Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Galatians 3:22-29
Luke 11:27-28

Reflection:

Today’s readings succinctly reveal to us the impact of the messianic message that opens our hearts and minds to faith in Jesus Christ.

In the pre-messianic period, the people were “held in custody under the law” (guided) in the exercise of their faith by the Mosaic law. Paul states that the “law was our disciplinarian for Christ”.  If the faithful adhered strictly to the law, they were considered to be in union with the will of God. 

However, once faith had been revealed through the life, death and resurrection of the Messiah, the faithful were no longer disciplined by the law but rather by the faith that had been revealed to them by the Messiah.  Paul states that through faith (our baptisms) we are all children of God in Christ Jesus (the Body of Christ).  Faithfulness to Christ is non-discriminatory.  It includes every baptized person, irrespective of race, sex, social status, etc.  Paul goes on to reveal that the faith that Jesus empowers us with, through baptism, frees us from the discipline of the law by empowering us with a new consciousness of seeking the will of God.

In the Gospel reading, an unidentified woman blesses the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts that nourished him.  However, without responding directly to her, Jesus deflects attention on himself and redirects it: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”  With this 13-word statement, Jesus underscores Paul’s later message about the responsibility that we each have to seek and do the will of God.

Father Bennet Kelly, CP, in his book entitled “Spiritual Direction According to St. Paul of the Cross” shows how firmly Paul of the Cross believed that seeking and doing the will of God was a matter of faith. 

“The awareness that we should accept and follow God’s will is common to all Christians. We all say, “Thy will be done,” in the Our Father. However, for many this means following an inflexible, iron rule of things; laws and rules and regulations and directions from authority, which often seem inhuman and heartless. The same is true of natural disasters, which seem to be utterly indifferent to human suffering. Some do not accept these as God’s will, but even those who do usually have a problem with acceptance. There are probably very few who say the “Thy will be done” of the Our Father with any real enthusiasm. But Paul was one of those few. The reason he could be enthusiastic about God’s will, no matter what it entailed was that in faith, he saw God’s will, not as some iron rule, but as all love.” 1

St. Paul of the Cross’ sense of oneness with the will of God underscores the message reflected in today’s scripture readings. 

“Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” 

1. Kelly, Bennet, CP. “Spiritual Direction According to St. Paul of the Cross”

Bill Berger has had a lifelong relationship with the Passionist Family.  Bill and his wife, Linda, are currently leaders of the Community of Passionist Partners (CPPs) in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Galatians 3:7-14
Luke 11:15-26

Reflection:

A Disciple’s Work is Never Done

Dueling banjos. Paul and Jesus really go at it today! Our readings deliver their message with energy, peaceful assurance and challenge.

Paul must be frustrated. The seeds he has sown among the gentiles have blossomed into communities, but as he moves along proclaiming the Gospel, he hears from his gentile friends, “We didn’t know we accepted all of this by accepting Jesus. Are these teachers correct?” Now he has to contend with the ‘Judizers’, the Jewish-Christians coming in his wake and telling the gentiles that to have life they must follow the law, the rituals and Jewish festivals. This is necessary to be descendants of Abraham.

Paul’s responds, it is not the law that gives life, rather it is Jesus. In fact, the law is a curse. No one can fulfill it. As for being descendants of Abraham, God promised Abraham that all the nations would be blessed in him. In a hidden way he was announcing the coming of Jesus. Believing in Christ you receive Abraham’s blessing. You have become the sons and daughter of Abraham through the Holy Spirit.

As for the law, Jesus by being crucified bore the curse of the law and frees us from the law. That law is replaced by a new commandment, the law of love. Please don’t put yourself back under the curse of the law when you have chosen the freedom that Christ has given to us, says Paul.

Jesus is also doing battle. He proclaims the Kingdom of God and describes the opposition from the Kingdom of Satan. In this section of the Gospel Jesus is forming the disciples, and in the previous verses has taught them to pray. We see our prayer to the Father is contradicted by those who stand against the Kingdom of God. We ask for the Spirit from heaven, they ask for a signs from above, we pray not to be put to the test but they put Jesus to a test, rather than ask pardon they accuse, and they refuse to see Jesus as the Son, instead accusing him of doing the work of Satan.

The banjo is strumming…and Our Lord gives a reassuring picture. He is the Stronger One, he has broken into the Kingdom of Satan and takes the spoils. Stand with me, he says, don’t scatter. The victory is assured and it is ours.

We end with a parody that may have lightens the tension and gives a challenge. Chased away an evicted person sees his former dwelling fixed up and empty. He returns with friends and becomes a bigger problem. Emptiness provides no opposition.  So, our challenge: choose your Kingdom, your Lord. We know the harvest is great. Before leaving the Kingdom, your King has entrusted you with his gifts to invest. Don’t be idle, be committed.

Today’s reading accompanies yesterday’s ‘Our Father’ and can make our most familiar prayer come to life as a call to action.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Galatians 3:1-5
Luke 11:5-13

Reflection:

One of the most challenging things Jesus ever said was “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I’ve struggled with that all my life, and mightily so these past few years, as I pray, cry, and work to forgive someone who hurt me more deeply than anyone ever had. Our natural inclination is to make them grovel, to get revenge, punish them, and see them suffer. Yet I’ve learned that such desires only trap us, not the other. It chains us to the past and causes repeated re-triggering.

And that’s not God’s way. With God, no one “earns” forgiveness. God truly sees me, down to the depths of my woundedness, insecurities, and immaturity that cause me to sin in the first place. God understands me, longs for my healing, and, like Jesus in his practice of forgiveness, healing, and acceptance, wants to bring me back to Godself. God forgives because that’s who God is.

Forgiveness doesn’t preclude the work of justice. Perpetrators must be held accountable and, when crimes are committed, sent to prison or stripped of privileges. They must make restitution if possible. Yet, forgiveness can still be granted them by those who were victimized.

True forgiveness is rarely if ever instantaneous, and for more significant offenses, requires a lengthy process of work, therapy, and prayer. It involves lots of forward-backward-sideways-roundabout movements. It’s also not once-and-done and needs to be affirmed and re-chosen repeatedly. I’ve been engaging this process, because I want to be so uninvested in holding grudges, betrayals, and pain that I can forgive even this. I want to have such compassion for him and his wounds that I no longer desire his suffering or hold ill will but can instead release him to God who knows and loves him far more than I can imagine. After all, underneath it, he, too, is created in the image and likeness of God. He’s not a monster; he’s a very flawed human acting out of his unhealed hurts. God cries for him, just as God cries for me. God understands him in ways that I never will and is always working to bring him back to Godself. Who am I to stand in the way? Who am I to hold on when I have been forgiven for my own failings, which are so numerous?

I do not have to reconcile with him, nor do I have any plans to do so. Reconciliation is a mutual process requiring much of both parties, and indeed isn’t always wise. You can forgive unilaterally though, with the goal of freeing yourself, regardless of whether they acknowledge wrongs or are remorseful. 

Through this work and prayer, I am finally freeing my heart. And yes, it feels like freedom. Forgiveness and letting go open space in my heart, and now light can fill it. I know joy again. I am more open and loving to others. I can live out of who I truly am.

I pray that you may know this freedom. May God continue to lead me and all of us on the “difficult but worth-it” path of true forgiveness.

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.corgenius.com/.

Scripture:

Galatians 2:1-2, 7-14
Luke 11:1-4

Reflection:

A Synod in Rome and One in Galatia

The Synod continues in Rome. It is a magnum opus, and we pray that, like at the first Pentecost, people of diverse languages understood the Spirit-filled preaching of the apostles, so may the voice of the Spirit again be heard and as effectively listened to.

To prepare the Synod, there was a two-day retreat at which Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. offered four meditations to the participants. The meditations are available at vaticannews.va. His theme was Searching in the Dark. Here are some of his thoughts.

Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb while it was still dark, John and Peter came later and looked into the darkness of the empty tomb. Each helped one another: Mary led the apostles to the tomb, John’s love pierced the darkness with the light of belief, and Peter, carrying the darkness of his failure would find in the empty tomb the victory that overcomes all failure.

The night of the Resurrection the disciples locked in a room are immobilized.  Morning was dark because Jesus was not yet found, evening is dark because they are not yet filled with the life of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit will send the Church on its mission to speak boldly and humbly.

Night again appears as the apostles return to their role as fishermen. Have they given up being fishers of men? Worse yet, poor Nathaniel from Cana, not a fisherman is in the boat and two unnamed apostles. They have abandoned their calling and are just as poor at catching fish as they were when the gospel began! Mary is the untier of knots and Peter the mender of nets. It was hard for the apostles to recognize Jesus, but love faith, and hope bring light.

Fr. Radcliffe’s final meditation looks at the darkness that engulfed Peter. How well it is summed up. Peter said to Jesus as they sat at breakfast by the lake, “You know me”.

But it was a sad night when Peter, crying, fled the presence of Jesus having announced, “I do not even know the man”. Yet Jesus trusts Peter and entrusts the flock to him, although so far, he is untrustworthy. The Church is founded upon the rock of God’s unmerited trust in Peter. Can we trust each other?

Galatians also takes us to what we could call a synod. There is serious listening among the Pillars of the infant Church. A knot was untied, freeing the non-Jewish Christians to follow Jesus without the burdens of Jewish tradition. A community, neither Jew nor Greek, begins to appear.

Helping the poor will be a bond between the two groups. However, the reading ends by revealing that it was difficult, and problems and divisions will continue. Yet, from God who is compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love, we realize that we need discernment and clarification. What a better way to remember the Synod in Rome and our world in conflict than with the simple words of the Our Father, your Kingdom Come. Forgive us as we forgive those who wrong us.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Galatians 1:13-24
Luke 10:38-42

Reflection:

Lessons from Paul on how to write a Curriculum Vitae

Paul must have started the Galatian community on his early missionary trip. Other missionaries followed who included in their catechesis the need to follow Jewish law. Paul writes after this to tell the Galatians that we do not need the law but rather Jesus has saved us.

Today’s reading shows us Paul presenting to the Galatians his credentials, as it were. He was a sincere, zealous Jew, and, yes, he persecuted the Christians. He encountered Christ and his life was changed. True, he is not one of the Twelve but he knew Peter and James, and had spent time with them. By God’s grace he was called to bring the Good News to the Gentiles. Indeed, If you have heard bad things about me, know that the communities in Judea give God praise because a former persecutor is now a preacher of the faith that he had tried to destroy.

When I completed my junior year of college in the seminary I returned home for a month before entering the novitiate. A classmate accompanied me and we visited his aunt and uncle in Washington. His uncle had just retired from a teaching career in the school of nursing at Georgetown University. He gave us wonderful tour of the campus and an especially thorough tour of the science labs. I remember looking through an electron microscope, something I had only read about in physics class. That night I became very sad. I was aware that I had not invested myself in my studies and felt I had wasted a wonderful opportunity. I was being set on fire by a man who loved science and poured his knowledge out for his students so they would be prepared for important work. But I could not change my past two mediocre years of college.

My ‘conversion’ is insignificant compared to St. Paul’s. A new vision from a day with a charismatic teacher did motivate me to want to change, a day I have never forgotten. I can’t say that I changed easily or even very much. The things that made me less than a good student remain always to be dealt with.

Karl Rahner describes the event of grace as living as we would like to live, combating our own egoism and continual temptation to inner despair. When we experience laughter or tears, bear responsibility, break through egoism in our lives with others; where one hopes against hope, faces the shallowness and stupidity of the daily rush and bustle with humor and patience, refusing to become embittered; where someone learns to be silent and in this inner silence lets the evil in his heart die rather than spread outward. This is the event of grace.

Like Paul we carry our baggage. We need the ‘Arabias’ where we can reflect on what grace is doing. There will be Athens of failure, and the surprise of new best friends in the Corinths of our lives. Let us write our letters and do our daily work. The one who began the good work in us will see it to completion. God’s grace is at work, his presence with us in our adventures, enjoying with us what God wants us to enjoy.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Galatians 1:6-12
Luke 10:25-37

Reflection:

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 
And who is my neighbor?  -Luke 10:29

Rusty was always “going” where he wasn’t supposed to go. I first met Rusty when my father brought him home. Oh, my poor mother! You see, in the ’50’s, we had categories for everything, at least in our house we did. It was mom’s job to tend the home and the kids and dad’s job to make the money to pay for everything. Both mom and dad were great at those roles. With Rusty showing up, that arrangement started to look shaky.

It all started one early evening after dinner. All the dishes were washed and put away, and we were in the TV room (actually, our dining room that was only used as that when we had company like at Thanksgiving and Christmas). Anyway, we, us kids and mom, were watching some program when suddenly, the back door opened and in bounded Rusty a beautiful young energetic boxer dog, followed by my father who probably had a beer or two too many at Sofie’s, the local tavern before coming home. Forgetting the TV, we kids immediately centered our attention on Rusty, while my mother centered her’s on my father. It was touch and go as to whether Rusty (and probably my father) would stay. Mom finally gave in, and Rusty stayed to become an integral part of our family. Dad was pardoned.

Rusty had a way of going where he wasn’t supposed to, starting with pooping in front of the fireplace one night. The fireplace was in the living room, a room even we as children stayed clear of for that was mom’s special room. That led to Marianne, my older sister training Rusty not to come into the living room.

Rusty also liked to get loose and run down to the butcher, where he would be rewarded by the butcher with a big bone that he proudly carried home and then buried in our backyard. This digging in the backyard, while not good behavior, was at least not as bad as pooping in front of the fireplace. The ultimate offense, however, was Rusty coming down the middle aisle at church one Sunday morning to join us up in the front pew at the 6:30 am Mass we boys would attend with my father. I think my older brother Rog was dispatched to quickly take Rusty back home.

God, free me from narrow categories that limit my ability to say: “Yes to life!” Help me see my neighbor in the gifts you present to me each day, even when they don’t fit, i.e. “I’ve got enough work taking care of seven children, I don’t need another life to watch over!” (my mom); “Dogs must be on a leash!” (my neighbors watching Rusty returning home from the butcher’s); Rusty doesn’t belong in church!” (Immaculate Conception parishioners watching Rog, my older brother taking Rusty home) Yes, help me follow the law as Jesus tells the scholar to do in today’s gospel selection, but especially I pray to see people, pets and plants that don’t seem to fit into my nice, neat, small little world, as neighbors and gifts from You today to help me grow.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago.  

Scripture:

Genesis 2:18-24
Hebrews 2:9-11
Mark 10:2-16

Reflection:

Several months ago, I heard an interview with a medical doctor who had practiced for decades in his small hometown in Minnesota. The interviewer asked him to describe the challenges of his patients who are in their 80s. His response was, “If you have seen one 80-year-old patient, you have seen one 80-year-old patient. Each one is totally unique.”

After years of practicing therapy with married couples, if I were to describe these clients, I would have to parallel the country doc’s observation: if you have seen one married couple, you have seen one married couple. Each is unique.

Ranking with parenting, marriage is one of the most complex relationship we humans have. To build a lasting, loving marriage, each couple brings their longings, talents, interests, passions, and histories. These are the building materials to construct a household, with or without children, that lasts a lifetime.

But I will risk generalizing by stating that all happy marriages have common threads, even if the threads are woven in one-of-a-kind patterns.

Jesus speaks of an essential thread in today’s Gospel. By telling his disciples that a man or woman who divorces their spouse and marries another commits adultery, he is shaking the social order of his day.

It was assumed in Jewish culture of Jesus’ time that only the man could initiate divorce. Women had no rights. Period. It was a male-dominated culture. Women were inferior. By stating a woman could divorce he was turning one of the pillars of the social order on its head.

Later in today’s Gospel Jesus commits blows up another taboo. He elevates children in such a way that they are models for living in God’s reign. Children, like women, were subordinate to men in Jewish culture of Jesus’ day.

Mutual respect is foundational to all happy marriages. Respect for children is essential in all happy families.

When a husband or wife places their individual wants above anyone else’s in a family, trouble happens.

Mature, happy couples always consider their spouse’s needs first. And children are always to be honored, never shamed, even as good, consistent boundaries are set for them.

What upset the scribes and Pharisees most about Jesus’ teachings was his call for a radical re-ordering of social norms. The Jewish leaders obviously felt so threatened my Jesus’ call for absolute dismantling of the male dominated caste system of First Century Palestine that their fears led them to demand Jesus be eliminated.

During an examination of consciousness, done in quiet, in the presence of God, the Holy Spirit can lead us to an awareness of ways we lord over others, shame others, manipulate others, protect our power positions, and put our own wants and passions before the feelings and worth of others, especially those in our families or religious communities.

Just as each marriage is unique, so also each divorce. Sometimes, despite the sincere desire to live in a happy marriage, the marriage dies. In his Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of Love, Pope Francis understand this. He urges our faith communities not to judge or exclude anyone who is divorced or who is divorced and remarried.

In the complicated private worlds of married couples, the Holy Spirit is present to guide each spouse daily in nurturing their love through the years. It requires, over and over and over, patience, compromises, forgiveness, shedding of grudges, generosity, attentive listening, and endurance. The grace needed to live this way is present if we sincerely request it.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17
Luke 10:17-24

Reflection:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the news media was interviewing a woman in North Carolina whose house was flooded by the torrential rains.  She looked at the interviewer and said, “I feel so blessed.  It could have been so much worse.”  Two months ago, I got on a CTA bus. I asked the driver how he was doing today and he said, “Blessed!   I’m very blessed.”  In another instance, I recall the single word a retreatant in the AA program would always call herself, “blessed.”   I’m curious, what causes some people to see their lives as truly blessed, while others see deficiency, or even a lack of meaning in their lives?  While I honestly don’t know what struggles or tragedies were in the personal lives of any of these three people, I know they were quick to publicly tell others that they feel blessed.  And blessedness for them wasn’t about reaching financial security, achieving their personal goals, or finding a place in life where there was no struggle.  Blessedness wasn’t a place in the future they hoped to attain, rather it was right here, and right now.  In this present moment, at this present time, in this present place, they knew they were blessed.   

I reflect on this today as we hear these readings.  Job is one who had such favor with God at the beginning of the story. Yet, as the narrative unfolds, he is quite perplexed as to why he ends up loosing it all.  Still, Job always holds onto his reverence and respect for God’s goodness and holiness.  Today’s first reading we hear from the end of the book of Job.  Job is never given an explanation.  He truly knows that there are things beyond his understanding, “things too wonderful for me, which I can not know.”  And then he regains even more cattle, sheep, camels and oxen than he originally had. While some may only focus on the surface that he is blessed because of his material possessions, the author is quick to add that Job is gifted with a long life filled with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  He is indeed blessed. And the entire story is that the blessedness is gifted to him because of his faithfulness.   

This is followed by Luke’s Gospel account of the return of the seventy-two.  Recall at the beginning of chapter 10 the seventy-two are sent out into every town and village he intended to visit.  They are to cure the sick in each village and announce that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Today’s Gospel has them returning with exultant excitement and praise.  Jesus addresses the disciples in private by stressing their blessedness.  “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.”  They are blessed because they faithfully completed the mission for which they were sent.  They were not only firsthand witnesses of the Kingdom of God, they were also blessed by personally conversing and having a relationship with the messiah, the chosen one.  How people through human history longed for this. 

Job was blessed.  Indeed, the disciples are blessed.  You and I are very blessed. 

Blessedness in the biblical tradition isn’t on self-reliance, or material possessions, Instead, it is based on a rich understanding of being the recipient of God’s favor.  It isn’t something a person earns nor accomplishes.  We are blessed because of what God has done, and we have some kind of awareness of the magnificence and grandness of the act. God, who has created us and will eternally love us, sustains us in every aspect of our lives.  When we truly know this in the core of our being, we carry within us a unique freedom and joy.  We realize our security doesn’t come from what we cling to.   Our joy comes from knowing how deeply we are cared for by our Heavenly Father. Knowing this in our hearts, awakens us to a healthy sense of our blessedness. 

Today we need to spend some time with our blessedness.  Know how blessed you are. 

Fr. David Colhour, C.P. is the Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.