REFLECTIONS TODAY Leprosy is a sickness that makes a person unclean, not only physically, but also ritually. The suffering of those who are afflicted is more psychological than physical. Lepers were ostracized and kept away from the community. Despite his need to be cleansed, it is interesting that...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 1:29-39 The Jews and other Mediterranean people in Jesus’ time were patrilocal. As norm, the woman would stay in her husband’s house, or in the house of her married son, not with the family of her married daughter who now belonged to her...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Mark 1:21-28 The power that Jesus shows in driving out the unclean spirits (demons) is a manifestation that the dominion of God is now being established over the “dominion of Belial,” freeing human beings from the subjection of the devil. Ancient peoples...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The first thing that Jesus does when he starts his mission of proclaiming the reign of God is to call two sets of brothers: Simon and Andrew who are casting their nets into the sea, and James and John who are mending their nets after fishing. These are fishermen plying their boats...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Gospel • Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 In Israel, the portal by which a male child joins the covenanted people of God is through the rite of circumcision, done on the eighth day after birth. When it is done on the “first day” of the week, the child becomes a “new creation.”...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus preaching in the synagogue of his native Nazareth where people first speak highly of him but later reject him for hurting their pride as God’s chosen by mentioning that the prophets ministered to the pagans ahead of Israel. John, in turn,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus preaching in the synagogue of his native Nazareth where people first speak highly of him but later reject him for hurting their pride as God’s chosen by mentioning that the prophets ministered to the pagans ahead of Israel. John, in turn,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus’ actions relive God’s powerful interventions during Israel’s wandering in the desert on the way to the Promised Land. His multiplication of the bread and fish that precedes this event anticipates the Eucharist and looks back to the feeding of Israel with manna in the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Sheep are totally dependent on shepherds for protection, grazing, watering, shelter, and tending to injuries. They are prone to wandering and unable to find their way back to a sheepfold even when it is within sight. The helplessness of the sheep requires a good shepherd who...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The start of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee is introduced by a somber note: the arrest of John the Baptist. Matthew will later tell the story in detail: Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist who had publicly reproved him for...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The theme of Jubilee Year 2025 is Peregrinantes in Spem, “Pilgrims of Hope.” “Pilgrimage” evokes an extraordinary journey to a place considered special, one undertaken as a quest for a unique motive, and at times a journey to the unknown. It can also refer to one’s...
REFLECTIONS TODAY This sentence evokes a lot of scenarios. This writer considers 4 p.m. among his favorite hours of the day. At about this time the earth has cooled down and the sun is not anymore in its fiercest glare and it gets ready to take its dip into the horizon. Simultaneously, that...
