• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province

The Love that Compels

  • Online Masses
    • Passionist Online Masses and Services
  • 300th Jubilee
    • Jubilaeum Video
    • Opening Mass of the Passionist Jubilee Year
    • Video: 300th Jubilee – English
    • Video: Jubileo Pasionista – Español
    • Jubilee Icon Itinerary
    • Jubilee Resources
    • Jubilee Song
  • Pray
    • Daily Reflections
    • Prayer Request
    • Sunday Homily
    • Passionist Spirituality and Prayer
    • Video: Stations of the Cross
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
  • Grow
    • Journey into the Mystery of Christ Crucified
    • Celebrating the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Subscribe to E-News
    • Passionist Magazine
      • Passionist Magazine, Spring 2020
    • Passionist Ministries
      • Preaching
      • Hispanic Ministry
      • Haiti
      • Parish Life
      • Earth and Spirit Center
      • Education
      • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Retreat Centers
    • Passionist Solidarity Network
    • Vision Fulfillment Newsletters
    • Sacred Heart Monastery
      • History of Sacred Heart Monastery
      • A Day in the Life of Senior Passionists
      • “Pillars” of the Community
  • Join
    • Fr. Nicholas Divine, CP, Ordination
    • Are You Being Called?
    • Discerning Your Call
    • Pray With Us
    • Passionist Vocation Directors
    • Lay Partnerships
  • Connect
    • Find a Passionist
    • Passionist Websites
    • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Passionist Alumni Association
      • Reunions
      • 2019 Passionist Alumni Reunion
      • Welcome
      • Letter from the Provincial
        • These Men We Call Our Brothers
      • Mission Statement
      • CrossRoads Bulletin
      • Alumni Enrollment Form
        • Alumni Survey
      • Reunion Photo Gallery
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
    • Leave a Legacy
      • Giving Matters
      • Ways to Give
      • Donor Relations
      • Testimonials
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
    • Privacy Policy Statement
  • Learn
    • Our Founder
    • History
    • The Letters of St. Paul of the Cross
    • The Diary of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Mission and Charism
    • Saints and Blesseds
    • FAQs
    • Find a Passionist
    • STUDIES IN PASSIONIST HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY
  • Safe Environments

Daily Scripture, February 21, 2011

Scripture:

Sirach 1:1-10
Mark 9:14-29

Reflection:

Growth is the law that prevails in the spiritual life.  It is not a "one size fits all" program, since we all commence the process from different starting points, we keep at it for varying lengths of time, and we have differing arrival places, depending on God’s designs for us and our cooperation with Him.

Our scriptures today present one scenario of what this looks like.  It features the beginning of the book of Sirach within the wisdom tradition that was honored in ancient Israel.  It clearly focuses on the prominence of wisdom in God’s designs for those for whom wisdom is a calling-which presumably is most of us.  Sirach is laudatory of wisdom, situating it at the very beginning of creation, giving it an overarching role in the creation process, almost identifying it with God Himself.  This is an encomium to wisdom that suggests it as a requisite in the lives of us all.  And we gratefully note that God bestows it upon us all.

So far, so good.  But we know from our track record that there’s something amiss in our appropriation of wisdom.  If we possessed our fair share of it, we certainly must wonder why it is not more in evidence in the way we lead our lives.  Thankfully we have today’s gospel of Mark in which to frame an instructive picture of wisdom in operation.  As frames are prone to do, this frame sets limits to the attractive picture of wisdom that Sirach provides.

In the first place, Mark presents some of Jesus’ disciples in a quandary before a significant problem confronting them, the plight of a young lad possessed by the devil and grievously tormented by him.  This situation has driven the boy’s father to desperation, and he has approached the disciples, seeking their help for the boy, to no avail.  The disciples don’t know what to do.  They don’t display the kind of wisdom that Sirach speaks of in the earlier reading.  And even the father, at wits end, evidences a faltering conviction that Jesus can do something about the situation, when he exclaims: "If you can do anything…"  Jesus seems nettled by this remark of the father, mimicking in reply: "’If you can!’"  So the father too labors under a less than desirable portion of wisdom, until challenged by Jesus: "Everything is possible to one who has faith."  And that triggered in the father the requisite wisdom required: "I do believe, help my unbelief!"  And Jesus casts out the demon.

So we see wisdom in the process of being achieved, in this account.  Not all at once, but bit by bit.  And later on the disciples got the formula from Jesus on how to gain its fullness: prayer (and fasting).

We celebrate today the memorial of St. Peter Damian who, as a Doctor (a learned one) of the church, excelled in acquiring, and using, the kind of wisdom that Sirach proposes to us today.  St. Peter Damian was an 11th century professor, prior and bishop who wisely used his gifts for the good of the church of his day.  His accomplishments offer another frame featuring wisdom at work, giving us hope that we too, each in our own frame of reference, can display the wisdom Sirach proposes today.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, C.P. is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

Footer

Facebook Feed

Support the Passionists

Contact the Passionists

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province
660 Busse Highway | Park Ridge, IL 60068
Tel: 847.518.8844 | Toll-free: 800.295.9048 | Fax: 847.518.0461
Safe Environments | Board Member Portal | Copyright © 2021 | Log in