Daily Scripture

Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus

Scripture:

1 John 4:7-16
John 11:19-27

Reflection:

   “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”

The first reading for today describes the love that connects God to us and how we are connected to God. Simply, Love. Love is one of the three Cardinal Virtues. Saint Paul writes about love in his first letter to the Corinthians. He states that of the three, faith, hope, and love. The greatest is love. (1Cor 13:13) God loves us so much that he sent his Son so that we might have eternal life. The love that Jesus showed to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus was great. It is in that love we too can have life. To know Christ is to know what love is. To be able to share that love through acts of kindness or service is reflecting that love.

      “. . . you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus and Martha have a conversation where Martha makes several faith statements about her belief “in the resurrection on the last day”. The last statement she makes is that she believes “you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” In the Gospels, when Jesus is healing someone, it is through that person’s faith or the faith of others that the person is healed. Martha, a woman who is portrayed as to busy to pray in the Gospel of Luke, is the one who has faith that Jesus is going to heal her brother or raise him from the dead in the Gospel of John. Jesus responds to her with one of the “I Am” statements:

     “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
       and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

This conversation between Martha and Jesus may be considered a covenant dialog. Martha makes her statements of faith and Jesus replies with the promise of eternal life. Martha’s faith and the faith of the Apostles was not perfect. Jesus is the one God has chosen to free people from their sin and to give eternal life. Taking time to hear God’s response, engaging God in our own covenant dialog could possibly be an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God and grow deeper in the love God has for us.

Linda Schork is a theology teacher at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Exodus 20:1-17
Matthew 13:18-23

Reflection:

Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.

Today marks my parents 84^th wedding anniversary!  Their life together as man and wife began on July 28, 1939.  With generous hearts they kept the Word and yielded a bountiful harvest which included raising eight children along with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren!  They persevered through good times as well as challenging times.  They lived their faith which included following the commandments as we read in our first reading today.  They taught us to focus our lives not solely on the letter of the law as much as on the heart of the law.  They sowed seeds of love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness.  Sometimes their attempts fell on deaf ears, stubborn spirits, and closed minds, but they persevered and eventually we all reaped a bountiful harvest of faithfulness, servant leadership and spirit-filled lives.

Perseverance calls all of us to live Gospel-centered lives. We live in a world and a church that challenge us to hang onto to those seeds of faith that were planted in us at baptism.  In order to grow in our faith, we must be willing to walk on rocky ground, put up with the thorns we encounter, persevere in the Gospel message even when we don’t understand it or want to hear it.  We are reminded in the Gospel today that:

            “The seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it,
            who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

May we continue to be the rich soil that bears fruit not only in our lives but in the lives of all those we encounter on our faith journey!

Theresa Secord is a retired Pastoral Associate at St. Agnes Parish, Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Exodus 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b
Matthew 13:10-17

Reflection:

When I read this passage from Matthew, I think of what I have always remembered about the way Christ speaks to us. He will speak to us in ways we will understand. And that is what he does as he shares the parables. The people he was speaking to didn’t believe and so any message of spirituality would have been immediately rejected because the people were not ready to listen. But Jesus shares stories that he knows people can relate to and identify with. The message will be received!

God wants us to make good use of the gifts he gives us – the gift of mercy, the gift of understanding, THE GIFT OF GRACE. We all have our moments of missing His message, or of not wanting to hear what He wants us to hear. Jesus appreciates the openness his disciples have to God’s grace, that they accept his teachings and know that he is THE Lord. But it was all planned by God – the one who knows the number of hairs on our heads, the specks of sand on the beach – he knows it all, and he knew that they would follow and dedicate themselves to him.

When we hear that story, take the time to listen and act upon it. Open your heart to receive it. He comes to us as we can understand Him, He appears to us in ways that we can accept Him and know who He is. Have the sensitivity to accept the grace that God shares with you.  Allow yourself to be inspired by what God can do for you and believe.

God bless you all!

Patty Masson is the Director of Adult Formation and Evangelization at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church in Spring, Texas.

Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Scripture:

Exodus 16:1-5, 9-15
Matthew 13:1-9

Reflection:

The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

This is the psalm refrain in today’s Liturgy of the Word. Besides being a food staple, bread also carries with it profound symbolism. We break bread together in a sign of community. We experience in the Eucharist the Bread of Life. And bread, like dewfall, fed the Israelites in the desert, as told in today’s reading from the Book of Exodus.

The Gospel today is the story of the sowing of seed, some that grows to yield a hundredfold. Again, here is a powerful image of being fed, being sustained by the graciousness of God.

This is also the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the traditionally named parents of Mary, and I can’t help but think of my own parents, Bill and Kimmy, who did more than feed and house us. They were that “bread from heaven.” They sowed seeds of love, of honesty, of kindness, of strength into each of their nine children. I cherish that no matter when my father might return home from the office, we always sat at the table together to eat dinner. That table, like an altar, was where we were fed with much more than bread. It was where we knew we were a family, where we were loved and taught about living a life of integrity and faith. Did every seed they sowed fall on good ground in us and take root? No, but they never gave up.

What is sometimes lost in these stories is that the seed that grows into fruit or grain contains within it the seeds of life for the next generation. The life given to us is a life we must share with others. We become the “bread from heaven” for those with whom we live and work, for those we encounter at the store or on the sidewalk. What we have received, we freely offer to others. The bread we receive, we break and give away. Bread is not meant for the store shelf or behind a bakery’s window. Bread only becomes bread when it feeds the hungry.

Robert Hotz is a consultant with American City Bureau, Inc. and was the Director of The Passion of Christ: The Love That Compels Campaign for Holy Cross Province.

Feast of Saint James, Apostle

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Matthew 20:20-28

Reflection:

Today’s Gospel for the Feast of St. James could be added to the listing of passages where Jesus gives a new meaning to words and concepts. For example, when someone told him (Matthew 12), “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” Jesus replies, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” A new definition for family.

Remember the time (Luke 10) when a scholar of the law stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  Jesus then narrates the parable of the Good Samaritan… knowing, of course, the hateful rift between Jews and Samaritans!

Or the surprise re-definition of “holiness” in Matthew 18, when the disciples question Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the mother of James and John that “top billing” means SERVICE… another new and different meaning! While the New Testament hardly presents the apostles as steadfast, heroic individuals who courageously stand by the Master through thick and thin — we know that in time they gave their lives witnessing to Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom. That gives me hope and encouragement! Can I be patient as Jesus turns things upside-down and inside-out in my life?

Fr. Jack Conley, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Christ the King, Citrus Heights, California.

Scripture:

Exodus 14:5-18
Matthew 12:38-42

Reflection:

“The Lord strengthened (Hebrew  hazaq) the heart of Pharaoh^.” EX 15:8   Exodus mentions 15 times that God made Pharaoh’s heart firm hazaq) against letting His people go in today’s first reading!  The Old Testament refers to the heart no fewer than 854 times by the Hebrew terms lēḇ and lēḇāḇ.   If you add the New Testament use of the heart kordia 157 times, it comes to an impressive 1,009 times.  Our Dear Lord is so very interested in our hearts!

 God seems to help Pharaoh’s heart to be dead set against letting the Jewish people go.  It all seems rather mysterious as God’s will and Providence are working against each other!  It always seems so to our little minds and hearts.  It would be a lot easier in our opinion if God made Pharaoh’s heart open to letting the Jews leave that land of darkness without all that trouble.  But God had a plan.

As the account in Exodus continues the Lord gives us a strong clue of this perplexing mystery of His will. “But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.” 

At the crises of being trapped between the Egyptian army on one side and the Sea on the other, God tells them first of all: “No fear”!  The Scriptures tell us this 58 times! “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” EX 14: 13   God is the Great Micromanager of all our life.  “What do we have to fear if we live in the arms of a loving God?” St Paul of Cross  

It is so hard for us to believe that God does nothing but love us.  It is true that our sins punish us terribly.  But the Scriptures tell us: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save us from   our sins!”  Mt 1:21  I think God’s plan was to give the Jews of old and ourselves an opportunity to grow in our trust in the Lord’s wonderful love for us!  Underestimating His love for us is the biggest mistake of our life!

Fr. Bob Weiss, C.P. preaches Parish Missions and is a member of the Passionist Community in Louisville, Kentucky.

Scripture:

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Romans 8:26-27
Matthew 13:24-43

Reflection:

Wheat Out of Weeds

In Our Gospel reading Jesus tells the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat. In the parable, the enemy of a landowner sows weeds among the landowner’s wheat. When the servants of the landowner discover this, they ask him if he wants them to pull up the weeds. But the landowner tells them to wait until harvest time, lest they pull up some wheat along with the weeds. Then the weeds can be burned and the wheat harvested.

If we look at the weeds as those who will be condemned, and the wheat as those who will enjoy heaven, there are a couple of things I think which are important to remember. Unlike real wheat and real weeds, people can change. God can make “wheat” out of “weeds,” if we let His love in Jesus Christ transform us. Another thing is to remember the mercy of God. In the parable, the servants ask the landowner if he wants them to pull up the weeds. It seems to me in our divided times, that we are often tempted to tell God to pull up those considered to be “weeds,” right now!

Reflecting on God’s mercy helps us understand the other two parables in our Gospel reading: the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. For me, these two parables are wonderful images of the church we’re called to be. Like the tiny mustard seed, the church can grow to offer comfort to those who are hurting, but without us showing mercy, how can people hear of God’s love? And if the church is to offer God’s love as a leaven in the world, that leaven must include mercy. The world already has too much intolerance and hate.

May God continue to transform us into wheat that bears His love.

Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

Scripture:

Song of Songs 3:1-4b or 2 Corinthians 5:14-17
John 20: 1-2, 11-18

Reflection:

While all the gospels tell of finding Christ’s tomb empty on the day after the Sabbath, it is John who fills in the story of Mary Magdalene’s intense love for Our Lord.  In pre-dawn darkness, trotting through the stillness of Jerusalem, she stood at the tomb, at the first permissible moment, to offer her most loving service: preparing His mutilated body for proper burial.  Mary had stood with His mother, Mary, and John himself at the Crucifixion, in the shadow of the Cross. She had watched Him being laid in the tomb.   

Now as she arrived at first light, she was struck by terror and grief again as she realized the tomb had been violated. The stone had been rolled away.  Christ’s body was no longer there.  Yet her misery turned instantly to greatest joy as Christ revealed himself.  What a great immensity of the emotions were shown in His one word greeting, “Mary”!    He chose to reveal Himself to her even before Peter and the rest of the Apostles.   

I humbly search for you in my own darkness, Lord.  I am lost and unable to find my way.   Forgive this sinner and in Your Love seek me out.  “Out of the depths I cry to you. Lord, hear my voice.” Psalm 130: 1-8.    

Ray Alonzo is the father of three children, grandfather of two, and husband to Jan for over45 years. He is a USN Vietnam Veteran, and a 1969 graduate of Mother of Good Counsel Passionist Prep Seminary. Ray currently serves on the Passionist Alumni Council.