Reflections Today Luke has a beautiful story of Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus joins them on their journey, but they mistake Him for a stranger, as their vision is still blurred by grief and a sense of failure, and because to see the resurrected Jesus, their...
REFLECTIONS TODAY After Peter and the beloved disciple saw the empty tomb and departed, Mary of Magdala comes back, lingers for a while, desperately searching for the dead body of her beloved Rabbi. Immersed in her intense grief, she is hardly attentive to the presence of two angels, to whom she...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Matthew’s resurrection account combines two events—the discovery that the tomb is empty, and the appearance to Mary Magdalene and to the other Mary. Initially, the women are overtaken by awe by the theophany of the angel who tells them that Jesus has risen from the dead, and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY JOHN 20:1-9 On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY When Jesus resurrects from the dead, a young man (angel) tells the women to go and tell his disciples about it, but they say nothing. And yet, in the midst of the failure of men and women—there is a believing community. Human beings fail—but God succeeds. God who raises Jesus...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Mary, who is totally prepared to commit all to the word of Jesus, stands by the cross. She is the model of faith and is now given as “mother” to the Beloved Disciple who clearly is presented as the model of the disciples. But the model disciple must learn from the woman of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In a culture which valued honor and upheld societal roles, Jesus violates cultural status that shocks Peter and his companions. Footwashing is not just an act of humility. Rabbi ha-Nasi (about 220 AD) was said to be a very humble person and would do anything for a person —...
Reflections on our second Holy Week so unlike any in the past due to the pandemic By C. Horatius Mosquera Like so many Filipino Catholics, I have always considered Lent—Holy Week in particular—as a season of grace, that time of the year when we take a break for reflection and renewal within the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Gospel reading tells us that Judas is at the Passover supper. Jesus predicts the betrayal of Judas, giving the sign of a hand dipping into the dish. But this is before the Eucharist; Jesus has still to take and bless the bread and the cup. Will Judas be still around by then?...
REFLECTIONS TODAY If Monday of the Holy Week is the day of love and thanksgiving on the part of Mary, today is the day of betrayal on the part of Judas’ Iscariot, one of the Twelve. What motivated Judas to betray his Master? Was it disillusionment with Jesus? Luke suggests that Satan prompted...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The one who anoints Jesus’ feet in the Gospel of John is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. All three are friends of Jesus. This Mary is not to be mixed up with Mary Magdalene, nor a sinful woman who anoints the feet of Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee,...
Today’s celebration of Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem is popularly called Palm Sunday. Filipino Catholics bring to church and wave their palaspas or coconut fronds, the native version of palm branches that the crowd is said to have waved to acclaim Jesus. On closer reading of Mark’s...
