April 4, 2025
We all need to hear and believe deep in our hearts today’s Responsorial Psalm, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” So many hearts in our country and throughout the globe continue to be broken, and they don’t know where to look for consolation, healing, and hope. There is the husband who furiously digs in […]
April 3, 2025
In the 5th chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Jerusalem, as required for the various feast days. While there, he heals a man who has been crippled for nearly forty years. Since this occurred on the Sabbath, the local Jewish leaders were angry. But when Jesus called God his own Father, making himself […]
April 2, 2025
Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. These lines from Isaiah immortalized in song, are well-known and loved. They are a needed reminder that our God is not some implacable judge, ready to toss into hell all those […]
April 1, 2025
As our focus shifts to the second part of Lent this week, we recall the baptismal readings that renew our covenant at the Easter Vigil or Easter Sunday liturgies. Our reading from Ezekiel recalls the temple where living water flows and heals those in search of such need. Our psalm echoes that God’s dwelling is […]
March 31, 2025
When you speak, do you use your hands, gesturing to make a point? In today’s gospel, John 4:43-54, a royal official asks Jesus to come to Capernaum and heal his son, who is ill. When I read Jesus’ response, I could hear his exasperation and impatience as he said, “Unless you people see signs and […]
March 30, 2025
4th Sunday of Lent We celebrate Laetare Sunday (in Latin, ‘laetare’ means ‘rejoice’) and pause to reflect on joy in this season of penance and sacrifice. Saint Paul gives us the reason for our joy: Brothers and sisters, whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things […]
March 29, 2025
Whenever I hear today’s Gospel, I think Jesus is talking to someone other than me. However, our Church, filled with so many blessings, allows us to repeatedly listen to the words spoken by Our Savior and try to understand them more explicitly. Amid our Lenten season, we are invited to reconciliation with God and with […]
March 28, 2025
I ponder the scribe’s intentions when he asks Jesus, ‘Which is the first of all commandments?’ After failed attempts by others to entrap Jesus with questions about Rome’s taxes or life after death, the scribe delved into the heart of God’s revelation to the Israelites. Was Jesus merely a shrewd deceiver, or did he truly […]
March 27, 2025
God’s people did not listen. This lament of God is found in the Old Testament. In the gospel, Jesus also complained that his people would not let him gather them up under his protective wings like a mother hen. Even today, this reality continues. God has spoken and is speaking but we do not listen. […]
March 26, 2025
Moses tells the people that they must “observe” the statutes and decrees of the Law and “teach them to your children and your children’s children.” (Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9) Jesus says that he has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets and that “whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom […]