REFLECTIONS TODAY The call of the tax collector Levi (Matthew) highlights the mercy of God that turns sinners to righteous men and women. In fact, the most convincing proclaimers of God’s pardon and reconciliation are those people who have been emancipated from the stigma of sinfulness and given...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 2:1-12 In truth, God alone can forgive sins. A human being may forgive or excuse the sin of another, but something remains of that sin; the guilt still remains before God, it is not erased. Only God’s forgiveness removes the guilt. But Jesus, as the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY This expression comes from the Greek verb splagchinizomai, which literally means to be moved so deeply that one feels it in one’s entrails (entrails or bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity). This means that Jesus feels in his “stomach” the pitiful...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus finds welcome and success in Capernaum. He cures the mother-in-law of Simon Peter and stays in Simon’s house where he ministers to the sick and those possessed by demons. Simon and Andrew and the other disciples certainly enjoy the “honor” of being close associates of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Authority (Greek exousia) is the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and to influence the behavior of others. In matters of faith and morals, the scribes have the authority to teach and command the people, based on their knowledge of the Law and their dependence...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Matthew and Luke have infancy narratives to prepare for Jesus’ appearance to Israel as the preacher of the Good News of salvation. John, in turn, has the Prologue about the preexistent Logos (Word) who has become flesh in Jesus. Mark, instead, has Jesus being introduced by “a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Matthew 2:1-12 The Gospel contrasts the attitudes of the Magi and King Herod. The Magi, wise men from the East, are led by their desire to find meaning behind the bright star they have seen from afar. They start their “journey of faith” with a mind seeking...
REFLECTIONS TODAY From John the Baptist’s testimony to Jesus in John’s Gospel, we are now presented with his testimony in Mark’s Gospel. The events surrounding Jesus’ birth reveal his divine origin. Mark does not have the infancy stories as prelude to Jesus’ public ministry. ...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • John 1:43-51 John’s Gospel is a series of marturía or “witnessing” to Jesus. When John the Baptist witnesses to Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” his two disciples leave him to follow Jesus. After Jesus finds Philip and calls him to follow him, Philip...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Johannine tradition about the call of the first disciples is quite diverse from that of the Synoptic tradition. In the Synoptic Gospels, the first to follow Jesus are the four fishermen who are called as they ply their trade. In John, the first two disciples are former...
REFLECTIONS TODAY As Jesus comes to John the Baptist, John points him out as “the Lamb of God,” thereby setting the tone of Jesus’ mission to be like the lamb of the Passover (Ex 12:3), or the sacrificial lamb offered for the expiation of the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement or Yom...
REFLECTIONS TODAY When religious leaders send priests and Levites to ask John the Baptist who he really is, he clearly admits that he is not the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One of God. Neither is he the personification of Elijah who would someday return to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal...
