Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
Romans 8:31b-34
Mark 9:2-10

Reflection:

The first week of Lent we were with Jesus in the desert. This week we journey with him to the "mountaintop." Mountaintop experiences (some of our Passionist monasteries: Sierra Madre, Pittsburgh, Monte Argentario were built this way) can be glorious and are usually too few and far between.

Every year we are given this reading (from one of the Synoptic authors) for the Second Sunday of Lent. Why this story? It functions to strengthen us for the long road ahead (five more weeks of Lent). Our church is giving us a glimpse of glory and an early Easter so that we will be fortified in our pilgrimage.

Lent, of course, is a retreat. I remember going to the mountaintop on a retreat in Big Sur, CA. The Camaldolese monks have a monastery some 1300 ft. high overlooking the aqua blue Pacific. One year I retreated for a week of contemplative prayer and worship. I happened to be there the same week the musician, John Michael Talbot, was making his own private retreat. He offered to give us a musical concert. About 20 of us were present in the chapel as he played his guitar and sang for an hour. At first nothing happened, but as I listened, a peace settled over me that was indescribable. I walked outside and noticed the waves below moving much slower than I ever remembered. Even the birds were chirping in slow motion! As I reflected on my life, everything seemed just right. Nothing could make this feeling go away. It was good to be there.

The next day, I got up and stood on the same spot hoping for the same feeling. Everything was in normal speed. The peace had lifted. I couldn’t capture it again, no matter how hard I tried or prayed. That day, I had to come down from the mountaintop. But, I was strengthened by an experience I’ll never forget. God had visited me with a glorious touch and I was fortified to go back to my real life in a fresh way. As we move through our Lent, we can expect a glimpse of glory, a foretaste of Easter, a touch of peace, so that we, as Abraham, can be sacrificially obedient and deal with the inevitable difficulties in the valley below. 

 

Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. is a missionary preacher, author of 12 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:

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Matthew 5:20-26

Reflection:

The season of Lent takes us on a journey. This unique period of travel ends in Holy Week with the great Triduum celebration and the solemnity of Easter. Beyond the liturgical calendar and counting off the 40 days, the spiritual destination of our journey is a greater love of God and of our brothers and sisters. The prayer, fasting and alms giving we do, or whatever Lenten practices we have chosen, are to support us in conforming our lives to the great law of love (Lk.  10:27).

In the Gospel reading today, inserted into the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins several "antitheses." He first states what the people have heard from the law (do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not take false oaths, love your friends, etc.). Then Jesus says, "But I say to you…" Jesus motivates the people to go beyond a legalistic approach to religion (obedience) to a heartfelt commitment (love). We can be religiously correct by being obedient. Jesus says this is not enough for those who would follow him. His disciples need to be spiritually correct by being disciples of compassion. We aren’t out to kill anyone, but do we harbor anger in our heart? We know adultery is wrong, but do we hold on to lustful thoughts? We try to love our friends, but do we love our enemies? Do we tell the truth at all times? Jesus stretches us beyond obedience into God’s way of love.

The first week of Lent is coming to an end. Today is a good time for me to review the Lenten practices I have chosen. Are they drawing me closer to God and to one another? All the "antitheses" are not heard in today’s reading. It might be helpful to read the entire passage (Matthew 5:20-48) and ask myself if I need to change some practices to become the loving disciple that Jesus portrays in the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Fr. Don Webber, C.P., is Provincial Superior of Holy Cross Province and resides in Chicago.

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew 5:43-48

Reflection:

"My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors."  Humans resemble animals in their ability to use anger to meet difficult situations with courage and aggressiveness.   So anger in itself is a natural good and not an evil!  However, we suffer from the results of original sin as well as our past misuse of anger.  It is easy for us to be unjust in word and deed when we encounter real or fancied injustice or difficulties of any kind.  That first flush of an angry feeling is not yet a sin, uncontrolled it can become a sin of injustice. Such is the morality of the natural law.

The Son of God brought us a higher a deeper way, he demands we see and act as sons and daughters of God!  "… You must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect… love your enemies, pray for your persecutors."

The first martyr, Stephen met this test as did the Trappists beheaded in Algeria in our time.  A preacher in the 2nd century regrets that not all Christians were meeting the command to love and forgive.  He points out that those outside the faith are amazed at the beauty and power of the command to love.  But he also feels shame to admit the pagans even  insult our very God when they see the words have no effect in our lives, as when they observe we not only fail to love people who hate us, but even those who love us.  Then they laugh us to scorn.  Failures occurred then even as now.

The demands of the Lord are not easy to fulfill.  A brother’s mannerism, his tone of voice can cause our jaw to set, our eyes to narrow.  These are warnings, to slow down and remember that God loves that brother or sister of ours and expects us to do so as well.  God has not finished his work on any of us!    And the Lord has told us the standard is high. "You must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." 

 

 Fr. Fred Sucher, C.P. is retired and lives in the Passionist community in Chicago.  For many years he taught philosophy to Passionist seminarians.  

 

Scripture:

Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25
Matthew 7:7-12

Reflection:

Seeking, Asking, Knocking,

In my youth I had a very genuine gift of prayer.  Anything I asked for I got.—-Anything!  I remember an itinerant missionary priest came to our parish in my preadolescent years and preached a parish mission. Even though I was perhaps ten years old I remember him saying that God says "yes" to every one of our prayers.  He gave four impediments to this "yes" which I committed to memory and ended up writing down on a 3 x 5 card.  Over the next 30 years I discover how God does truly say "yes" to everything I ever asked.  Moreover, I also discovered that God delights in my saying "yes".

Since my ordination I discovered a "hierarchy" that some live by.  People frequently ask me to pray for them, not because of my gift of prayer, but because I am a priest. There are always those who believe that God hears the prayers of priests, religious sisters or brothers, before hearing their own prayers.  In this mindset the priest is above the laity, the bishop is above the priest, the pope is above the bishop.  If we continue this, then above the pope we have the communion of saints, Mary, Jesus, and finally at the top is God our Father.  The rationale, seems to me that people expect God to answer my prayers because I am closer to God in the hierarchical order. The image I’m left with is that of launching paper airplanes.  It is almost as if we write our prayers on the wings of paper airplanes and toss them upwards so that somehow our prayer will get high enough and closer to God.   Perhaps someone higher up will receive this paper airplane and toss it up to a new level. And somehow if this prayer gets high enough, God just might be able to hear it.  This really is a frequently used image but the problem with it is that it neglects the authority of Christ and the beauty of the incarnation.  The incarnation is Christ saying, "I dwell in your midst!"  It is the Christmas story.  When we continue to perceive God as being distant or at the top of the hierarchical chain how lonely our spiritual life must be.

In the first reading Esther would not have a chance of God hearing her prayer if she believed in the hierarchical chain.  She was a woman living in a patriarchal world. She was outside of the chosen land. She did not quote the Torah nor did she follow the prayer formula.  What she does is she speaks directly to God out of her desperation and she trusts.  And God heard her!!!

One of the things life has taught me is that if I focus my eyes to hear and listen to how the birds sing then I become attuned to the numerous varieties of songs, rhythms and chirps.  When I spend considerable time drawing and sketching that I begin to see lines and shading in the world around me that is always there just beyond my daily perceptions.  If I focus my attention to how God answers my prayers, then I become attuned to how God truly participates in my asking, seeking, and knocking.  Indeed, we all choose those things in life which we focus on.  Perhaps a good exercise for this Lenten season is to be more attentive to God’s "Yes".  As I began seeing how God truly answers prayers, my enlightened understanding causes faith and trust to grow.  And Lent has become a time of greater spiritual growth.

Oh, and by the way, what were those four impediments to God’s "yes" which I wrote on that 3 x 5 index card when I was only 10 years old? Selfishness, serious sin, wait, and of course, God’s way not my way. To expound on these four, prayers are frequently not answered when the motivation is selfish or when there is serious sin.  Frequently God may say, "Wait, now is not the right time".   And lastly, we have to be open to allow God to answer our prayers in the way which is best for us not necessarily in the way we want them answered.

My prayer for you today is that through your asking, seeking, and knocking you may grow in your awareness of God’s delightful, "Yes" in your life.

 

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

Feast of St. Katharine Drexel

Scripture:

Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15

Reflection:

"From all their distress, God rescues the just."(Ps34:18b) Doing the work of justice receives encouragement from the Word today, and from the remembrance of St. Katharine Drexel. Coming from a wealthy background she sowed the seed that God entrusted to her generously. When she died in 1955, at the age of 96, her life had spanned the era of slavery and the Indian wars to the dawn of the civil rights movement.  In 1878 during a private audience with Pope Leo XIII she begged him to send priests to serve the Indians.  He responded: "Why not become a missionary yourself?"

She searched for a congregation corresponding to her own sense of mission. Finding none she established the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored people in 1891

Moher Drexel in her lifetime established 145 Catholic missions and 12 schools for Indians and 50 schools for Black students, including Xavier University.

Doing justice is the establishing of right relationships at every level of society. Doing justice is the constant willingness to use our time gnerously for the sake of changing structures which inhibit the development of right relationships. This generous use of time for the sake of others can be squandered and missed.  Recently, I heard a presenter challenge a group of which I was a part, to willingly change 10% in order to further the "good" of whatever mission we were undertaking.

After reading the gospel, ponder the words of Mother Drexel: "Resolve: Generously and with no half-hearted, timorous dread of the opinion of church and men to manifest my mission….You have no time to occupy your thoughts with the complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, ‘What will my Father in heaven think?’"

 

Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is president of Holy Family Cristo Rey High School, Birmingham, Alabama.

Scripture:

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Matthew 25:31-46

Reflection:

Lent is just begun.  Today is the first weekday of our annual spiritual observance that leads towards the festivity of Easter.  The spiritual reflection and self-scrutiny we are encouraged to embrace in the Lenten seasons urges us to consider how we might give ourselves more generously to God and how we might more effectively ‘do God’s will.’ 

Today’s readings offer an extended reflection on these perennial Christian concerns.  They are really a gorgeous, and challenging, meditation on the meaning of ‘holiness’ as understood in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

For the good Jew, the test or proof of faithfulness to God’s covenant was found in right conduct.  Faith and obedience to God’s law led to just conduct, to respect for the dignity and rights of others, for generous and supportive outreach to the needy and marginalized.  In this respect, Judaism was much more concerned with proper, upright behavior than with right thinking or ‘orthodoxy’.

In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew’s famous ‘Last Judgment’ scene, Jesus echoes the ancient faith code of his own people. Going a step beyond, he proposes his own, stunning standard of judgment for his disciples:  ". . .whatever you did for one of these least ones, you did for me!" 

In the spirit of Lenten self-scrutiny, we are encouraged to ask ourselves the tough questions:  how do I measure up to Jesus’ standard?  Do I pass the test?  Is my behavior reflective of my belief?  Do my relationships with those around me mirror my Christian convictions?

 

Fr. Jim Thoman, C.P. is the director of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan.

Scripture:

Genesis 9:8-15
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:12-15

Reflection:

In the mind and faith vision of the biblical writers, the beginnings of human history was a time of growing and deepening process of human wickedness.  In the story of Genesis proclaimed today, God decides it would be better to start over again.  The waters of the flood return the earth to the chaotic conditions from which it first emerged, but what comes out of the flood is something new and greater, the first explicit covenant of God with his material and human creation, a covenant extended to all, by which God binds himself to keep the process going, not todestroy God’s creation again.

The early Christians, to whom the first letter of Peter is addressed, are experiencing a time of crisis and trial.  They are dispersed through the pagan world, living in small communities, threatened by persecutions. Peter reminds those who are suffering, that as Jesus suffered and was put to death on the cross, he also rose from the dead. Today, as in Peter’s time, we too are reminded that as we share in the cross of Christ, we will also share in His resurrection. 

Today’s gospel reminds us that Jesus went out into the desert to take time in solitude and prayer in order to confront difficult choices of his life and the reality of evil, yet he remained in the sustaining presence of God. 

If even Jesus requires this time in solitude, how much more do we! Very few of us can find the time and opportunity to endure even one desert day, Yet, somehow we need to find time to be alone with God, to be totally present to God in prayer, to reflect, to reassess where we are before our God and just spend time with our loving God. 

On this first Sunday of Lent, let us together pray with the words of today’s responsorial psalm, "Your ways, O Lord, make know to me;teach me your path, guide me in your truth, and teach me, for you are God my savior."

 

Sr. Marcella Fabing, CSJ, is on the staff of Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

Isaiah 58:9b-14
Luke 5:27-32

Reflection:

Today’s reading from Isaiah tells us to honor the sabbath.   Keeping the sabbath means giving up our ways and giving back to God.  The beginning of our Lenten journey is a good time to think about what we want to give back to God and how to do it.  Isaiah instructs us to not have somber demeanor and long faces, to instead "call the sabbath a delight…" and to not follow our own ways.

It seems clear when we look at our lives that God’s way is a way of delight and joy. Every time we think only of ourselves and look to "fulfill" ourselves or find ourselves, we come up empty.  When instead we turn to God’s ways – when we do God’s works, when we feed the poor, and love our neighbor – we are filled with the delight that Isaiah speaks about. 

Who do you think of when you call to mind someone who is filled with delight in the Lord?  For me, I call to mind the smiling face of a woman I know who finds the world delightful, filled with blessings and opportunities for good. With her quiet demeanor, she reaches out to those in need, and loves all with whom she comes in contact.  Perhaps you might call to mind Mother Teresa, who no matter how severe the poverty and destitution she saw, was filled with joy and always had that beautiful, slight smile.  Or maybe you think of soon to be canonized, Damian, who found joy in the Lord through his work with lepers. With these people and others who spend their lives giving to others, we see true joy!

Whenever we try to find happiness in getting "more" for ourselves, relieving our own "suffering" or finding ways to always be more "comfortable" – we fail.  On the other hand, when we do God’s work, when we care about others, we too can be filled with happiness and joy in the Lord!

Luke reminds us to repent.  Maybe one of things we should repent this lent is our somber demeanor and long faces and seeking only our self-interest.

Let us enter into this season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving filled with delight in the Lord!

 

Mary Lou Butler is a former staff member and is now a member of the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center Board, Sierra Madre, California.