REFLECTIONS TODAY Today we begin the 40-day journey of Lent with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads. The ashen cross on our forehead is an external reminder of the internal disposition we need to nurture in our hearts throughout the Lenten season. Jesus reminds us that external practices of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the Gospel, Jesus warns his disciples to guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. In Luke, the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy (12:1). Here, the leaven of the Pharisees points to their evil disposition: they ask for a sign from Jesus when they...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus finds the Pharisees’ obduracy a hard nut to crack. He has just fed a multitude of 4,000 men yet the Pharisees are not convinced that he is sent from God. They want another miracle, a sign from heaven (that is, from God) that will leave no space for doubt. But Jesus fed the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 1:40-45 A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus is led to feed the multitude on several occasions out of His compassion for them. It is not a shallow and sentimental form of pity but a deep conviction that compels one to reach out to a needy neighbor. Jesus’ kind gesture comes from the heart of the good shepherd who is...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Sickness, disease, and death were thought of as consequences of the sinful human condition. It was not God’s intention that man should live with the pressure of death upon him, but because of sin and the power of the devil death entered the world: “For God formed man to be...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus crosses over to the pagan territory of Tyre. He enters a house (most probably belonging to a pagan), and a pagan woman approaches him. If Jesus were one of the Pharisees, concerned about ritual purity, he would not give an ear to the Syrophoenician woman’s request to drive...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Pharisees and the scribes from Jerusalem speak of the “tradition of the elders” which, for them, is being neglected by the disciples. Indirectly, Jesus is being seen as party to this negligence. What they refer to is a set of practice defined, maintained, and practiced by...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus is not a presence to be ignored. The very minute people come to know that he is in the vicinity, a crowd naturally gathers. These people are not curious onlookers; they actually seek Jesus, bringing their sick, because they have heard that Jesus has the power to heal....
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 1:29-39 On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told Him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The apostles have just come back from mission. They need to take stock of what they have done, to give a report to Jesus. More importantly, they need to recover their physical and spiritual energies so that they may be ready for future initiatives. In fact, they soon find out that...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Herodias is the daughter of Aristobulus, one of the sons of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas is also the son of Herod the Great and is a half-brother of the first husband of Herodias, Philip. Antipas had divorced his first wife, a Nabatean princess, to make room for Herodias. John...
