REFLECTIONS TODAY Lk 15:1-3, 11-32 The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable. “A man had two sons, and the younger...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The two characters in the parable are a study in contrast. The Pharisee is true to his obligation as a faithful Jew: prayerful and paying tithes for the support of the Temple. He obeys the commandments of the Law. The tax collector, on the other hand, may not be as bad as the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In declaring herself the handmaid of the Lord, Mary is saying that she is totally at the Lord’s disposal. She does not mean to number herself among those honored by the title “servant of the Lord.” Yet for the evangelist Luke, this humble girl of Nazareth is “looked upon...
REFLECTIONS TODAY “Finger of God” is an expression used by the sacred authors to point to God’s power to do mighty signs and wonders for his people Israel. The two tablets of the Ten Commandments were inscribed by God’s own finger (Ex 31:18). The hosts of heaven—the sun, the moon, and the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY What Jesus understands by coming to fulfill the Law is not that he is ready to follow the Law in its smallest details; that would be to miss the point of the Sermon on the Mount where he goes beyond the Law. Jesus is even criticized by the scribes and the Pharisees for doing away...
REFLECTIONS TODAY For having been forgiven such a huge debt, the servant should have forgiven his fellow servant of the pittance owned to him. And yet he tries to squeeze out of him all he can. What Jesus wants to say in the parable is that we owe God an infinite measure. God readily pardons us our...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Greek dektos, here rendered as “is accepted,” is better rendered as “is favorable,” or “favors,” with the phrase running: “No prophet favors his own native place.” The meaning is not to dislike one’s native place or one’s countrymen but rather not to be...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Galileans were Israelites who inhabited the fertile region of Galilee ruled by the Jewish tetrarch who was beholden to Rome. Many of them were prosperous farmers, shepherds, and traders. They were, however, considered impure by the religious leaders in Jerusalem because of...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Joseph is the “husband” of Mary because they have undergone the erusin (betrothal) ceremony before Mary was discovered to have a child, and then the nisuin (wedding) after the angel explained to Joseph the conception of Mary’s child. In the last ceremony, Joseph “took his...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The background of Jesus’ parable is most probably the Song of the Vineyard in which God’s care for Israel is repaid with injustice and violence (Is 5:1-7). Jesus forces his hearers—the representatives of the Sanhedrin—to draw the conclusion that the parable concerns their...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The rich man (Dives, from Latin for “rich man”) in the parable is not condemned because he is rich or because the money with which he dines sumptuously each day is ill-gotten. It is rather for lack of concern for the poor man lying at his door. The vivid and detailed...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus uses the symbol of drinking his cup in accepting his suffering in obedience to the Father’s will. At the Last Supper, he tells his disciples to drink from the cup of his blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:27-28). In Gethsemane, he prays, “My...
