REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today The Word, who is God from all eternity, chooses to become flesh and to dwell among human beings. “Flesh” (sarx in Greek) evokes not only humanity but also weakness, fragility, and mortality. It connotes being human and mortal in contrast to being divine and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today LUKE 2:41-52 Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today JOHN 1:1-18 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Steeped as he was in Scriptures, Luke would know that God’s greatest act—the sending of his Son in the fullness of time — would have to be celebrated in a song. For minstrel, he has found someone most fitting, one who had experienced God’s saving action in a very personal...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today Underlined in today’s Gospel, as we can also gather from the choice of the First Reading, is the spirit of joy that sweeps through the atmosphere like December breeze. It is joy that comes with the coming or visitation of the Lord. This “Lord” now comes in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today In contrast to her cousin Elizabeth, Mary is not barren. Her child does not come into existence because God removes the sterility. Rather, Mary is a virgin who has not known man—her child is totally God’s work, a new creation. The angel’s appearance to...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today Luke 1:39-45 Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today The Gospel focuses on Joseph: silent, righteous, and reliable. He is often referred to as the “dreamer,” not unlike the patriarch Joseph, the “lord of dreams.” Pope Francis, however, clarifies this title. He explores Joseph’s capacity to dream, saying...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today Matthew begins his infancy narratives with “the book of the genealogy” of Jesus Christ. Biblical genealogies serve to identify the tribe to which an Israelite belongs at a time when being a member of a tribe or clan is important to survival. Genealogies are...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Considering that John is Jesus’ “cousin” and “recognizes” him even while inside the womb (Lk 1:44), it is strange that John in prison would send messengers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Let us remember, however, that...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today The Gospel continues to focus on the person and role of John the Baptist, sent to prepare the way of the Messiah. The parable of the Two Sons describes two kinds of responses to the will of God as manifested in the ministry of John the Baptist and of Jesus....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today With the appearance of John the Baptist by the second week of Advent, the Gospel readings often focus on the person and role of this son of Zechariah who preaches in the desert as a prophet instead of serving in the Temple like his father, they being of the tribe...
