Daily Scripture

The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Scripture:

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17
John 2:13-22

Reflection:

Even Basilicas Have a Back Pew

Last week I attended mass with the school children in a small church in suburban Baltimore. St. Augustine’s had as its pastor for two years St. John Neumann CSSR prior to his being named Bishop of Philadelphia. In the small, historical church contemporary school children gathered with grandparents, a few parents and myself filling in the last two pews.

I enjoyed a 3-year-old a few seats in front of me who knelt on the seat with her back to the altar unashamedly studying two 5th grade boys behind her. They calmly endured her gaze. Occasionally one of the boys pointed to the sanctuary, encouraging her to turn around. She didn’t and finally pointed her finger at them! The 7th grade girls who read practiced before mass. Although close to being overcome with nervousness, when the moment came they rose to the occasion and read beautifully. The pastor engaged the children during his homily with questions. Only the very little ones were up for answers. How masterful was the pastor at discovering good answers in their replies. The communion procession was lovely, as was the singing, and of all things, the leaving of church. The children left happy, some hand in hand with their older schoolmates.

What has stayed in my mind since sharing in that beautiful Eucharist is something about learning. All of the children were learning. I realized I was also, although I was at church by chance while visiting to celebrate a golden anniversary of priesthood. Yes, 50 years and still learning.

Today we are celebrating the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The baptismal font in its octagonal chapel describes the newly baptized as baby fish swimming through the waters of life. Filled with the Holy Spirit, anointed with the perfumed oil of chrism to honor their new dignity, the new little fish are entrusted with a great commission as followers of the Risen One: You are other Christs! See Christ in yourself, see Christ in others, love as Christ loves. We are learners from the beginning.

St. John Chrysostom describes the newly baptized by comparing us to the church.

Before baptism we are like a ramshackle, falling apart building, a place of chaos and danger. But after baptism we are beautiful, a place of welcome and gracious hospitality. Paul can say that our foundation is Jesus, nothing else. Each of us builds upon that foundation. “The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple”.

God loves us and wants intimacy with us. God wants to be part of our lives, share with us, come close. And we seek to fulfill the desire we have for God, as Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”.

Prayer is God’s gift to us and brings us into the presence of God. And in the center of it all there is the Table of Bounteous Blessing that groans under the weight of what God    sets before us, teaching and nourishing us so we grow and learn – so ordinary, so simple, so reverent, awesome, human and hilarious. Sit in the back pew and watch. We can learn so much.

Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.

Scripture:

Romans 13:8-10
Luke 14:25-33

Reflection:

Today we see Jesus in a preferred mode of action and ministry – travelling across the land and preaching to crowds as they assembled to hear his message. Perhaps we need to take ourselves back to his world to fully imagine the scene – a time when life was difficult for most, daily toil was physical and often for little reward, and recreation was more of a luxury and rarity.

Jesus speaks of some of the realities that people had to confront in their daily lives – the servitude of labouring tasks (like building a tower) and the awareness of or even fear of war. Most people who heard the parables of Jesus were peasants, slaves, or labourers so they knew and experienced life as a hard road to travel.

If read literally, then Jesus sayings seem to add to their burdens. His words do seem to make some severe demands upon them – at least that is what the English translations seem to suggest.

So instead of taking these words literally let us reflect on the essence of what Jesus asks and offers.

Firstly, let us see his call as one inviting a disciple to make Jesus the centre of his or her life. To me this is the meaning behind the challenge to put aside family relationships (or possessions) and to make one’s core choice, a choice for Jesus. It does not necessarily mean abandoning family, rather it is a matter of who occupies the centre!

Further, the disciple is reminded that this choosing of Jesus is not without cost. To follow a charismatic leader, and more so to stand with him against aspects of life that are at odds with true human development, will attract opposition (as it did for Jesus). There will be obstacles to face and overcome and these can be seen as crosses to carry. There are also those limitations that arise from within the human heart – doubts, worry, the feeling of unworthiness – these too are crosses to carry bravely. Finally, we might see too that some crosses arise from life itself – illness, disappointments in relationships, hurts that are caused by others and to carry all of these things – and still serve and love others in Jesus name – requires faith, trust and courage.

What Jesus offers is the assurance that none of these obstacles can keep us from him or indeed keep him from standing close to us.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is the Provincial Superior of Holy Spirit Province, Australia. 

Scripture:

Romans 12:5-16b
Luke 14:15-24

Reflection:

Brothers and sisters:
We, though many, are one Body in Christ
and individually parts of one another.
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us exercise them… -Romans 12:5

What a team! What a team! We’re the best!

No, I’m not referring to the Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox, I’m rooting for our scullery team, cleaning up after the senior lunch I attend each weekday. On Mondays, I volunteer serving the meals and washing dishes. Periodically one of the three kitchen manager’s children helps when they are not in school. The youngest one, a ten or eleven-year-old, got all confused when her older brother reported that his kitchen team was the best. What? “Dan said we were the best!” she retorted. Thank God for mothers. Mom came to the rescue by explaining, that’s just Dan “He’s always rooting for the team he’s on.”

I relate well to wanting to be recognized as “The Best…” after all, as my mother and evidently Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1746) often said: “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” St Paul continues after exhorting us to be one body, enumerating the roles or body parts that make up a good team in his day, of prophecy, service, endurance… Howard Gardner, famous for his theory of multiple intelligences, in his 2006 book: “5 Minds for the Future” identifies the gifts he believes we need today: discipline; ability to synthesize; creativity; respect or others; and ethics. Wow, can you imagine being on a team, or in a community that not only professed, but also successfully brought these gifts to play as a team?

Thank you, Saints Paul, and Luke, for reminding us in today’s scripture readings, that we are called, and we’ve been given the gifts we need.  I pray that I can recognize my gift(s), freely share those with all, and anyone in my life today, whether in the scullery or the pulpit or in writing this reflection.

Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists.  He lives in Chicago.  

Scripture:

Romans 11:29-36
Luke 14:12-14

Reflection:

When the Catholic Worker House of Hospitality opened in our city, after years of preparation, supporters of the effort hosted a feast for the neighborhood. If guests were able to bring a prepared dish, a loaf of bread or pastry, coffee or tea, they were invited to do so. Those with nothing to bring were equally welcome, however.

Many who attended were newly arrived immigrants, widows, people living in abandoned houses, and the lonely who were isolated from their neighbors.

Those of us who organized the event brought prepared food as well as an openness to all who showed up at the door.

When all the food was spread over the large dining table, everyone held hands in a circle and prayed to God a word of thanks.

As I scanned the several dozen people I was struck by the diversity of the group. Some I knew were rich and well-educated. Others wore what looked to be clothes from a secondhand store. Still others were smartly dressed and coifed. Black, brown, and white faces, their eyes closed in reverence, remained silent as the leader spoke directly to God.

At that moment I was distracted from the prayer and experienced a deep insight: this was the reign of God made visible in our midst. There was no division. No category of human. No class distinction. No us-versus-them. No in-group and no out-group. The love of God in all of us had erased borders and boundaries.

Recalling this beautiful moment, I humbly must disagree with a statement of Jesus’ at the end of today’s Gospel. He states that those who host a feast for the social outcasts will be “repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

At that moment, in that Catholic Worker House, I was repaid a thousand-fold with the joy of human unity. I didn’t have to wait for the resurrection of the righteous.

An open heart to everyone, a heart that has dispelled fears, prejudices, stereotypes, and categories, is a heart that fully trusts in God. It means rejecting the idols of wealth, power, and status in favor of compassion and humility.

Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, encouraged us to move down society’s ladder in a culture that admires those who are eager to move up it. This means a conversion of heart to become more empathetic, less judgmental, more deferential.

The ability to live this way is a gift from God. And, as Paul writes in today’s Epistle to the Romans, “The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”

Today let us pray for the grace to be open to the call and gift of God to live lives of compassion and humility, open to everyone we encounter today, whether they have high status of a wealthy executive or are paupers begging on the street.

The reign of God is not prosperity, affluence, influence, and pride. The reign of God is everyone around a table of plenty, sharing our lives without a hint of vanity.

The psalm today says: “See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor; and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

May God free us from our bonds of isolation, bigoty, and arrogance to be free to reach out to everyone, even our enemies and those who frighten us.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
1 Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13
Matthew 23:1-12

Reflection:

[In] receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God.  -1 Thessalonians 2:13b

The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.  -Matthew 23:2-3

Today’s readings lead us to examine those people we choose to take advice and teaching from. If we take a look at our lives, we usually find we’ve had many teachers over the years. Starting from an early age with our parents, continuing into elementary school, high school, and beyond, there are many people we’ve had a teacher/student relationship with.

We can also find particular friends and family, pastors (whether of our own church or in the media), spiritual directors, workshop leaders, the list goes on and on of people that have and continue to inform our understanding of our relationship with God.

But often we find our teachers, like many heroes, sometimes have feet of clay. While they may have great insight into certain particular teachings, we should be cautious about following them in everything they do and say. Jesus admonishes his followers to listen to the scribes and Pharisees because they have taken the seat of Moses; that is, they are appointed teachers of the mosaic law. However, that doesn’t necessarily make them good role models because elsewhere in the gospel Jesus tells us we need to stay awake. As Saint Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, “Test all, retain what is good.”

It is tempting to become intellectually lazy and just want to go along without examining what we receive. But as both Jesus and Paul tell us, we are not to cut ourselves off from the world, but to examine it, to test it and retain what is good.

And how do I do that? Through reflection, discernment, and taking the time to sit with what I receive and listen to the spirit in my heart.

My prayer for myself today is that I’d be willing to take the time to seek the spirit in everything I receive and discern that which is true.

Talib Huff is a retired teacher and a member of the retreat team at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center in Citrus Heights, California. You can contact him at [email protected].

Scripture:

Romans 11:1-2,11-12,25-29
Luke 14:1, 7-11

Reflection:

2023 Holiday Humility

Jesus & “table fellowship”:  today’s Gospel recounts Jesus dining at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.  It’s truly a special day…a Special Guest…an invitation to dinner and fellowship — and a teachable moment!  Jesus is aware of his host, his fellow guests, their manners at table…and makes this occasion a teachable moment with a parable.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor…rather take the lowest place…one who humbles themselves will be exalted…”  Jesus highlights “humility”.  These Gospel verses then continue with Jesus encouraging his host to reach out and invite to dinner the poor and needy…the least, the last, the lost…humility leading to generosity.

Humility invites us to be aware of our gifts and our limitations.  The word itself comes from the word “humus” or earth…the created matter that sustains life and growth.  Humble people are not human “doormats”, but rather those who know and accept both their God-given gifts and their human limitations.  Great examples of humility are Jesus and Mary, along with the many saintly people whose lives we just celebrated in the Feast of All Saints.  Humility is a key virtue for all Christians!

The month of November helps us celebrate God’s Life shared with us and our world.  The virtue of humility…that acknowledgement of our God-given giftedness…helps us celebrate the lives of the Saints — those officially recognized and those still “under construction”.  Thanksgiving Day helps us celebrate the giftedness seen in our lives and our country.  At the end of the month, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, thus concluding the gift of the liturgical year.  November is a celebration of abundant blessings!

Jesus challenges us to go deeper in living the virtue of humility:  to be women and men of grateful prayer, to serve our sisters and brothers by helping meet their basic needs.  Jesus also invites us to respect our earth as God’s gift, to celebrate that we are all members of God’s family in our common home.  As we gather with families and friends, as we celebrate the holidays, as we gather at the Table of the Lord and celebrate the Eucharist:  may we humbly celebrate God’s Life and Love shared with us and our needy world. 

To paraphrase part of Psalm 94:  God is good…all the time!

Fr. John Schork, C.P. serves as the Province Vocation Director and also as Local Superior of the Passionist Community of Holy Name in Houston, Texas.  

Scripture:

Romans 9:1-5
Luke 14:1-6

Reflection:

Dropsy (or Oedema) is a build-up of fluid in the body which causes the affected tissue to become swollen. The swelling can occur in one particular part of the body or more universally across the body. One of the causes is malnutrition (as was the lot of the poor), and another cause is standing for long periods (as a servant might do).

Perhaps our reflection might follow along the lines of these probable causes. Here at table, in the home of a prominent pharisee (and presumably a well-resourced one) all are eating. The man is either an interloper or a servant at table. There is no sign that anyone notices his condition or if they do, seeks to respond to it.

Jesus by even being there, demonstrates once more the extraordinary dimensions of his ‘boundary breaking’ ministry – he is not afraid to associate with the rich (nor afraid to challenge them ) even if, most likely, he has been invited with a less than generous spirit and the motive of his host(s) is to merely observe him and to ‘’test’ him.

The instinctive attitude and actions of Jesus inspired the response to life developed by the Belgian Cardinal Joseph Cardijn who founded the Young Christian Workers and the Young Christian Students. Cardijn promoted the response of ‘see, judge, act’ as a way of Christian action in the world.

We see its origins in Jesus himself – he notices the man, he quickly makes his own interior judgment that compassion overshadows the letter of the law in such an instance, and he acts to help and heal (even in the face of disapproval). Further, he challenges those who do defend the law as only having a literal interpretation, to justify their own actions and positions.

The meal was presumably nourishing, the actions of Jesus were life giving.

Fr. Denis Travers, C.P., is the Provincial Superior of Holy Spirit Province, Australia. 

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

Scripture:

Wisdom 3:1-9
Romans 6:3-9
John 6:37-40

Reflection:

All Souls Day is traditionally the third day of Allhallowtide—right after Halloween and All Saints’ Day. These three days have invited people into deeper communion with the dead, from ancient times right up until the present.

Ancient peoples who lived in the northern hemisphere experienced autumn as a time of diminishment, as their fields were emptied of crops, and the trees dropped their leaves. As the days became shorter and the air crisper, their thoughts turned to death, not only the death in nature, but their deceased loved ones as well. Halloween was first observed by Celtic people in Ireland at the end of their harvest season. On this special day, the Celts believed the veil between the living and the dead was especially thin.

In the southern hemisphere, the Day of the Dead, el Día de Muertos, developed in Mexico to honor deceased relatives, and is now joyfully celebrated in many other countries. With the coming of Christianity, the feast was celebrated on November 1^st and November 2^nd , in keeping with the Catholic Church’s All Saints Day and All Souls Day celebrations, which were instituted in the Middle Ages. All Saints Day is a celebration of the saints and martyrs in the Church, and All Souls Day is a celebration of the many other people who lived good lives, and who may have touched us personally: our ancestors, parents, extended family, mentors, teachers, and friends.

When we research and reflect on the lives of those who have gone before us, we discover that their lives were not always easy. In today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom, we hear of the soul’s journey as one of being purified as gold in a furnace: being tested by fire. 

Before our physical death, there are many other “deaths” during our lives: loss of a loved one, loss of our health, or even loss of a dream. How did those who went before us survive these tests by fire?

St. Paul answers this question in our second reading for today: “For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”–Romans 6:5. In union with Jesus, souls of the faithful departed rose up to meet the challenges of life and become the great souls we celebrate today, people who have built families, neighborhoods, churches, and communities. Let us remember them and thank God (and them) for their faithfulness. For, as we hear in our funeral liturgies, death does not break the bonds forged in life, and “Life is changed, not ended”.

Patty Gillis is a retired Pastoral Minister. She served on the Board of Directors at St. Paul of the Cross Passionist Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit. She is currently a member of the Laudato Si Vision Fulfillment Team and the Passionist Solidarity Network.