Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

Reflection:

Welcome back to the vineyard!  Did you notice that this is the third Sunday in a row that Jesus has been telling parables about vineyards?  I think this is significant, because vineyards are places where grapes are grown to be pressed, fermented and aged.  Finally, the enjoyment comes in the consumption.  Wine is used in banquets, parties and celebrations.  Backing up, to work in the vineyard is work of initial preparation for a future banquet, party or celebration.  Matthew uses these vineyard stories because it is part of the strong Jewish tradition.  It comes right out of Isaiah’s prophecy.  Isaiah does a parallel between his understanding of the disappointment Israel is to the Lord compared to the disappointment that his friend had over a vineyard.  He begins by getting people’s attention by putting it into a song.  "Let me sing of my friend’s song concerning his vineyard."  Well this should be a very joyful kind of song, but as the disappointment grows, Isaiah boldly declares, "The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel."    How disappointing.  You can certainly feel this sadness, even now after so many years. 
 
Jesus certainly would have known the writings of Isaiah. So it is quite understandable how Jesus would speak of vineyards to make his point.  Notice who he is talking to.  He is speaking to the chief priests and the elders.  We readers of the gospel frequently project our religious garb onto these men, but we forget that they were also parents and we forget that they were also the vineyard owners.   So when Jesus throws this parable to them, they are listening to it on two different levels.  First, as vineyard owners.  But to take the story deeper, not only are they the owners of their own vineyards, they are also the owners of the vineyard of the Lord.  And this is where Jesus has such difficulties with them.  He is calling their grapes sour. 
 
Perhaps the most terrifying part of this gospel is what is NOT said.   Jesus takes this situation to the front steps of his enemy’s house.  He is not in a safe secure location.  His conviction of the truth cannot allow him to remain quiet.  He stirs up the conflict right in the temple area on the very home turf of the religious leaders.   The conviction of speaking the truth out of justice, whether we witness it in Isaiah the prophet or in Jesus, is a dominant theme for the readings today.
 
This is the 21^st chapter of Matthews Gospel.  This is after the turning over money changing tables in the temple.   By this time he has predicted his passion and death three times and both he and his disciples know this is end for Jesus.  That is why he came to Jerusalem.  Now he doesn’t come to play it safe and hide out.  Instead of hiding Jesus locates himself in the temple area every day.  He is in plain sight and begins a lengthy confrontational challenge to the religious leaders. 
 
In telling them a story about the owner and son of a vineyard, Jesus asks them to make a decision on his story.  It all seems fairly non-threatening and certainly in line with the day to day sparing that men would do.   For Jesus to get this group of people to acknowledge that the farmers would kill the son, is a clever technique of self judgment.  Recall how all the gospels build up the plot of the arrest and execution of Jesus.   This story of the vineyard then becomes a prophecy of what will happen to Jesus, and in carrying this out the religious leaders, through their actions, will acknowledge Jesus’ sonship.  This is something they never would have been capable of through the spoken word.   Therefore the judgment comes back upon them.  The prophetic voice could have easily spoken to them saying, See, by your actions you confirm his role as Son and acknowledge he was sent by the Father.  Yet your religious allegiances leave you listening to voices which do not originate anywhere near the Father nor the Son.  In fact, through your actions and in light of this story, you place yourselves in the role of the wicked tenant farmers.  You even pronounce your own sentence.      
 
Perhaps it did because in Mt 21:45 we read that the Pharisees realized that Jesus is speaking about them.  Sadly, rather than finding repentance, they plot to arrest him and they are left with fear.   Instead of choosing something good, right or virtuous, they again follow their own instincts. 
 
Isaiah asks to sing a song of his friend’s vineyard.  Rather than a place of joy and gladness, where people are preparing for celebrations, here we find people filled with jealousy, and fear, incapable of hearing truth.  

 

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

 

 

Scripture:

Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5
Luke 10:13-16

Reflection:

To follow Jesus, and take up His Cross means "I take responsibility." Luke 10 begins with Jesus sending the seventy-two disciples to the harvest. The harvest is people finding their own "call" and responsibility because we are faithful to our commitments. No matter in which situation I find myself today, is not the cause of much of our pain and suffering due to the results, when I do not take responsibility? So we are sent, in the wake of  so much chaos due to irresponsibility, to make a difference through living the Christ-values which counter the self-centered attitudes, that perpetuate "the way it has always been done." Going against the grain of the way things are in our society, we will know that it is the Will of God being done. When we face into "the storm" from which the voice of God addresses Job, who has lost everything and is powerless, we will know that even though we may be acting out of weakness, we still choose to do something. The condemnation of the cities of Chorazin and Beathsaida are that they did not respond, in the face of their own storms, and did not recognize God’s voice and power in their midst.

Today, we will be lead to those for whom the promises of God were made: abundant generosity, life, mercy, compassion and justice. Yes, like the Seventy-Two, He sends us out on mission to make a difference in the lives of those for whom there is no apparent hope. Yes, we meet the usual obstacles caused by the fear of the unknown in answering the call to serve "the poor" who cross our path.  

 

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

Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus 

Scripture:

Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Luke 9:57-62

Reflection:

Much has been written about St.Therese of the Child Jesus, but I suggest that the best source to come to know this young woman is her own autobiography written in her own words at the direction of her religious superior, who was also her older sister.

The ninth child in her family, she lost her beloved mother in death when she was only four and a half years old; she entered the Carmelite Cloister at 15, and died at the age of 24. Canonized in 1925, she was named Doctor of the Church in 1997.

Quite a ‘Vitae’!

The first reading today from the Book of Job calls us to reflect on the sufferings of a good man whose friends were trying to convince him that his sufferings are the result of his sinfulness. Job is confident that he has not sinned, yet he is unwilling to say that God is unjust, or causing, or allowing the innocent to suffer.

Therese too knew suffering, yet she teaches us that God’s love is infinite.  Throughout her story we see a young woman who loved and trusted deeply in God’s love for her and for all those with whom she came in contact throughout her "Little Way of Love". Her complete surrender and fidelity to God in the small and ordinary daily tasks and her faithful offering of all her sufferings and illness was ‘… to save souls… those who did not know or love God as she knew and loved God’.

Today’s Gospel from Luke calls us to trust and say with the disciples of Jesus and with St. Therese, who’s life and spirituality we reflect on today, "I will follow you wherever you go,"  and mean it!

"Instead of becoming discouraged, I said to myself: God cannot inspire unrealized    desires. I can then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.  It is impossible for me to grow up and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short and totally new."  St. Therese of Lisieux.  "A Story of a Soul,"  207

If Therese’s religious superior and blood sister had not asked her to reflect and write her life and spiritual experiences, we would never have come to know this great saint of extraordinary grace in ordinary times. To those of you who read and reflect on the life of this great woman today, may I suggest that you reflect on your life and write your own spiritual autobiography as did Therese!  Then share your story with your loved ones.

 

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

Feast of Ss. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

Scripture:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Revelations 12:7-12ab
John 1:47-51

Reflection:

Today I find we as Catholic Christians are rather reluctant to speak about angels, at least in public. We may believe in them, and some of us, no doubt, have actually encountered them at one point in our lives. But to speak about them is something we would rather not do publicly. Like the scholar Dr. Stephen F. Noll is quoted as saying: "…one good reason for this: angels are marginal figures. They never appear center stage: they are always in the wings!"

Yet the Church in its wisdom celebrates today the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In this feast, the Church reminds us that angels and archangels are part of God’s creation, like ourselves. But unlike we who are "created in the image and likeness of God," the angels are spirits who were created for a purpose, a function. Indeed the Greek word angel means messenger. And as Saint Gregory the Great reminds us in the Office of Readings: "the word ‘angel’ denotes a function rather than a nature."

Angels deliver messages; archangels deliver messages of great importance!

Think back to the Archangel Gabriel’s salutation to Elizabeth and to the Virgin Mary. Think of Michael who is sent to express God’s complete victorious power over evil, and Raphael, who is sent to Tobit to heal his blindness. The names of the archangels themselves are also rather telling: Michael means "Who is like God?." Gabriel means "the Strength of God" and Raphael "God’s Remedy." Angels are messengers and should never be confused with the message…angels simply point to God.

In the gospel today we hear of the call of Nathanael and his encounter with God. Jesus calls him a "true son of Israel." There are echoes here of an earlier son named "Israel" from the book of Genesis -Jacob-who experiences a bridge to God through the messenger angels ascending to and descending from God’s throne. But it is in the person of Jesus that we encounter the ultimate bridge to God – Jesus who brings those on earth to heaven and unites heaven to earth!

Make no mistake, faithful Christian, while archangels can carry the important messages of God, they only point to the ultimate reality. Only we who possess Christ Jesus can encounter and actually carry within ourselves the ultimate God Himself!

 

Patrick Quinn is the Director of Planned Giving and works in the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

Scripture:

Job 19:21-27
Matthew 18:1-5, 10

Reflection:

Today’s feast of the Guardian Angels points to a surprising intersection between ancient belief and a central feature of modern, popular spirituality.  In the contemporary religious scene, angels are definitely "in", as TV shows, websites and blogs, pins and T-shirts indicate. What are we to make of this?

For one thing, this popular focus on angels tells us that, even in our seemingly secular culture, people experience divine presence and activity.  There is a mysterious, positive power that is felt and ‘seen’; it is found active in all dimensions of human existence.  Popular belief is echoing the Gospel story – God is for real and is active in our world.

And, popular attraction to angels is focused on our need for protection. Life is sometimes tough, unkind or cruel; we need more security than we can muster by ourselves.  Here, contemporary spiritual experience is catching up with the meaning of today’s feast.

In both Old and New Testaments, God’s provident care and compassion is often expressed through the activity of angels. An angel protects the three young men cast into the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:49); an angel counsels Joseph to protect Mary and the Infant Jesus (Mt 2:13); an angel supports Jesus himself in his garden agony (Luke 22:43); an angel frees Peter from prison (Acts 12:6 ff). And these examples just scratch the surface!

May today’s celebration deepen our trust in God’s protective compassion. Let us live in the conviction that our lives and destiny are cloaked in God’s invincible love.

 

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

Scripture:

Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23
Luke 9:51-56

Reflection:

Have you ever had one of those days when you wish you hadn’t been born?  That is how Job felt in our first reading today.  He was wallowing in pain and sorrow and wished he were dead.  Job was a good man and, despite his suffering, he remained faithful to God.  However he lived in Old Testament times.  He didn’t know Jesus and had no knowledge of baptism.  As a result, Job could see no meaning to his misery.

We who are baptized into the body of Christ Jesus have a strong motive for enduring suffering when it comes our way.  We know that we do not suffer alone.  In some way, because of our union with Christ, it is he who suffers in and through us.  And Christ does not suffer in vain.  Therefore, our suffering has eternal value.  Calvary continues in us.  How incomprehensible are God’s ways and how unsearchable are his judgments that he would involve you and me in the saving work of his Son!

The story of Job had a happy conclusion.  Eventually his suffering ended and he prospered for the rest of his life.  I suspect Job came to the same realization that the apostle Paul did.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul taught, "We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love him."(Rom 8:28)  After Calvary came Easter.  From death comes life. 

May the Passion of Christ be always in our hearts.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Ezekiel 18:25-28
Philippians 2:1-11
Matthew 21:28-32

Reflection:

Henri Nouwen in the book "Compassion," draws on the beautiful hymn of Christ in Paul’s letter to the Philippians – today’s second reading- to help us see Christ’s role as servant and slave.  He speaks of humanity’s seeming wish to have something "from on high" something unusual, spectacular, magical to deliver us from our fears – be it natural disasters, nuclear wars, or increased crime.  But he says that Jesus did not reach down from above to pull us up, but rather he became one with us.  Jesus did not become human to remove us from pain, agony and distress – but to walk with us as we meet life’s problems and challenges.

If we are to be Christ-like, we are not called to reach down to pull up others to our status, but rather to be willing to walk with them where they are. 

What a radical thought that is!    While we are not all called to live in a third world country, we are all called to walk with compassion with those we know who are in need.  So perhaps that means not just offering to serve in a soup kitchen, but to sit down and share a meal.  Perhaps it means not just donating money to the Red Cross, but to also spend time sitting with someone who is receiving a chemo treatment.

I think of the times in my life when I have been most touched by another.  It is not when I was given financial help or a generous gift.  It was when a friend shed a tear for my loss; it was when a handclasp let me know of concern, it was when a quiet word spoken in an anxious whisper told me my worries were not carried alone.

I think that if we root our lives in these simplest and genuine signs of compassion, we will continue to grow in our efforts to be more Christ-like and we may be able to better walk the path of our God who

              " …became as we are,

                  and being as we are,

                  he was humbler yet

                  accepting death,

                  even death on a Cross."

 

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

Scripture:
Eccl 11:9-12:8
Lk 9:43b-45

Reflection:

Today’s first reading is a sobering one. It could certainly give even a "cock-eyed" optimist pause.  At first we are encouraged to enjoy the delights of our young and carefree days, but then the pretty curtain is pulled away to reveal our humbling mortality-the fleeting gift we call "life" is terribly fragile and there are painful truths inevitably to be faced.  But denial is a tough nut to crack for us humans.  The Gospel reading bears this out as we witness the disciples themselves too afraid to even try to comprehend the uncertain future awaiting Jesus. If only they could understand that beyond the crushing reality of His death is the promise of His eternal life.

We live in an age of "spin," where often the truth gets packaged or managed or hidden or delivered in a way that will make us feel anything but uneasy.  And then when reality hits, we feel vulnerable, frantic over the loss of all that we thought we knew to be secure. One need look no further than this last week’s headlines and the current financial crisis to see unhappy truths revealing themselves and how devastating that may feel or be to many of us.

For me I guess the question is: why does the first reading present this fairly dismal picture of humanity in which all will ultimately return to dust? It makes me wonder if all our modern efforts to push unpleasantness away, to keep our mortality at bay and our options limitless are not actually preventing us from encountering God more fully. Today’s reading says it bluntly. Life really is short, often painful, and all things are vanity.  But as the Gospel will reveal, it is in embracing the "real reality," our journey to the Cross, that we are promised a new life, and in that there is hope beyond our wildest dreams.  

Nancy Nickel is the Communications Director for Holy Cross Province.