Christmas celebrates the Incarnation, the “enflesh-ment” of God as a human person. In Jesus, God is bodily present in the human story. Today we honor the Holy Family, helping us to see that God is active in daily family life. God is near at hand, amidst the tensions, joys, and uncertainties of family life.
READ MOREThere is a spirit of audacity in our readings today. During a time of injustice and threat of invasion, the prophet Micah boldly announces that the God of insignificant Israel will raise up a leader from backwater Bethlehem, and this leader will bring justice and peace to the whole world.
READ MOREThe prophetic writings we hear in today’s scriptures call us to rejoice and celebrate the goodness ofGod. Zephaniah, Isaiah, Saint Paul, and John theBaptist in Luke’s Gospel all follow the rich tradition of the Biblical prophets, a tradition that reachesfull expression in Jesus. The prophets warn that human failings have truly disastrous consequences.
READ MOREWhen John proclaimed a baptism of repentance, as today’s Gospel relates, he called people to a deep change of heart. For John the Baptist, repentance was not simply regret for past failings, but a commitment to orient life around God’s desires and purposes.
READ MOREWe the Church enter into Advent and the new liturgical year with a call for a watchful confidence. Our readings were originally addressed to communities undergoing great loss and confusion. Jeremiah speaks confidently of God fulfilling the ancient promises to Israel, even during a time of foreign invasion. Paul speaks of God leading the Church into holiness, while the community longs for the coming of Jesus.
READ MOREThe selection from the book of Daniel presented in today’s first reading was part of an attempt to weave a vision of ultimate success for the Jews under persecution. Exactly whom the author had in mind when he refers to “one like a Son of Man” is hotly disputed by scholars today.
READ MOREBy pointing to the end times, today’s readings speak to the coming reign of God, when God will make all things new. In Christ, this time has already begun. We, by our energized watchfulness, can further God’s reign. We can heal broken hearts, free captives, spread the Good News. Even so, the reign of God will not be complete without the second coming of Christ.
READ MOREAs Christians, we hear a lot about the witness and service that we are called to render to the poor among us. However, the poor also have a witness and a service to render to us. Like the actions of the widow in today’s Gospel, the openness and generosity of many of those who are poor, even in the midst of their own poverty, bear witness to the fact that, ultimately, we can depend only on God. Giving one’s all witnesses that God will give all to anyone who trusts in divine goodness.
READ MOREAs we near the end of the liturgical year we listen to Gospel readings from the final stage of Jesus’ ministry—his teaching in Jerusalem. This Sunday Jesus is in conversation with one of the scribes of the temple. In a rare occurrence Jesus and the scribe agree on the two greatest commandments—to love God with all your being and to love your neighbor as yourself.
READ MOREThe star of today’s Gospel is a panhandler. Bartimaeus is blind, yes, but he is probably also homeless and filthy, a real nuisance to respectable citizens. Even so, it is Bartimaeus who recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, places all his faith in him, throws aside everything he has (his cloak), begs him for mercy, receives new vision, and follows Jesus on the way to suffering and death in Jerusalem. How desperate will we have to get before we can do the same?
All three readings today support—each in its own way, of course—a reflection on the humanity of Jesus Christ and how that humanity played a key role in the drama of our salvation. Although not chosen specifically to coordinate with the other two readings, today’s second reading does in fact carry forward the theme of Christ’s humanity in a remarkable way.
READ MOREIn today’s readings, we discover that materialwealth alone does not keep us from discipleship.We will see that there are other gifts more important than material wealth, but even so, it is howwe use our gifts that matters most.
READ MOREWe live in a society that has many technological avenues for stimulation and entertainment, one in which the urban population exceeds the nonurban. It is curious that loneliness is a prevalent malady. It is easy to reach out and touch someone, we are told.
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