REFLECTIONS TODAY Despite their confession of faith and loyalty to Jesus, the disciples will be shocked by his passion. They will all scamper for their own safety. They will be scattered, abandoning Jesus. Jesus says, however, that there is one who is always faithful and true: God. In the Old...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The figure of a woman in labor is a traditional biblical metaphor used for the sufferings that will herald the joy of a new age. According to Genesis, the pain of childbearing is Eve’s punishment for eating of the “forbidden fruit” and giving it to her husband. Since it is...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples to love their enemies: those who are outside their circle, those who are non-Israelites, even those who persecute them (5:43- 47). In John, the focus is the disciples: that they love one another and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY “The truth will set you free,” Jesus declares (Jn 8:32). Truth is what is real, what is correct. Truth is the way things really are. It is something that is objectively true, not subjectively; not a matter of personal opinion or preference. Truth is not some consensual...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • John 14:15-21 Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it....
REFLECTIONS TODAY To remain/abide (Greek menein) in Jesus is central in the Gospel of John. Andrew and his companion, who were the first two to come to Jesus, became his disciples when they remained with Jesus the whole day (1:39). In the controversy over Jesus’ declaration that his flesh is...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Today’s Gospel reading is formed by an excerpt taken from Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper. The excerpt begins just after Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples and enjoined them to follow the example he had just set before them. Why should they follow his example?...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • John 10:22-30 Bible scholar B. W. Thomson writes in his book, The Land and the Book, how sheep responds to the shepherds: “The shepherd calls from time to time, to remind them of his presence. They know his voice, and follow on; but, if a stranger calls, they stop...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • John 10:1-10 Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep...
REFLECTIONS TODAY When we turn on the TV for the newscast, when we read through the front page of a newspaper, or when we course through the digital media, we often feel weighed down and overwhelmed by the staggering amount of bad news reaching us: political crises, natural disasters, accidents,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Hosea is the prophet who emphasized more than any other prophet God’s love for his people Israel. Through him God says, “I will allure her now; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak persuasively to her” (Hos 2:16). Elsewhere God says, referring to the Israelites:...
REFLECTIONS TODAY A young and extremely intelligent couple enrolled at the Sorbonne University in Paris because they were attracted there by teachers who claimed that the natural sciences could resolved human questions about life and death. For a time, they despaired of finding the truth, namely,...
