Gospel Commentary - The Arlington Catholic Herald

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Faith / Your Faith / Gospel Commentary

A well-fitted yoke

Industrial and technological developments in recent decades have ushered in a world of conveniences, unimagined by our ancestors, that have lifted nearly every physical burden from our daily lives. We have air conditioning and hair conditioning. We have Wawa and Wi-Fi. We have indoor plumbing and outdoor grilling. We have instant coffee, instant messaging, instant oatmeal, instant pizza, instant noodles, instant approval credit, and if something isn’t instant yet, just give it a few more years. But with so many burdens lifted, why is it that life still feels so burdensome? The answer is that the comforts of the body have no power to comfort the soul. It's why the invitation we hear in the Gospel this week is one of the most compelling verses in the Scriptures: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest … for my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

7/1/20

James C. Hudgins

A cup of water

Today, the church celebrates the 13th Sunday in ordinary time. I am not a big fan of the use of the word “ordinary” to describe this moment in the church’s liturgical year. At a minimum, it informs us that we are not in the Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter seasons. However, during “ordinary time,” we strive to allow the profound mysteries and abundant graces of Christ which we celebrate during Christmas and Easter seasons to penetrate the depths of our hearts, heal our brokenness and empower us to live Christlike lives. There is nothing ordinary about that reality.

6/24/20

Jack Peterson

To be known in loving detail

The Gospel of Matthew says, “Do not be afraid … all the hairs of your head are counted” (10:30). The Lord Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of this week that even the smallest matters of our life are of importance to God. We do not have a God who stands at a distance, aloof from us and from how our lives unfold, but a God who is invested down to the last hair, who cares about each detail of our existence.

6/19/20

JOSEPH M. RAMPINO
Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, that is, the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This feast day is a beautiful culmination of our recent feast days: On Easter we celebrated the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, who triumphed over sin, suffering, death and evil itself. On the Ascension, we celebrated Our Lord entering gloriously into heaven, thereby fulfilling the promise to be with each of us every moment and prepare a place for each of us in heaven. On Pentecost, we celebrated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, who then went forth to found the church, preaching the Gospel and making Our Lord present through the sacraments. And last week, we celebrated the solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the God who is love, who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who invites us to remain in that love.  More

6/10/20

William P. Saunders

A moral crisis

If you ever have to wager your last nickel on which passage in the Bible is the most famous and best loved of all, bet on John 3:16. We hear it read in our very brief Gospel reading, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that all who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.” Since we celebrate Trinity Sunday this week, focus particularly on the first words of that passage, “God so loved the world, that he gave.” Love is nothing other than giving. The very definition of love is to will the good of another person, entirely for their own sake. Our belief in the Trinity teaches us that such total, unconditional, self-sacrificing love is God's very identity. Our Lord’s words challenge us to make that love our identity as well.More

6/4/20

James C. Hudgins

The promised Advocate

Pentecost is the grand finale of the paschal mystery. The pouring forth of the Holy Spirit onto the church and into the hearts of Christians is absolutely critical to the saving mission of Christ. The celebration of Pentecost boldly proclaims our belief in the power of the Holy Spirit to generate faith in Jesus, unify a divided world, set hearts on fire with a love for God and send out disciples to scatter the darkness with the light of Christ.More

5/27/20

Jack Peterson

Constant presence

Trying to understand the feast of the Ascension and its importance in our lives of faith can be difficult. Today we see Christ return to heaven, out of our sight. Having finished his earthly mission, he promises he will be with us to the end of the age, and that’s that. It can seem like too neat an ending. Christ promises he’ll be in our hearts, and now it’s our job to be good Christians. Yet, if we understand the Ascension as the ancient Christians did, we find riches of meaning.More

5/24/20

JOSEPH M. RAMPINO

We say yes to God

In his book, “Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput cites a 2015 New York Times article by philosophy professor Justin McBrayer. His second-grade son had a homework assignment in which he had to decide whether a statement was opinion or fact, for example, “Copying homework assignments is wrong,” “Cursing in school is inappropriate behavior,” and “All men are created equal.” More

5/15/20

William P. Saunders

Become Christ-centered

One of the hardest lessons to learn is that your life is not about you. One could even say that to understand that idea is the secret of living. We were designed by God to give ourselves away in acts of self-forgetfulness, and we will never know happiness until we learn to do so. A light was made to shine. A fish was made to swim. A bird was made to fly. And a human person was made to live for God, and for others. Our sadness and anxiety only increase whenever we imagine our lives to be a grand self-actualization project — as if we were created only to serve our personal ambitions and to make all our dreams come true. As the Second Vatican Council states, “Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 24).More

5/7/20

James C. Hudgins

SAC — shepherd, abundance, cross

It is Easter, and I would like to offer you a “sac” of faith. (“Sac” is French for sack.) In this sac is a Shepherd, an Abundance of life and a Cross.More

4/29/20

Jack Peterson

Road to glory

This Sunday presents us with another account of the risen Christ, this time on the road to the town of Emmaus. This passage is one of the most important texts for understanding the structure, purpose and spirit of Christian liturgy; so many commentaries trace the progression from the opening of the Scriptures to the breaking of the bread.   More

4/20/20

JOSEPH M. RAMPINO

Gospel commentary: ‘Peace I leave you’

On Easter Sunday evening, the disciples were behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders. Jesus suddenly appeared, not as a bloody corpse, but in his personhood, body and soul, humanity and divinity, glorified and spiritualized. However, he still had his wound marks, to show the hurt caused by sin. When he said, “Peace be with you,” a great peace must have rushed into the hearts of the apostles. More

4/17/20

Fr. William P. Saunders

Know and believe

Grave robbery was a lucrative crime in the ancient world, but it was also perilous and complicated. To carry out the task, one needed at least 10 men working together as an efficient, well-trained team. Stone masons, torchbearers, water-bearers and many strong backs were needed to dislodge a stone as large as six feet in diameter, weighing as much as two tons, and anchored in place by a gap carved into the ground. All this had to be done quickly and silently, under cover of darkness in the dead of night, because by an edict of Caesar Augustus, the penalty for grave robbery was death.More

4/10/20

James C. Hudgins

Shake up

The coronavirus has radically disrupted our lives and forced all of us to look at life with new eyes. We are rethinking family, health, work, leisure and God. Ironically, this is the normal purpose of Lent. It has become clear to me that this is one way in which our heavenly Father can bring good out of this present evil — by inviting the whole world to a new perspective on life.More

4/1/20

Jack Peterson

From the tomb

The fifth Sunday of Lent places before us the scene of Jesus’ greatest public miracle: the raising of his friend Lazarus from the dead. This miracle takes place shortly before Christ goes to his own death and tomb, and represents a decisive moment on the road to the cross. Before this point, Christ has already shown himself to be the master of the elements, a powerful healer, and a forceful exorcist, but this final great miracle stands apart from all the others. In this moment, Christ has not simply fed a crowd, has not simply healed, has not raised a recently dead person as though they were merely resting, but has broken the power of decay and of the tomb itself.  More

3/25/20

JOSEPH M. RAMPINO

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