Scripture Reflection - June 29, 2025

Solemnity of Apostles Peter and Paul

First Reading: Acts 12: 1-11

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

Gospel: Matthew 16: 13-19

At times, our scripture readings are filled with threats and violence, death and destruction, people being killed by the sword or arrested and put in prison.

How can we find our God in these readings? What message should we be getting from such malicious negativity?

At times, our lives are filled with stories of people suffering, children starving, senseless acts that result in families being killed by family members.

How can we find our God in these events? What message should we be getting from such unprovoked wanton violence?

At times, we wake up to news of the India-Pakistan crisis with missiles flying,  Russia bombing Ukraine, and Ukraine drone attacks of Russia, of Iranian missile strikes on Israel, and most recently the US bombing of Iran.

How can we find our God in these actions? What message should we be getting from such uncontrolled, impulsive behavior?

We each have a different way of dealing with the chaos that surrounds us; whether malicious negativity, unprovoked wanton violence, or uncontrolled impulsive behavior.

When I find myself being bombarded by these thoughts, actions, or behaviors, I tend to retreat to my comfort places, such as playing soft music, singing at the top of my lungs in the car, or reading one of my favorite people, Joan Chittister.

 In sacred seed, sr. Joan Chittister tells us:

"The mystic Julian of Norwich, holding a hazelnut in her hand in the fourteenth century, said of it, 'in this is all that is."

In every seed lies the components of all life the world has known from all time to now.

In every seed is the reckless, electric, confounding power of creation made new again.

In every seed is the gift of life to those seeking life, wanting life, denied the kind of life that is full of energy, full of hope.

But the hope is a tenuous one, a sacred one, one to be treated with awe.

The problem is that we ourselves are all seeds, too. We are either seeds of universal love or seeds of exploitative racism. We are seeds of eternal hope, or we are seeds of starving despair. We are seeds of a new humanity or we are the harbingers of humanity's decay."

Joan tells us, it is a choice. It is our choice to make.

Will we, like Peter and Paul and other apostles, choose universal love, eternal hope, and become seeds of a new humanity?

Jesus saw something in each of his followers and chose them to be church. Jesus saw something in each one of us and chose us to be church.

Let us pray with and for each other that the seed Jesus planted within us may continue to grow and help us to find God in our daily lives.

Sr. Ellenrita Purcaro, OP