• Leviticus 19: 1-2, 17-18. Love your neighbor as yourself.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16-23. You are the temple of God. Do not be wise in a worldly way. All things are yours, you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.
• Matthew 5:38-48. You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Love your enemies. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go two miles with them.

Thoughts for your reflection:

“Love your enemies”: this teaching is perhaps the greatest challenge that Christ offers us. For those of us who are Christians this teaching becomes the gauntlet that we are left to accept. This Gospel passage which we read this weekend is the culmination of Matthew’s fifth chapter which started with the Sermon on the Mount. In the sermon Jesus give us great hope in the mercy and justice of God but then he calls us to be ambassadors of these same qualities. The chapter ends with the invitation to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father if perfect”. This perfection hits home with the call to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. One can almost imagine the reaction of the audience who are stung with this challenge. Consider how the challenge affect us who have heard this teaching again and again and now consider how it is received by those who hear it for the first time after being enchanted with the message of the beatitudes. Imagine the people on the mount as they shake their heads in disbelief and start walking away from Jesus; the message of hope and promised dash by this condition of perfection.

 But this condition is nothing more than a challenging articulation of our most basic theological principle. Many of us recognize the value of our human dignity that is based on scripture. The first reading reminds us of this reciprocal relationship that we have to each other through God. God is holy, thus we are holy. I am holy and my neighbor is holy. Throughout chapter 19 of Leviticus a number of teachings regarding social responsibilities to one’s neighbors are offered and each teaching ends with the clause “I am the Lord”. The beginning of the chapter reminds us that because “I, the Lord, your God, an Holy” we too are Holy so in teaching each social precept we are reminded that each of us bear the mark of holiness and that is condition which calls us to treat each other with the reverence that we are all due.  

This condition cannot be revoked. God has granted to each of us this amazing dignity and we are challenged to see it in each other. In teaching this principle to the Corinthian community St. Paul does not teach it as something new but instead reminds them of what they should have already known.

Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

We are holy; this is the basis of our dignity which we all share. There may be times when we struggle to identify the holiness in one another or even in ourselves but nevertheless we are challenged to see the holiness in each other. If this principle is true how then can we claim to have enemies? The only way that this is possible is if we eliminate the condition of holiness to one or another. But Paul tells us that this is not an option. If we destroy God’s temple that exist in one another then God will destroy us. By destroying the life of one we only succeed in eliminating our own holiness. This principle of human dignity sets the condition for why the Church’s moral position will not allow us to destroy life at any stage. Abortion, torture and the death penalty are situations where we act to destroy the holiness of another.

People will challenge us at different point is our lives. Some people will severely challenge our ability to accept their holiness. Jesus uses the most straining human relationship of persecution to make his point on how far we must accept this principle. There is no barrier or line that terminates the holiness of one another. The disciples were forced to accept the challenge that even their persecutors were to be treated with the dignity of holiness and this is the same challenge that Christ continues to offer us.

• Isaiah 8:23 – 9:3. Darkness and gloom give way to light and joy. Great, victorious moments are renewed.
• 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17. Divisions should cease, even those in the name of Paul, Cephas, Apollos or Christ. We have all been baptized in the name of the one Lord and Savior, whose cross has become our gospel.
• Matthew 4:12-23. Jesus returns to Galilee to begin his public ministry. Here he calls his first disciples, two sets of brothers who immediately follow him. He proclaims the good news of the kingdom.

Thoughts for your consideration:

The lectionary readings for this week offer us a message of hope in the midst of major transitions. The first reading by Isaiah tells us about an impending hope and glory that will be brought into a land that is suffering in gloom and anguish. The land is identified as the “district of the gentiles” and the message of hope is that this land will experience a great sense of liberation and enlightenment. Verse 5 tells us how through whom this glorious transition will happen.

For a child shall be born to us… they name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.  

Matthew saw this prophetic quote as the perfect scriptural passage to use as a conclusion to his four chapter introduction. This passage places a prophetic context to the amazing situation that has developed where Jesus will begin his public teaching ministry with the Sermon on the Mount in the gentile land of Galilee. Isaiah speaks of a glorious future transition for the suffering gentile community. For Matthew this transition is a present reality that is being lived out during the time this gospel was written which is approximately in the year 75 CE. In the Gospel reading we have Jesus inviting two sets of brothers to share in his ministry of bringing people back to God. This transition from a dark and gloomy social order to being healers and heralds of peace and justice is personified by Peter, Andrew, James and John taking up the call to follow Christ in proclaiming the kingdom of God in words and actions. These four were the first agents of change towards fulfilling the glorious transition that was foretold by Isaiah and begun through Christ. In Matthew’s account we are simply told that these brothers immediately left what they were doing and followed him.

We know from the rest of the Gospel story that the transition which these early disciples engaged in was not as simple or passive as we are lead to believe in this week’s gospel reading. The disciples faced many trials and tribulations as they carried out their exciting new community life and ministry. These trials included doubt, infighting, disagreements, betrayal, persecution and for many of them death. The message of a future hope does not negate the reality of a present suffering. Transitions are never easy. While our faith offers us a future promise of hope the fact is that our present transitions challenge us in so many ways. Individually many of us face and will continue to face personal experiences of transitions that will take us out of our comfort zone. As a society and as a church we are also aware of the massive transition that we now face that will challenge us in becoming a global family. How will we respond to these challenges?  

In the second reading Paul warns the Corinthian community that their transition into the Christian family cannot emulate the bad characteristic that was very much a part of their social order. Division, rivalries and jealousy are very much part of the human condition but they are not part of the Christian liberating experience. This experience will be marked by unity in serving the gospel message of hope. The disciples and early Christians were offered a glimpse of what is to come while they help transform the social order.

We as individuals and as a society our given a message of hope for a future of justice and peace that is to come. We are called to be agents of hope in this dark and gloomy world of ours. We are agents of change, but this change is not our own. We, like the early disciples, are invited to share in Jesus’ divine mission. This social and personal transformation must not carry the darker elements of our present social order. The Catholic social tradition has continued to offer us Paul’s warning by calling us to live in a spirit of unity that is working together to transform our society towards a “culture of life”.

The first and fundamental step towards this cultural transformation consists in forming consciences with regard to the incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life. –Evangelium Vitae #96

To engage in this liberating mission we have to put off our human proclivity towards our own self-interest. In retaining our self-interest will we inevitably begin to create social divisions that first qualify then discriminate human life. Some of us will discard those who are unborn by defining them outside of human life. Others will define people of a certain ethnic or religious background as second class citizens not fully worthy of the dignity that we recognize in ourselves. And some of us may believe that criminal actions have forfeited the dignity and rights of other s.  These are social tendencies that are simply not consistent with the social vision that Jesus offers. As agents of change we need to be the first defenders of this consistent ethic of life where we protect and defend the dignity and rights of all.

Did the cross compromise the human dignity of Christ? While we defend the dignity of Christ’s divine nature, how do we defend his human dignity? Much of our Christian theology of the cross has traditionally emphasized the divine role in what we know as the Paschal Mystery and this may have caused us some confusion in how we define the cross with respect to our own human dignity. If we read the Passion narrative from the perspective of the social interaction between Christ and the governing authorities who condemned him we realize that at no point did Christ surrender his human dignity. Jesus did not command the Chief Priest to arrest him, nor did Jesus command Pilate to crucify him. We believe Jesus to be a perfect representation of God’s love towards humanity. In the Passion narrative his example is to claim his human dignity with tenacity. Thus, the history of the Cross became a witness to the close relationship between Jesus’ human dignity and that of the entire human community. It illustrates further that human dignity can only be expressed in the service of the common good and in solidarity with all creation.

The cross expressed the human dignity of Jesus in the midst of a great social injustice. The cross was imposed on Jesus not by God but by a social system that feared the political challenge of true dignity and freedom empowered by God’s love. God’s response to this social injustice was to raise Jesus from the dead. In so doing, God elevated Jesus’ human dignity and affirmed the dignity of our common humanity. Through the Cross we are inspired to live as free agents who share in the dignity of Christ because we know that our dignity is affirmed by God and the power of sin in our social structures cannot take that away from us.  

Rights flow from dignity. However a common perception identifies rights in very individualistic terms: these rights are mine and they protect me from the oppressive forces of the social community. This individualistic approach to human rights conflicts with the dignity of the human person as we have just come to understand it. This misinterpretation is particularly common in the American context.

There is a reason why we as Americans have a harder time defining human rights outside of this individualistic interpretation. It is grounded in the design of our nation’s Constitution and in the articles that we call the Bill of Rights. The American constitution was a legal and philosophical revolution in the world of 1788 that started the world down a path of constitutionally guaranteed rights for its citizens. The American framers focused on the protection of civil and political rights. These are called “negative” rights meaning they are rights that prohibit a nation from acting against its citizenry; including infringement of free speech or freedom of religion. These rights tend to be civil and political.

Since then many other nations have developed constitutional laws of their own, also integrating “positive” rights. These rights are basic services that one can expect from government such as health care or education. This other layers of rights tend to be social and economic. In January of 1944 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described this development in rights theory as a “second Bill of Rights” in what turned out to be his last State of the Union address:

We have come to a clear realization of the fact, however, that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry, people who are (and) out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, or race or creed.

While Roosevelt’s vision for a second Bill of Rights is still not part of the American Constitution, the international community did embrace this vision over 60 years ago with the UDHR. Articles 22 to 27 of the UDHR promote these social and economic rights. Human Rights, understood in this way, demonstrate a balance of the individual in relationship to the community. Yes, we all have individual rights that befit our own God given dignity. But we also have duties and responsibilities to our neighbors which the “positive” rights protect. The dignity of Christ as witnessed in his life and death and which God affirmed in the resurrection converge in this way with the rights and responsibilities that we celebrate with the UDHR. 

There remains, however, the challenge to explain the 2000 year gap between the revelation of our dignity in Jesus’ acceptance of the Cross and the clarity of that dignity achieved in the UDHR. This is where a melioristic approach to history becomes helpful. Meliorism implies that the world tends to become better and that humans can aid that betterment. Because of the power of the cross I chose to believe that there is meaning in suffering that took place 2000 years ago on Calvary and that there continues to be meaning with the ongoing social suffering that we see in our world. Through these moments where we witness great social suffering I tend to see moments of social grace and wisdom that can improve the condition of humanity if we, the human community, can act on it.  For myself there is great historical and religious significance with the fact that the UDHR and the United Nations was born out of the cross that was the Second World War and the Great Depression.

When the crucified Christ was raised the apostolic commitment of the early church chose to live in the freedom and dignity that Christ offered. In the aftermath of World War II God raised the human community to a new level of global awareness and universal dignity, should we not also live in the freedom and dignity that was divinely inspired to our forbearers. A melioristic approach is consistent with Christian eschatology which believes that we are actively living as followers of Christ on earth and with Christ we are working towards the emergence of the Kingdom of God. The power of sin is still alive and active in our society. My hope is that incrementally we, in relationship with God, Christ, and in solidarity with our human community, can grow towards this new creation based on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation. This is a long term project, but one that is grounded in the dignity of Christ and now measured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The night weather was cold and the crowd of two hundred dispersed throughout the night while a group of enthusiastic youth stayed behind chanting, singing and telling their story. They shared what it means to be undocumented and, in some cases, what it means to have your parents or other loved ones live with the challenges of not having a Social Security Number. In the midst of songs and poetry the buses transporting deportees began to arrive around 3:00 A.M. Unmarked vans and shuttle buses lined-up in front of the center as they awaited their turn to drop-off our migrant brothers and sisters. Inside the cars the men and women sat shackled by their ankles and wrists , having only the clothes in which they were apprehended.  The mood grew really heavy. A few of us spoke directly to the men and women inside the vans, both officers and migrants. Some spoke messages of hope and solidarity to those who where going to be processed in the center and others attempted to deliver a message of compassion and conscience to the officers.

As I sat and prayed by myself during the cold night, I kept asking God and myself who would benefit from separating families, terrorizing children with the immanent threat of having one of their parents taken away, and from destabilizing entire communities. According to the Detention Watch Network (DWN), the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group Inc. make an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue with a net income of $133 million a year. In many ways, undocumented immigrants have become a commodity for our society. CCA operates 65 facilities in 19 states and the District of Columbia with more than 75,000 beds and nearly 17,000 employees. 12 of CCA’s facilities are used to hold immigration detainees. GEO operates 50 facilities in 16 states and one in Guantanamo Bay. In the long run, however, no one will benefit. Fearful children will make fearful adults. This will only create cycles of social alienation and violence. My cold feet and nose brought me to the realization that while the rule of law and sovereignty of a nation is important and valuable, the price that we will pay for it will be very costly.

As the Sun was coming out, our religious leaders, youth and other organizers reconvened for another moment of prayer.  We all felt very exhausted and nervous as the consequences that the arrest could have on their lives were explained to our friends. Miguel Gutierrez, a young twenty-three year-old, who was going to risk arrest told us that given his background as the son of undocumented immigrants he had to use his inherited privilege.  Compared to what many immigrants endure, as a U.S. citizen, he felt it was the least that he could do. After a few chants and songs, the huge electric gates of Broadview’s Detention Center opened and a white, unmarked van pulled out. Twenty-two men and women stand in front of them. Rapidly, the traffic, commercial trucks and workers living leaving the factories around the areas began to pile up in what was an empty street. While the men and women, now sitting on the ground chanted and called on the officers to let go of the deportees, the cameras of the media were gathered around the “protestors”. As I watched and heard the chants, such a scene was a marvel to me. We were exercising our right to come together and we knew that although our friends will be arrested they will live to see another day. The same police that took them away will make sure that their safety, for the most part, was guaranteed. If this is what democracy looks like, why would we not let others, 12 Million plus people, who live under the shadows of our society, partake of it fully?

*Written by Hugo Esparza, CP

* All Photos taken from www.icirr.org (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights)

Khalil Gibran’s  ‘Prophet’, when asked to speak about pain, says: “Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break so that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain” Awakening to the terrible reality of human suffering breaks open our heart. Then love and action in the service of justice becomes possible. 
 
Appreciating and trying to live our first vow as Passionists to keep alive the Memoria Passionis should offer a clue as to how that shell may be broken. It should also give us some tools for critical reflection on our contemporary experience
 
Paul of the Cross began his great work in a world in transition. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, less than 50 years before his birth, marked the waning of the political influence of papacy and empire, the two major medieval powers. “Enlightenment” ideas began to make themselves felt. The church would no longer set the agenda; religious communities,   dislodged from the center, would find themselves ‘at the edge’. In this world Paul found the drawing force of his life in contemplating the Crucified God. From here came his passion for life. The Crucified One led Paul to the ones he saw as the poorest, those who did not know God’s love and had no hope. Paul saw the name of Jesus on their foreheads.   
 
We are called to continue the great work in a world still rocked by massive change. At the start of the 3rd millennium, “to see reality in our time is to see the world as crucifixion.” 
 
Our world is marked by a virulent form of economic globalisation that leads to massive imbalances in the economic order. This affects body, soul and spirit. Access to the basic necessities for living is controlled by a powerful minority. The North, especially the US, and multinationals control and direct the lives of the majority of people in a way that was unknown in the past. 
 
Our minds have been colonised by the dominant values of individualism, consumerism and success. But the Cross reminds us that “success is not a name for God” (M. Buber) Living joyfully our relatedness as brothers and sisters is the antidote to individualism. Solidarity is the word chosen to describe a new way of being together as Passionists in mission for the life of the world. New realities call for new responses in faith.
 
The addiction to consume can heal when it learns “I am more than what I have” and longs to know that I am loved beyond all doubt. The addiction to success, and to its servants – domination, violence and ruthlessness, can only be healed in the compassion and mercy flowing from the Cross for the victim of such acts.
 
Early in its life the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 1948 as an emphatic “NO” to the horrors of the 2nd World War. “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.(art 1) But Jesus had already announced this from his Cross!
 
Do we have anything to say to our world and to our brothers and sisters today and is it likely to be able to be heard?
 
A world in the throes of enormous change, roiled by violence and new expressions of xenophobia; the demonising of the ‘other’ expressed in the ‘war or terror’, urgently calls us to reflect on the demands of Justice at the heart of any Spirituality of the Passion if it dares speak to the questions of today’s women and men.  
 
Our self understanding as Passionists has been slowly undergoing a shift over our lifetimes. It finds clear expression in the Constitutions and the General Chapters of the past 30 years. The 2000 General Chapter says: “Life, born from the cross, was the key for understanding all of the Chapter’s work under the dual aspect of ‘memory’ and ‘prophecy’. As memory, it drew our eyes to the cross from which new life flows, and as prophecy it asked us to look at the tasks of the new millennium with the eyes of Jesus Crucified”
 
Memory and prophecy constitute the two eyes of Passionist being – one looks to Jesus of the Cross where love first touched us; the other looks to the present, where His reconciling love becomes a reality here and now. 
 
This binocular approach to our living the Passion requires us to be centered – standing with Jesus in his Passion-moment; and also sent to the edge – to stand with and keep faith with our sisters and brothers as they seek meaning and hope in their crucifixions.  To be Passionist today requires that we are passionate about Life in each of its stages and in all of its dimensions – a commitment to care for, to promote and protect life from womb to tomb and in every part of the biosphere.
 
The foundation of Passionist identity is the realisation that we have flared forth from the burning heart of God. We are the same matter threaded through every atom, molecule and particle that constitutes our universe. Our life-force comes not from duty, obligation or responsibility, but astonishment and love.  
 
Paul of the Cross, in another time and place, was astonished at the overwhelming work of God’s love that is Jesus’ Passion. As for Jesus, so for Paul; as for Paul, so for each one of us! To be drawn into the heart of our Passionist charism is to be called to live the Passion of the Christ as passion for life in its every dimension and part. 
 
As for Jesus, as for Paul, so for us! Passion for Life calls us to move from the centre to the edge there to find Christ in the suffering earth, in his suffering brothers and sisters, young, old, poor, migrant, displaced, gay, indigenous, misunderstood. Paul, with insight strengthened from gazing on the face of the Crucified, when he turned to look outward he saw the name of Jesus written on the foreheads of the poor.
 
The outflow of our contemplation of the Passion of Jesus will always call us to stand with the marginalized and the crucified ones who, without fully understanding it, thirst for life. Our contemplation of the Crucified One will always lead us to look to the edge and notice who is left discarded by the way. Sometimes this will involve ‘breaking the silence’.
 
We are called to live today in such a way as to make present of Christ’s death as liberation for the people who are crucified today by hunger, injustice and the absence of hope. We are to be ‘Memory-makers’ that the Crucified/Risen one is hope for the poor and for all of creation.
 
“Jesus will be in agony till the end of time’ said Leon Bloy. As we face the agony of the world today, it suggests to me that this is the Passionist moment. In a world marked more and more by the inequalities of possession, our approach to justice must be more than mere resourcefulness.
 
We must offer the justice of right relationship. What is needed in this polarized, fearful and ‘crusading’ world filled with a sense of its own resourcefulness and with a toolkit of solutions, is a ‘crucified mind’ formed beneath the Cross.
 
Such a sense of justice is indeed countercultural – one that embraces our own various experiences of being emptied of ego, of solutions and moved to the sideline of significance. Similar experiences shaped Paul of the Cross, brought him out of the army and away from the Crusades and brought him to be embraced by and then to proclaim the life-giving paradox of the powerlessness of the crucified God.

Thoughts for your consideration:

Our environment conditions us. This was one of the best piece of advise that I received as a student, and one that I have taken quite seriously in my involvement with organizations that seek justice in oppressed communities. The environment will dictate my awareness and most of my blind spots. This, I have found out, is an inevitable reality of all human nature. What is more, it plays a great role in the direction that groups of people will take, whether these are families or corporations.

As members of a Religious Congregation in North America, our dreams, visions and mission were concretized, partly, in the institutions that we created. The fruit of our hard labor paid off as we raised great buildings that have served the Body of Christ for many generations. Now, we find ourselves closing some of these places, the same places that once where an icon of our identity, service and legacy.

Although it is natural for us to grow such attachments to the buildings and the dreams that they once represented, the Gospel’s message presents us an alternative. Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve, to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick, no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic, is more than a recommendation to remain frugal or to carry on their work in simplicity. Rather, Jesus invited them to keep their imaginations open, and therefore to keep their ministry creative, always evolving. The Twelve had the freedom to move and adapt rapidly, yet their mission, their authority over unclean spirits was not changed, for we hear how “the Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them”. Although institutions are necessary to carry out our work, the freedom to dream new dreams and visions that will enable our mission to be relevant to our times is also necessary not only for our survival as a group but as a matter of justice.

This ability to envision ourselves differently will depend on the places, environments, where we find our selves. Jesus instructed the Twelve to enter a house and stay there until they were to leave. I’m sure that the disciples, as guests, where able to ask questions on the in’s and out’s the town in order to be more effective in the work that was entrusted to them.  Hence, they were able to adapt to the new and evolving situations in the different places where they ministered.

As a person that ministers within an institution, I must continually ask whether the institution is able to respond to the present reality in an integral way with minimal blind spots, or if the blind spots are too great for the development of ministerial work that is effective and just. This can be a difficult and frustrating process, yet it can help us to carry out the mission in a more dignified manner. The process can be frustrating because we can find harsh truths such as, the case where the non-profit organization that seeks justice in the community has a great disparity from the race of its employees and the race of the community that its seeks to organize; or when the NGO that seeks to create change, recreates old systems of oppression because it welcomes the oppressed person’s humanity but it is not willing to embrace his or her personhood; or, when the organization ends up chasing funds rather than the fulfillment of its mission, or, worse, when a  “do-gooder” is placed in a community and within a short time of being there, he or she becomes the unofficial spokesperson for that group. Our Christian Mission, whether personal or communal, must begin by understanding the location from which we seek God’s Will in order to continue the mission entrusted to us of driving out demons rather than creating new ones.

Ezekiel 2:2-5
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6

Thoughts for your consideration:

As part of my ministry I have been volunteering at a local non-profit that educates and advocates for and with low-wage workers. My role has been primarily of organizing local labor rights workshops in different parts of the city and assisting in cases of labor-law abuses. For one of the court cases, which was entrenched in year-long litigation process, I was asked to participate as a translator. The sixteen (out of 25) remaining workers, who decided to continue a class-action lawsuit against their ex-employer, debated weather or not it was worth it to continue spending their time in and out court, money, and energy in this struggle. Their case was simple, the employer fail to pay for over-time wages for over five-years to its employees, and once the employer fired this group and sold the business, without previous notice to the rest of the workers, thought that the company and its owners where exempt from any previous wrong doings. Unfortunately for the workers, their ex-boss had deep pockets and, therefore, was able to drag the litigation process through last minute court re-scheduling and other bureaucratic antics in order to exhaust the defendants.  During the meeting tension and emotions ran high. The group was dived between those who wanted to quit and those who wanted to continue. The power they held as a group was critical for the process of the lawsuit and for the remuneration that they would be given if they were to win. They all knew what they were risking, and the meeting became chaotic. Every one in the small room, even the pro-bono lawyer, no longer talked but shouted. In the middle of all of this an older-man, who had been silent through the entire meeting, rose up and raised his hand. The room went silent. We have already won, he shouted.  We stood up for ourselves! We have already won, why stop now. We’re humans of flesh and bone, like the boss, and we need to be treated as such, he continued saying. Let’s not run away, we are human and we need to be treated as such. The meeting got very quiet after this.

The readings for this Sunday speak to us of hope that is rooted in strong convictions. This kind of hope went beyond wishful-thinking and into the experience of God’s Love that transcended . Ezekiel’s task to proclaim even doom to his people, Paul’s thorn in the flesh, bodily or spiritually as it may have been, that came before him and the proclamation of the Good-news, and the repudiation that Jesus faced while ministering in his own town were overcome by the hope that was drawn out of their experience of God. This experience of God was what let Ezekiel when he was given the scroll to eat to say, “it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth”. Furthermore, this same experience was what led the Apostle to write in the midst of his turmoil, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”, and for Jesus to continue to heal and to proclaim God’s Reign in spite of the criticism from his own.  The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical Letter on Christian Hope (Spe Salvi), reminded us that our hope comes from our conviction that Jesus Christ, God’s greatest proof of Love. This would lead us, therefore, to “the great certitude of hope that [one’s] own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere” (sect. 35).

In the struggle for justice we will encounter the negative forces whether it may through the “hard of face and obstinate of heart”, our own weakness, or through those who will take offense at our message and actions. Yet, the hope that arises out of conviction in God’s revelation through Jesus Christ is what compels us to continue living out the Gospel’s Message. The conviction that led Ezekiel, Paul and Jesus “to act and to persevere” was the same one that enabled the workers to continue their struggle for justice. For this workers, their self worth as human beings, husbands, fathers, and workers and their conviction that no one had the right to take this away allowed them to pull themselves together and risk their time, money and energy in their struggle to find justice. The case of the workers lasted one more year. After other great battle and set backs, the ruling of the court went to their favor. Yet, even this victory did not took their eyes of their price. During the small victory celebration that we held, one of the workers said, the money we got does not mean anything, what really counts is that our dignity was respected and that justice was served.

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

How do we live out the hope that arises out of our faith?
What values of our culture make it hard for you to live out your faith?
What positions would evoke a strong and emotional opposition from people in your circle of friends?

If you want to know about basic worker’s rights in your state, please follow this link:

http://www.canmybossdothat.com/

In order to continue the dialogue going regarding Wage-Theft in the U.S. follow watch this video:

• Isaiah 52:13–53:12
• Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
• John 18:1–19:42

Quote:

Jesus’ death on the cross was a death in the cause of justice. He was executed because he challenged accepted values. He sided with the poor and the outcasts. He condemned oppressive structures. Jesus was a prophet and prophets meet strong opposition.

His cross reminds us that Christians must listen to the cries of the poor. We are in solidarity with those whom society may forget or even exploit. The cross is a sign of justice. To remind the world about the cross is to challenge the world for its injustice and neglect. Passionists are pledged to that challenge.
-Fr. Don Senior, CP

Thoughts for your consideration: By Fr. Ronan Newbold, CP

We are coming up to Good Friday, the day that we recognize the Passion, crucifixion and death of Jesus. Isaiah is the most dramatic in his horrible description of the physical wounds of the Servant of Yahweh. It is not a question of our compassion for Jesus anymore. Indeed, he was so beat up and battered that no one could recognize him. The terror and trauma that he experienced in his Passion and Death represents the greatest demonstration of God’s being with humanity in the face of evil.

What part of humanity is God with? Is it not in those who are beat up and battered today? Or could it be the earth that continues to take a beating from humans who are not aware of what they are doing. That is what we have to think about.

On this day, Good Friday, we bring all of our sufferings, our anxieties, and our worries to the Lord. There, in the Kedron valley, we walk with the Lord, Jesus. With our own sufferings in mind, we can look at the Lord and both of us can sense what is going on.

Our redemption did not take place through the construction of a new building, a new plan for fighting poverty, or from someone’s theory of justice in the world today. It took place through the cross of Christ. But Christ did not suffer and die for just me or for just a few people. He redeemed us all. And this redemption took place under the social injustice that Christ suffered in being executed by the governing social and religious powers of his time. Through the Cross our dignity has been reconciled with God the Father. Our redemption is to live and celebrate the dignity of all creation amidst the social and personal injustice that continues to compromise this message.

“We adore thee, O Christ, and we praise thee.

Because by thy holy Cross, thou hast redeemed the world.”

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• Who is experiencing the passion today?
• Share your list with others in the group.
• After you share your lists, make them the focus of your prayer.

• Gospel for the Procession of Palms: Mark 11:1-10 or John 12:12-16
• Isaiah 50:4-7
• Philippians 2:6-11
• Mark 14:1–15:47 or Mark 15:1-39

Thoughts for Your Consideration: by John Gonzalez, CPP

This week we celebrate Palm Sunday. As I read the lectionary readings I am struck by the following line from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” This line raises a great paradox within the Christian faith. Through his relationship with God Jesus was very much aware of his great dignity, but this status does not translate into social greatness, rather it takes the humble form of slavery. This paradox works both ways, as can be seen in Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the suffering servant.  He tells us that even after countless abuses the servant of the Lord does not suffer disgrace since “the Lord God helps me.”

Recently I have been reflecting on a line from Galatians which demonstrates this paradox more clearly in associating two words that seem mutually exclusive, Freedom and Slavery. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” (Gal. 5:13)

What could this possibly mean: to be free so that we can be slaves to one another? To celebrate the dignity of our God given humanity by humbly serving the human community? Does this abolish the concepts of Human Rights which we as a nation have championed since the time of our American foundation; do we then ignore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which our Church has championed through the Encyclical Pacem in Terris?

As Saint Paul the Apostle would reply “By no means.” By Christ’s resurrection the dignity of our humanity has been reconciled with God. This was the freedom and equality that Paul spoke of in Galatians and Philippians. In affirming this dignity we affirm the civil, political, economic and social rights that we inherent in our redeemed humanity. But our responsibility in affirming our own dignity is to serve the dignity of all humanity since we have all been redeemed by the Cross of Christ. Paul reminds us that because Christ Jesus “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited” God and humanity are reconciled.

The Gospel reading is the Passion narrative according to Mark. At this point we will struggle with the difficult image of Christ’s unbearable suffering and again we are challenged to accept His dignity in the midst of this grave social injustice. Keep in mind the place of the centurion in the Passion narrative according to Mark. While Jesus’ passion and death may not be a socially acceptable display of divine dignity it does seem to touch the hearts of those who witness this event, so that a pagan centurion can look on Jesus dying on the Cross and silently say to himself “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

We are called to celebrate our own dignity by placing it at the service of God and humanity. In doing this we, as Americans, are not only being witnesses to the incarnation, we are also giving witness to the theological vision of our own Declaration of Independence. While we recognize the inalienable rights which are endowed to us by the Creator, we also recognize our responsibility to uphold each others’ dignity when we “mutually pledging to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• How do you reconcile the divine dignity of Jesus with the reality of His passion?
• Where do you find hope in the image of suffering servant? In the Passion of Jesus?
• Reflect on the Christian virtue of Freedom as discussed in the quotes and reflection above.
  • How are you challenged by this apparent paradox?
  • Consider people like Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and Mother Theresa. In what ways did these wonderful servants of humanity seem free?
  • Have you witnessed other men and women who have done great public service? How do there actions make you feel? What seems to be driving their actions?
• How do you see yourself as one sharing in the dignity and freedom of God? Based on this identity how do you address issues like, war, violence of all sorts, selfishness, failure, injustice, discrimination, poverty, etc.?

• Deuteronomy 18:15-20
• 1 Corinthians 7:32-35
• Mark 1:21-28

Thoughts for your consideration:

This week God is asking us for our undivided attention.

God offers the post-exilic Jewish community an ongoing prophetic tradition. However he warns them that a prophet is not infallible. If the prophet is committed to God alone then his prophesies will be credible and true. Any prophet who is divided in his commitments will deliver false prophesies that will not come to pass.

The Prophet Micah sheds light on these false prophets “Thus says the Lord regarding the prophets who lead my people astray; who when their teeth have something to bite, announce peace, but when one fails to put something in their mouth, proclaim war against him. Therefore you shall have night, not vision, darkness, not divination.” – Micah 3: 5-6

Moses and Micah warn against prophets who are corrupted by riches. Paul is nervous that his early Christian community could be corrupted by their short sighted marital obligation. Jesus is outright angry at the evil influence that has corrupted a poor soul. In each case the ultimate spiritual and social purpose of humanity is being compromised by overpowering temptations.

While we may not have a prophetic industry in our modern society we do have organizations and think tanks that fulfill a similar function but with a more scientific approach.  Some think tanks follow certain ideologies. Others monitor certain data or gauges. On the other hand many religious communities and organizations, including the Catholic Church, offer social analysis through theological reflections based on our spirituality.

In 2002 many Christian organizations advocated for greater diplomacy in foreign policies. They also advocated for better regulation of financial institutions because of the unsustainable nature of the global economy. As Christians we advocated for carbon regulations and renewable energy because our environment was becoming unsustainable. The Catholic Church prophetically spoke on all these issues. Yet think tanks that had other social priorities outweighed us. Today we live with the repercussion of short sighted policies that were developed for material or corrupt purposes versus a divine vision to promote the common good.

Now the economic, political and environmental system is being shaken to its core. Many of us seem to be willing to consider a more holistic vision for our common purpose. The Church and its religious communities continue to function as modern day prophets by advocating for policies based on Christian social principles. These promote the dignity of all humanity, address the common good, and engage in global solidarity and caring for God’s creation.

However this time we would like to ask you for your undivided attention.

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• Think about some of the think tanks or organizations that you pay attention to, what is the mission or ultimate value for that organization?
  
• Is that value consistent with your Christian faith and the social teachings of your church?
• Are you aware of Christian organizations that provide analysis on social issues?