very painful. 

What is it that you continue to over emphasize by way of criticism in a loved one, keeping a thumb on the negative button?  How grateful are you for the many, many little signs of love and appreciation that come your way each day?  Would you mind spending the rest of this day noticing and affirming the goodness around you with a word of thanks!

 

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

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity 

Scripture:

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

Reflection:

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." II Corinthians 13:13

This blessing, which is taken from today’s second reading, is often used to greet those who come to Mass. The Apostle Paul uses this one liner to capture the nature of the Blessed Trinity, whose feast we celebrate today. While it is difficult to understand with our minds the nature of the Blessed Trinity, it is not difficult to experience God as grace, love and fellowship. Recognizing that this was a revelation given to Paul, I wonder how many years of prayer it took for this revelation to become part of Paul’s daily prayer?

We pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may always be with us. As I look back upon my own graceless moments in my life, I am in awe of how much grace Jesus brought into this world of ours: from the very beginning of creation when all things were created through Him, to when the Word Became Flesh and dwelt among us, to the moment of His Glory as He gave up his life on the Cross, and His final gift of the Spirit to us as He ascended into Heaven to be at the right hand of His God. There has never been a single moment of time, or eternity for that matter, that Jesus has been graceless. We need Jesus’ grace to live every single day of our lives as children of God and as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. When we can look at each day of our life and see more grace-filled than graceless times, then we know that Jesus is at our side.

We pray for the Love of God to be always in our hearts. For God did not come "to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved" through God’s Incarnate Love! For God is Love, and the one who abides in Love abides in God! As we live our lives, we begin to clearly see that Love is a gift freely given and a gift that truly sets us free. There is no guessing whether God Loves us or not. We don’t need to tear flower peddles to find out if God truly Loves us. God is always faithful to God’s Love from the very first moment of our conception and God’s Love will never stop being offered to us, day and night, from now until Eternity. We are the ones who are unfaithful by failing to respond to God’s Love. We are the ones who turn our backs to God, and walk away. Our tiny minds and our tiny hearts think and believe that we are greater than God, and have more capacity to love. Oh, how foolish we are, and how unloving we can be! But God Forgives because God is Love.

We pray for fellowship with the Holy Spirit. When there is no fellowship, there is loneliness, there is alienation, there is isolation. We begin to think that we are the center of our fellowship, that we are the ones who make fellowship possible. We think we know who should belong to our circle and who is to be excluded, who is worthy and who is not, who has the right to be in fellowship with us and who does not. The fellowship that the Spirit gives us is real fellowship. It is authentic acceptance and welcome, because we all begin at the same starting point, in need of God’s grace, in need of God’s Love, and in need of God’s fellowship. We are in need of God, Father and Mother, God, Jesus Son of God and God, Holy Spirit. One God, three Persons, the Blessed Trinity!

This feast is not about understanding God. It’s about experiencing God. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."

Fr. Clemente Barron, C.P. is a member of the General Council of the Passionist Congregation and is stationed in Rome. 

 

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 11:18, 21-30
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

At times it can be hard to let go of what we know and have grown accustomed to. For some of us it is the comforts of our home, or knowing that we are financially sound. We love or long for having the ability to buy the latest phone, clothes and luxuries. But do these things keep us from our Lord? Do we allow these items to "darken our world"?

At times, being of this world can jade us. We put our faith in things that we can see, and not on that which is unseen. But is that not what our faith is all about? We are called to believe in things that are not of this world. We are called to store up our heavenly treasures because in the end this is what we will rely on.

During times of great struggle, when our worldly possessions are fading away, God gives us an opportunity to realize our need for heavenly treasures. What if tomorrow your life as your know it now were to be taken away in an instant? How would you cope and where would you turn? The things that cannot be taken away from us, which thieves cannot break in a steal, become our world and our focus.

What are these unseen things that are greater than any gold or worldly possessions? The gifts of faith, hope, love and the promise of our Salvation. And while these gifts may not be as tangible as we are used to, they can be viewed everywhere, whether it is through the love a child, meditating on the beautiful creation around us or even in the silence of prayer with our Lord.

Unlike worldly possessions, our heavenly treasures are always there for us to partake in and receive. Christ longs for us to turn to him not only during times of great need but at all times. Let us store up our treasures in heaven, "[for] where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

 

Kim Garcia is the Pastoral Associate at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Cent er in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 9:6-11
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Reflection:

Today’s scripture is both warning and promise. Paul tells us to look into our hearts.

 

What is the quality of our generosity? Are we always willing to walk the extra mile or do we hold back?  And when we respond to the needs of our neighbor is it a whole-hearted response? Paul uses the example of the sower. If you spread the seed abundantly you will reap an abundant crop. But if you sow sparingly the harvest will disappoint you.  Paul’s own life shows us the truth of his conviction.

Three major missionary journeys, despite hardships and repeated opposition, resulted in the spread of the church throughout the gentile world. Paul felt his life was blessed. His experience was that "God loves a cheerful giver."

This causes us to look at our own lives. Isn’t it our own experience that we are most fulfilled when we give of ourselves and when our heart expands to embrace others?

In the gospel Jesus is concerned about the quality of three religious practices: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. We hear this scripture every Ash Wednesday as we begin Lent. These are outward actions that people can see and form judgments about. He warns us not to do them so people will praise us. Rather Jesus says do them as quietly as we can without calling attention to ourselves. Be assured Jesus says that your Father in heaven will repay you.

Do you sense a little tension here? On one hand we are to reach out to our neighbor as Paul did. He was a very public person. His presence was not unnoticed. He was in people’s lives. But in the gospel passage Jesus tells us to work quietly and behind the scenes as it were. Maybe the distinction is between our broken brother or sister before us and the religious practices expected of a Christian. The first demands our whole-hearted action. The second calls for a little thought and planning as to how we do them.

 

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

 

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 11:1-11
Matthew 6: 7-15

Reflection:

Reading today’s message to the Corinthians, I find myself hoping that at some point Paul allowed himself to head for a Grecian field so that he could scream to his heart’s content.

After venting his frustration, he probably needed to weep a thousand tears, too.

How could a message so simple, so rooted in truth, get so muddled?  How could Paul find himself needing to reinforce his legitimacy as a messenger of Christ when his very body bore the scars of his true witness?  Superapostles?!  They probably also tried to sell the Corinthians an oasis in the Judean desert…

Whatever it was they were selling, it must have presented a sort of "spiritual bling." And it was working, to the point where Paul garners every rhetorical argument, every emotional truth, to win back the hearts and minds of those whom he loves so dearly in Christ’s name. It must have broken Paul’s heart, time and again, to be a shepherd to this vast flock who could feel conflicted so easily and stray so predictably.

It is not Jesus who is complicating things, of course. The Lord’s Prayer, which we read today in Matthew’s Gospel, is one that even a child can recite. We did, and we do. Over and over again, because we, perhaps like those ancient Christians, forget sometimes to remember that it is "thy will be done," that we are reliant on God for our spiritual food, and that the forgiveness of trespasses is a gift God gives to us out of love and one we need to share with those who wound us.

I guess when all is said and done, what is complicated about following Christ is what is complicated within: the tug and pull of willfulness; the distraction of deadlines to be met and people to be pleased; the desire for more of whatever feels good; the ego that dislikes second place and hurts others.  Just before today’s Gospel, there is that beautiful passage: But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

We needn’t be confused by superapostles, spiritual bling, or our own inner turmoil. We have a quiet room inside our self, we have been given a simple prayer, and more than that, we have been blessed by a relationship to a God who loves us more than we can ever know.  It is simple, and simply profound.

 

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