In today’s first reading, God promises to reunite all the Jewish people into one nation. The Jewish people were widely dispersed and intermarried with the Gentiles, so this would be difficult to do. God’s plan to do this is by offering salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike. St Paul, a…
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As Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in his Encyclical Letter “God is Love”, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” This is the question that…
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In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus once again attempts to reveal his true nature to the Jews, only to be met with insults and threats. In this passage, Jesus has returned to the temple. After the Pharisees attempt to set a trap for him with the woman caught in adultery, he…
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Usually in moments of great crisis, people run to loved ones or powerful acquaintances for succor. The great tragedy is that of having no one to run to, living with the sense of being abandoned. For many people, the greatest friend and powerful figure to run to for succor is…
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The Gospel today is a familiar one, but the interesting part is the attitude of the Scribes and the Pharisees, their self-righteousness and judgement of others. They condemned the woman caught in the act of adultery, but Jesus redeemed her and asked her to go and sin no more. It…
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“Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3) Having crossed through the halfway mark of Lent, the Holy Mother church gives us a preview of Resurrection Sunday in all the readings today. As I was reading and reflecting on this,…
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A temple guard seeks to hear Jesus. It was the time of the festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, and we had heard that the teacher, Jesus, was present in Jerusalem. As an officer of the Temple Guard, I was to be ready, if the order came, to arrest him. In…
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Many non-Catholic Christians disdain the crucifix because they think it distracts from our Lord’s victory over sin and death. They prefer the bare cross, which they think better reflects the victory of his subsequent resurrection, whereas a crucifix can seem to point to the apparent defeat of his death —…
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Today, amidst Lent – the season of immersion into the Paschal mystery – the Church has us reflect on the Nativity of Jesus. It is fitting that Joy and Suffering be intertwined, for such is our lot: we never experience unending joy or suffering; rather, we have an admixture of…
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Our ten-year-old daughter has been very sick since Christmas. She has had appointment after appointment. We have gotten a few answers. In truth, my attention has been very focused on her, and the season of Lent has felt, well, not very productive in terms of my spiritual life. Or so…
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