REFLECTIONS TODAY Mary’s assumption into heaven is best understood in relation to God’s grace bestowed to Mary in view of her participation in God’s plan of salvation. Only Mary, who was born without the stain of original sin, could give birth to Christ, Son of God and Redeemer. Mary is given...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70, the Jews throughout the Roman empire were required to pay tax to fund the maintenance of the temple. Male Jews above 19 years of age were to pay a half-shekel temple tax which is equivalent to about two days’ wages. The...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Matthew 14:22-33 After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. Meanwhile...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The mustard seed, according to the historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder, was the most invasive of all garden plants (Natural History, 19.170- 171). It could get over walls, into a neighboring field, and just about everywhere. Once it is sown, it is almost impossible to get the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The cold-shoulder treatment from Jesus in this reading is completely unexpected. The loving and compassionate Jesus we have known ignores the Canaanite woman! But she is unshakable. She prays persistently, confident that she will be heard. This woman is a foreigner, holding...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Matthew 14:22-36 [or 15:1-2, 10-14] Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side of the sea, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone....
REFLECTIONS TODAY “The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus that is recounted in all four gospels… it was seen as anticipating the Eucharist and the final banquet in the kingdom (Mt 8:11; 26:29)… it looks… to the feeding of Israel with manna in the desert at the time of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Mark’s Gospel presents Herod as revering John to be a holy man. The Baptist’s execution is credited to Herodias’ own hatred and desire (6:19). In Matthew, however, the desire is Herod’s from the beginning. Herod Antipas received a quarter of his father’s (Herod the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY After hearing Jesus’ teachings, the crowds who came from all over the place are in admiring astonishment at him. In his hometown, however, the town’s folks could not believe that such powerful and gracious words come from an ordinary carpenter’s son who used to reside with...
REFLECTIONS TODAY With the use of images of what the world considers precious and worth spending one’s energy and resources just to gain them, Jesus tries to explain that the Kingdom of heaven is the greatest treasure one can find for oneself. It gives one the greatest of all joys. It even moves...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The disciples ask Jesus to explain the parable of the Weeds in the field. Jesus tells his disciples that the Devil, the enemy, is the one who sows the weeds. When it is harvest time, the weeds—sinners and evildoers—will be cut down, collected, and burned up. On the other hand,...
