Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 14:19-28
John 14:27-31a

Reflection:

The early Christian community struggled to establish itself amidst many conflicts. Not only were there external threats, but the community was susceptible to internal animosity, bitterness and greed. Yet in the midst of skirmishes and scuffles, as the Acts of the Apostles assures us, the Spirit surged forth in new life and new forms. The Spirit of Christ was continuing to shepherd the community.

Perhaps that is why Psalm 23 is the favorite prayer of many people. "The Lord is my shepherd" is the go-to-psalm when life feels overwhelming, when adversity seems to be crushing our hopes, or when we sense we have lost our way. The images in Psalm 23 are graphic and gripping metaphors of peace. It promises the pleasure of abiding in verdant pastures; the delight of relaxing beside restful waters; the assurance that a table of plenty will be provided amidst our foes.

How do we get there? How do we find that place of tranquility and satisfaction promised by the good shepherd and manifested in the early Christian community? How do we come to experience the peace which Jesus promised?

The answer is revealed in the second line of the psalm – "I shall not want."

The wanting-mind is the cause of so much agitation and misery. By simply observing our mind we will discover that whenever the mind wants something to be different than it is, we suffer and we are miserable. Two conditions provoke this insatiable wanting: when we have something we do not want or when we want something we do not have. Either situation creates a tension in the mind called misery.

When life goes our way and we get what we want, the mind is peaceful. But do not confuse that with the peace which Jesus promised. Yes, the world gives us peace when we get what we want. But Jesus promised a peace which the world cannot give. That is the peace which comes when the wanting in the mind stops before we get what we want.

One of the great insights of the spiritual life is to understand the cause of suffering and how the mind can be free. It all comes down to a simple statement: I shall not want. The cessation of desires in the wanting-mind is a central feature of Easter peace. It is experience as the absence of fear and manifested in a heart that is not troubled.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP is the director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, KY.  

 

Scripture:

Acts 14:5-18
John 14:21-26

Reflection:

A retreatant recently shared with me his aspiration.  "I want to recapture the great feeling I once had of God’s love in my heart."

Several weeks later, a middle-aged man told me that his marriage of less than 20 years had grown stale.  The couple no longer felt any love for each other.  He also admitted he had strong "feelings" for a co-worker.

Though they faced different challenges, their solution was essentially the same: to recapture a "feeling" of love.

Our Lord however didn’t tell his disciples that those who love him would have a warm "feeling" in their heart.  He said:  "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

To that well-meaning retreatant, the Lord is saying: stop searching for feelings in your heart.  I won’t be there.  To that middle-aged man ready to jettison a "stale" marriage, the Lord is saying:  When the Father and I are dwelling with you we can even revitalize your "stale" marriage.

To all of us, the Lord is saying don’t be misled by feelings.  They come and go.  Instead, every day in whatever the circumstances of our lives, keep his commandments.  And the Lord and his Father will dwell with us.  Love is not something we feel; it’s a Christ-like self-surrendering choice we make.

 

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Mother’s Day

Scripture:

Acts 9:26-31
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8

Reflection:

I am fascinated by the theme of connection that runs through today’s readings.  We are connected to Christ, the vine in whom we live and to whom we offer praise.  We are connected in love through the vine to all the other branches.  There is something very reassuring in this talk of abiding intimacy and love. 

Yet there are deep implications lurking below the feel-good surface.  For instance, just this morning I was talking to a friend about someone for whom I have lost respect.  I will not choose to work with him again, and I am saddened by all the people he has hurt.  Yet I am connected to him.  He is part of the vine, too – one of the branches just as I am.  And Jesus asks me to love him, that God may be glorified.  Ouch.

Of course, Jesus doesn’t ask me to be a doormat.  I can take reasonable precautions, as the apostles did with Saul before they allowed one who had been killing their friends to walk freely in their midst.  I don’t have to work in an unhealthy or abusive relationship with anyone.  I don’t have to make myself vulnerable to almost certain hurt. 

But I do have to love.  I do have to honor my connection through Christ even to those who have hurt me or acted in ways I cannot condone, in fact, even to those who have caused me irreparable harm.  This kind of love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling.  It is a choice that stretches me to the limits and makes demands that sometimes seem beyond my capacity.   

 No matter how deeply I have been wronged, can I work through and express my feelings until I am ready to let go of my anger and hurt?  Can I release my desire to see the other person suffer as much as I have suffered?  Can I shed revenge and my human definition of "justice"?  Can I free myself from another’s bad choices, refusing to hang onto grudges, hate, and bitterness?  Am I willing to no longer hold negativity toward the other, but instead actually pray for their happiness and healing?  In other words, can I engage in the difficult and emotional process that eventually leads to forgiveness, whether or not the other person ever asks for it?

Suddenly, abiding intimate connection is not so easy.  In fact, sometimes I’m not sure I want to be part of that vine.  I hug my hurt and anger to my chest too tightly.  The demands are too great. 

Yet if I refuse the call to love, I punish the wrong person.  I cut myself off from the vine, from the Source of all mercy and grace.  Instead of choosing love, I choose to remain bitter, narrow, angry, and alone.  Is that what I want?

Therein lies the challenge.  As I look at the hurts in my life, as I determine the kind of person I want to be, as I consider the formidable example of Christ, what do I choose?

 

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:

Acts 13:26-33
John 14:1-6

Reflection:

Easter is a season of 50 days. We need time to grasp and soak in the reality of the resurrection. During this season, we enter into "mystagogia." This word means "led into the mystery." We continue to journey with the newly baptized and those who have come into full communion with the people of God at the Easter Vigil. We too are led into the mystery of life in Christ.

I remember watching a Billy Graham crusade on TV. The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel were on a huge banner as a backdrop to the stage. "I am the way, the truth and the life." Jesus is certainly the way to heaven, but he is also the way for us right now. When we talk about mystagogia, we are really referring to the way of discipleship. Before the early disciples were called "Christian" they were called "the way."

I saw an interview with the rock star "Slash." He said that rock and roll is the way of life for him, it comes with a personality and has a lifestyle. For us, it is not rock, our culture or sports, but Jesus who is our way of life. His way is our lifestyle. As we learn and grow we develop a Spirit-filled personality. Discipleship is really a journey where we give more and more of ourselves to Jesus. The way of discipleship includes discipline, worship and passion. Jesus’ way isn’t the only way in our world, but his is the way to the peace he offers in today’s Gospel. Mystagogia is not only a time when we learn about discipleship, but strive to live it.

As I live this lifestyle of worship, I am struck over and over again by the reading we have each Saturday morning during the liturgy of the hours. It is apropos for any who would live the Christian lifestyle and follow Jesus’ way: "None of us lives as his/her own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." (Rom. 14:7-9)

 

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:

Acts 13:44-52
John 14:7-14

Reflection:

There comes a time in the life of almost every woman when she looks at her reflection in a mirror and sees not herself but another woman she knows well.  This encounter is inevitably accompanied by a small gasp, an expression of shock and the realization that "I have become my mother."  This insight is not necessarily a negative or positive judgment on herself or her mother or the quality of their relationship. Rather it is the sense of the unstoppable passing of time and the rootedness of qualities and characteristics ,  both physical and personality,  that have made her who she has become.  No one can be insulated from absorbing the genetic, cultural and environmental background from which they came.  But a person can be blind to recognizing the effect these influences exert in life and the connectedness we have with others.

Jesus seems to be both surprised and disappointed by Phillips request , "Lord, show us the Father."  Jesus knew that the purpose of his life, relationships, teachings and way of being with people was to be a mirror of  his Father’s presence.  He was in his Father and his Father was in him.  God was present to others in the person of Jesus.  But Phillip had not yet had the "aha" moment, the gasp of insight and recognition that the person he knew as Jesus was actually more than the man who was obviously apparent.  Phillip did not yet have the faith to see who was really reflected in the mirror that was Jesus.

Maybe heaven begins for us when we each look in a mirror and gasp with the realization that "I have become the Lord".  The Lord lives in you and me, speaks through you and me, loves through you and me just as he promised.  Our faith is not perfect nor is our reflection of the Lord untarnished but as we become more and more absorbed in the qualities and characteristics of Jesus we each, in our own way, become a mirror of God’s presence to others.

 

Cathy Anthony is on the staff of St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center, Detroit, Michigan. 

Scripture:

Acts 13:13-25
John 13:16-20

Reflection:

From this day until Pentecost, our gospels come from the Book of Glory, the discourses of the Lord that St. John locates after the Last Supper.  We begin as Jesus faces his coming betrayal and death as he dismisses his betrayer but then takes up his heart-to-heart farewell with the faithful ones.  His words are overflow with the love he has for his own as his public life is reaching an end. 

As you let his words come alive for you, be sure they were spoken for you and are spoken again as you read them.   Jesus had all his future followers in mind and heart that night.  He spoke to the eleven but mentions all those who will come to believe in him.  Though you may not have been in the Upper Room, you were deeply in the heart and mind of the Lord Jesus.

We are celebrating the enduring triumph of Easter, and now we know that all that Jesus promised that night before he died has come to pass.  He is "with us all days".  Each gospel section of the Book of Glory gives us not only the words of Jesus but brings us into his presence and surrounds us with his love.  This is the time to know him in his glory and strength, a glory and strength he shares with us now and promises to expand for us in all of eternity.

This is time to savor our union in his joy.  He told us that no one could take that joy from us.  Even in the midst of our nation’s financial crisis, Jesus is our surety of ultimate happiness.  Do not be afraid to listen as did the Beloved Disciple. 

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 12:24-13:5a
John 12:44-50

Reflection:

In the reading from Acts, we see the beginning of the first of three missionary journeys that Paul the Apostle will undertake. Paul (he is still called Saul at this time) and Barnabas had just returned from Jerusalem where they had brought relief supplies for the Jerusalem community suffering from a famine. Such support for others in need is an essential element of our Christian vocation.

They had returned to Antioch where we hear about prophets and teachers. Prophets were not fortune tellers, but people sensitive to the presence of God in prayer, worship and daily life. They helped interpret God’s desires for the Christian community. Teachers were those gifted in the ability to faithfully pass on the traditions of the Christian community and to instruct others about Scripture. These two roles are indispensable to the life of the Church.

As we continue to give thanks to God for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we might also want to give thanks to the prophets and teachers who have helped us understand Scripture, revealed to us new methods of deeper prayer, encouraged us to be faithful, guided us with their wisdom, showed us effective ways to be sensitive to God’s presence in our life, reminded us of our true vocation as Christians and in times of confusion pointed us in the right direction. We might not have called them "Prophets" or "Teachers." Maybe we called them mother or father, brother or sister, uncle or cousin, friend or co-worker, pastor or associate, author or preacher. By whatever name we called them, they were God’s way of reaching out to us.

Who are the "Prophets" and "Teachers" in your life? Do you "see" – like Jesus in the Gospel reading today – God’s active and loving presence in your life? Let us thank God for these special people.

 

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

Scripture:

Acts 11:19-26
John 10:22-30

Reflection:

Perhaps it is commonplace to want things in black and white. When things are in black-and-white we don’t need to deal with certain ambiguities.   It certainly simplifies the complexities of life.  The problem with this is a black and white world can not embrace color.  And look how much beauty enhances our world because of color.  The readings of today are colorful readings.

Acts of the apostles witnesses to the persecution which arose of those early believers.  Recall the martyrdom of Stephen.  Because of this incident, the community of believers disperses to some quite distant places and peoples; even to the Greeks.  Because of this, psalm 19 is fulfilled, "Their message goes out to all the earth".   This first reading ends with our ancestors finding their new identity apart from Judaism.  We are no longer Jews who believe in Christ, our identity has been changed.  We are now, "Christian".  This does not happen in Jerusalem, it happens in Antioch, a place to which Jesus never went.  Interestingly, we don’t find our identity in the places where Jesus was, we find them in the person of who Jesus is.   

Colorization continues in the Gospel.  The Jews push Jesus for a black and white answer. "How long are you going to keep us in suspense?  If you really are the Messiah, tell us so in plain words."  And Jesus’ palette is filled with multitudes of colors.  He invites them to look at the consistency of his life and his works, to draw conclusions for themselves.  He paints metaphors of sheep who understand and follow.  They even seem to know the color, of the tone of his voice. 

Paradoxically, the Gospels show us that those who can ponder the colors of Jesus’ palette, and the way the divine artist paints the portraits of life, are those who listen and understand and accept his message. They are the ones transformed, and they hold a certain amount of joy in their heart.  Contrast this to the numerous stories by which the biblical people in the Gospels insist on reducing the colors of life to merely black-and-white.  Even the story of the wealthy man concludes with, "He went away sad…"  In these books of "Good News" these small minded thinkers merely end up reducing the value, beauty, and significance of life.  

Throughout this day I would invite you to reflect a little more deeply on the colors of life in the people around you, and your participation in the palette of the divine artist.    What happens to you when it feels like you are the one holding the palate of colors?  How do you treat those who also have color palates?   What impact do those who only have black and white have on you?   And what happens to you when you look down and discover that your palate is black and white?  

 

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