Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Reflection:

Once again we are invited into the amazing drama of the father with his two sons.  One son remains by his father’s side, faithfully tending to the duties of farm and household.  The second son is restless, unwilling to do all that his brother is busy with, and so he chooses to run off and leads a life that is unworthy of both himself and his family name.  Yet, as often as I read this unforgettable parable of the Lord, I am always drawn to the immeasurable mercy and kindness of the father.  I can only imagine his embarrassment when his prodigal son ran off to live a life of sin and self-centeredness.  Surely everyone wondered what had happened to him.  Surely many others already knew the truth of his choosing to be the "black sheep" of the family.  Yet, through it all, the father never forgets his love for his beloved son.

Week after week here at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center I find myself sitting with parents who have sons and daughters that are "prodigal."  I find myself amazed at their willingness to keep forgiving even the worst, most selfish behavior of a son or a daughter who has one child or more, yet has chosen to immerse themselves in a life of alcohol and drug abuse.  The grandparents, many of whom are hardly young, so willingly become parents again, only this time it is to their grandchildren.  At the same time, like the father of the prodigal son, they refuse to stop loving or give up on their son or daughter.  Their love is constant and endures even in the midst of embarrassment, hardship, and suffering.  Their love is like the love of the father in today’s parable.  Their love so beautifully mirrors the very love of God, our Father, whose mercy knows no limits.

Today we can all thank God for the many people who come into our lives and who remind us by their example of the great mercy and kindness of our God.

 

Fr. Pat Brennan, CP is the director of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:

Hosea 6:1-6
Luke 18: 9-14

Reflection:

The Roman philosopher Philo wrote: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

Lent is described many ways: a season of joy, a season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, a clearing season.  Another way to live the mystery of this time is as a season of kindness.  When we remember the great loving kindness of God in sending Jesus to us, as we remember Jesus’ countless acts of love and kindness, we get further in touch with how God wants us to live.

The parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee reminds us of our daily choices.  Few words of Jesus chill me as much as his description of all of us at times: "….those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else."  OK, Lord, maybe I don’t despise others, but look down on them or think them weak?  Jesus, as always, gets at our motivation, our inner being before God and others.  Comparisons are odious, as the old Romans said.  God asks us simply during this holy season, to become like Him, kind and merciful to all.

We come to know the Lord (first reading) by being kind in thought, word and deed.  Then, our "random acts of kindness" are recognized as deeds of love, as God speaks through Hosea:" For it is love that I desire and not sacrifice."

Finally, the preacher and composer Frederick W. Faber wrote: "Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence or learning." Make us kind, Lord!

 

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

Scripture:

Hosea 14:2-10
Mark 12:28-34

Reflection:

A couple of years ago, I attended an AA meeting at our Passionist Retreat Center in Houston to learn more about the AA movement. During the time of sharing one of the men in the group told of an experience he had in his family. He shared how his mother had guided him when he was a small child. She told him to follow the "three golden rules in life". (1) Do not take it, if it is not yours. (2) Do not say it, if it is not truth. (3) Do not do it, if you think it is not the right thing to do. His mother had given him the basic rules to live his life. It would apply to all, irrespective of any religion we belong to. Today’s reading invites us to reflect on the commandments that God has given for our Christian life.

In the first reading, the prophet Hosea invites the Israelites to repent from their sinfulness and return to God by following the straight path of Yahweh. In the Gospel, one of the teachers of the law asks Jesus a question, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Even though every law was important for them to follow. Jesus summarizes all the commandments saying that they all amount to love of God with all your being. Jesus adds the second saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". For Jesus, every law must guide us to improve our relationship with God and with one another. Love of God and love of neighbor are so closely joined that they cannot be separated.

During this Lenten season, let’s ask the Lord to bless us and continue to strengthen us to love God through loving our brothers and sisters.

 

Fr. A. Justin Nelson, C.P. is a member of our Indian Vicariate and temporarily stationed at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky. 

 

Scripture:

Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23

 

Reflection:

"If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

We are now three weeks into the season of Lent.  Are we listening to His voice?  How are we responding?  There is so much going on in our world today, how do we take time to for God; either to talk to him or listen to him?  Why is it that we always seem to make the time when things aren’t going the way we want them. It usually sounds something like, "please God, just get me through this and I will go to Mass on Sunday…please God, let him/her get better and I promise to help someone else in need…"  Can we find a way to make time for God without having to plead with Him?  Can we just make time to thank Him for the goodness in our lives?

I think about the people of Haiti and how their lives have been completely turned on end.  People all over the world understood the gravity of the situation and donated what they could, raising millions of dollars for relief. I think about the people from all over the world who went to Haiti to help: doctors, nurses, other medical personnel, rescue teams, etc.  Some at their own expense.  They worked together, united by faith and by the human need to help.  They worked through  the language barriers, infrastructure obstacles and setbacks, and aftershocks; risking their own lives to reach as many survivors as they could, not wanting to give up even when there seemed to be no more hope. This is faith, plain and simple.  They heard His voice and opened their hearts. Faith is active. I think nothing exemplifies this more than people uniting on a global scale for one singular purpose: to help others in desperate need.

How will we hear His voice today? Can we just make the time to stop and say thank you?  What can we choose to do today to act out our faith?"

 

Claire Smith is on staff at the Holy Cross Province Development Office in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

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

Reflection:

The first and second preface from the Sacramentary call Lent a "joyful season" and a "great season of grace." Today’s readings tell us it is a season of healing also. Most, like Naaman believe that God would "move his hand over the spot and thus cure." We want God to do something easy, quick and supernatural. Not so fast…

Tomorrow I’ll be having arthroscopic knee surgery. I have damaged the cartilage through sports activities and it needs to be repaired. There will be the blunt pain of surgery, the difficulty of rehab and then eventual healing. Sometimes married couples will come to me and ask for prayer. They want help in their marriage relationship. There are no quick fixes. Often counseling and confrontation is needed. The couple needs to honestly talk things out. The process can be difficult but life-giving. Many who are addicted seek God for healing. It would be wonderful if the desire for the substance were suddenly taken away. In reality people need to be plunged over and over into the Jordan of their deeper issues. Confronting issues is painful, requires courage, but can lead to recovery.

The serious disciple journeys through Lent desiring growth and change in a myriad of areas. Change doesn’t always happen immediately and completely, but comes incrementally and eventually if we are determined and courageous. Often the change we seek demands the obedience Namaan was called to today. As we yield our ways to those of God we find that healing often requires pain of some sort. Jesus faced this rejection and foreshadowing of death in the Gospel. The grace-filled season of Lent teaches us that sufferings of the present will eventually lead to new life.   

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 13 books and creator of the TV program Live with Passion! airing in many cities. You can learn more about his ministry at: http://www.frcedric.org/

 

Scripture:

Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9

Reflection:

The parable of the fig tree offers us an interesting point with regard to Divine justice. The fig tree is barren and unproductive. The owner represents a fairly typical social response to members of society that seem unproductive and worthless. From his perspective the barren fig tree should be cut down, "why should it exhaust the soil." I think this phrase is very interesting itself. Consider the argument used for the poor and low-income communities in our society. Generalities are thrown out there that deem this population as being unproductive and with no visible social worth. Arguments based on these generalities are used against social programs for these communities: "Why should they continue being a drain on our society?" 
 
But Jesus plays the role of the pastoral gardener. His role in this parable is similar to performing social analysis and nurturing the environment that up to this point is keeping the tree barren. The gardener is nothing less than a community organizer whose organization is the Kingdom of God. Jesus the gardener recognizes the negative environmental influences that have contributed to the barren quality of the fig tree. He addresses that limited environment in order to give the tree every opportunity to blossom into a productive member of the Kingdom of God. The element of personal responsibility is not lost on the image of the fig tree however since the gardener accepts that if under these changed environmental circumstances the fig tree still remains barren then it must accept the consequence of its inaction. The point of the parable is that the justice of Christ will accept this judgment once the negative environmental elements are addressed.
 
It is important to notice the issues that gave rise to this parable. Certain Galileans were judged to be great sinners because of the forms of natural (the collapse of the tower) and social (Pilate’s atrocity) suffering they endured. Jesus points out very clearly that God’s justice is not reflected in the way people suffer. Jesus also emphasizes twice that the inactive judgment by those who witness such suffering will lead them to a similar fate. We have recently witnessed a number of natural disasters in Haiti and Chile and social atrocities in Palestine and Somalia. Our role in following the good gardener is not to judge and dismiss the people who suffer but to analyze and address the negative social and environmental situations so that all people can have every opportunity to be productive members of a society that is based on the common good.
 
The first two readings emphasize this point even further. In the first reading God reveals his justice to Moses who will be His appointed agent for the liberation of the oppressed Hebrews. But in Corinthians we hear Paul offer us a symbolic interpretation of this historical liberation moment. Paul is warning the early Christians that they are living in the midst of this liberation moment. We, like the early Christians, are also living in the moment of liberation. We are called to liberate the world from social injustice and heal our society from natural disasters as part of our role of being gardeners for the Kingdom of God. Paul tells all of us who accept the responsibility of following Christ that we cannot accept a false sense of spiritual or social security that leads us away from the moral responsibilities we owe God and each other. Our Christian witness to the social and natural suffering in our days is not to stand by and cast judgments but to engage in solidarity with all who suffer and to cultivate the social and environmental landscape so that all our suffering brothers and sisters may have the opportunity to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. 

 

John Gonzalez is the director of the North American Passionist office for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation.  http://www.passionistjpic.org/

 

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Reflection:

In all of Jesus’ teaching, his primary concerns were love, justice, and inclusion.  Yet he knew these things were not individual pursuits.  We come to God as a body, a collective of imperfect people trying as best we can to bring the reign of God to earth.  In order to function as a body, we need guidance, rules, and yes, laws, and sometimes those laws are very demanding. 

In this text, which scholars agree is the most controversial passage in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says he upholds the law and we are to follow every last detail of every letter in it.  Indeed, the law serves no purpose if each individual can break it whenever it demands too much or when it suits their personal purposes.   Yet in practice Jesus regularly broke the law in order to minister to people, he taught that love of God and neighbor are the ultimate fulfillment of the law, and he had very unflattering names for those who laid the burden of law on others.  Looking further into the scriptures, these verses contradict St. Paul in Galatians and Romans.  And frankly, they contradict every faith denomination on earth, since none of them require adherence to all 613 precepts of Old Testament law.

Perhaps, then, Matthew included this passage as a plea for balance.  The law, along with the entire revelation of God, is important.  Even the smallest laws have wisdom within them, something to teach us about our relationship with God.   All laws, and especially those upheld by the teaching authority of the Church, hold great weight and cannot be easily dismissed.

At the same time, Jesus did not believe that all laws should go unchallenged.  In both the religious and secular sphere, he dissented, pushed back, or even violated laws that he felt were unjust.  This is the model, rightly or wrongly, for people who trespass at the School of the Americas or refuse to pay the portion of taxes that go to defense.  This is the model, rightly or wrongly, for faithful people who nonetheless feel they must speak out for women’s ordination or against the process by which the new liturgical translations were crafted.  This is the model, rightly or wrongly, for those who actively work to reduce and ultimately end abortion, as well as for those who work to make Church structures more transparent and abuse-free.                                                               

In other words, it is possible in conscience for believers who have carefully studied and appropriated the law to conclude that a certain aspect of it is unjust and needs to be challenged or changed, even when there is disagreement on which politicians or political processes are more likely to achieve the desired goal, and on which actions, writings, or affiliations within the Church could more effectively convey the message.  In trying to work for the common good and the advancement of the Gospel, they feel called by God to dissent, push back, or even violate laws they feel are unjust.

Are these law-breakers always right?  Of course not.  Most of those within the Church, though, are doing their best to follow the commands of God and the teachings of Jesus, and they are working for both a more just world and a more faithful Church.

It is comforting to note that even in this most strident pro-law passage, Jesus remains inclusive.  Note that he does not exclude law-breakers from the Kingdom.  He says they are "the least" in the kingdom, but they are still there.  Perhaps those acting in light of faith, those acting in pursuit of the love of God and neighbor that Jesus holds highest, even if they make mistakes, are still members of the Kingdom of God and heirs to the promise.  Perhaps, too, we humans would be well advised to be both more careful of the demands of the law and more open to those who follow a prophetic path of challenging it.

 

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:

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

Reflection:

In our global village there still exist some remote or even minority cultures where the written word is not as prominent as the spoken word.  If you ever get the chance to spend time in one of these auditory cultures, gift yourself with that opportunity.  You will find that people who come from auditory cultures are great storytellers, amazing musicians, and willing listeners.

Jesus’ culture was this way. Society had not yet evolved to the degree where pen or ink, paper or papyrus, were commonplace.  Only an educated few could read and write.  Therefore the ability to tell stories filled with insight and irony, or tragedy and truth was exemplified as an honorable and effective way of communication.

The Gospel today is one such story.  Jesus speaks about a landowner who had a vineyard who took the time to make all the right preparations so the vineyard would be functioning, attractive, productive, and fruitful.

The landowner has taken care of all of the details.  Simply following the course, doing what is expected, would almost ensure a fruitful crop and a flavorful vintage. Yes the landowner does take a little journey.  Nevertheless, those he puts in charge abuse their authority.  They had no authority to beat, stone, or kill.  And once they do this it is easier to repeat the pattern.  As Jesus continues the story we see that the tenant farmers continue their destructive behavior.   Have you noticed in your own life that once you begin destructive behavior is easier to repeat it?

As a master craftsman of story, Jesus now has his own enemies judging the wretchedness of the workers and predicting their future demise.  Soon after speaking this prediction they understand the cleverness of Jesus’ parable as they realize they have just judged and condemned themselves.  Don’t we frequently do that in our own lives?

It is also interesting to note how Jesus understands his father. Jesus does not set him on a throne over a lofty kingdom.  Instead, Jesus suggests that his father is more like the one who owns the land.  Reflecting on this in our contemporary world, we know that land owners have a vested interest with what happens on their property.  A good land owner will work together with the workers to produce a rich harvest.  A good landowner is interested in the welfare and well-being of its workers.  If we push the example into our personal lives, I’m sure all of us have had the experience where we felt like we were working with others to achieve a common goal.  This kind of feeling is energizing, creative, rewarding and worthy of our time and investment. I think this is a good lesson to hold in prayer especially during this Lenten season.  Do you see how it forces us to wrestle with what we believe to be God’s expectations of us?

Some other questions for reflection this day include:
Do you believe that God wants truly what is best for you?  Do you honestly believe God will give you what you need, when you need it?  Are you aware of how God works with you in the mission to which you have been called?

 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is on the staff at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.