Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Wisdom 13:1-9
Luke 17:26-37

Reflection:

Nobody likes to be caught off guard when something momentous is about to happen. Today’s gospel is so unnerving because it reminds us of how costly that unpreparedness can be. We are urged to live with a constant sense of vigilance, to embrace each day with our senses charged, eyes open and alert, keenly aware that any inattentiveness might lead to our doom.

That fateful tone pervades so many of the readings in the latter weeks of the liturgical year, and it is certainly true with today’s gospel from Luke. Jesus reminds his disciples of people who missed all the signs, people who were shockingly oblivious to what was soon to take place. A deluge was about to break loose, but they were so absorbed in the things of everyday life that they had no sense that something catastrophic was lurking. They went on “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark.” While Noah was getting ready, all those around him lived as if there was no need to be prepared for anything. And so, Jesus said, it was no surprise that “the flood came and destroyed them all.” Similarly, with Sodom’s destruction lurking, only Lot was attuned to what was about to unfold. Everyone else went on “eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building,” as if life had no meaning beyond the day-to-day. So, Jesus said, “fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.” What unsettles and, frankly, frightens us is that everyone, except for Noah and Lot, missed the one thing for which they had to be prepared. They were waiting for nothing, and it cost them their lives. “So it will be,” Jesus assures us, “on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”

There’s no way to wiggle free from such an ominous message and no way to say we weren’t warned. To act as if we are answerable to no one and that our lives concern nothing beyond ourselves is both foolish and dangerous. The only way not to be destroyed by that tempting but fatal illusion is to live each day for the coming of the Son of Man. In other words, we are to orientate our lives toward a future that is not only coming but, in so many respects, is already here.

Paul J. Wadell is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the Passionist Family.

Scripture:

Wisdom 7:22b-8:1
Luke 17:20-25

Reflection:

The first reading continues our dive into the book of Wisdom. Diving calls us to go beyond the superficial level into deep reflection. The first reading follows Paul’s example of enumeration of love in the thirteenth chapter of 1^st Corinthians. Wisdom is given a beautiful litany of adjectives. Wisdom has natural goodness as intelligent, clear, and firm among others. Wisdom also has a supernatural goodness that is all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits. Wisdom is the aura, or presence of God and the effusion of graces. Although not in plain sight, wisdom and the kingdom of God is present. The Lord pours out goodness and grace. Together with wisdom, God’s people become holy souls, friends and prophets.

We celebrate the lives of two female saints, St. Gertrude the Great and St. Margaret of Scotland. St. Margaret was known as the “pearl of Scotland” due to her tremendous impact on the country. In her wisdom, she held fast to prayer and devotion. She performed works of charity for the poor and the uneducated. St Gertrude rigorously studied Scripture and liturgy to draw closer to her God in prayer.

Wisdom is often used as a metaphor. Wisdom is like lightning that reaches end to end mightily. So will be the appearance of the Son of Man. The fruits of the kingdom are being revealed. With great wisdom, help us to be attentive to the fruits, Lord.

Fr. Phillip Donlan, CP, is the Associate Director of Ministry at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center, Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

Wisdom 6:1-11
Luke 17:11-19

Reflection:

In some ways today’s Gospel from Luke is a basic lesson in gratitude. In being thankful. Our Lord healed the ten lepers, one of the greatest handicaps of their time. Who would not agree that returning to give thanks would be the right thing to do. It really is amazing only one came back.

We are not listening to a story where two people were healed and only one returned. There were ten healed with one returning. Fully 90% of those healed did not give thanks but moved on with their lives once normalcy returned.

Where is their gratitude? Did they return to their families and their occupations and once fully in the world again, in all the excitement, forget to give thanks or just move on.

In rejoining their community were they unsure or embarrassed to be associated with Jesus and thus stayed away?

Am I any different? Do I give thanks to God unceasingly for the blessings in my life? Even if not an extraordinary miracle, do I keep to myself the movements of grace in my life?

Do I proclaim how much the love of God has healed, transformed and given meaning to my life or especially in today’s culture, do I stay silent?

The answers I have for these questions have me looking more like one of the nine in today’s story.

Interestingly, Jesus tells the one who came back to give thanks, your faith has saved you. He does not say, as he does elsewhere in the Gospels, your faith has healed you.

What was this faith Jesus was referring to? Yes, it is returning to give thanks, but it was also recognizing and desiring the return to the One from whom the grace flowed, kneeling in worship, and glorifying God. All these acts of faith put the focus on God, not on the miracle. So many saints in their writings have reminded us not to look so much at the gift, but to the One who gave it. How amazing it is that the Creator of the universe acts in each of our lives.

May we respond when the Lord acts in our life, however large or small, like the one in today’s Gospel. Seeking the Lord, coming to Him, thanking Him and praising Him for His goodness and love.

Steve Walsh is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California, and a good friend of the Passionist Community.

Scripture:

Wisdom 2:23-3:9
Luke 17:7-10

Reflection:

Two major scriptural themes appear in today’s readings: God has made us in his image, and there are great blessings to receive by keeping his word.

Because God made us in his image, we are indeed “imperishable.” Our souls are eternal. Our essences are spiritual. We reflect God’s capacity to connect with other beings—human and divine. We interact with God, the saints, and creatures on Earth. We reflect God’s loving nature with our ability to love and to have compassion, empathy, and kindness. We create awareness and hope as co-creators with God, doing what we believe is right to build his kingdom here.

God says that whoever loves him will keep his word. Even when we don’t receive immediate gratification for every deed of keeping his word, we at least know we have done what we are obliged to do. Still, it’s usually clear what keeping God’s word means because God has connected with us for millennia through his prophets, his Son, and the Holy Spirit. He has spoken to us directly in his teachings. So, we strive to follow commandments, moral principles, and teachings.

We do our best to reflect God’s nature through listening, mercy, forgiveness, fairness, and working for peace. We love and serve others with humility, especially those in need. We deal with plenty of our personal sufferings, but we do so with love and gladness in our hearts because God nurtures us. And we know this because he stays close to us, takes us in his hands, may choose to rescue us, gives us peace, and blesses us often. Let us count those blessings.

Let us begin each day with gratitude for the image of God’s nature that we share and the pathways to eternal happiness we read about in holy scripture. We are likely to discern truth and understanding through the Holy Spirit. If we look carefully, we may be lucky enough to notice role models around us—a few saints in our midst who are significant co-creators with God.

Jack Dermody is the editor of the CrossRoads bulletin for the Passionist Alumni Association and a member of the Migration Commission for Holy Cross Province. He lives in Glendale, Arizona. 

Scripture:

Wisdom 1:1-7
Luke 17:1-6

Reflection:

Our first reading from the beginning of the book of Wisdom invites us to reflect on the essence of justice and integrity in our daily lives. Written in the first century before the birth of Christ, it reflects an earnest effort to promote the Jewish faith. At that time, challenges to orthodoxy existed from within and without the community. The cultural tensions between the Hellenistic Greeks and the Hellenistic Jews gave rise to several works known as the Wisdom Writings. Each work attempts to offer a deeper reflection on the relationship of God and his chosen people in light of current events through the lens of Greek thinking.

What might it say today in the twenty-first century in navigating through current events? We are to “love justice…to think of the Lord in goodness and to seek him in integrity of heart” (v.1). The text invites us to set aside our gripes or agendas and earnestly seek the good of the other. That is true justice reflecting wisdom in the presence of the all-knowing, all-embracing Spirit of the Lord that fills the whole earth.

Our Psalm (139) presents our privileged position as a child of God, surrounded by his Spirit—there is no escape from God’s benevolent love. Saint Thomas Aquinas has said, “To love is to will the good of the other.” Can we trust that God desires our good? That he fashioned us in secret and will love us to the end! Perhaps our society has not evolved much beyond the first audience of the book of Wisdom. Today, we live between cultural tensions that seem unrepairable. On every level, we have societal breakdowns with wars raging and growing poverty, to name a few. Yet, we keep up hope as we pray for all who suffer.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to those same principles of justice, mercy, and forgiveness. Interestingly, he touches on our humanity as he teaches, “…. sin… will inevitably occur…” (v.1). We find an echo of this in the book of Genesis as God addresses Cain with the following…” sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is towards you, yet you can be his master” (4:7b), suggesting that we can have power over sin. Our faith has that potential.

In today’s text, Jesus presents a way to take control and master sin by offering forgiveness at every opportunity. Living in unforgiveness is destructive in its effects among individuals and among nations. I find it interesting that immediately following Jesus’ instructions on forgiveness, the disciples ask him to increase their faith. It’s as if they understand that authentic forgiveness can only be possible through a growing faith.

Faith that is increasing is always alive, reaching ever greater heights. We see this in St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, whose feast we celebrate today. She is the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Before forming her congregation, two others felt she was too frail for the rigors of convent life and rejected her. At the invitation of Pope Leo XIII, she and six sisters traveled to the United States to minister to Italian immigrants. Mother Cabrini and her congregation established many schools, orphanages, and hospitals. She became a naturalized citizen and is the “first citizen saint” of the United States.

In this season of Thanksgiving, may we continue to be grateful people with ever-increasing faith. May we have faith strong enough to uproot hatred and war. May we have faith strong enough to plant seeds of peace and love. Lord, increase our faith. Amen.

Jean Bowler is a retreatant at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California, and a member of the Office of Mission Effectiveness Board of Holy Cross Province.

Scripture:

Wisdom 6:12-16
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

Reflection:

Today’s readings are primarily focused on wisdom in the context of the coming of the Kingdom.  “Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her and found by those who seek her.”

As we are nearing the end of the current liturgical year, the Church is reminding us that we are also each nearing the end of our mortal lives here on earth, no matter what our age.  The “wise” among us will be attentive and will be ready to greet the bridegroom when he invites us to join in the wedding feast.  Through a prayerful and sacramental life, the wise will have enough oil (spirituality) to sustain them while they await the coming of the Kingdom.  The “unwise” who do not live a prayerful and sacramental life will be left outside and the doors will be locked against them forever.   

The parable of the ten virgins reminds me of a challenging homily that our Pastor gave several years ago relating to Matthew’s gospel.  Near the end of the homily, he asked the entire congregation “how many of you want to go to Heaven?”  Of course, everyone put their hand up.  His next question was more challenging and provocative, “how many of you want to go to Heaven TODAY?”  Not surprisingly, only two or three hands went up.  What is the implication here? 

By our human nature we all cling to our lives for as long as we can.  It is difficult to conceive that we might die today even though we are hopeful of eternal life in Heaven.  And so, we hope for a few more days, a few more weeks, a few more months, or several more years.  There is nothing wrong with that human desire, but as pointed out in the parable it begs the question of whether we will be “ready” throughout the span of the rest of our lives?  Or do we take advantage of the time that we think we have left to allow ourselves to “become drowsy and fall asleep” in our spiritual and sacramental lives?  The “wise” virgins in the parable made sure that they would be ready when the bridegroom returned.  The “unwise” virgins only hoped that they would have enough oil to sustain them until the bridegroom returned.  They obviously did not.

We all know of many people who died suddenly and unexpectedly.  My mother was one of them.  It is probably certain that most of them did not anticipate a quick end to their lives.  We pray that they each were prepared to greet the bridegroom for the wedding feast.  As tempting as it is to “estimate” the length of life that each of us has left, it is also “unwise”.  That is not to suggest that we will not be ready when our time comes.  Rather, we can become complacent and drowsy and fall asleep as did the unwise virgins.        

So, the question to keep ourselves focused on our spiritual and sacramental life on a daily basis: “Am I ready to go to Heaven today? 

Bill Berger has had a life-long relationship with the Passionist Family.  Bill and his wife, Linda, are currently leaders of the Community of Passionist Partners (CPP’s) in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

Romans 16:3-9, 16, 22-27
Luke 16:9-15

Reflection:

I worked at a major aerospace corporation many years ago within its extensive national and international communications department.  As vast as this enterprise was, it operated by the simple principle of the single responsibility center.  Generally, a single responsibility center is an operational unit led by one individual within the larger organization responsible for all the activities and tasks for that unit.  “Multiheaded monsters create confusion and diffuse responsibility because no one is ultimately in charge,” I was told. 

It’s a sound organizational rule but hardly a new idea.  “No servant can serve two masters,” Jesus told his disciples.  “He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”  The word mammon, from the Aramaic, means money or possessions.  Jesus personifies mammon here to expose its demonic, slavish grip on us.  In fact, disordered material desires become like a demon that controls us. 

Thus, Jesus’ implied question: to whom will we give our allegiance?  Jesus’ words are not some abstract or academic question.  Materialism characterizes our Western culture.   Materialism embraces those values and goals focused on wealth, possessions, image, and status.  Like the mythical Greek sirens whose singing lured sailors to their deaths in dangerous waters, mammon lures us to hazardous values, material possessions, and physical comfort over spiritual comforts.  If we think we can somehow share our service to God and things of this world, we will become spiritually weak.

God desires that we come to know God, to love God, and to serve God in this world so that at the end of our lives here on earth, we will abide in the joyful eternal presence of God.  Abiding in God is our ultimate purpose, our goal.  Taking a page from Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas would refer to God as the highest and eternal Good.  Had Aquinas been a corporation organizer today, he might have called God our single responsibility center.

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

Scripture:

Romans 15:14-21
Luke 16:1-8

Reflection:

In the Gospel, a dishonest steward was caught squandering his master’s money. When it was apparent he’d be fired, he proactively reduced the debts owed to his master, ingratiating himself to people who would then feel obliged to help him. Rather than firing him, the master congratulated him.  

It’s important to note that Jesus didn’t commend the steward or tell us to do likewise; he simply commented that this is the way of the world. Be prudent, look ahead, and do whatever is necessary. While not wishing his followers to be unethical, Jesus wished they’d be that resourceful in spreading the Good News in the immediate circumstances of their lives.

Paul actually did so. He fearlessly did anything necessary to preach the Gospel. He didn’t always stay within the lines or obey the rules, but took every opportunity, even risking his life, to bring others to faith.

I can’t claim that same dedication and fortitude. I’m a highly pastoral person, welcoming all who come to my parish, support group, or classes, or those whom I encounter in life. Once I discover someone’s interest in talking about faith, I’ll share mine. Yet too often I’m afraid to initiate the conversation or stand out too much. I fear being vulnerable, and then being labeled, judged, or ostracized. I remember my resentment when anyone tried to “save” me.  And I’m certainly not willing to risk my life or what I hold dear. Model the Gospel by my life? Sure, I will always try to do that. Do whatever is necessary to bring others to faith? Not so much!

So, what now? Perhaps I need to look for gentle ways to open the door in secular circles. For instance, in conversations about my work, freely say that I try to be an instrument of God’s healing power. Or say that my faith has deepened considerably through the trials of my life, or that I’ve learned God is the only constant in a world where emotions, people, and life itself are so fickle. Then follow where that leads. Give the Spirit a chance to nudge another’s heart and prompt them to step a foot through the door.

After all, God truly is my rock and my salvation. Why should I be embarrassed or afraid to admit that? If someone else doesn’t feel the same, I’ve at least been authentic to who I am. And even if the conversation goes nowhere now, perhaps I planted a seed. Can I be an instrument of God’s healing power in that way too? I choose to try harder.

What about you? What can you do this week to more confidently bear witness to your faith and give God a chance to draw others closer? This world needs us.

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/.