REFLECTIONS TODAY After speaking to the crowds in parables, including the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, Jesus explains this last parable to his disciples that they may understand “what lays hidden.” Whereas the parable itself concentrates on patience with the “weeds” until judgment...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Gospel story refines the idea of hospitality. Martha is probably the older of the two sisters and plays host. She is the one who welcomes Jesus. Her anxiety and concern are understandable enough. But her self-preoccupation turns to resentment and accusation: Mary has left her...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Gospel is chosen for the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus. They are righteous people who longed for the Savior; in them and in their daughter Mary, the hopes and dreams of centuries are about to meet, because Jesus the Savior is soon to...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The way of life of the disciples is the way of life of Jesus himself. The life and death of Jesus are subsumed under the concept of service. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many. This is what “drinking the chalice” means....
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the first-century Palestine, there were various practices of planting. One is described in the Gospel—that of plowing after sowing. In the process, some seed is lost because it has no good soil or is choked by thorns. But in the end, the harvest far compensates for the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Doing the will of God is central to the Jewish and Christian faith. God does not want sacrifices (Hos 6:6) but an open and obedient attitude, which makes a person say, “Behold, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10:5-7; see Ps 40:9). Jesus himself has taught us to say,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY John dramatizes the encounter between the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Even though Jesus stands plainly in sight, Mary does not recognize him. He asks her, “Whom are you looking for?” (v 15)—a question that probes discipleship (Jn 1:38-41, where the early disciples stay...
REFLECTIONS TODAY First Reading • Jer 23:1-6 Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the world that seeks much publicity, including the use of misinformation and disinformation, Matthew has a lesson for us. He points out that Jesus seeks to avoid publicity in his care of the sick, unlike most miracle workers. Matthew also applies the Servant figure to Jesus by...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In their zeal to safeguard the Sabbath rest, the Jewish rabbis have forbidden the performance of 39 tasks, among which is reaping, here equated with picking of the heads of grain. Jesus defends the disciples by reminding the rabbis that David and his men, out of hunger, had...
REFLECTIONS TODAY A yoke (Greek zugos) is a piece of wood placed across the necks of draft animals such as oxen or donkeys to enable a pair to pull a plow, cart, or heavy load together. As a yoke enables two to pull as one, the term also denotes a team, as in “yoke of oxen” (1 Kgs 19:19). In...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Greek word nepioi, here rendered as childlike, has two levels of meaning. In one level, nepioi refers to the little ones and the poor who are objects of Jesus’ Good News (Mt 11:5). Jesus calls them blessed because to them belongs the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3). The nepioi,...
