Reflections on our second Holy Week so unlike any in the past due to the pandemic By C. Horatius Mosquera Like so many Filipino Catholics, I have always considered Lent—Holy Week in particular—as a season of grace, that time of the year when we take a break for reflection and renewal within the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Gospel reading tells us that Judas is at the Passover supper. Jesus predicts the betrayal of Judas, giving the sign of a hand dipping into the dish. But this is before the Eucharist; Jesus has still to take and bless the bread and the cup. Will Judas be still around by then?...
REFLECTIONS TODAY If Monday of the Holy Week is the day of love and thanksgiving on the part of Mary, today is the day of betrayal on the part of Judas’ Iscariot, one of the Twelve. What motivated Judas to betray his Master? Was it disillusionment with Jesus? Luke suggests that Satan prompted...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The one who anoints Jesus’ feet in the Gospel of John is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. All three are friends of Jesus. This Mary is not to be mixed up with Mary Magdalene, nor a sinful woman who anoints the feet of Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee,...
Today’s celebration of Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem is popularly called Palm Sunday. Filipino Catholics bring to church and wave their palaspas or coconut fronds, the native version of palm branches that the crowd is said to have waved to acclaim Jesus. On closer reading of Mark’s...
REFLECTIONS TODAY After Jesus raises Lazarus back to life, the excitement caused by the miracle worries the members of the Sanhedrin. If they leave Jesus alone, people will flock to him and acclaim him king. This will surely invite the heavy hand of the Romans. Caiaphas, head of the Sanhedrin, sees...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The majority of references in the Bible treats of the Jordan River as a boundary,as evidenced by the cluster of passages that speak of “beyond the Jordan,” “on the far side of the Jordan,” “across the Jordan.” Because it is the boundary of the Promised Land, the Jordan...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The annunciation means that God involves human beings in his plan of salvation. Here, the Lord invites a young virgin to be the mother of the Son of the Most High. Because she always considers herself the servant of the Lord, Mary agrees, in total trust. Blessed is she in her...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In the discussion with the religious leaders in Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus identifies himself consistently with the Father who sent him. He even refers to himself as “I AM,” the divine name by which God revealed himself to Moses (Ex 3:14). Jesus then...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The story of the adulterous woman caught in flagrante delicto presents Jesus as a merciful judge and savior, in contrast to the judgmental scribes and Pharisees. The issue is not the right application of the Law but rather the move of Jesus’ detractors to shame him before the...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jn 12:20-33 Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Micah’s prophecy is clear in the consciousness of people as to the origin of the Messiah. When Herod asks where the Messiah would be born, the chief priests and the scribes point to Bethlehem in Judea, as written in the prophet Micah (5:1). The people in today’s Gospel also...
