REFLECTIONS TODAY Peter rebukes Jesus for predicting his own suffering and death at the hands of men, but Jesus rebukes him in return for thinking in human terms (Mk 8:32-33). God the Father has a mission for Jesus that is beyond human comprehension, and Jesus is determined to accomplish the will...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Mark’s opening lines also serve as the title of his Gospel: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ ” (1:1). The contents of the Gospel show how Jesus shows himself as the Christ (Messiah) and how he is the Son of God. The Gospel pericope about Peter’s confession of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The healing of the blind man at Bethsaida represents in a way the gradual understanding of the disciples regarding the identity of Jesus. The previous episode ends with Jesus’ question: “Do you still not understand?” (Mk 8:21). What is unusual about this healing is that it...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The discussion shifts from the Pharisees to the disciples of Jesus who are very close to the agenda of the Pharisees who have argued with and tested Jesus. The disciples now worry over their lack of bread, forgetting that Jesus had multiplied bread and fed the multitude on two...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Pharisees act like the Israelites at the time of the Exodus who demanded further signs from Moses, even though they already received manna which was an obvious sign of God’s providence (Ex 17:1-7). Despite the miracles of healing and multiplication of the bread, the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Mt 5:17-37 Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Mark has an earlier account of the “Jewish feeding” of 5,000, with 12 wicker baskets of fragments left over (6:34-44). Jesus gradually opens up the good news of salvation to the Syrophoenician woman by giving her “scraps of food” that fall from the children’s table by...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus goes deeper into non-Jewish territories: from the Gentile Tyre and Sidon, he enters into the district of the Decapolis (Greek for “ten cities”), the league of cities in and around Palestine which were chiefly inhabited by Greeks. Endowed with certain privileges by the...
Moses had warned the Israelites that after enjoying the fruits of Canaan, they might become haughty of heart and forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt (Dt 8:11- 14). The people of the land would also entice them to worship the “strange gods”: Baal, Astarte, Milcom, Molech, thus...
REFLECTIONS TODAY By divine election, the people of Israel became the Lord’s treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex 19:5-6). In their contact with other peoples, especially at the time of Captivity, there was a real danger of being assimilated by other nations in terms...
Mt 5:13-16 Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Kings and rulers in Israel were supposed to be shepherds of the nation, watching over and caring for the people. But this is not true of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, who was living in lavish pomp and who persecuted John the Baptist. In contrast, Jesus is presented here...
