Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 2:1-11
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Romans 8:8-17
John 20:19-23 or 14:15-16, 23b-26

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, remembering the time when the Holy Spirit descended upon Mary and the apostles. In both our readings from Acts and John, the gift of the Holy Spirit is accompanied by a commission to proclaim the Good News. In the Gospel reading, Jesus says to His disciples, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." In the reading from Acts, the apostles go out from the house they are in, and begin to speak about Jesus to all who are gathered there.

Do we see ourselves as commissioned by Jesus since we, too, have received the Holy Spirit? Do we see ourselves as being sent?  As disciples of Christ, we have been sent to proclaim the Good News to all the world!

Think about what kind of a change there would be if we were to come to work or school with the attitude that we were sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel!  I’m not talking about a "holier-than-thou" attitude. I’m not talking about getting on a soapbox and pontificating about the Bible. But what if we came to work or school thinking about how we could witness to God’s love in Jesus Christ by how we do our jobs or pursue our studies, and how we relate to others during the day?

What if we saw the way we relate to our families and friends as part of our call to share God’s love in Jesus Christ? What if we were to see everything we say or do in relation to our mission to share the hope we have in the Risen Lord? To have this kind of attitude in our lives is what I think is meant by St. Paul in our second reading from Romans: "Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

To live in the Spirit is to live in mission. To follow the Spirit is to have the mindset of being sent. May we follow the Spirit by the grace of God!

 

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P. is pastor of St. Mary’s Parish, Fairfield, Alabama.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

The story is told of the Irishman in Belfast who was approached on the street by two threatening individuals, who asked him belligerently whether he was with them or agin’ them, to which he loudly and clearly responded: "I am".

This forcefully ambiguous response may have saved him from some bodily harm-and it may not have.  But it clearly is not in the spirit of our biblical readings today, as we approach the solemnity of Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit of Truth.

St. Paul took a step toward clarifying the truth of things when he found himself tossed about between Jewish and Roman tribunals regarding his witness on behalf of Jesus.  The Roman governor/procurator, Festus, had Paul loaded on himself by his predecessor, Felix, who had sought some wiggle room to escape the entanglements of a case he did not comprehend, and which indeed frightened him.  So when King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived for a visit with him in Caesarea, Festus hastened to submit Paul’s case to him, on the score that "I was at a loss how to investigate this controversy" and was eager to refer him back to Jewish authorities in Jerusalem.  It was Paul who cut through the murkiness of the situation by appealing in Caesar in Rome.  At this juncture, apparently felt that his prospects for witnessing to Jesus’ identity-the truth about Jesus-lay less with the Jews than with the Romans.  And this gave Paul, at last, a chance to bear witness to Jesus in the capital of the world.  It was a matter of the truth about Jesus-finding a venue where it could emerge unencumbered by the entanglements of Jewish-inspired controversy.

This poor excuse for judicial proceedings stands in stark contrast with the uplifting encounter between the risen Jesus and Peter, at the Sea of Tiberias.  There we have the purification ritual of Peter, as Jesus led him through his triple affirmation of love, toward the kind of empowerment Jesus wished to confer on him: Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.  Here we are privy to the transfer of power and authority from Jesus to Peter in a clear and humane way, so strikingly different from the dodging of responsibility, the muddling of the situation and the utter confusion enveloping the likes of the Jewish and Roman authorities in Palestine.

It is a question of the truth.  How get at the truth about Jesus Christ?  On the verge of liturgically celebrating the outpouring of the Spirit of Truth on Pentecost Sunday, we recognize both the problems at hand, and the emergence of a better way.  The fiasco described in the Acts reading today is not a quirk of a particular place and time in the past.  It is an ever-present reality.  We are mindful of it in today’s memorial of Christopher Magallanes, and his fellow-priests and lay friends shot and hung by the Mexican government in the years 1915-1937 for their association with the Cristero uprising against the anti-Catholic policies of the government in the 1920s. 

It is not always easy to disentangle the motives at play in the mix of religious and political factors we encounter today, whether on the streets of Belfast, or the countryside of Mexico, or the villages of El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed.  Apparently Rome ponders the "truth" of the situation in his regard, while more at ease with its judgment about the Mexican killings.  They do not differ in any marked degree from what Paul faced in the tribunals of Jerusalem and Caesarea, and eventually Rome.  They all bear upon the person of Jesus Christ, and persuade us that the better we know Him, the better we can witness to the truth about Him in virtue of the gift of His Spirit in our life.

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 20:28-38
John 17:11b-19

Reflection:

"Your word, O Lord, is truth; consecrate us in the truth." (Alleluia verse)

A few years back, Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli released a CD album by the title, "Time to say Goodbye." It became a big hit. Not only are they recognized as two of the top performers in the music world, but the melody and lyrics resonated with us. The experience of saying Goodbye is not an easy one. Not many of us know how to say farewell very well. Furthermore, not many of us know when it’s time for us to say Goodbye, period.

The readings for today’s Mass are all about saying Goodbye. It was time for Paul to say Goodbye to Christian communities he had begun, knowing that he would soon meet his death as a martyr for his faith in the Person of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man. In today’s Gospel, we have Jesus saying Goodbye to his disciples, as prepared for his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. Both Paul and Jesus knew it was time to say Goodbye and both knew how to say Goodbye well.

Paul reminded his community that they were to remain faithful to the Gospel in his absence, because it was the Holy Spirit who guiding them. He also reminded them of the difficult times they were going to face in the future, assaults from the outside and attacks from the inside. It was time for this community to take ownership of their own faith and future. They could no longer be dependent upon Paul the great Apostle to the Gentiles. So, saying Goodbye now meant launching them into a new and better future. So Paul finished saying Goodbye by praying with his community.

Jesus also prayed for his followers as he prepared to leave them. Jesus prayed to His God so that these beloved followers would be consecrated in God’s Truth. We have to recognize that when we leave someone or someplace, it is our Truth that will remain, and it is that Truth that will be our bond and will consecrate us to each other.

That may be some of the reasons why it is so difficult for us to say Goodbye. We make saying Goodbye more about "us" than about the Truth that unites us, the Truth that states that once we are one in God and with God, we will never be separated from one another. Our human heart says, "If you leave me, my heart will break." Our Christian heart says, "There is no human suffering that cannot be redemptive, life-giving." Human pain is swallowed up by Grace!

This is a good time for us to reflect upon the many times we have had to say Goodbye in our life. The many deaths that we have experienced in our lives are but an example of having to say Goodbye to loved ones. We may have had to learn to say Goodbye to sinful ways or addictions that dehumanize us. How challenging is that? Or, we may have had to say Goodbye just because it was time, time to leave home, time to leave for another job, time to leave a relationship, time to leave for another city, time to leave for another new way of life.

We need to learn how to pray our Goodbyes. All is grace!

Both Jesus and Paul show us that all good Goodbyes are said in the context of prayer. A good Goodbye increases our love for God, for one another and for ourselves.

 

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

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

The disciples of John the Baptist, many years after his death, were still out proclaiming John’s call to repentance.  They would baptize with water, symbolizing the cleansing of the sinfulness people were letting go of.   This kind of preaching called people to make a very good examination of conscience.  They were awakened to a deeper awareness of their sinfulness and they cried out to God to cleanse them of these sins.

Paul reminds some folk in Ephesus who had received the baptism of John the Baptist, that John himself spoke of one coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  This person was Jesus.  To be baptized in the name of Jesus was not only a cry to be cleansed of sins but an opening to the great power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has released.  This baptism not only cleansed the soul but brought it into union with God in a mighty way and empowered it for it earthly journey.

In the early church, to receive the Holy Sprit at baptism was not just a belief in an invisible effect.  It was an actual manifest experience.  People knew clearly whether or not they had received the Holy Spirit.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit were visible; "they spoke in tongues and prophesied."

For some years I was very active in the Charismatic Movement.  At the heart of this movement was the belief that we all have received the Holy Spirit at baptism.  However, so many of us put this mighty power inside a thick lead box and say, "Holy Spirit I want you to be with me.  But stay here and do not bother me."  The Charismatic Movement had as its goal, the "release" of this boxed up gift of God, the release of the Holy Spirit.  The initial release was so powerful in our age, that it set many, many lives on fire.  Initially it was "out of control" so to speak.  But, things settled down and hopefully the fire is burning deeply and powerfully inside the lives of many people today.

We are getting near the great feast of Pentecost.  Let us dare to pray for the release of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.  There will be no doubt that we have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.    

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 7:55-60
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
John 17:20-26

Reflection:

The readings today are powerful – and a little difficult for me to wrap my thoughts around – I think because they span a great distance: first there is the very real and painful depiction of the stoning of Stephen as described in Acts and then there are the timeless echoes of Christ’s presence as set forth in Revelation: "I am the Alpha and the Omega."

It’s as if our faith is rather schizophrenic – on the one hand, Christianity is rooted in a very real, flesh and blood experience of life in which people suffer and die, sometimes quite brutally. In this reality whose centerpiece is the Cross, we are constantly called upon to reach out, human to human, to ease one another’s burden in great and small ways and to find within our hearts the willingness to forgive those who hurt us.

And then, on the other hand, there is our experience of Christianity as being something quite vast, splendid and beyond our own humanity – a connection to a God who is Mystery itself, whose presence spans the ages, defies understanding, whose Son is the "bright morning star…the first and the last." Our faith feels epic, grand and beyond the constraints and sorrows of this mortal life.

What connects these two realities is Jesus himself, of course. In today’s Gospel as written by John, we see Jesus very present to the harsh reality that his own suffering and death are upon him, and yet he speaks to God not as one who is rooted only in the present moment, but who is confident in the infinite connection of himself to God and to each one of us.

Here is the line that stops me in my tracks: "Father, they are your gift to me."  There is so much love in that statement that it takes my breath away! We, who will put Jesus on the Cross, who will strip and scourge him; we, who disregard, forget, are ambivalent or downright dismissive of Jesus, we are God’s gift to HIM? Only a Savior who loves us beyond all reckoning could unite himself so completely to us and see beyond our failures in the present moment.

It is this love, then–of God for us and us for God–that moves us beyond the here and now with its pain, sorrow and confusion and into the place where the tree of life blooms.

"Amen," as the second reading says, "Come, Lord Jesus!" How fitting that these exuberant words of invitation into our hearts are among the last words of the last book of the Bible.

 

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

 

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

Paul was certainly that larger than life figure who through his powerful preaching and many missionary journeys became known as the Apostle of the Gentiles. But this passage in Acts reminds us the Holy Spirit was using others to spread the gospel. Priscilla and Aquila, early converts of Paul, left Corinth with him to visit the community already established in Ephesus. When Paul left to visit other communities he left them there to support the Ephesian disciples. Apollos of Alexandria appears out of nowhere. He is depicted as learned in the scriptures and an eloquent preacher. We realize a surprising fact. Apollos had been instructed in the Way of Lord! He taught accurately about Jesus! This means the Holy Spirit was operating outside the Church. Already in Jewish communities in the Diaspora the teaching of Jesus were known and he was recognized as a Prophet and maybe even as Messiah! Apollos knew only the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance.

Priscilla and Aquila open to him the fullness of revelation. Jesus is Son of God and giver of the Holy Spirit.  Apollos then goes to Corinth and becomes a leader in that faith community. 1 Corinthians, chapters 3 and 4 underline the greatness of the missionary Apollos.

For us today this passage from Acts reminds us that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and not just in the Church, the community of the baptized. He is at work in the hearts of Jews, Hindus and Muslims and any person of good will. Grace can be found everywhere! We have hope because when Jesus returned to his Father he poured his Spirit out upon the human family.

 

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

 

Scripture:
Acts 16:22-34
John 16:5-11

Reflection:
As Jesus prepared for his passion and death, he consoled his grief-stricken disciples.  He promised them that when he ascended to the Father, the Spirit would be sent to comfort and empower them.

But what did Jesus mean when he said to them "None of you asks me: ‘where are you going?’  Both Peter and Thomas had asked that question.  What did Jesus mean?

This passage took me back to Japan, to Ikeda and Mefu, cities my wife and I had recently visited.  The Passionists have a parish church and kindergarten school in Ikeda, and a retreat in Mefu.  They have been there since 1957.  And yet, despite their tireless work, the numbers of Catholics there have increased painfully slowly.  It appears the numbers may actually be declining.  And of the 178 children in the school, only 10 percent are Catholic.  I am embarrassed to admit that for a moment I thought that our presence there may have been for nothing.

One of the Passionists, one of the first to arrive so long ago, interrupted my thought, however.  This aging and saintly man said to me with a confident voice: "We are doing missionary work."

As I remember his response, I understand what Jesus meant.  Like Peter and Thomas, I was asking the wrong question.  My question had less to do with Jesus and more with my own concerns.  I was concerned about immediate needs, about fears of failure, about uprooting good men and sending them to a far away country to learn a new culture and language, and about the apparent futility of their efforts. 

But, Like Jesus, this Passionist knew why he went.  He was focused on the Kingdom and proclaiming the Good News.  He had no fears.  The Gospel is moving forward and the Advocate, the Holy Spirit is doing a great and mighty work.  Through these faithful Passionists, the Advocate is doing "missionary work."

 

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

The Ascension of the Lord 

Scripture:

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23 or Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23
Luke 24:46-53

Reflection:

"EVERY PARTING IS A FORM OF DEATH, AS EVERY REUNION IS A TYPE OF HEAVEN." – Tryon Edwards

Every type of human parting is difficult, painful, sad.  A 5 year old tyke is left by her mom or dad at the kindergarten door…tears….until mom says she’ll be back.  A husband and father has to be away from home during the week, the company needs him in a city 4 hours away…tears again, until the weekend comes!  The hardest of all…the parting which is death, from dad or mom or spouse, sibling, dear friend.  Many, many tears, perhaps a time of depression even, until the words of Jesus ring in one’s heart: "I am the resurrection and the life", or "I tell you most solemnly you will be weeping and wailing, while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy."

In 1984, my cousin Laura developed a condition known as Wilson’s disease….which results in a toxic accumulation of copper in the bloodstream.  Thank God, she was able to receive a double-transplant, kidney/liver, which gave her another 14 years of life, fully lived.  She resolved to make the most of whatever time she had left and was able to make every family reunion and wedding during that time. After she passed away, while waiting for another liver transplant, her sister Kris asked God to give her some sign Laura was OK.

Kris told us that that same evening, she had a wonderful dream in which Laura was "dancing in the house of Asher" (one of the tribes of Israel).  She told us how that dream enabled her to live more fully.

It’s 2010, and we once more approach the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the feast of Pentecost.  Like the disciples, we wonder at times when we seem to experience Jesus’ absence more than His presence, whether it be through the terrible oil spill in the Gulf, the shaky world economy or something more personal. " But your sorrow will turn to joy." Not through magic, but by going through the very pain of parting which we think will tear us apart, do we "see" Jesus again.  These meetings can be sudden, always peaceful, when we sense the Lord.  It can be in the glory of nature, by ourselves, yet most often ’round the Table or other times of prayer with Jesus’ other friends.

 

Fr. Bob Bovenzi, C.P. is stationed in Houston, Texas.