REFLECTIONS TODAY Mary’s anointing of Jesus anticipates three crucial events in John’s passion narrative. First, as the response of Jesus to Judas suggests, the anointing anticipates his death and burial. Jesus will be anointed again before he is laid in the tomb (19:38-42). Second, the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The passion narrative tells us the culminating drama of Jesus’ salvific act. It unfolds the drama with a cast of characters: there are the main protagonists, the bad guys and the good guys, the bystanders and extras. They represent the different types of persons in the drama of...
BETTER DAYS It has been over a month since the MT Princess Empress sunk off Oriental Mindoro, causing a massive oil spill that has reached parts of Batangas, Palawan and Antique. Around 9,400 liters of oily water and 3,514 sacks of oil-contaminated materials have been collected from the oil spill...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Jewish religious leaders gather as the Sanhedrin (the equivalent of a Supreme Court) and weigh the repercussions of Jesus’ power and his hold on the masses. If Jesus and his followers should try to wrest political power from the Romans, yet suffer defeat, the Romans would...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Even when fake news proliferates and falsity seems to become the new normal, the Gospel never fails to challenge us to hold on to the truth so that we may experience the freedom shared by those who remain in Jesus’ word. The acceptance of the truth is often not an easy thing to...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Greek word kosmos (“world”) has several meanings in the Gospel of John. It may refer either to the natural world or to the whole of humanity inhabiting the natural world, or to a portion of humanity that does not believe in Jesus (1:9-10). The first two meanings are...
REFLECTIONS TODAY First Reading • Dn 13:41c-62 [or 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62] The assembly condemned Susanna to death. …The Lord heard her prayer. As she was being led to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel, and he cried aloud: “I will have no part in the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY First Reading • Ez 37:12-14 Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my...
BETTER DAYS Earlier this week, we sponsored a measure that will institutionalize the Shared Service Facilities (SSF) Project of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Through the SSFs micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) qualified beneficiaries are provided with the appropriate machinery,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The angel Gabriel comes to Mary with a greeting filled with joy (Chaire!). The good news announced by the angel can only be joyful. The content of the announcement is something that is freely bestowed by God. And what else can seal such a joyful announcement but the assurance that...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In John’s Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the one who is from the Father and is returning to the Father. Jesus is revealing the Father and making the Father’s love known to the world. Those who believe in Jesus as the one sent by the Father are the ones accomplishing God’s...
Gospel • John 5:17-30 Jesus answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them,...
