Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Christ

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Did you know this is the only story that is mentioned by all four gospel writers?  Jesus performs this same miracle on two separate occasions.   And, you know the story well: Jesus takes His disciples out into a deserted place, a place of human loneliness, hunger, and thirst. Hungry and thirsty people follow Him out there. When the day is getting long, His disciples tell Him the obvious. “They are hungry.” Jesus responds, “Feed them yourselves.”  This is the same thing He is telling us.  We are likely to reply, as did His disciples, “All we’ve got are five measly barley loaves and two fish. What good is that in the face of all that has to be done?”

Recently while channel surfing I saw a preacher-looking person writing on a white board.  I paused to see what would appear. There it was: today’s lesson!  “Faith is taking God at His word.”  That’s what happened here, isn’t it? Jesus said, “Feed them yourselves” and they did that with trust.  That took faith!  Would we have done the same or would we have figured there’s not enough for everyone so let’s not start a frenzy!?  The disciples and their helpers trusted that they would not be embarrassed by scarcity.  Pope Francis reminded us: “In the desert (where this crowd was gathered) people of faith are needed who, by the example of their own lives, keep hope alive.”  Hope rose as those baskets fed family after family.   Did the people realize how little food was in the baskets when they started?  Was the miracle that faith moved everyone who had even a smidgen of food to share it with their neighbors?   Is that why five loaves and two fish became a banquet with 12 baskets for another day?

Today we live among material progress beyond anything that our deceased Sisters and our parents could ever have imagined. But spiritually people hunger and thirst.  This is the situation that prompts our Corporate Commitment: to respond to the physical, spiritual, social and emotional hungers of the people of God.

And we pledge to do just this with the compassion of Christ.  That’s a tall order.   If we are to have something to share, we must also take seriously God’s invitation to be fed by Him, especially in the Eucharistic feast.  We can only fill the hungry crowd if we seek the Lord in Lectio, communal prayer and quiet times of reflection and conversation with the One we pledge to imitate.

We are moved to ask ourselves: “What really sustains me? What is my true sustenance?  Or, am I living in a state of spiritual starvation?”  If that is the case we will come up clueless when we ask ourselves, “What can I do to relieve others’ hungers?”  As the saying goes: you can’t give what you ain’t got!

Imagine yourself seated on the grass that day as a witness of the miracle where over 5,000 were fed from food barely enough for one. If you received physical sustenance from that bread that had been miraculously changed by Jesus, would you ever be the same again? Could you ever eat any meal in the same way ever again?

Rest assured: when we reach out in trust it is Jesus who does the feeding. All we have to do is share His food – His tender loving mercies, His presence, and His love.  You see, Jesus is not really saying – you do it all by your lonesome.  Instead, Jesus is saying: “Let’s do it together!”  When we look at needs and situations around us, we might be overwhelmed – but we need to count Jesus in equation.  (Our limited resources) plus (JESUS) divided by (the world’s great needs) equals A MIRACLE!  Maybe when it comes to ordering our spiritual food we shouldn’t hesitate to say, “Yeah…supersize me.”

My friend tells this story:  one day – while walking into the Dade City hospital main entrance – a mother and her young daughter were ahead of him. Just before they got to the entrance, the little girl noticed the closed door and asked her mother how they were going to get inside. The mother smiled – walked forward – the electronic eye opened the door and they walked in. The little girl turned to the next person and said: “It’s ok – just step up and a miracle will happen.”   Jesus says that same thing to us – “It’s ok – step forward in faith – the door will open – and a miracle will happen!”  The crowd will be satisfied and there will be leftovers for another day, for the next crowd of hungry people who approach you.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 55:1-3         Second Reading:  Romans 8:35, 37-39
Gospel:   Matthew 14:13-21
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Who Do You Say I Am?

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Two unconnected but related phrases jump out here in this Gospel: “You – who do you say that I am?” And “Jesus strictly ordered them to tell no one he was the Christ.”  If we finally figure out who Jesus is but we can’t tell anyone, what’re we supposed to do with that long sought-after revelation?

I think the operative word here is “tell.”  We’re not meant to tell others what or who to believe so much as to be a model that reveals more than words can say.  To let our lives be a “show and tell” of mutual love and respect, of deference to each other – a “flesh and blood” model of our aim to build community, and to maintain a balance in our communal and personal lives of prayer and work, art and music and poetry.  A living example of how “give and take” is part of life-long learning and nurtures our love for each other in spite of – no, because it causes us to see our own shadow side.  Our modulated and friendly laughter, our expressions of gratitude with a simple phrase like “thank you” – our hospitality and sharing.  In other words: our gentle determination to be Christ-like AND to BE Christ to others.  Our tenor of voice in our exchanges, our harmony in prayer and song, our attentive awareness to join the pace of our liturgy, our acknowledgement of Christ in the other when we pass in the hallways – all this “tells” who our Beloved model is.

And, you know what it takes to DO and BE this.  That’s the answer to the question Jesus asks: “Who do YOU say that I am?”  It takes close familiarity with WHO Jesus is.  You’ve probably heard the expression “familiarity breeds contempt.”  But the opposite is what’d true for those who seek to know Jesus – really to know anyone.  Time spent in Jesus’ company – in the company of our companions – fosters intimacy, closeness and an ease in each other’s company.   It’s true, too, for all who seek to build a relationship with another person or persons in community.  It’s a powerful realization when we stop to think: each one of us is responsible for the community we create.

One of the many stories Msgr Cummings (1918-2020) shared with me in his later years.  I’d first met “Father George” in 1949 as a youngster at Good Counsel Camp.  This story was also quoted at his funeral.  It serves to remind all of us of what it takes to be a loyal follower, an imitator of Christ – a true servant.

When Msgr was around 50 years a priest, (this true story goes) a young intern at Good Counsel Camp asked Fr. George: “When did you decide to become a priest?”  Without skipping a beat, Cummings answered: “This morning.”  He added as aside, “Every day I wake up and I recommit myself, to serving as a priest.”

That’s a true vocation story!  Each and every day, we hear Jesus ask: “Who do you say that I am.”  Whatever our response, He cautions: “Tell no one I am the Christ.”   “Rather, my friend, recommit yourself to be my instrument of peace in your community who, in turn, together will be a living example of a “peaceable kingdom” to all who witness your way of life, and your living.  “For where God has placed you, that is your pulpit.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 22:19-23         Second Reading:  Romans 17:33-36
Gospel:   Matthew 16:13-20
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Corpus Christi

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Solemnity of the Most Holy Body

and Blood of Christ

This crowd that Jesus is speaking to had made a pilgrimage to see him in person, instead of going to Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover.   It would have been easier to go to the nearby city, but something was drawing them to the great teacher.  And, walking was their mode of transportation, and the distances were often across rough terrain or long detours around lakes. Someone has calculated that in his 3-year public ministry Jesus walked 912 miles.  (Now, I thought that was an interesting tidbit in case you play Catholic trivia.)

Here’s another.  Someone has calculated that Mary, the mother of Jesus, walked 12,187 miles by the time she was 50 years old.  The distance around the world at the equator is 24,901 miles.  This means that in her lifetime Mary walked almost half the distance around world.  (No wonder she waited until after her death to make so many miraculous appearances.)

Now, come with me back to Jesus and the crowd who wanted to take Jesus by force and make him their king.  In other words, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that has felt the pangs of a deep, deep longing for something more than physical hunger.  But as so often happens, they have misplaced the object of their yearning.  They have placed their longing on “king.” Jesus wants them to see that their true longing is for “living bread.”.

Today, Jesus is asking us to defog our soul’s glasses in order to bring our longing into clearer focus.  John wants us to see into and through Jesus, that our real longing is not for things that pass away but for things that endure for imperishable Light, and kinship (not kingship).

Jesus keeps referring to bread, living bread.  We know that the majority of Jesus’ followers were the poor.    And it is a known fact that 50% of a poor person’s diet was (and often is) some form of bread.  Life was a struggle, not unlike the fate of many of the people we know.  Each day’s food had to be earned that day; and was just enough for a day’s survival.  This is not the bread that Jesus is talking about.  He is talking about a Living Bread:  an abiding, dynamic relationship with Him.   “They who eat my flesh and drink my blood will abide in me, and I in them.”

In response to the people who quarreled over his words, Jesus doesn’t seem to answer the question posed about how salvation will come about, perhaps because this reality can only be understood after his death and Resurrection.   They could not imagine a future supper with such significance, or the horrific suffering and death of the One they so admired, nor the resurrection that would startle the world.  They did not yet know the gift of self in Bread and Wine.  As one writer says it, they could not conceive of the Eucharistic presence that Jesus would give us so that He might continue to “mingle with us.”  Isn’t that a touching phrase – mingle with us?!

The bottom line is that people are scrambling like crazy to find the diet that is right for them. But there is a diet you don’t hear much about – the one presented in today’s gospel – the “Bread of Life Diet.” It’s spiritually high-carb but offers full nutritional value. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” and promises that people on his program “will never hunger or thirst again!” This is an extravagant claim!  But, unlike some TV ads that offer guaranteed fat burners, Jesus can deliver on what he promises!

We’ve heard the Good News … now it’s our task and obligation to share that news!

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

 

First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6              Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel Reading: John 6:51-58
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Good Shepherd Sunday

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These two brief parables in the Gospel reveal Jesus as our unique means to salvation, our Good Shepherd.  He is the “sheep gate,” the gateway to eternal life, and the selfless, caring “shepherd” who provides protection and life itself.  Jesus presents a comparison between a concerned shepherd and a hireling who is there only for the paycheck.  The good shepherd is willing to pay any price to protect the sheep, even if it means that he has to give His very life for them.  Christ, the Chief Shepherd, knows our individual weaknesses and failings and watches over us with discerning love and sympathetic understanding.  With infinite concern He notes the doubts, fears, trials, conflicts, and defeats that disturb our peace, and He swiftly comes to our aid Jesus is warning his hearers and reminding us, “don’t be scammed” – only thieves and robbers seek to enter the sheepfold by any means other than the door.

Tony Campolo loved to tell the story of a particular census taker who went to the home of a rather poor family in the mountains of West Virginia to gather information.  He asked the mother how many dependents she had.  She began, “Well, there is Rosie, Billy and Lewella, Susie, Harry and Jeffrey.  There’s Johnny, Harvey, and our dog, Wille.”  The census taker interrupted her: “No, ma’am, that’s not necessary.  I only need the humans.” “Ah,” she said.  “Well, there is Rosie, Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey, Johnny, Harvey, and…”  At this the exasperated man he said, “No, ma’am, you don’t seem to understand.  I don’t need their names.  I just need the numbers.”  The woman replied, “But I don’t know their numbers. I only know them by name.”

In today’s gospel Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says that he knows his sheep by name.  Although there may be several flocks sharing the same sheepfold, when the shepherds walk up to the gate and call their sheep, each one instantly recognizes the voice of its own shepherd.  When he calls, they instinctively follow (they are led and they follow, they are not driven, that’s for goats).  They will ignore the voice of any shepherd other than their own.  We will hear many voices competing for our attention, but there is a special note to the voice of Jesus that demands our immediate and full attention.

A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep.  But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days.  When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled. Not knowing how to decide the matter, he at last asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom.  Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal.  The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened.  The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep.  When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door.  It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.  “His sheep knows him,” said the judge.  “Case dismissed!”

There is no question that Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  The only question that remains at this point is this: Do you know the Shepherd?  Do you recognize His voice?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts 2:14, 36-41         Second Reading:  1 Peter 2:20-25
Gospel:   John 10:1-10
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On the Road to Emmaus

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Two of the disciples of Jesus were on the road that leads to Emmaus. They were low because their Master had been crucified like a common thief. But now they’d heard reports that their Master was not dead at all. Reliable sources have told them that he had appeared to some of their most trusted friends. Was he really alive? Should they believe the good news or the bad? And that’s our dilemma, isn’t it? DO WE BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS OR THE BAD? The good news is that Christ is alive. The bad news is how little impact that event is having in our world.

The Jewish custom required that the two disciples invite Jesus to a meal. Hence, they invited Him for a night’s rest in their house–and Jesus accepted the invitation. During the meal, when Jesus broke the bread, the disciples realized that this stranger was not a stranger after all – this was Jesus, the Risen Christ. Later they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened up the Scriptures to us?”  Hidden for a time, Jesus took delight in revealing himself in the breaking of the bread.  Mangiare! Eat up! It’s good for you!

You will recall on Easter morning, Jesus told the disciples to “go home” – this time they “go back” -walking 7 miles to Jerusalem to share their story.   They were probably pondering all along the way how they, like Mary Magdalene, did not recognize Jesus.  For Mary the revelation (Jesus’ delight) came when she heard Jesus’ voice.  For the Emmaus disciples it was the breaking of the bread.    That continues to this day, Jesus meets us on our way to Emmaus, in the ordinary experiences of our lives, and in the places to which we retreat when life is too much for us. The story warns us, however, that the risen Lord will take delight in coming to us when we least expect him.

In the story of Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh and Piglet are taking their evening walk. For a long time they walk in the kind of silence good friends can share.  Finally, Piglet asks, “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” answers Pooh and then asks. “And what do you say, Piglet?” Piglet says, “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?”   You and I can’t really plan to meet the Risen Christ because we never really know when or where He’s going to show up. But you can be sure of this: He will show up.  Take delight in his revelation!

Have you heard about the little boy who told his mother, “I’m going out to play ball with God.”  When his mother asked him just how he could do this, the little boy answered: “Oh, I throw the ball up to His sky, and He throws it back to me.”  Jesus will not disappoint you – You can depend on Him – throw the ball up – He will toss it back – be careful it does not land on your head because you failed to recognize him in the unexpected moment.  Consider when an idea comes to you “from out of the blue”.  Might it be God throwing it back to you with the prayer you tossed in his lap?  Might it be God’s way of saying: “Catch!  You can handle this one?”

How about the tale of the young boy walking home through the park after attending a Sunday school class? Somehow, he couldn’t stop thinking about the Bible lesson for that day. What impressed him most was when the teacher said, “You will find the risen Jesus in everyone you meet.” As he continued through the park, he noticed an old woman sitting on a bench. She looked lonely and hungry. So he sat down next to her, took out the chocolate bar he had saved and offered some to her. She accepted it with a beautiful smile.  They sat together in silence, just smiling at each other.  When the boy was leaving, he had gone short distance when he ran back to the bench, and gave the woman a big hug. When he arrived home, his mother asked, “What’s making you so happy today?” He said, “I shared my chocolate bar with Jesus.” Before his mother could ask more questions, he added, “You know, she has the most beautiful smile in the world.”  Meanwhile, the old woman returned to her little apartment where she lived with her sister who remarked, “You seem really happy today.  “I am,” she replied, “I was sitting in the park, eating a chocolate bar with Jesus. And, you know, he looks a lot younger than I expected.”   Isn’t that the lesson in today’s gospel?  We will meet and experience the risen Jesus in unexpected places and persons.  Make someone smile and take care to notice God’s delight in the smiles returned to you.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

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  God bless you and your family.

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts 2:14         Second Reading:  1 Peter 1:17-21
Gospel:   Luke 24:13-35
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Palm Sunday

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The contemporary author Thomas Moore says, “The whole point of a good story is to give birth to other stories and to deep reflection.”  (Thomas Moore Original Self p. 66) The Palm Sunday stories certainly call us to reflection.  There are stories within stories that bring more stories to mind.   We can be tempted to try to reflect on too many details.  In Lectio, as in any of the arts, we can allow the music, the photo, the artwork, the Word to take over.  We, our brain, or attention can overload on details.    So, I suggest a good choice for the Palm Sunday stories may be to simply “sit with” the story.  Together let’s break the Word.    Allow me to share a little of my reflection with you.

Palm Sunday liturgy, it seems to me, is a mixture of themes evoking a potpourri of emotions.  We move from high hosannas and a supper with friends, to an example of loving humility, washing of feet and later washing of hands to a scene of betrayal and mocking.  We meet Simon and Veronica, John and Mary, Joseph and the women.  We are impressed with their loving care and their courage and compassion.  Then we hear the roughness of the soldier’s “Surely this was an innocent man; could he save himself?!.”  We breathe a slow sigh when we hear of the donation of a burial place, the preparation of the body of a loved-one, the watching and waiting … and waiting … and waiting.

Palm Sunday services begin with such glorious solemnity … waving palms, processions, joyful singing of hosanna!  Within about an hour’s time we travel from cries of “Blessed is He who comes in the name of God!” to shouts of “Away with this man – Crucify him!”  I like the Eucharistic acclamation that we no longer use: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!” We pray for forgiveness and daily bread.   We exchange God’s own peace with each other.  We recall Jesus’ supreme sacrifice and take into ourselves His body and blood.   Then the communion antiphon calls us back to the beginning of the story – to the thread that winds through the whole story: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me: still, not my will but yours be done.”  A few hours later Jesus will utter: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

This same sentiment is echoed in the prayer often used at the Stations of the Cross: “Oh, my God, I love you.  I love you more than myself.  Grant that I may love you always, then do with me what you will.”   When I hand myself over to God, as Jesus did, in a sincere act of self-surrender in the words we (Sisters) sang in our vow ceremony: “Suscipe me”,  I am asking God to accept me NOW, just as I am now, open, vulnerable, powerless.  I am also saying that I am willing to receive whatever God has in store for me in the future: the journey onward, the Palm Sundays, the Good Fridays, the Easters in my life.  “Accept me, accept us, O God as you have promised and I shall live, we shall live; and we shall not be disappointed our hope.”

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

May  you have a blessed Holy Week experience and a very Happy Easter!

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