Daily Scripture

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Micah 5:1-4a or Romans 8:28-30
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

Reflection:

In Saint Matthew’s gospel, the story of Jesus’ birth is told mostly through the eyes of Joseph. He is the one to whom the Lord reveals the Divine plan and Joseph is the one who is the principal actor in these early events. Joseph is however an ‘actor who never speaks’ either in interactions with others or indeed in his dialogue with the Lord. Joseph is a silent witness, but an acute listener and one who acts on every instruction given by the lord (albeit in dreams).

However, while the scripture highlights Joseph’s role in the birth of Jesus, today our focus is drawn towards Mary since the liturgy of today celebrates her birth – a Feast Day that has been celebrated in the Church from around the sixth century onwards.

Tradition celebrates Mary’s parents as Anne and Joachim (who only have the one child Mary herself). We know little of the life of Mary prior to her call by God and her marriage to Joseph, and as to Mary’s early years we must speculate. Perhaps we might consider two possibilities for the life that Mary lived.

Firstly we might note ancient tradition which stresses that from her very childhood Mary was dedicated to God and served in the Temple as a girl and young woman. This tradition can be seen in the writings of the Fathers of the Church who claim that Mary was presented to the Temple and served there from the age of three until the age of fourteen (when she was betrothed to Joseph and left such service to marry). Certainly there is evidence in the scriptures of women offering non-liturgical service in or around the Temple,  and we encounter one such person in the story of Joseph and Mary meeting Anna – an elderly widow who spent her days in service at the Temple.  But whether Mary lived such a life in her early years is beyond my knowledge.

Another way to reflect on Mary’s early years is simply to speculate that her life may have been no less than that of other young girls of her day. Although in such times girls were excluded from formally attending school, there is evidence that both mothers and fathers instructed their children in the Law, the scriptures and the customs and religious practices of the community. Mary’s faithfulness and dedication to God seems to provide ample evidence of her having an education that both nourished and informed her faith deeply. Of course for Mary, as for everyone in her society, education also meant learning basic skills – and indeed far more, since the scriptures record that apart from skills like weaving, cooking and sewing, women in fact undertook various tasks in agriculture and worked with textiles, perfumes and practiced as midwives.

But the essence of today is that of faithfulness. Mary’s whole life is given to God and her faithful stance becomes for us not just a key component in the story of our salvation, but a wonderful example to us of how to live our own lives.

Mary teaches us that discipleship knows no bounds, can be active at any age of our lives and that it is founded upon family, upon learning and listening and upon a deep sense of faith in God. Like Mary we are called to be listeners to the Word and to welcome the Word into our own lives so as to live our lives in service of Jesus ‘God with us’.

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

Scripture:

Colossians 1:9-14
Luke 5:1-11

Reflection:

Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.  -Luke 5:5-6

Upon first reading of today’s gospel passage, I’m thinking Luke left something very important out of the recipe or directions. Why does just doing as Jesus tells them, work?  Is it timing? Does Jesus see something that wasn’t in the water while they were fishing all night? Is it magic? Maybe my unbelief comes from my own experience trying to fish. Fishing has never been my forte.

Maybe what is missing, is the focus. As Passionists we are taught and believe keeping alive the memory of the passion of Jesus, is the focus to life. What Luke and I and many of us don’t talk about is the fish giving their lives to these people, fishermen. Yes, it may seem that they have no other choice, just like Jesus who freely gives himself totally, even dying on the Cross seemed to have had no choice when confronted with his executioners. I believe that Jesus was God and he did have a choice. He chose to give himself. Do these fish in today’s scriptural passage have a choice? Of course not. They do however give their lives up to these fishermen. The basis of our daily ritual of the eucharist is to give thanks. Trying to understand this passage considering that, makes much more sense to me.

God, help me freely give myself to you today, without reservation. Help me also to say thanks, both as a regular ritual of saying “Grace” before I consume any of mother earth’s gifts and as a regular, maybe even daily ritual of going to Mass or Eucharist to say thanks to you.

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

Scripture:

Colossians 1:1-8
Luke 4: 38-44

Reflection:

As a psychotherapist for decades, I never cease being stunned by the power of listening. The intentional act of focusing on every word that comes from the mouth of someone sitting across from me can indeed be transformative.

In our rushed, over-scheduled, pleasure-focused lives, the simple act of paying full attention to someone is rare. How many of us feel the urge to win an argument, dominate a conversation, score points in debates, or sound wise? Competition seems built into our genetic structure and can erupt in even casual conversation without our full awareness.

To take time to concentrate on zeroing in on the family member, spouse, co-worker, neighbor or casual acquaintance as they speak to us results in a shift in the dynamics of interaction that can put a person at ease, make them feel valued, relieve their anxiety, lower their defenses. They leave the chat lifted in ways we may never know. More importantly, they may depart and imitate our way of listening with the next person they meet.

When I pray over today’s Gospel selection from Luke, I imagine Jesus’ extraordinary capacity to connect to the suffering people by focusing and touching. The demons he did not allow to speak, perhaps to make space for the goodness of the needy person, the person’s authenticity, to emerge and transform their lives.

One theme of the best-selling book, The Body Keeps the Score, is personal pain and traumas can impact our bodies, sometimes resulting in various autoimmune and other diseases. It makes me wonder if Jesus, in his compassion, wasn’t aware of this and knew the way to free us from our dis-eases, whether emotional or physical, was profound love. The love that is expressed by undistracted listening and tender touch.

In today’s Gospel, the crowds didn’t want Jesus to leave them. It makes sense. To encounter such powerful human connection was as rare then as it is today. But it need not be. We are Christ’s only ears, eyes and gentle hands today. When we, by God’s grace, reach out to the worried, the physically ill, the emotionally distressed, the grieving, the addicted, the frustrated, the confused, we work miracles of healing as he did. We spread goodness. We change lives.

This is building God’s reign in our troubled world, person to person.

In quiet prayer today, when you can focus entirely on Jesus while alone, I encourage you to listen. His Spirit will guide you to heal and to transform. It may be a simple gesture of respect, a comforting comment, a visit to the funeral home, or a sit-down listening session with someone close or a stranger. Whoever you encounter, know God put that person in your life at that moment for you to share the most wonderful gift of all . . . love.

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

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11
Luke 4:31-37

Reflection:

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do. -1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this about his Word?” -Luke 4:36

You cannot be a Christian and not be aware of the power of words. That familiar start of the gospel of John tells us that The Word (Christ) was there at the very beginning of all things. And through this Word all things were created. God’s word is an important part of our liturgy and prayers. And yet, do we take as much care with our own words as we should?

The people of Capernaum were amazed at the power of Jesus’ words. He was able to cast out demons, calm the sea and wind, and soften hardened hearts using His words. How often today words are used to harm and destroy, to break down, or to divide. Pope Francis often speaks of dialogue, whose Greek roots mean “through words,” when talking about the proper use of words: “I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly.” To dialogue with someone is to stay in relationship, even through challenging times. We have the power to build up another, as St. Paul admonishes us to do.

So how can we use dialogue, especially when in conflict with others? First, start from curiosity. Ask questions to try and understand another’s point of view. You’re not gathering ammunition to clobber them with when you speak. Second, be transparent about your own point of view. We need to be fearless (as Pope Francis encourages us to be) to examine ourselves and be honest with our words. All of this should be done with compassion, both for ourselves as well as those we are dialoguing with.

If our words are imbued with Spirit, we will truly have the power to change the world. My prayer for myself today is that I consider all of my words and speak with compassion to all I meet.

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:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Luke 4:16-30

Reflection:

Spreading the Good News

Today’s Gospel selection recounts Jesus’ early ministry on a sabbath in his hometown synagogue.  He proclaimed a familiar reading from Isaiah, and then said “…today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”  The initial reaction of the people was very favorable – “the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him…amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth”.  BUT, when they realized the full implication of what he was saying — that he was the fulfillment of the prophecy — their “favor” turned into incredulity.  How can the son of Joseph the carpenter be all that he claimed to be?  Their incredulity “blossomed” into hostility and fury, to the point of almost hurling Jesus over the brow of a nearby hill!  Jesus escaped the people’s fury by passing through their midst and leaving his hometown…on to other peoples and places, other challenges — and opportunities.

In our 21^st Century world, we ponder Jesus’ challenging words as he quotes the prophet Isaiah.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to captives…recovery of sight to the blind…to let the oppressed go free…to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord…”  Jesus provides us with his “mission statement”, his ministry to peoples of all times and locations:  It’s Good News that challenges each of us to action, just as it did the people of long ago! 

Today we in the United States and Canada celebrate Labor Day.  We thank God for the resources and skills that help us collaborate in providing the necessities of life for one another, along with responsibly caring for all of creation.  As citizens of planet earth and members of God’s family, we celebrate Labor Day in a spirit of thanksgiving and petition — that God would continue to watch over and inspire each of us to “labor” for the good of all creation as 21^st Century, Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus.

As disciples called to “labor” in our world, we have Good News to proclaim in both word and deed!  God’s Spirit is with us as we face the challenges of violence and hunger, of floods and hurricanes, of bigotry and racism, of illness and injustice and selfishness of all types.  No matter our heritage or our experience, we offer our gifts and our limitations to build up our human family and our world in the bold spirit of Jesus and Isaiah.

With and in Jesus, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon us.”  Time to build!  Let’s get moving!  Amen.

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:

Jeremiah 20:7-9
Romans 12:1-2
Matthew 16:21-27

Reflection:

In the midst of the Shoah’ (the holocaust) many Jewish people lost faith in God. They had experiences so much suffering and evil that they had given up trying to answer the question ‘why did God allow this happen to us?’, and indeed many had lost any hope that there was even a God.

At age of 15 Elie Weissel had been taken to a concentration camp and only he and two sisters survived. Based on the horrors he experienced, he spent his life keeping people aware of such depravity and inhumanity. Of the forty works he wrote; one is a play called The Trial of God. Weissel set it in the year 1649 after a pogrom and persecution of the Jews in Russia, but the play seeks to answer the same basic question – ‘How could God allow suffering to happen to innocent people?’.

In the play God is put on trial, witnesses testify against God for not protecting people from suffering, and God’s only defender turns out to be a young man who slowly and carefully dismantles the arguments and defends God – he disassociates God from their pain and suggests it is their sins that have merited such suffering. At the end of the play the characters are shocked to learn that this young man is the devil. 

In such a light we might look again at the reaction of Peter when he learned that Jesus was to suffer. He instinctively tries to prevent this happening; and for doing so, Jesus calls him Satan! Peter is thus the only person in the scriptures named as the devil!

What is happening?

Certainly, we abhor evil and seek to prevent suffering in life. Yet we know all too well that it can be visited upon us without warning, without reason and without justification. Peter’s instincts are only human and normal. Yet,  something is wrong in his reasoning.

While we can’t always have an answer to the Question ‘Why?’ evil and suffering occur, we do know that God is not absent from our experience, that God is not simply a bystander, is not uninvolved in our pain and certainly not the one causing it.

Yet suffering remains; weaving itself into our lives to greater or lesser extent, but nevertheless always there. At the very least it shows us that life is an incomplete reality – free choices, the instability of our natural world, human harm to the balance of nature, the divisions within the human heart, risk-taking activity, egotistic, selfish, or manipulative behaviour, times when distorted thinking triumphs over the deeper human instincts for compassion and protection – these and many other dynamics can cause or contribute to suffering in our world.

Suffering remains a mystery, so we can’t solve that today. But we can see that Jesus was not exempt from suffering, and that he instinctively believed that fidelity to God was of the highest order of value and even outweighed preservation of one’s own life.  More so, he was concerned to clearly delineate God’s action and love for us, from the origins of  evil and suffering. He challenged orthodox thinking in this way and ultimately it did cost him his own life.

For us today the dialogue between Jesus and Peter is revealing. The message is both mysterious and clear. God is on our side in those times we suffer. Fidelity to God and to the truth can be costly. Avoidance of suffering is a human instinct, but not one that must be followed at every turn. We must be aware of instincts like self-preservation when they tempt us to turn away from the good – at such times we may not feel that we are also turning from God’s way, but that might just be the outcome. In everything Jesus’s example, attitudes and teachings are our true guiding light.

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

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:9-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Reflection:

In our day-to-day lives, we hear the word “love” mentioned when someone gets engaged to be married, or when a baby is born. We also hear the word a lot at funerals, as we celebrate the love that the deceased gave to all those they left behind.

In today’s first reading, St. Paul compliments the Thessalonians on their love for their brothers and sisters in the Christian community. St. Paul knew that love between individuals—friendship, marital love and parental love are important types of love.

Recent Popes have spoken of another type of love, though, a more far-reaching love, one that extends into the larger spheres of human interaction. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI wrote:

Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world. Love for society and commitment to the common good are outstanding expressions of a charity which affects not only relationships between individuals but also “macro-relationships, social, economic and political ones”. (Caritas in Veritate 2)

Pope Francis refers to this type of love as “social love”: …” Along with the importance of little everyday gestures, social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society. When we feel that God is calling us to intervene with others in these social dynamics, we should realize that this too is part of our spirituality, which is an exercise of charity and, as such, matures and sanctifies us. (Laudato Si’ 231)

Looking through the lens of social love, how can we interpret the Parable of the Talents in today’s Gospel reading? The ”talents” in today’s Gospel represent what God has given us, both as individuals and as a human family. And the message of the parable is to not squander those gifts through misuse or abuse. Our common home, Earth is a one-time endowment from God. And just as the man in the parable entrusted his servants with sums of money, God has entrusted us humans since the Garden of Eden with caring and protecting the source of all our sustenance, Earth.

So, how can we “halt the environmental degradation and encourage a culture of care”, as Pope Francis asks? Yesterday was the beginning of the annual ecumenical Season of Creation, running from September 1^st to October 4^th, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. In this season, Christians celebrate the gifts of Creation, and we recommit to caring for Creation and the Poor. Let us join with our fellow Christians in many expressions of social love during this Season of Creation!

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.

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Matthew 1:1-13

Reflection:

Today we read the parable of the ten virgins or bridesmaids.  The groom, in Jewish wedding custom, first celebrated a meal at home with family and friends.  Then the party moved to the bride’s family home.  The bridesmaids waited for the groom’s arrival at which time everyone entered the home for the wedding ceremony.  The groom’s meal in the parable lasted longer than expected, so the bridesmaids became sleepy.   Only the five bridesmaids who brought enough oil for their lamps were ready for the groom and welcomed into the home.  So many lessons in this parable!  For today’s reflection, let’s focus on the lessons of “waiting” and “filling our own lamps”. 

Jesus, like the groom in the parable, will return one day, but we do not know when.  The original context is the Second Coming, but the message equally applies to our personal time on earth.  Our challenge while waiting is to use the opportunity to prepare for Christ’s coming while avoiding the drowsiness of distractions.

The lesson of the lamps is that we are responsible for our own oil of preparation for heaven.  True, we must share with others.  However, when preparing for our salvation, each of us is on our own.  “Go instead to the merchants and buy some [oil] for yourselves.”  Even if the five wise bridesmaids wanted to share, they could not.  Spiritual directors, mentors and teachers may show us the way, but we are responsible for our own preparation.

Through prayer, reflection, and charitable works, we can use our waiting time productively while also filling the lamps for our spiritual journey.

Mike Owens is the coordinator of the Passionist Formation Alumni Association and a member of the Province Commission on Migration.  He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.