REFLECTIONS TODAY We call the teachings of Jesus that are found in chapters 5-7 of Matthew, Sermon on the Mount. It expresses the essence of Christianity. In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us about purity of intention. Our religious practices like almsgiving, prayer, and fasting must be done...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The dialogue between the crowd and Jesus reaches a new turn. God gave manna to the Israelites in the desert to sustain them in the journey until they reached the land of Canaan. This is the prelude of the greater bread: the bread that has come down from heaven in the person of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Gospel reading tells us that Judas is at the Passover supper. Jesus predicts the betrayal of Judas, giving the sign of a hand dipping into the dish. But this is before the Eucharist; Jesus has still to take and bless the bread and the cup. Will Judas be still around by then?...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Jews accuse Jesus of blasphemy because he calls God his own father, making himself equal to God. In Jewish mentality, the son mirrors his father; the son is the image of his father. Jesus declares that God shares his power and authority wiith him: to give life and to exercise...
REFLECTIONS TODAY JOHN 3:14-21 Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The evangelist Matthew loves to point to Scripture passages as being fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus says he has come to complete “the Law and the Prophets” (two words designating the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament). However, he does not propose to literally...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the First Reading, Daniel confesses that the calamity that befell Jerusalem in the hands of the Babylonians is due to the transgressions of the Jews. He turns to God who keeps his merciful covenant, asking for forgiveness. In turn, Jesus invites his disciples to imitate God’s...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 9:2-10 Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In a tribal society, outsiders of the territory were considered potential enemies. This was a matter of survival. Often, the myopic interpretation of the Levitical injunction: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18) means to refer only to loving one’s own...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was the scourge of the ancient Near East, and the ruthlessness of the Assyrians was a byword. The Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and deported its inhabitants to Nineveh. Because Nineveh is synonymous with evil, Jonah...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Since, in Jesus’ time, Israel was under the Roman power, Caesar and his “family” (agents, political kins) had an interest in everything. Caesar’s estates were overseen by the Roman prefects of Judea. The Roman emperor was the main beneficiary of the taxes as well as...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The disciples of John the Baptist are scandalized that while they and the Pharisees fast much, Jesus’ disciples do not. Jesus’ disciples certainly fast, but only on prescribed days. Some Jews, like the Pharisees, fast (on Mondays and Thursdays) as a sign of devotion and...
