REFLECTIONS TODAY In the Gospel, the only one called by the title “son of David” other than Jesus is Joseph. “Son of David” is a messianic title, based on the promises of God by the mouth of Nathan the prophet: God would raise up a son after David and establish the throne of his kingdom...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Just as the Father is at work, so is Jesus whose food is to do the work of him who sent him and to accomplish his work (Jn 4:34). Jesus says that he depends on the Father in what he does (to continue the Father’s life-giving and redemptive activity) and how he judges. He acts in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Jews accuse Jesus of blasphemy because he calls God his own father, making himself equal to God. In Jewish mentality, the son mirrors his father; the son is the image of his father. Jesus declares that God shares his power and authority wiith him: to give life and to exercise...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In Jerusalem, many sick people flock in the pool of Bethesda because they believe that its moving, bubbling water has curative powers. It is said that an angel comes down to stir it, and the first one into the water has the best chances of being healed. Jesus finds a paralyzed man...
REFLECTIONS TODAY Jesus worked his first “sign” or miracle at Cana where he made the water wine at the behest of Mary, his mother. The sign in the Gospel of John is made to awaken faith and confidence in Jesus, and as a result “his disciples began to believe in him” (2:11). In the second...
REFLECTIONS TODAY JOHN 3:14-21 Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In his time, Hosea invited sinful Israel to return to the Lord after running after the pagan idols, which he called the sexual crime of “fornication” or “adultery” because Israel is the bride of Yahweh. No sacrifice in the temple could substitute for the love and...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The Shema Israel (“Hear, O Israel”) is the central expression of Israelite faith, a declaration of faith in Yahweh and of love for the one true God. This confession of faith from Dt 6:4-5 is recited morning and evening by Jews to the present time. Jesus quotes the Shema in...
REFLECTIONS TODAY In fighting for the “united states” of America even at the cost of a civil war, Abraham Lincoln declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not believe the Union to be...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The evangelist Matthew loves to point to Scripture passages as being fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus says he has come to complete “the Law and the Prophets” (two words designating the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament). However, he does not propose to literally...
REFLECTIONS TODAY The first servant’s debt to his master is, in the Greek original, murion talanton, 10,000 talents. The sum is clearly meant to stand for an incredibly huge amount. In modern terms, it has been likened to the national debt of a country falling upon a single citizen. The parable...
REFLECTIONS TODAY When he returns to Nazareth, Jesus is perceived as a prophet by his townsmen. The initial reaction of the people to his “sermon” in the synagogue is favorable. But when the people of Nazareth ask him to do in his native place what they have heard he was doing in Capernaum,...
