Daily Scripture

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Scripture:

1 John 1:5-2.2
Matthew 2:13-18

Reflection:

Today is the feast day of the Holy Innocents.  Just a few days ago, our readings were filled with joy and wonder!  The Christ Child was born.  But now so soon after, we hear this horrendous account of the killing of babies.    Herod looking to destroy Jesus sends his soldiers out to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem.  How can God allow this to happen?

Why does God allow bad things to happen?  "Why, God, why?" That’s a question that most of us have asked at some time in our lives.  Some people even denounce the existence of God with the argument, "If your God is good, why doesn’t he do something about all this suffering?"

But they just don’t get it!  The Gospel message is not that God will wipe out all suffering.   The message of scripture is rather that God will be with us in our suffering.  God so wants us to hear this message, He even sends His Son to become human, to embrace humanity, to walk with us in all ways. 

Jesus throughout His life delivers this message.  Born in a stable, living a simple life, risking all to preach about the Father and finally suffering a humiliating, painful passion and death-this is the Jesus we see in the Gospel.  The joy of being Christian does not mean that we can expect to pray for a miracle and if we’re good all suffering will be removed from our lives.  Christian joy is rather that we do not face that suffering alone.  As Christians, we know that Christ is one with us – in our joys and in our sufferings. 

"My kingdom is not of this world," Christ tells us. That’s why the the Resurrection and Ascension are needed to complete the Gospel message. Christ came to be one with us in this life and to prepare the way for us in the heavenly kingdom.   This is the promise.  This is the message.  This is why we are joy-filled to be Christian and no amount of suffering will remove that joy!

 

Mary Lou Butler ([email protected])is a former staff member and is now a member of the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center Board, Sierra Madre, California. 

 

Christmas Day

Scripture:

Isaiah 9:1-6 
Psalm 96:1-3, -13 
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14

 

Reflection:

In 1983 I was in Ireland at the end of the Jubilee Year.  Throughout all of the country you could find in every church a banner.  On this banner was the image of a Celtic cross.  Within the cross, there were eight frames each depicting the Advent/Christmas event.  This started with the four Sundays of Advent followed by Christmas, Feast of Mary the Mother of God, Jesus’ temptations in the desert, and finally the Baptism of Jesus.                              

Just as it took a number of events in the life of Jesus to celebrate appropriately His truth for the Jubilee Year, so too at Christmas.  The church finds it impossible to express in one liturgy the richness of this day.  The Feast of Christmas is so rich the church assigns three masses to this day to capture the theological truth of this celebration.  The Mass at Midnight celebrates the historical birth of Jesus.  The Mass at Dawn celebrates the birth of Jesus as a liberating king, living among us.  The Mass at Day celebrates the new age inaugurated in us the baptized. 

Most children can relate to the Christmas story very readily.  The birth of Jesus, the visit of the shepherds, the manger, the swaddling clothes, and the song of the angels.  What is said beneath all the images is that #1. The incarnation of Christ happened among us in a very human condition.  #2. The Divine is known in the Child (the angels sing, the night is illumined).  #3. Only those of humble heart can know this Wonder.  #4.  It is the poor, the outcasts, the shepherds who see and believe.  #5.  The Child weak and voiceless, with neither legal rights or power will shake the kingdom and destroy evil.  All this will be accomplished through a helpless child who comes to us in the middle of the night. 

 

Fr. Kenneth O’Malley, C.P. is the archivist at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.  

 

Christmas Eve

Scripture:

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
Luke 1:67-79

Reflection:

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’"

This night the Virgin Mary will bring God closer to us than ever before in Salvation History.  Thanks to this great Lady we can approach a God with a human heart.  With John we can lay our head on the chest of Christ!  We can be touched by God in a thoroughly human way by hands formed by Mary. We can experience the fingertips of God with all their 3,000 touch receptors in a pair of human hands.

As God touches us so we can now touch Him. Thanks to Our Blessed Mother God invites us in a human way to experience Him.  "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." LUKE 24:39   The Greek word for handle means to rub or touch the surface from psao.  With faith we can now experience a human encounter with God.

It is fascinating that the God of the galaxies billions of light years away comes to us in an utterly physical way as a smiling little baby.  Now we can look into the eyes of a human being and know we have our image on the retina of God.  The prayer of the Psalmist over 2500 years ago is now realized: "Keep me as the apple of your eye".  The Hebrew word for apple is eeshone or little man.   I can see me as "little man" reflected in the eye of God.

Christmas is indeed a feast of our Emmanuel. God has never spoken so plainly to us as He does this Feast Day. A wonderful companion to be with us this eve is Mary.  Who can appreciate this human side of God better than she.  Truly, He is our Emmanuel.

 

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
Luke 1:57-66

Reflection:

As we come nearer to Christmas, our Scripture readings point to all the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. In today’s Gospel reading we hear about the birth of John the Baptist. We see that there are miraculous happenings associated with John’s birth. First, there is the angel appearing to Zechariah, with Zechariah made mute because of his doubt. Then we see that Elizabeth, thought to be barren, does conceive. And when John is born, and Zechariah confirms that his name is John, Zechariah’s voice returns, and he begins to praise God.

Of course, all those around Elizabeth and Zechariah are not oblivious to what has gone on, and ask each other, "What then, will this child be?" For, as Luke says, "…surely the hand of the Lord was with him." The circumstances around our birth may not have been as miraculous as those around the Baptist’s birth (although some of us may have a near-miraculous story to tell!), but if we look at our lives, we recognize that the "hand of the Lord" has also been with us. There have been numerous times when God has given us a second or a third or even a tenth chance. There have been other times when God has brought us through some crisis or illness, when we weren’t sure what would happen next. And there are other times when we realize that God was opening the proverbial door for us when another one was closed.

If we acknowledge that God has worked in our lives, we may need to ask ourselves the same question asked about John: "What, then, are we to be?" Are we open to being heralds of Jesus Christ? Are we open to live our lives in such a way that everything about us points to Jesus? The hand of the Lord has indeed been with us. May we proclaim His coming.

 

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

Scripture:

Sg 2.8-14
Lk 1.39-45

Reflection:

Today is the winter solstice, when the sun is at its greatest angular distance from the celestial equator, leading (in the northern hemisphere) to the shortest day and the longest night of the year.  For northern hemisphere people, it initiates winter, possibly a depressing thought for cold-blooded people, but, by the same token, it reverses the diminishment of sunlight, and commences the six month climb toward the lightsome time of the year.

By her selection of today’s biblical readings, the church prefers to take the glass is half-full approach as preferable to the half-empty viewpoint.  For she presents a delightful reading from the Song of Songs, a love duet, largely dominated by the woman who grows rapturous at the prospects of: "Hark! My lover-here he comes".  This is a high-energy piece appropriate to two youthful people.  They are obviously on their way to a marital union, a life together, and the begetting of a family.  It is a fitting companion piece to a similar event on the church’s calendar: the beginning of a new family on the part of a young couple, Mary and Joseph, whose love must certainly reflect that of the two in the Song of Songs.

So, even though winter is just getting underway today, we can read between the lines of this Song with its remarks that "the winter is past" and "the flowers appear on the earth" and "the fig tree puts forth its figs".  These are all prescient harbingers of the new life-forms about to appear, both in terms of the developing union between the couple in this Song, and also in Luke’s gospel account, where he describes Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.

For Mary is already pregnant, leading Elizabeth to exclaim: "And how does this happen…that the mother of my Lord should come to me?", and Mary’s travel to the "hill country" of Judah corresponds geographically to the woman’s remark in the Song about her lover "springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills".  In this selection we have a soliloquy of Elizabeth (for Mary is silent at this moment), reminiscent of the young woman in the Song, who is the main speaker, except for the last section.  In sum,  these readings display a feminine perspective pervading today’s Advent preparation for the birth of the Lord.  For they accentuate the loving, relational, family-oriented qualities for us to appropriate as preparation for the Christmas event that is near at hand.

And they set us up to be beneficiaries of yet another beatitude (apart from those of the Sermon on the Mount): "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."  It only remains for us to discover what it is that the Lord speaks to us.

 

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

Scripture:

Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a
Luke 1:5-25

Reflection:

"It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel." Judges 13:5

Have you ever noticed how many times God has included ordinary people in the Plan of Salvation? One would think that God is having a problem being God! If God is so powerful, why doesn’t God do it all? Why does God depend upon us humans to bring about Salvation, Redemption, Everlasting Life?

It seems that God has fallen into a pattern. The two Scripture passages for today’s Liturgy illustrate this pattern in clear and simple terms. When things seem to be stalled or even going backwards, God sends someone who helps us begin the movement back to God. In the first reading, a barren woman gives birth to a son who prepares to deliver Israel from the hands of its enemies. The son’s name: Samson. He was one of the many messengers that God sent to rescue Israel from their troubles because of their infidelity.

In today’s Gospel, we hear how God sends us John the Baptist to prepare us for the coming of God’s Son, Jesus. John, like Samson, was born of a woman who had been barren all of her married life, and was now thought to be too old to have children. God proves to us once again that nothing is impossible with God.

When we begin to reflect in a prayerful way upon our lives, we begin to see that God sends us so many people who prepare us for the coming of the Lord, Jesus. Some of us are so focused on looking for the big "miracle," the extraordinary events that we think are God’s signs of Love and Life, that we miss the ordinary miracles of everyday, the daily signs of God’s Love and Life. Some of us are like Zachariah, John’s father, so full of questions and doubts, that we miss the true miracles that God keeps sending us as preparation for the coming of Jesus in our lives.

The people who prepare us for the coming of Jesus are all of the ordinary people who call us to live faithfully, a life of faith, hope and love. Sometimes, these messengers come in the midst of our darkness and they pull us out of the doldrums of hopelessness and depression. Sometimes, these messengers confirm our deepest convictions and longings, to be united with God and with one another as we make our way through life. God never tires of sending us messengers who prepares us to walk the Way of the Lord and guide our feet into the way of Peace.

As we prepare of the Feast of Christmas, the Miracle of the Incarnation, the Birth of the Baby Jesus, let us be attentive to all of the many messengers that God sends us to prepare for that most Wonderful Gift of All, God’s Incarnate Love!

 

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

Scripture:

Genesis 49:2, 8-10
Matthew 1:1-17

Reflection:

Many people today enjoy studying their family tree.  I, on a regular basis, get an ad on my computer, offering, for pay, information and documentation on individuals who make up my family’s history.  This has been an interest that may go back from the early beginnings of the human family on earth.  At times, families are surprised to discover some of the characters who are included in their storyline.  "My great, great, great uncle is said to have been a pirate".

In our first reading from the book of Genesis, we are told of the blessings or curses that Jacob placed on each of his 12 sons.  Today’s reading centers on the blessings Jacob gave to his son Judah.  Of his twelve sons, it would be Judah and his descendents that would have great prominence.  David would be of the tribe of Judah and from this tribe and the house of David, the Messiah would come.

In our Gospel today, in a more patterned fashion, St. Matthew names, in three groups of fourteen, the ancestors of Jesus.  The number fourteen is a doubling of the perfect number seven.  St. Matthew is telling us that the time is ripe for the coming of the Messiah.

Embedded in this genealogy is the teaching that God is in control of history.  It is not by happenstance that certain people come upon the scene.  There is a planned pattern of salvation unfolding at each point along the line.  Certain people in the story teach us a specific lesson.  There are three foreign women included – Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba.  Each of them had a blight on their character.  Their inclusion teaches us that the family of God is formed by including the stranger and foreigner, even people with a "bad reputation".  Jesus would teach us the same lesson by associating with sinners and tax collectors, calling them to repentance and giving them a place in his kingdom.

In a male dominated world, these three women also prepare the way for another woman, Mary, and her very special role in God’s plan of salvation.

Today’s readings show us the special preparation that God did for the coming of his son, our Savior, Jesus.  The flow of history and its story continue, as Jesus calls millions of others into his kingdom, that he will one day present, perfectly transformed, to his Father as a gift.  How wonderful it will be for each of us to be part of that gift. 

 

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

Scripture:

Isaiah 45:6b-8, 18, 21b-25
Luke 7:18b-23

Reflection:

I don’t have children myself, so I can’t speak of this from personal experience. But I can imagine what a parent must feel when their beloved child–for whom they have given all love, all care, all worry, all devotion-looks upon and treats them as a stranger.  To be disregarded or unknown by the one you created out of the breath of your own existence must be a pain that is very intense. 

In a historical sense, of course, the first reading is a record of the journey of the Israelites in committing to being a one-God centered people. But the reading is also an impassioned testament from God who reveals in the fullest of ways all that He has done and created for His people: I form the light, and create the darkness…Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the LORD, have created this. God’s creation and His gifts are rich beyond our wildest reckoning!

And then, what additional gift can God possibly give us as a testimony to His immeasurable, passionate, crazy, enveloping love for us, His children? We, who fall away, get distracted, feel neglected, tend towards doubt, rail pitifully and settle into apathy? He gives us His Son, His only Son.

It’s as if God is saying: Can you hear me now?

The good news-and there is good news-is that the message is getting through. In the Gospel we see the Prophet John alerting his disciples to the reality that something dramatic is happening, that the one they have been waiting for has perhaps arrived.  God is no longer "out there" pulling the cosmic strings but He is among us, He is one of us. And He loves us dearly, even unto death.

As we move toward Christmas, what else can our hearts do but open up and receive the love that God has given us so generously, so abundantly, in the birth of the baby Jesus? We know the pain that is to come for Him, but for this moment, let’s simply rejoice in the beauty of this wondrous child, this tender being, who will change the course of the world with the flick of His tiny finger.

 

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