REFLECTIONS TODAY In the four Gospels we find Jesus saying, “Do not be afraid” no less than 15 times. In fact, it has been said that “fear not” is the most often repeated commandment in the Bible! In today’s Gospel episode, Jesus commands this to the Twelve when they give in to panic upon...
Gospel • John 6:1-15 In today’s Gospel reading, a boy voluntarily surrenders to Christ his provisions of five loaves and two fish. Perhaps he was a vendor and depended on the sale of that food for the day’s earnings. Perhaps that food was his whole day’s ration. We will never know. But...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Many great pioneers and scientists met skepticism or outright disbelief when they presented their discoveries to their contemporaries. One pioneer whose discoveries brought him utter rejection is Galileo. For defending the theory that the earth revolves around the sun and not the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Who condemns such a person? It is not God, for Jesus tells us elsewhere that “nor does the Father judge anyone” (Jn 5:22). It is not Jesus either since, as Jesus himself tells us, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world” (Jn 3:17). The ones...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the same word means both wind and spirit. This linguistic phenomenon explains why, in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus establishes a kind of natural connection between the action of the wind in nature and the action of the Holy Spirit in the human soul....
REFLECTIONS TODAY The great theologian Thomas Aquinas tells us that the human soul is “capax Dei”— has a kind of natural capacity for God, a potential for God. In fact, he even specifies that Christ became man “so that he might make human beings gods.” However, we cannot fulfill our...
REFLECTIONS TODAY About yesterday’s and today’s Gospel readings, the Vatican II Weekday Missal has an interesting comment: “The post-Resurrection appearances seem so unusual. They are sudden, staccato. As yesterday’s and today’s Gospels show, the risen Lord appeared out of nowhere....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Today’s Gospel reading presents us with a kind of game of hide-and-seek played by Cleopas and his friend. Only, these two disciples are not aware that Christ is playing a game with them. The Gospel scene is full of teachings of all sorts, of symbolic undertones, of endless...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Novelists and writers of fiction love to use a literary device called “the recognition scene.” It consists in staging the meeting of two people who either have been separated for a long time or who were separated under circumstances which made them believe they would never...
REFLECTIONS TODAY As is described in today’s Gospel, the death of Jesus was a tragic event indeed. Yet, it becomes even more tragic in our eyes when we understand that it was not necessary. And it was not necessary because the incarnation itself, the coming of God’s Word into our flesh, was not...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Deep within us lies an existential fear of death. We dread that final moment when we must release our grip on all we possess, bid farewell to those we cherish, and cross the threshold toward the unknown. This fear drives us to do everything in our power to avoid death, or at the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Annunciation is celebrated as the First Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary. But, is it really joyful? On the surface, Archangel Gabriel’s greeting appears joyful—he proclaims Mary will bear a son, the long-awaited Messiah. Yet underlying this news lies the potential for...
