REFLECTIONS TODAY In the First Reading, Daniel confesses that the calamity that befell Jerusalem in the hands of the Babylonians is due to the transgressions of the Jews. He turns to God who keeps his merciful covenant, asking for forgiveness. In turn, Jesus invites his disciples to imitate God’s...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 9:2-10 Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In a tribal society, outsiders of the territory were considered potential enemies. This was a matter of survival. Often, the myopic interpretation of the Levitical injunction: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lv 19:18) means to refer only to loving one’s own...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was the scourge of the ancient Near East, and the ruthlessness of the Assyrians was a byword. The Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and deported its inhabitants to Nineveh. Because Nineveh is synonymous with evil, Jonah...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Simon Peter’s confession is used as Gospel reading for the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. While Peter is at times presented as sitting on a chair, while holding a key, the feast is not about a material chair (although a statue called Cathedra Petri is located in the apse of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Since, in Jesus’ time, Israel was under the Roman power, Caesar and his “family” (agents, political kins) had an interest in everything. Caesar’s estates were overseen by the Roman prefects of Judea. The Roman emperor was the main beneficiary of the taxes as well as...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The disciples of John the Baptist are scandalized that while they and the Pharisees fast much, Jesus’ disciples do not. Jesus’ disciples certainly fast, but only on prescribed days. Some Jews, like the Pharisees, fast (on Mondays and Thursdays) as a sign of devotion and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Today we begin the 40-day journey of Lent with the imposition of ashes on our foreheads. The ashen cross on our forehead is an external reminder of the internal disposition we need to nurture in our hearts throughout the Lenten season. Jesus reminds us that external practices of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the Gospel, Jesus warns his disciples to guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. In Luke, the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy (12:1). Here, the leaven of the Pharisees points to their evil disposition: they ask for a sign from Jesus when they...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus finds the Pharisees’ obduracy a hard nut to crack. He has just fed a multitude of 4,000 men yet the Pharisees are not convinced that he is sent from God. They want another miracle, a sign from heaven (that is, from God) that will leave no space for doubt. But Jesus fed the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 1:40-45 A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus is led to feed the multitude on several occasions out of His compassion for them. It is not a shallow and sentimental form of pity but a deep conviction that compels one to reach out to a needy neighbor. Jesus’ kind gesture comes from the heart of the good shepherd who is...
