REFLECTIONS TODAY Sometimes when we think we are a good person — we do not harm others, we follow all God’s commandments, etc. — we can begin to judge others easily. We forget that no matter how good we think we are, we are never perfect. Simon, the Pharisee, represents this sort of person....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today The cross in itself is a sign of ignominy; no one wants to die hanging on a cross. And yet this was the symbol and the locus that our Lord chose by which to save us. Now, the symbol becomes more dramatic when it is exalted; as a matter of fact, it becomes a...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today Before a humble person, one senses the holy. And when one is humble, most likely he/she is also simple, graceful, and grateful. The experience is even made more dramatic when one senses humility from an unexpected person, like the centurion in today’s Gospel....
REFLECTIONS TODAY Reflections today Mark 8:27-35 Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked...
REFLECTIONS TODAY 31453 The point of the metaphors in this Gospel passage is to avoid hypocrisy, to avoid pretending to help others when you yourself need help. As the first metaphor has it, to be a hypocrite is to be blind, to fail to see that “charity begins at home.” And many, if not, most...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus’ commands in this part of the Gospel are perhaps the most difficult to fulfill. But they are also the core of what it means to be a Christian. What He asks His followers is the very opposite of what human beings would “naturally” do in response to what was done to...
REFLECTIONS TODAY An aunt of mine spent a good deal of time on what I thought was a very worthwhile project: to come up with a Family Tree album. It was quite exciting to see the finished project, tracing the roots of various families that have become one through the sacrament of Marriage. This...
REFLECTIONS TODAY 30749 If there is one thing that we should imitate the Lord Jesus in, it is praying hard. The Gospels remind us how much our Lord valued communing with his Father in prayer: in today’s Gospel he is even portrayed as praying all night. In a world such as ours these days, there is...
REFLECTIONS TODAY MARK 7:31-37 Again Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY One of the useful conventions of organized civil life is the creation of laws. Without them, perhaps life would be next to impossible, if not outright impossible. But our attitude towards laws at times tends to make them absolute, forgetting that, in the first place, they were...
REFLECTIONS TODAY 30068 Jesus’ coming brought joy to the world. This is what we sing at Christmas. Of course, his coming also implies that we make ourselves ready and fit for the graces that he brings—by penance, and fasting perhaps. But joy and celebration should be the prevailing mood, not...
REFLECTIONS TODAY 29837 Fishing is one of those types of livelihood where you really are at the mercy of God. For there are times when it seems the fish are just nowhere in sight. And so we imagine fishermen really praying as they go out into the sea that God bless them with a catch. The disciples...
