Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary Reflection February 4, 2018

February 4, 2018: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Catholic Social Teaching: Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
Read the book of James this week and reflect on the call to serve. How does your faith translate into the lived reality of your life?

Readings
First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Psalm: 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Second Reading: 1st Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

Catechism of the Catholic Church
The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is “the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ.” By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works toward enabling them “to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which [they] live.” The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies. (2105) From the Daily Roman Missal, Introduction to the, Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

Psalm 147
The Old Testament presents God as the omnipotent Creator (cf. Gen 2:2; Job 38-41; Ps 104; Ps 147) who fashions man in his image and invites him to work the soil (cf. Gen 2:5-6), and cultivate and care for the garden of Eden in which he has placed him (cf. Gen 2:15). To the first human couple God entrusts the task of subduing the earth and exercising dominion over every living creature (cf. Gen 1:28). The dominion exercised by man over other living creatures, however, is not to be despotic or reckless; on the contrary he is to “cultivate and care for” (Gen 2:15) the goods created by God. These goods were not created by man, but have been received by him as a precious gift that the Creator has placed under his responsibility. Cultivating the earth means not abandoning it to itself; exercising dominion over it means taking care of it, as a wise king cares for his people and a shepherd his sheep.

In the Creator’s plan, created realities, which are good in themselves, exist for man’s use. The wonder of the mystery of man’s grandeur makes the psalmist exclaim: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than god, and crown him with glory and honour. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Ps 8:5-7). (255)

1st Corinthians 9:16

This right of the Church is at the same time a duty, because she cannot forsake this responsibility without denying herself and her fidelity to Christ: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). The warning that St. Paul addresses to himself rings in the Church’s conscience as a call to walk all paths of evangelization, not only those that lead to individual consciences but also those that wind their way into public institutions: on the one hand, religion must not be restricted “to the purely private sphere”, on the other, the Christian message must not be relegated to a purely other-worldly salvation incapable of shedding light on our earthly existence.

Because of the public relevance of the Gospel and faith, because of the corrupting effects of injustice, that is, of sin, the Church cannot remain indifferent to social matters: “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls”. (71)

The entire people of God has a role to play as the Church fulfils her mission. In various ways and through every member according to the gifts and the manner of acting proper to each vocation, the people of God must respond to the duty to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor 9:16), in the awareness that “missionary activity is a matter for all Christians”.

Pastoral work in the social sector is also meant for all Christians, who are called to become active subjects in bearing witness to this social doctrine and to be fully part of the solid tradition of the “fruitful activity of many millions of people, who, spurred on by the social Magisterium, have sought to make that teaching the inspiration for their involvement in the world” Acting either as individuals or together with others in various groups, associations and organizations, Christians of today represent “a great movement for the defence of the human person and the safeguarding of human dignity”. (538)

For complete text visit: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

Reflection

We willingly preach the Gospel when we walk in the shoes of people on our path, who cross our path. Lives preaching not from rhetorical dominance, but soothing with empathy. Trying to grasp the challenges others face in their weakness as we contend with our own weakness, knowing in surrender to the Lord we manifest Christ in the world. We cease spewing lament of a life encased in drudgery, restlessness void of hope for we come to realize by journeying with others rays of God’s goodness illuminates our path. We see Divine providence to gather the dispersed, heal the brokenhearted with no limit to his wisdom to sustain the lowly. The fruit of healing should lead one to rise above their weakness to the joy of service. Jesus’ presence can heal most profoundly when hope appears shrouded in darkness and the sun has set on humanly realistic options for renewal. Grounded in prayer, the ministry of presence to affirm the Gospel helps us share in Christ’s mission, the Gospel alive, active in our world today. We should share without desire for recompense but freely give as we receive. For when we live for the sake of the Gospel, we are blessed to have a share in its love and power to transform.

Individual Reflection:
February 8th is the feast day of St Josephine Bakhita and the international day of human trafficking awareness. Share these resources with your parish and plan to share in the coming months ways to alleviate human trafficking in your community and globally.
http://www.usccb.org/about/anti-trafficking-program/day-of-prayer.cfm
http://www.usccb.org/about/anti-trafficking-program/become-a-shepherd-tool-kit.cfm

Family Reflection:
Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is February 14th. What act of service and presence can your family collectively do during Lent?

Prayer: Stations of the Cross for Victims of Human Trafficking

Blogs to Visit:
http://marynow.wordpress.com/
As we reflect upon Mary’s presence in the mysteries of the Rosary, we are blessed to know her. For her journey, a timeless trek, calls us to surrender, continuing conversion, humbleness and justice now.
https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/
Weekly lectionary reflections, for faith sharing groups, parish bulletins, newsletters or personal prayer, from the synergy of the Word we hear and the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.
https://cst74life.wordpress.com/
Catholic Social Teaching offers seven principles for upholding life in our thoughts, decisions and actions.
http://idocst.wordpress.com/
How we do Catholic Social Teaching.
https://csmresources.wordpress.com/
Creation sustainability ministry resources in the spirit of the St Francis Pledge.
https://smrep.wordpress.com/
Social Ministry Resources Engaging Parishes: Monthly and liturgical seasons resources for use with parish websites, bulletins and newsletters

Involvement Opportunities
List one or two upcoming events, legislative action alerts or social justice websites

By Barb Born January 30, 2018 The reflection maybe used in parish bulletins, newsletters or for faith sharing groups without copyright concern.

 

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Lectionary Reflection April 9, 2017

April 9, 2017: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Catholic Social Teaching: Solidarity
The love that inspires Jesus’ ministry among men is the love that he has experienced in his intimate union with the Father. The New Testament allows us to enter deeply into the experience, that Jesus himself lives and communicates, the love of God his Father — “Abba” — and, therefore, it permits us to enter into the very heart of divine life. Jesus announces the liberating mercy of God to those whom he meets on his way, beginning with the poor, the marginalized, the sinners. He invites all to follow him because he is the first to obey God’s plan of love, and he does so in a most singular way, as God’s envoy in the world.
Jesus’ self-awareness of being the Son is an expression of this primordial experience. The Son has been given everything, and freely so, by the Father: “All that the Father has is mine” (Jn 16:15). His in turn is the mission of making all men sharers in this gift and in this filial relationship: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15).
For Jesus, recognizing the Father’s love means modelling his actions on God’s gratuitousness and mercy; it is these that generate new life. It means becoming — by his very existence — the example and pattern of this for his disciples. Jesus’ followers are called to live like him and, after his Passover of death and resurrection, to live also in him and by him, thanks to the superabundant gift of the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, who internalizes Christ’s own style of life in human hearts. (29) Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Readings
Entrance Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm: 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14 thru 27:66

Catechism of the Catholic Church
How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of “his father David”. Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means “Save!” or “Give salvation!”), the “King of glory” enters his City “riding on an ass”. Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth. And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God’s poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds. Their acclamation, “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord”, is taken up by the Church in the “Sanctus” of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord’s Passover. (559)

From the Daily Roman Missal, Introduction to Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Cycles A, B and C

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

Matthew 27: 45 and 51
The entrance of Jesus Christ into the history of the world reaches its culmination in the Paschal Mystery, where nature itself takes part in the drama of the rejection of the Son of God and in the victory of his Resurrection (cf. Mt 27:45,51, 28:2). Crossing through death and grafting onto it the new splendour of the Resurrection, Jesus inaugurates a new world in which everything is subjected to him (cf. 1 Cor 15:20-28) and he creates anew those relationships of order and harmony that sin had destroyed. Knowledge of the imbalances existing between man and nature should be accompanied by an awareness that in Jesus the reconciliation of man and the world with God — such that every human being, aware of divine love, can find anew the peace that was lost — has been brought about. “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Nature, which was created in the Word is, by the same Word made flesh, reconciled to God and given new peace (cf. Col 1:15-20). (454)

Philippians 2:8
The unsurpassed apex of the perspective indicated here is the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the New Man, who is one with humanity even to the point of “death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). In him it is always possible to recognize the living sign of that measureless and transcendent love of God-with-us, who takes on the infirmities of his people, walks with them, saves them and makes them one. In him and thanks to him, life in society too, despite all its contradictions and ambiguities, can be rediscovered as a place of life and hope, in that it is a sign of grace that is continuously offered to all and because it is an invitation to ever higher and more involved forms of sharing.
Jesus of Nazareth makes the connection between solidarity and charity shine brightly before all, illuminating the entire meaning of this connection: “In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to go beyond itself, to take on the specifically Christian dimensions of total gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation. One’s neighbour is then not only a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but becomes the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbour must therefore be loved, even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her; and for that person’s sake one must be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren (cf. 1 Jn 3:16)”. (196)

For complete text visit: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

Reflection
Twice a year we hear the story of our Lord’s Passion to punctuate Palm Sunday and Good Friday. We listen to the details, kneel at the appropriate time, a chronicle of the past calling us to an awareness of today. The entwining of precepts from sacred passages of antiquity provides a foundation for Divine revelation harkening our attention. Where does the story of the Passion lead us in our lives? To a praxis of faith and culture, faith and societal tensions, an invitation that we enter the story instead of closing the missal till Holy Week next year. Will we enter the city froth with tension or stay in the proverbial pastoral countryside? Will we enter the mystery of the feast or retreat to our own meal created incrementally on a plate lacking sacramental transformation? Will we stand up to traitors from the truth who work for pieces of silver over principle? Do we look for evidence of the risen Lord or continually mourn the what ifs of life? Can we move beyond hearing the cock crow of our infidelities and learn to cherish mercy that generates freedom and passion? Do we keep watch over our brothers and sisters, especially those in distress and facing injustice or fall asleep in self-absorbed preoccupations? Do we surrender to God’s will or desire challenges to pass away? Do we attempt to raise awareness of injustice by violence and learn to cease using the swath of proverbial swords to impose our mandates? When asked who we are, do we pronounce we are children of God, members of His whole human family or identify with me, I an individual identity? Will we venture to present day Golgothas to view those crucified today literally and figuratively or shutter ourselves behind the high stone walls of our individual fiefdoms from the reality faced by those exploited? Do we let people come forth from their tombs, self or societally imposed, to enter the holy realm of the Kingdom of God continually crafted, articulated and actualized? Will we acknowledge veils of privilege, clericalism, elitism are desired by the Passion to be torn in two, for if we don’t voice concern and participate in tearing apart injustice, we only give credence to veils neatly pleated in antiquities of exclusion.

The Passion calls us each to crosses of different dimensions and hues, where we must learn to surrender for God’s will to be done. For the Passion of Jesus and the disciples’ accompaniment was an act of faith and an act of faith for us today. A journey of releasing fear, allowing room for courage and trust . We must not permit the Passion to end at the conclusion of Holy Week’s liturgical readings, but see our journey continually meshed in the story of the Passion. Living as disciples faithful to Jesus’ journey of the Passion, allows us to bring forth a hopeful presence when injustice tries to extinguish a world illuminated by Gospel precepts of the Beatitudes and love, so we confess by our words and actions that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Individual Reflection: Matthew 26:14 thru 27:66
Disciple is a passive form of the verb to teach. Who has taught you to be a disciple of Jesus? How do you teach others to be disciples of the Lord?

Family Reflection: Matthew 26:14 thru 27:66
Attend a living Stations of the Cross or have your family portray the Stations of the Cross. Discuss the emotions felt and the relevance to your lives.

Prayer: During Holy Week Reflect on this or another version of Stations of the Cross
https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/2016/01/25/year-of-mercy-stations-of-the-cross/

Blogs to Visit:
http://marynow.wordpress.com/
As we reflect upon Mary’s presence in the mysteries of the Rosary, we are blessed to know her. For her journey, a timeless trek, calls us to surrender, continuing conversion, humbleness and justice now.
https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/
Weekly lectionary reflections, for faith sharing groups, parish bulletins, newsletters or personal prayer, from the synergy of the Word we hear and the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.
https://cst74life.wordpress.com/
Catholic Social Teaching offers seven principles for upholding life in our thoughts, decisions and actions.
http://idocst.wordpress.com/
How we do Catholic Social Teaching.
https://csmresources.wordpress.com/
Creation sustainability ministry resources in the spirit of the St Francis Pledge.
https://smrep.wordpress.com/
Social Ministry Resources Engaging Parishes: Monthly and liturgical seasons resources for use with parish websites, bulletins and newsletters

Involvement Opportunities
List one or two upcoming events, legislative action alerts or social justice websites

By Barb Born April 3, 2017 The reflection maybe used in parish bulletins, newsletters or for faith sharing groups without copyright concern.

Year of Mercy Stations of the Cross

STATIONS OF THE CROSS: YEAR OF MERCY

This Stations of the Cross may be your personal reflection or if shared with a faith community, invite people in your community, that represent the themes portrayed in each station, to read that portion and share their personal story. So the Stations of the Cross becomes a living Stations of the Cross highlighting opportunities for your faith community to become visible signs showing and living God’s mercy in the world (10).

Incorporating quotes and thoughts from the Year of Mercy declaration, numbers in ( ) refer to paragraphs in the Misericordiae Vultus: Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy April 11, 2015 by Pope Francis.  The document is available on the Vatican website: w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html

Sign of the Cross: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Opening Prayer:

Jesus you are the face of the Father’s mercy (1).  As we reflect on each step you took to the cross, console, inspire and give us courage to carry our crosses and reach out in mercy to others carrying their crosses.  Let us never be trapped in the tomb of self-absorption, for only by being engaged in the world can we transcend voids of mercy with reconciliation, understanding, forgiveness and healing. Amen

 

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

 

First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death

Jesus, disenfranchised from the religious, political and economic power structures of His day, treaded on the margins of society, challenging the status quo.  He embraced the outcast, poor, sinners, marginalized, sick and suffering.  Providing signs and healing, all His actions were meant to teach mercy (8).  Ultimately, His response to people’s deepest needs led the ruling elite to feel an impending loss of control from their imposition of legislative religiosity, lancing judgment on humanity.  So they sought to silence the messenger and preserve their power.

Today, are we cognizant of the many people broken by economic injustice, viewed as factors of production, harmed by pollution, maimed from workplace safety issues and left without a voice?  Their human dignity muffled (15), to live lives void of mercy.  As the Body of Christ, we are all condemned to death when the least among us is marginalized, victimized or ostracized.  How can the Church take up the joyful call to mercy and bear witness to our brothers’ and sisters’ struggles with courage and hope (10)?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

 

Second Station: Jesus Carries His Cross

Beaten and bruised, Jesus placed the cross on His shoulders, in His hands.  A journey to Golgotha, along familiar paths, but lined with new imperatives.  A journey shattering the law, ultimately offering pardon.

How many people in our community carry crosses of injustice, betrayal, insults and hate?  Straining their hearts to see mercy, emotionally and physically challenging their daily journeys to survive.  They see the stares or people quickly turning away from the painful sight of seeing the anguish from them carrying their cross.  Like the parchedness of a desert, support evaporates, hope lingers out of focus like a vanishing mirage on the distant horizon.

Who do we see carrying crosses in our community, our world? Are we too busy to notice, absorbed in selfish pursuits, numb with indifference or will we be visible, tangible, concrete instruments of mercy in our daily living (9)?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

 

 

Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time

The physical weight of the cross pushes Jesus to the ground, to show His humanity.  Evidence of the toil while watchful centurions berate Him on.

In our community, across our nation and our world employees suffer wage theft.   Working countless hours beyond a normal shift, many times “off the clock” without pay.  Suffering the physical toil from excessive hours stressing physical endurance, famished from denied lunch breaks, fracturing of family life from the wedge of excessive hours spent trying to survive economically.  All the while under the watchful eye of managers and executives threatening loss of employment if a complaint is lodged, objections voiced. How can we show mercy, the fundamental law that dwells in our hearts as we sincerely look into the eyes of our brothers and sisters (2) exploited by wage theft?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Sorrowful Mother

In the humanity, Jesus meets His sorrowful mother.  Horrified by the anguish, knowing the injustice, seeing the lack of resolve of people along the path to stop the persecution and unwilling to challenge domineering leadership, Mary openly expresses her sorrow, a visible sign of dismay.

In our community, across our nation and our world violence ravages families, communities and cultures.   Internal implosion or external aggression void of mercy.  Mothers, not just women that have physically born a child, but all people that have birthed a cause, nurtured justice, supported unity in the human family, mourn when seeing the wounds of painful situations in our world today that lapse into cynicism (15).

How can sorrowful mothers, people of all genders, that seek peace and say “Yes” to the heart of the Gospels expression of mercy, break down barriers of indifference and egoism (15)?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Fifth Station: Simone of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

Simone of Cyrene had journeyed for many days from northern Africa to the Holy City.  He was thrown into the throes of a crucifixion, not asked but taken hold of by authorities to assist in their endeavors.  Following behind Christ, did he fathom the injustice or even know the facts.  Did the experience ultimately make him a disciple of Christ from seeing the senseless torment?

By how we spend our money, do we perpetuate and support those crucified by harvesting and producing commodities we eat and making items we purchase.  Are the clothes we wear sewn in sweat shops a few miles from our homes or hidden in factories half a world away  where garment workers repetitively  work like machines. How can we draw near to their stories and support justice in our world by being educated, socially responsible consumers? Only by asking these demanding questions can our world be rich in mercy, joy and peace, instead of absorbed by profits and our pocketbook (13)

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

Jesus’ face was not hid from Veronica, as blood and sweat she wiped from his brow imprinted an indelible image on the cloth.  Do we see the sweat on the brow of those impacted by rising temperatures, parched days dampened by only humid nights?  Faces of the elderly and afflicted relegated to prisons of their homes, at times even unable to open their windows and free themselves from suffocating heat due to crime in the neighborhood or the high cost of utilities to cool their living quarters.  And how many people are faceless to the world as they merge into society outside their native homes, flooded by rising tides or left parched, cracked and broken by drought.  A broken earth breaking lives into migration for survival.  Where will we encounter these people’s faces, so they can genuinely be offered mercy? People maybe of different cultures and faith traditions, that we might know and understand them better to eliminate disrespect and discrimination (23).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

 

Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time

The weight of the cross continues to stress Jesus’ physical endurance.  How will and perseverance unravels under the weight of reality to sap strength.  For many carrying the cross of homelessness, the challenge to achieve economic stability, address mental illness or hone sobriety can be wrought with fall from bureaucratic paperwork, lack of supportive care or the process of shedding addictions.  People may stare, condemn their life style choices or fail to grasp the complex magnitude of homelessness.  Who will offer a hand of compassion to sooth the parchedness of indifference?  Who will offer a meal ladled with mercy?  Who will offer welcome and support in the human family, so the homeless will not fall again and gain stability in their lives? By offering the homeless mercy, may they experience the love of God who consoles, pardons and instills hope (3).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Eighth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Jesus meets the women along the road to Calvary.  As they mourned and lamented, their sorrow and dismay over injustice welled up in their hearts.  In questioning the system, they came to observe first-hand the sheer brutality, attempts to manifest fear, far from the message of mercy Jesus spoke in all regions, the plains, mountaintops and towns.

How often do we shy away from looking at the reality of injustice or even denying it happens?  Do we lack the courage to see with our eyes through the lens of immediacy instead of the lens of a camera recording happenings broadcast through the pixels of a TV, as we recline on the comfort of a sofa removed from vivid sights, sounds and emotions played out in tactile reality?  Not defused by gender, all humanity must not remain silent in the face of injustice, but express their feelings, the depth of dismay, so as not to give credence to the status quo. May the message of mercy we receive from God allow us to be messengers of mercy in our world, so no one may be indifferent to the call of experiencing mercy (18)?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Ninth Station: Jesus Falls a Third Time

Inching closer to Calvary, Jesus falls a third time.  How many people have fallen today in the sands of the Arizona desert?  Migrants looking for dignity, a job, desiring to support their family, but lacking a piece of paper disparaging labels condemn them to struggle step by step, falling from dehydration, hunger, exhaustion or hypothermia.  Will they rise to walk again or will their cross be left in the desert?  The beatings by centurions of authority upholding inhumane regulations never physically strike their backs, but inflict the trauma of the unknown that only faith and hope can dispel. It is time to listen to the cry of innocent people who are deprived of their property, dignity, feelings and even their very lives (19).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes

A psychological mocking preceded the humiliating stripping of Jesus’ clothes.  The nakedness of betrayal, the nakedness of presenting peace in a culture cloaked in war.

As we expose precepts of peace, unjust atrocities, the throes of poverty, vulnerability to humiliation challenges our resolve, our courage realizing the number of people crucified by bullets or character assignations for speaking truth to earthly power structures. Turning the world upside down from experiencing God’s justice, they express the liberating force of His mercy (20).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Eleventh Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

Nailed to the cross, they thought they would silence Jesus and His followers.  Authorities thinking they had the last word.  In the act of torture, mercy appeared to vanish with each blow to the nails piercing His hands and feet.  Each day children living in poverty take blows to their future.  Twenty percent live in poverty.  Food insecurity stunts their growth, inhibits their ability to learn and future ability to earn a living.  Economically challenged neighborhoods are more likely impacted by toxic air pollution contributing to childhood asthma and long-term health concerns.  The cross of childhood poverty must not have the last word. May we sense the responsibility to be a living sign of mercy by caring for the most vulnerable, the children among us (4)?

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

Jesus’ human life extinguished on the cross did not happen until He offered mercy.  Forgiveness granted to the thief on the adjoining cross and all those who ask receive mercy freely given.  The women huddled at the foot of the cross seeking solace, had the resolve to stay and not run in fear for their own security.  The centurion seeing the reality experienced conversion.

Racial injustice, cultural hatred extinguishes many lives in violent ways fueling more animosity, decrying the dignity of all human life.  It may appear an ending of one life, a name, a picture, hands stretched out in innocence, but people will not let the name be forgotten to spark a movement intent on fostering healing and hope. Harboring a world more secure, reckoning to dispel violence and injustice, seeking to bring the Kingdom of God’s mercy to fruition. With a sense of responsibility to nurture reconciliation, daily crossing the threshold of the Holy Door of Mercy, confidence in the Lord’s forgiveness guides our steps in cooperating with the work of salvation wrought by Christ (4).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross and Placed in the Arms of His Mother

As Mary held her newborn son, she now holds His lifeless body.  Her fiat of Yes to a Divine call appears a sorrowful ending.  But she would not let tears leave the fire of faith smoldering.  She was given companions, faith and trust in God’s mercy to become a disciple.

Today, where must we be a disciple?  At our parishes to enliven a commitment to justice rooted in cross and dignity of life across the web of human experiences.  Our communities were crevasses of pain need the soothing balm of mercy.  Our nation fractionalized by economic divides and exclusions rooted in judgment. Our world, will we be witnesses of peace, when a culture of violence attempts to prevail?  As a disciple, we may feel anguish.  Our causes left to die from apathy.  Who is holding the lifeless remains of a cause that appears finished, uprooted, mocked by the status quo?  How can they be consoled, given hope, supported by companions for the resurrection of ideals infusing mercy into a world lacking solace, those extinguished by authorities fearful of change?  May our liturgical and personal prayers enfold us in communion with the intercession of the saints, named and unnamed, with the grace to live and walk according to the mercy of God, with an unwavering trust in His love (24).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Presider Before Each Station

We adore You, O Christ and praise you for your liberating manifestation of our merciful God. (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 28 and 29)

Everyone Before Each Station

As you carried your cross, help us see the crosses people carry each day and respond mercifully.

Fourteenth Station: Jesus Laid in the Tomb

A lifeless body, beaten, mocked, tortured.  Cruel, unjust treatment inflicted on innocence appeared to have no voice.  Silence from nails coated in blood of violence.  But friends offered mercy. With a burial shroud and aromatic embalming spices, they honored a life rich in meaning, filled with hope. They depart. Soldiers stood guard as the stone was rolled into place at the tomb to prevent shanigans and resurrection of Jesus’ mission by loyal followers.  All the planning by human endeavors would soon come unraveled to birth a two thousand year unfolding expression of faith.

Today, how will we exemplify our Savior and offer mercy in a world of indifference, greed, hate and injustice, strained by rhetorical violence and power grabs?  Where do we see opportunities to roll away the stone to free people entombed by lack of education, employment opportunities and the pressure of glass ceilings?  We cannot walk away from the tombs of our world trapping people from standing in solidarity, bound in shrouds inhibiting their inclusion in the common good.  May we partake in the inexhaustible spring of God’s mercy realizing it is not just for me, us, but for everyone by living as credible witnesses professing and living the message proclaimed on the cross (25).

Everyone After Each Station

Lord Jesus, help us support mercifully our sisters and brothers as they carry their crosses, from the merciful, compassionate love you show us (8), as a living sign of the Father’s love in the world (4).

Closing Prayer:

We thank you Lord for helping us carry our crosses, our individual burdens and collective struggles. As you died on the cross, a symbol of justice, help us to see justice issues acting as a shield against the wellspring of the Father’s limitless mercy (3).  May we always be a conduit of mercy, serving in gratitude, fostering your peace and infusing your hope in our world with enthusiasm and conviction (4).  We acknowledge our humanity, living as your Body, sustaining by our loving Father who gives us our daily bread, mercifully for our daily needs, so we are not lead into the temptation of indifference and we can say…Our Father, who art in heaven…

 

 

 

 

 

Barb Born January  2016

 

 

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Lectionary Reflection March 29, 2015

March 29, 2015: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Catholic Social Teaching: Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

My mission of being in the heart of the people is not just a part of my life or a badge I can take off; it is not an “extra” or just another moment in life. Instead, it is something I cannot uproot from my being without destroying my very self. I am a mission on this earth; that is the reason why I am here in this world. We have to regard ourselves as sealed, even branded, by this mission of bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up, healing and freeing. All around us we begin to see nurses with soul, teachers with soul, politicians with soul, people who have chosen deep down to be with others and for others. But once we separate our work from our private lives, everything turns grey and we will always be seeking recognition or asserting our needs. We stop being a people. (273)  The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis

 

Readings

Entrance Gospel: Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7

Psalm: 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11

Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47

Catechism of the Catholic Church

How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of “his father David”. Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means “Save!” or “Give salvation!”), the “King of glory” enters his City “riding on an ass”. Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth and so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God’s poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds. Their acclamation, “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord”, is taken up by the Church in the Sanctus of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord’s Passover. (559) From the Daily Roman Missal, Introduction to Palm Sunday

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

Mark 14:7

Human misery is a clear sign of man’s natural condition of frailty and of his need for salvation[386]. Christ the Saviour showed compassion in this regard, identifying himself with the “least” among men (cf. Mt 25:40,45). “It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When ‘the poor have the good news preached to them’ (Mt 11:5), it is a sign of Christ’s presence”.

Jesus says: “You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me” (Mt26:11; cf. Mk 14:7; Jn 12:8). He makes this statement not to contrast the attention due to him with service of the poor. Christian realism, while appreciating on the one hand the praiseworthy efforts being made to defeat poverty, is cautious on the other hand regarding ideological positions and Messianistic beliefs that sustain the illusion that it is possible to eliminate the problem of poverty completely from this world. This will happen only upon Christ’s return, when he will be with us once more, for ever. In the meantime, the poor remain entrusted to us and it is this responsibility upon which we shall be judged at the end of time (cf. Mt 25:31-46): “Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren” (183)

Philippians 2:8

 

The unsurpassed apex of the perspective indicated here is the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the New Man, who is one with humanity even to the point of “death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). In him it is always possible to recognize the living sign of that measureless and transcendent love of God-with-us, who takes on the infirmities of his people, walks with them, saves them and makes them one. In him and thanks to him, life in society too, despite all its contradictions and ambiguities, can be rediscovered as a place of life and hope, in that it is a sign of grace that is continuously offered to all and because it is an invitation to ever higher and more involved forms of sharing.

Jesus of Nazareth makes the connection between solidarity and charity shine brightly before all, illuminating the entire meaning of this connection: “In the light of faith, solidarity seeks to go beyond itself, to take on the specifically Christian dimensions of total gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation. One’s neighbour is then not only a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with everyone else, but becomes the living imageof God the Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit. One’s neighbour must therefore be loved, even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her; and for that person’s sake one must be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren (cf. 1 Jn3:16)”. (196)

For complete text visit:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

Reflection

Jesus asked the question of His identity answered, “I am”, to acknowledge He was the Christ, the son of the Blessed One.  Pilate asked questions of what he was to do with the man called King of the Jews and if He had done any evil.  But the crowd, a hyperbole of humanity, they could not enter a dialogue of asking and heartfelt answering questions, along with complementary listening.  Questions to allow another to stratify their identity, express their concerns, pledge their allegiance to hope.  Listening to the voice proclaiming the profound meaning of life, the voice seeking reconciliation, the voice embracing inclusion.  The crowd was too much in a hurry to celebrate a feast, no time to ask questions or listen, as they were hurriedly stumbling into a holy ritual, but as hollow as a bone lacking the marrow of life.  In haste, their voices spewed venom   of condemnation without taking the time to understand, to soulfully delve into knowing what they were asking for.

Jesus was not the first person to be crucified on Golgotha, in place or symbolic principle. In His humanity, He joined the lineage of many unjustly condemned, because people judge and do not ask questions, seek control and dominance and foster an environment void of reconciliation.  And ultimately when people deny themselves the blessing of listening because they will not spend the time or expend the compassionate energy to hear the depth of another’s soul, the vibrancy and passion of their heart, they can only spew venom to crucify the hope of others.

As we seek the voices for justice in our Church, towns and global community, we must first listen.  Listen to God’s parameters for justice, listen to struggles of people’s whose shoes we could not wear, listen to contradicting ideologies bound in shackles of restraint from consensus.  And from listening, a process meandering, pondering in time, have the courage to ask questions.  The” why “of being mired in the stagnation of the status quo and the “how” to progress towards where wholeness and healing might emerge.  To create an environment where dialogue ceases to be hostage to stereotypes and the freedom for open, constructive discussion blooms.  Then, only then, will crucifixions cease.  For people will have a voice and be granted their dignity to not have their lives snuffed out by systemic social, emotional and even physical cries and acts of vengeance.

Individual Reflection: Mark 14:1-15:47

Learn about the resources available from Catholic Mobilizing Network, in their support of repealing the death penalty, and share some in your parish bulletin:

http://catholicsmobilizing.org/

Family Reflection: Mark 14:1-15:47

Reflecting on today’s newspaper, who is being crucified.  Why do they lack a voice?

Prayer

This Good Friday prayerfully reflect on those crucified today.  Here are some resources, including Stations of the Cross, from Pax Christi:

http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/lent-2015/good-friday-way-of-the-cross/

Blogs to Visit:

http://marynow.wordpress.com/

As we reflect upon Mary’s presence in the mysteries of the Rosary, we are blessed to know her.  For her journey, a timeless trek, calls us to surrender, continuing conversion, humbleness and justice now.

https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/

Weekly lectionary reflections, for faith sharing groups, parish bulletins, newsletters or personal prayer, from the synergy of the Word we hear and the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.

https://cst74life.wordpress.com/

Catholic Social Teaching offers seven principles for upholding life in our thoughts, decisions and actions.

http://idocst.wordpress.com/

How we do Catholic Social Teaching.

https://csmresources.wordpress.com/

Creation sustainability ministry resources in the spirit of the St Francis Pledge.

Involvement Opportunities

List one or two upcoming events, legislative action alerts or social justice websites

By Barb  Born, March 19, 2015 The reflection maybe used in parish bulletins, newsletters or for faith sharing groups without copyright concern.

Third Sunday of Lent Lectionary Reflection March 8, 2015

March 8, 2015: Third Sunday of Lent

 

Catholic Social Teaching: Rights and Responsibilities

The gratuitousness of this historically efficacious divine action is constantly accompanied by the commitment to the covenant, proposed by God and accepted by Israel. On Mount Sinai, God’s initiative becomes concrete in the covenant with his people, to whom is given the Decalogue of the commandments revealed by the Lord (cf. Ex 19-24). The “ten commandments” (Ex 34:28; cf. Deut 4:13; 10:4) “express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant. Moral existence is a response to the Lord’s loving initiative. It is the acknowledgment and homage given to God and a worship of thanksgiving. It is cooperation with the plan God pursues in history”.

The Ten Commandments, which constitute an extraordinary path of life and indicate the surest way for living in freedom from slavery to sin, contain a privileged expression of the natural law. They “teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person”. They describe universal human morality. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds the rich young man that the Ten Commandments (cf. Mt 19:18) “constitute the indispensable rules of all social life”. (22) Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Readings

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm: 19:8, 9, 10, 11

Second Reading: 1^st Corinthians 1:22-25

Gospel: John 2:13-15

(Masses with the first scrutiny will use Cycle A readings)

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered that its outer court had become a place of commerce. He drove merchants out of it because of jealous love for his Father: “You shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.'” After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the Temple. (584) From the Daily Roman Missal, Introduction to the Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

 

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Exodus 20:13

Man and woman are in relationship with others above all as those to whom the lives of others have been entrusted. “For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning, … I will require it … of man [and] of every man’s brother” (Gen 9:5), God tells Noah after the flood. In this perspective, the relationship with God requires that the life of man be considered sacred and inviolable. The fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex20:13; Deut 5:17), has validity because God alone is Lord of life and death. The respect owed to the inviolability and integrity of physical life finds its climax in the positive commandment: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18), by which Jesus enjoins the obligation to tend to the needs of one’s neighbour (cf. Mt 22:37-40; Mk 12:29-31;Lk 10:27-28). (112)

For complete text visit: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html

Reflection

The Ten Commandments define our relationship with God and those we sojourn with on the journey of life.  “You shall not”, articulates what we should not do, but do we define the dichotomy of these precepts?  If we do not foster evil and fabricate our spiritual reality with false gods, then our lives should offer positive affirmations of praise to God, relish the gift of Sabbath and offer goodness in thought and deed to humanity.  A life of faith is not remaining frozen in a pious posture of prayer mentally and emotionally. But allowing prayer to propel us into the service of others, grounded in respect, allowing no crevice for exploitation.  For God seeks to cleanse us from our impurities and give us a new spirit (Entrance antiphon Ezekiel 36:23-26).  Attuning our lives to the commandments, we revert from false disguise of inflicting the consequences of our self-seeking gain to dehumanize others. We expand our conscience to reel in God’s mercy, refreshing our souls, enlightening our eyes to see we have come out of a place of slavery.

 

How many times do our parishes worship the god of the status quo, the god of faith as if the parish was a religious country club or yacht club prioritizing calendar dates for social affairs, with people decked out in fine attire?  Making a mockery of the Mass’ purpose, that strengthened from the gift, the call is to use the gift in service to others, not self-serving frivolity.  Erecting barriers to inclusion for the disenfranchised, not just seeking their presence at our parishes, highlights foremost economic participation, not a spiritual journey.  This spiritual mentality dismisses faith is predicated on God’s gift of His Son (Gospel antiphon John 3:16).  To faithfully acknowledge that gift, we must prayerfully strive to live God’s commandments by not just refraining from doing evil, but truly living the depth and breadth of the commandments in pronouncement of the gift we have received.

 

Individual Reflection: John 2:13-25

Share with your parish community A Scriptural Way of the Cross from the USCCB

http://www.usccb.org/about/justice-peace-and-human-development/upload/lent-2015-a-scriptural-way-of-the-cross.pdf

 

Family Reflection

Reflect upon the Ten Commandments.  How does your family live the positive affirmation of these precepts?

 

Prayer

Lord, help us to see out faith is not just about our sinfulness and refraining from evil, but embracing the gift of your presence abounding with goodness.  An embrace of compassion, forgiveness and mercy that releases us from the slavery of unworthiness to joyfully accept your gift and freely share its blessings.  Help us to see your Father’s commandments are not to restrain us, but liberate us to the freedom of respect for others, so we do not see them as competitors, advisories or label them with dehumanizing epithets.  We offer our praise of thanksgiving and may we pause every Sabbath to refresh our souls in the abundance of your grace.  Jesus, in your dear name we pray, Amen.

Blogs to Visit:

http://marynow.wordpress.com/

As we reflect upon Mary’s presence in the mysteries of the Rosary, we are blessed to know her.  For her journey, a timeless trek, calls us to surrender, continuing conversion, humbleness and justice now.

https://peaceonjustice.wordpress.com/

Weekly lectionary reflections, for faith sharing groups, parish bulletins, newsletters or personal prayer, from the synergy of the Word we hear and the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching.

https://cst74life.wordpress.com/

Catholic Social Teaching offers seven principles for upholding life in our thoughts, decisions and actions.

http://idocst.wordpress.com/

How we do Catholic Social Teaching.

https://csmresources.wordpress.com/

Creation sustainability ministry resources in the spirit of the St Francis Pledge.

 

Involvement Opportunities

List one or two upcoming events, legislative action alerts or social justice websites

 

By Barb  Born, February 27, 2015  The reflection maybe used in parish bulletins, newsletters or for faith sharing groups without copyright concern.

 

 

Lectionary Reflection

I will not be writing the lectionary reflections — For the past few months have been reflecting on writing Stations of the Cross –one with a Beatitudes theme and another series based on the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching …So time to move forward with this…

Peace on!!!