Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Daniel 3:25, 34-43
Mattew 18:21-35

Reflection:

But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received…  -Daniel 3:39

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” -Matthew 18:22

In today’s gospel we find the parable of the Unforgiving Servant.  This is a very detailed story likening the kingdom of heaven to what awaits those who rely on God’s mercy but neglect to extend that same mercy to their brothers and sisters. I’m going to focus on the lead-in to the parable.

Here we again find Peter being Peter. He is always so down to earth. He knows Jesus preaches forgiveness and mercy, yet he wants to know the exact amount he has to extend. He wants the rules laid out clearly so that he can be assured of his place in heaven. He thought he was being generous with forgiving someone seven times. Jesus goes way beyond this. Some translations even read this not as 77, but as 7 x 70 or 490! In any case, it’s clear that Jesus is saying, “Just keep forgiving.”

Many times in the psalms we hear how God looks away from our sins, how they are removed far from us. Jesus calls us to show that same forgiveness to each other. This can be challenging on a daily basis. How many of us grit our teeth and clench the steering wheel while driving? It’s easy to harbor memories of slights and affronts from our families and friends as well. However, as Christians we are called to put those aside, to let them go and move on. This can sometimes be easier said than done.

I might suggest that a good place to start is with forgiving yourself, that is relying on God’s forgiveness. It is such a human thing to hold on to regrets of our own past transgressions that there is an internet meme circulating about our brain keeping us awake, rehashing our previous failures. By allowing God’s forgiveness to flow over us, we become free to forgive others. Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk, was asked how he dealt with his own sins. He essentially said he’d confess them to God, then forget them, trusting to God’s forgiveness. Perhaps if we practice on ourselves, we will find it easier to forgive those around us.

Talib Huff is a retired teacher and a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You can contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

2 Kings 5:1-15
Luke 4:24-30

Reflection:

Lent 2024:  Fasting from Anger, Feasting on Patience

In today’s Gospel selection, Jesus is speaking in the synagogue and was rejected by the people of his hometown of Nazareth because he was too familiar to them, his words too challenging, and even his family background too simple.  He was “taken for granted”.  The people revolted against him in anger and wanted to throw him over the hill of the town.  Jesus patiently moved through their midst and went away.

The reading from 2^nd Kings shares Elisha’s directions to the Syrian army commander Naaman for the cure of his leprosy.  Naaman at first shrugged off these directions because they seemed too simple, too commonplace.  “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan…”  Naaman stormed away angry – until others patiently reasoned with him…he did as he was told — and he was cured!

The word “anger” has linguistic roots which connote choking and strangulation.  No doubt, anger “chokes” our personal growth, our relationships; it is destructive on many levels!  In our anger, we lose perspective on life and close ourselves inward.  Grace is needed for life beyond anger — to really change and grow and live.

This Lent, we’re encouraged to have a change of heart, a “metanoia” in the ancient Greek.  By our prayer, penance, and almsgiving we become more aware of our blessings as members of God’s family, and God offers us the grace to change and really live:  to move beyond the anger that may “strangle” us, to move towards a renewed patience that helps us see every person, every event in life as part of God’s Plan for us and our world.  To move from anger to patience is a true challenge for contemporary women and men!  And yet that “change” is so needed in our world today!

The statement holds true:  With God all things are possible!  Let’s be open to the graces of this Lent 2024 and be renewed on every level of life.  May we “fast” from anger, and “feast” on patience and growth!

Fr. John Schork, C.P. serves as the Province Vocation Director and also as Local Superior of the Passionist Community of Holy Name in Houston, Texas.  

Third Sunday of Lent

Scripture:

Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
John 2:13-25

Reflection:

The temptation to turn life into a marketplace seems to still retain all its force and energy in our day. I recall one commentator telling a market-orientated politician once “don’t you know we live in a society, not in an economy.” It is true, but of course, economic realities are a significant part of life and to some extent define the range of experiences we might encounter in daily living, and they do influence our capacity to enjoy life as fully as we might seek.

However, sometimes zeal for an economic outcome overwhelms common sense, long held values and even good judgement. We are surrounded by dynamics that turn services and institutions – that we once enjoyed for free or minimal cost – into ‘pay for services’ enterprises.

Having said all that, perhaps it is not so surprising to read in our gospel that the world of Jesus also wrestled with such dynamics.

Yes, there were good ‘justifications’ for all the commercial activity around the Temple – the need to change money (from unwelcome Roman coinage to Jewish currency) and the need to purchase animals (for sacrifice). All this might be explained away if one lowered one’s vision and looked at the Temple and its purpose primarily through the lens of convenience and logical necessity (and overlooked the bargaining, the jostling, shouting, the commercial contests and striving for custom and profits).

So, we met Jesus not so much protesting against the commercial world – after all he lived in it too and benefitted from the commercial activity of his disciples/fishermen and their business acumen. No, we meet Jesus striving to bring an institution back to its foundations and its purpose. The Temple stood as a place of encounter with God and a place of holiness.

We see too that in the vision of Jesus the Temple will not always be needed. His words are not so much a prediction that it will be physically destroyed (which it was), but that soon its very purpose as the place of God’s indwelling and presence in our world will be surpassed. His own being, through his death and resurrection will soon announce that he has become the medium for our encounter with God – “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”. He is the ‘temple’ now, he is the place and medium of our encounter with God.

Today we are invited to place our trust in Jesus – he has become the way, the truth and the one who offers us life. While institutional practices are necessary, the new Temple is not one made of mortar and stone but is comprised of those sitting around us in the liturgy, those to who we have given our life and those to whom we are sent in His name.

We are all living stones, we all make up the body of Christ. Let us live for him and each other (and try not to crowd our lives with too many money changers and those who sell oxen, sheep and doves).

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is the Provincial Superior of Holy Spirit Province, Australia. 

Scripture:

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Reflection:

The beginning of today’s gospel sets the scene: tax collectors and sinners were gathered around Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law saw this and disapproved: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  

So, Jesus tells stories (parables) to explain the loving mercy of God, one of them being the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most compelling parables in the Gospels, because we can relate to the characters in this family story:

–The prodigal son who left his family, taking his inheritance, and squandering it on “wine, women and song”,
–The merciful father who hoped and prayed and watched on the road for his son to return.
–The dutiful son who stayed and worked the land with his father, and who resented the lavish celebration that his father made when his brother returned.

How could we see ourselves in these people?

Because of the years I volunteered with the Catholic chaplain in a women’s prison, I better understand the prodigal son’s surprise, relief, and joy when he was welcomed home. We held a Penance service during the weekend retreats we offered at the prison, and we suggested that the women hear the parable as the “Prodigal Daughter”. As women after woman shared her sorrow and regret during the service, I owned up to those areas in my life where I had been selfish and hurt people I loved. After the Penance service, there was a deep sense of peace and joy in the room; despite everything we had done, we were still loved and cherished by God!

Now, as a parent and grandparent, I relate to the father on the edge of the road, looking and hoping for signs of life in my daughter, my son-in-law, my grandson, and my many nieces, nephews, and godchildren. Some choices they have made as adults have scared or saddened me. I pray for the grace to be like the father in the parable: to be “filled with compassion”, and give my affection freely, building up and never tearing down those whom I love.

In this Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus gives us a look into the heart of God, the Compassionate One, the father celebrating his prodigal son’s return. In today’s first reading from Micah, the prophet sums it up in his prayer:

“Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;
Who does not persist in anger forever,
but delights rather in mercy,
and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt?” Micah 7:18-19

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.

Scripture:

Genesis 37:3-4,12-13a,17b-28a
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

Reflection:

We want to think we are usually in control of our lives, and when we are not, we believe we can regain control.  The truth is that control is frequently an illusion. 

In today’s first reading, Joseph’s life was suddenly spinning out of control. His jealous brothers debated whether to kill him but instead sold him into slavery.  As his story develops beyond this reading, he achieves a leadership role in Potiphar’s household as a slave in Egypt, only to be imprisoned after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife.  While a prisoner, Joseph again rose to a position of authority and was summoned to interpret one of Pharoah’s difficult dreams.  Joseph warned of an impending famine, was named second in power to the Pharoah, and prepared Egypt to survive this life-threatening crisis.  Joseph’s family in Canaan, also suffering from the famine, traveled to Egypt in search of food.  Joseph reunited with his father and brothers, provided them with food and a homestead and saved Jacob and the Israelites from famine; an outcome never even imagined when his brothers sold him into slavery. (See Genesis chapters 37 and 39-47 for the full story of Joseph and his family.)

Joseph never lost faith in God despite his life twice spiraling out of control.  Through it all, God had a plan for Joseph and ultimately the Israelites, though that plan was far from obvious during times of betrayal, slavery, and imprisonment. 

Whatever our personal or community hardships, we may be tempted to blame God for our suffering and loss or think that He has forgotten us.  Even Jesus during His crucifixion cried out “My God, my God why have you abandoned me?”. These difficult moments call for humility and faith. Humility teaches us that we are not the center of the universe, and that God knows more about our situation than we are capable of perceiving on our own.  Faith assures us that God is an all-loving God who never abandons us whatever happens in our life.  Can we question God?  Absolutely.  Can we trust that God has a plan for us?  Always!

Mike Owens is coordinator of the Passionist Alumni Association and a member of the Migration Commission of Holy Cross Province.  He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 16:19-31

Reflection:

In today’s gospel, Jesus asks us to consider something shocking. How could a man who has everything allow a man, whose only possessions were the sores covering his body, to die right before his eyes? How could a man who feasts fabulously everyday not budge to share even the scraps from his table with the starving neighbor sitting at his gate?

It seems absolutely unthinkable—and irreparably scandalous—but we know it happens all the time. Like the rich man in the gospel story, we can use wealth and luxury to insulate us from the intolerable sufferings of others. We can become so accustomed to making self-satisfying pleasures the driving desire of our lives that we become comfortably oblivious to the afflicted and destitute among us, the many who, like Lazarus, are so grievously deprived of what any human being needs to survive that they die a little more each day.

Of course, there is a fatal misperception at the core of the rich man’s life. Nestled in the plump security of his life, he fails to see that he, not Lazarus, is the one truly in trouble. He is so stupendously deceived that he is genuinely surprised when death takes him not to the comforting bosom of Abraham, but to the “abode of the dead” where he, who had tortured Lazarus by his casual indifference, is now “tortured in these flames.” There, in the kingdom of the dead, no love can reach him, no mercy can soothe him, because, as Jesus sternly declares, there is now an unbridgeable abyss between the rich man in his torment and Lazarus who, upon dying, was “carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.”

Parables carry a punch. This parable’s punch is to show us that when we fail to help a neighbor in need, intentionally distancing ourselves from them, we likewise distance ourselves from God. After a while, that distance becomes an abyss. As the rich man belatedly discovered, this truth may surprise us, but it will also condemn us.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology & Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family.

Scripture:

Jeremiah 18:18-20
Matthew 20:17-28

Reflection:

In our gospel reading from Matthew today we see Jesus and the apostles heading to Jerusalem. Jesus shares with them a pretty grim picture of what he has to look forward to in Jerusalem. As I contemplate my own journey to Jerusalem I am reminded of a favorite song, Jerusalem, My Destiny.  The refrain goes like this.

I have fixed my eyes on your hills, Jerusalem, my destiny!
Though I cannot see the end for me, I cannot turn away.
We have set our hearts for the way;
This journey is our destiny.
Let no one walk alone. The journey makes us one.

Lent calls us to journey with Jesus and each other on our own road up to Jerusalem!  What does your journey to Jerusalem look like for you this Lent?!  My Lenten journey as a child included the usual ‘giving up’ a favorite dessert, not quarreling with my siblings or being a more obedient daughter to my parents.  I think we can all agree the lent of our childhood may seem in retrospect to be much simpler as we view it with adult eyes during this Lenten 2024!

It is my hope and prayer that this Lenten season finds you and me with our eyes fixed on the hills of Jerusalem, our destiny.  I pray for the strength and courage to enter into the pain and suffering that awaits each of us as we walk along with Jesus on this journey.  May we be willing to die to our busyness and focus on the needs of our suffering sisters and brothers in our communities, families and churches.  The gospel message that Jesus preached and calls us to live reminds us that we are called to serve, not to be served.  May our Jerusalem journey serve to keep this challenge ever before us this Lent and beyond!

May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Daniel 9:4b-10
Luke 6:36-38

Reflection:

For those of us who grew up in the heyday of post-WWII Catholic life, Lent brings back vivid images of boldly (and a bit too proudly?) showing off our ashed foreheads, out-competing (a bit too proudly?) classmates with what we were giving up, Friday stations of the cross, and scrambled eggs on Friday night…better than the tuna melts.

For all that and more, Lent endures as a valuable time to assess. What’s gone well? What not so much?

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Daniel expresses what each of us has confessed at some point in our lives: “We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws.” But recognizing and confessing our sins and faults may be the easier Lenten task.

Looking back over my life, my cringe-worthy regrets are not so much what I did but what I did not do. When I knew I could have been a better friend. What I did not do that I knew even then I should have done. How many times did I let fear get in the way of doing what was right?

I find Jesus’ injunction in Luke’s gospel today to be so pertinent and timely. Stop with the judging, will you?! We all know and count on the mercy of God to forgive us. But then we turn around and just keep on judging others for who they are, how they vote, who they love, what their skin color is, or how they worship. My goodness, we’re back to childhood days of “My Lenten fast is harder than yours, so I am better than you.”

In whatever ways you choose to practice a Lenten discipline, maybe complement it with choosing a Lenten kindness that takes some of today’s pervasive judging of others off the table.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.