REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus’ power over demons is essentially a function of his place in the hierarchy of powers. He is higher than the demons. The demon claims to know who Jesus is—that he is the Holy One of God. This is not a confession but an attempt to gain power over Jesus through knowledge of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The scroll of the prophet Isaiah handed to Jesus describes the deliverance of Israel (the inhabitants of Judah exiled in Babylon) as a “jubilee year” (Is 61:1-2; Lv 25). It is a moment of grace when debts are cancelled, slaves are freed, and properties returned to their...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The parable focuses on the third servant who is condemned by his master as “wicked and lazy” and whose talent is taken away from him. Not a few people would say that it is he who does the honorable thing. The audience of Jesus may also have realized that what the third servant...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In Palestine, on the actual day of the wedding, the groom, along with his friends, goes to the bride’s house towards evening to fetch her for the wedding ceremony. The bridal party is awaited by young females with torches (the virgins of the parable). When the groom’s party...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The last of Jesus’ “five great discourses” in the Gospel of Matthew (24:36—25:46) has to do with the “end-time.” After finishing his work of salvation on earth, Jesus has returned to the Father, but he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. This...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Law of Moses declares that everyone who in the open country touches a dead person, or who touches a human bone or grave, is rendered unclean, and needs to be ritually purified (Nm 19:16). It was then Jewish practice to whitewash tombs so that pilgrims to the Jerusalem Temple...
REFLECTIONS TODAY A harmonized reading of the Gospels tends to identify Nathanael in John with Bartholomew of the Synoptics. This is because in the Synoptic listings of the Twelve, the name Bartholomew comes after that of Philip. And Philip is precisely the one who brings Nathanael to Jesus. Jesus...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The temple in Jesus’ time is the Second Temple, built by the returnees from the Babylonian exile under the governor Zerubbabel and the priest Jeshua. Compared with the Temple of Solomon which was destroyed by the Babylonians, it was much inferior in the richness of its...
REFLECTIONS TODAY JOHN 6:60-69 Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus does not question the authority of the scribes and the Pharisees to teach, to sit on the “chair of Moses.” In the Jewish community, they teach the people the Law, speak in the synagogues, settle cases in the community, copy Scriptures texts, and act as guardians of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The “wedding garment” signifies metanoia, the change of heart and mind that is the condition for entering the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 3:2). It also signifies the garment of good deeds. Accepting God’s offer of salvation in Christ opens to us the honorable life that gives glory...
