When was the last time that you were really, really hungry? Weak, delirious and ready to pass out from hunger?
Gospel Commentary July 25, jn 6:1-15
GOSPEL COMMENTARY July 18, MK 6:30-34
There’s an important word in today’s Gospel. It’s a word we heard earlier in Mark’s Gospel, way back in January on the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. At that point, still early on in Jesus’ public ministry, he was teaching in a synagogue (Mk 1:21-28). The Gospel told us that people were astonished because he taught them not as the scribes but as one having “authority,” and with that same “authority” he cast a demon out of a man.More
It is fun on occasion to take note of people’s different taste preferences. If you like sweet and sour dishes, there are two courses for you to enjoy in the banquet provided in this Sunday’s readings. More
“Do not be afraid, just have faith.” This Sunday’s Gospel centers on this command and encouragement of Jesus Christ. We find in this passage two women in need of miraculous help. The first, a woman who had suffered with a 12-year flow of blood, and the second, a 12-year-old y girl, dead before her time. More
On a trip to Tokyo years ago, my friends and I visited a Shinto shrine in the heart of the city. Our tour-guide explained the local custom: To pray in the temple, the locals believed that you had to clap twice to wake up the god who lived there. At the time, I laughed to myself and thought, “What good is a God who takes naps? Who wants a deity who’s asleep at the switch?” More
Grace is mysterious. And before we even talk about grace, we could say that the human heart itself, within which grace works, is also mysterious. Today we hear two parables about the mysterious, hidden working of grace in the human heart. More
St. Thomas Aquinas was greatly blessed with one of the sharpest minds of any saint in the church. In addition, and more importantly, he was a mystic, a man of deep, deep prayer. His intellect, combined with prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, led him to proclaim in reference to the Eucharist, “O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value?"More
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Christ’s final command to his disciples before ascending into heaven, called the Great Commission, might seem a simple and straightforward order for action. But its use on the Sunday dedicated to the mystery of the blessed Trinity tells us that something more is going on. More
Given today’s COVID-19 context, it might seem odd that Jesus breathes on his disciples in our Gospel for Pentecost Sunday. In John 20:19-23, Jesus appears to his disciples gathered in the upper room, proving that he is risen from the dead and giving them peace. He also gives them a commission, “as my Father has sent me, so I send you.” But then comes the gift that enables the mission: He breaths on them and gives them a share in the Holy Spirit, through which they have the power to forgive sins.More
One of the things we pray for at Mass on this feast of the Ascension is that we "may in spirit dwell already in the heavenly realms" where Christ has ascended. In a sense, we already are living in heaven because Christ our head has ascended there in glory, and so his body is destined to follow.More
Love is the bull’s-eye of the good news of Jesus Christ. We know that. We have heard about the centrality of love countless times. Still, it is our mission to experience, ponder and live the love of God with greater depth every day of our lives. More
During this holiest season of Easter, the ancient church refocused on understanding the faith’s most important mysteries, namely, our reception of Christ’s risen life through baptism and the Eucharist. Today, we tend to focus more on the moral and societal aspects of religion, which leads us to a greater emphasis on Lent, the season of purification, over the other seasons of the year. Yet the heart of the Christian life remains the same — in the mysteries before the morals. Though Easter’s sacramental emphasis might feel strange to us, it is necessary for our souls that we follow the ancients and reencounter the foundation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.More
We live in a world where many claim to be shepherds. We’ve got loads of leaders both religious and not, gurus, caretakers, CEOs and visionaries, each claiming to have something good for us, to have our best interests at heart. More