Daily Reflections
Jesus sends his disciples on a mission and gives them instructions. These instructions may seem perplexing and contradictory. At first, Jesus tells them, “The worker deserves his wages,” and then he adds, “You have received freely, give freely.” But what have they received, and what should they give freely? The…
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Today’s gospel records the sending of the twelve Apostles to preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus summons his twelve disciples and gives them the authority to cast out unclean spirits and cure every disease and sickness. We cannot read this Gospel without being reminded of the…
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Today’s gospel tells us about Jesus going into towns and villages to heal the sick and cure diseases. He healed a mute man who astonished the people when he could speak. Yet, their astonishment was short-lived, and their hearts were hardened again. How similar is our world today?! We may…
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And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven… Years ago, when we moved into our home, my boys delighted in discovering a hidden stairway. There was a trapdoor in the ceiling upstairs which could be pulled down…
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Mt 5:48 says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. There is a sense in which this is a literal imperative which seemingly, definitionally, is impossible to achieve. Its import leaves the reader wondering if Jesus was mocking our imperfections, and incapacity for perfection, from a higher…
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In the first reading of today from Gen 27,1-5; 15-29, “the blessing episode”, Isaac makes known to Esau, his first-born son, his plans to give him his last blessing. But Isaac’s wife Rebekah who overheard the conversation puts a counterplan in motion whereby Jacob, the second-born, disguises himself as Esau…
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Abraham was a trusted friend of God. The Lord called him out of his pagan community in Chaldea to teach him his ways. He called him into a special relationship with him. His committed obedience to the will of God, even when it seemed completely senseless and purposeless, was counted…
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“Today’s Gospel makes no sense”? Any third-party observer would think the people crazy. And yet how often this is our life. What has Jesus come to offer us? From the perspective of eternal salvation what is a herd of swine? From the angle of heaven what are a few strips…
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Lot, his wife, and their kids got the word to leave Sodom and Gomorrah, as those cities and the plain they resided on were to be destroyed very soon. Lot and his family were given a reprieve from moving all the way to the mountains and got the OK to…
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