(Nm.13:1-2,25-14:1,26-29,34-35; Ps.106:4,6-7,13-14,21-23; Mt.15:21-28) “They forgot the God who had saved them.” But He did not forget them. Though He curses them in our first reading for their lack of faith, and though they shall indeed all – except for Joshua and Caleb – die in the desert over forty years, their children shall enter and take the Promised Land from the five tribes which inhabit it; and despite their repeated faltering in following His word, He shall come to redeem them from the...
Aug 08, 2023•6 min
(Jer.28:1-17; Ps.119:29,43,68,79-80,95,102; Mt.14:22-36) “Let those turn to me who fear you and acknowledge your decrees.” Hananiah does not fear the Lord; he cares nothing for His decrees. And so he prophesies that the Lord will bring “the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the exiles back from Babylon” within two years, though the Lord has not said this. And he refuses to turn to Jeremiah – who does acknowledge the Lord’s decrees and speaks only truth – hardening himself against the word...
Aug 06, 2023•4 min
(Ex.20:1-17; Ps.19:8-11,Jn.6:69; Mt.13:18-23) “What was sown on good soil is the man who hears the message and takes it in.” “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul… The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye… More precious than gold” and “sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb” is the word of God. How beautifully our psalm speaks of the words of everlasting life which issue forth from the mouth of God, the Law of the Lord embodied in Christ Jesus. And those who ...
Jul 27, 2023•6 min
(Gn.22:1-19; Ps.115:1-6,8-9; Mt.9:1-8) “God put Abraham to the test.” And so is his faith in the living God made known. And so we see to what faith and obedience we are called. All that we hold back from the Lord, all that is due our God – and our neighbor – we must give without hesitation at the voice of His command. In Leviticus 5, a ram is prescribed as the sacrifice for those who have withheld their tithe, who have shorted the Lord of His due offering. And the same is prescribed for those wh...
Jul 05, 2023•7 min
(Gn.17:1,9-10,15-22; Ps.128:1-5; Mt.8:1-4) “Can Sarah give birth at ninety?” Abraham laughs to himself as he asks the question; and indeed many scoff at the idea today, or simply choose to reason the possibility away. And can a leper be made clean in an instant, just by a touch of Jesus’ hand and the words “Be cured”? Is the arm of God, who created the universe, somehow shortened to such miracles? Why do we think it so? Wherefore our lack of faith? God appears to this ninety-nine-year-old man an...
Jun 29, 2023•5 min
(Gn.13:2,5-18; Ps.15:1-5; Mt.7:6,12-14;) “How narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!” In our first reading today, the way Abram walks with God is contrasted with the path Lot chooses for himself. Though the road seems wide and clear, this gate leads to damnation, and indeed, as our gospel states, is one which is chosen by the traveler himself; whereas the narrow path is one which is found in God. Lot and Abram could no longer dwell together;...
Jun 26, 2023•6 min
(Tb.12:1,5-15,20; Tb.13:1-2,6; Mk.12:38-44) “Almsgiving saves one from death.” We must give alms, yes; and the greatest of alms is the gift of ourselves to God. In our gospel we hear of perhaps the most famous example of almsgiving: the poor widow who gave her two copper coins to the temple treasury; and in our first reading we complete the Book of Tobit, he who is himself a great biblical model of almsgiving, and who is here instructed by the angel Raphael on the merit of giving alms. Yes, the ...
Jun 09, 2023•6 min
(Tb.11:5-15; Ps.146:2,7-10; Mk.12:35-37) “The Lord gives sight to the blind.” Now in His teaching Jesus truly begins to open the eyes of the people. We have witnessed this week His fielding their questions regarding theology and the law, but He now takes a step further, revealing to them and to us the Truth itself – that He Himself is the Son of God. “The majority of the crowd heard this with delight.” Many eyes begin to open, many hearts begin to see… but will they remain so joyful when Jesus r...
Jun 08, 2023•5 min
(Tb.6:11,7:1,9-14,8:4-7; Ps.128:1-5; Mk.12:28-34) “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two great commandments rest all the Law and the Prophets. By them we shall be “not far from the reign of God.” In them the Lord leads us into His bridal chamber, where we shall be made one with Him in glory forever. Here on earth we dimly mirror the love of the Lord for His Church in our marriage of husband and wife; in this, love of neighbor is known in its most intimate and...
Jun 07, 2023•5 min
(Tb.3:1-11,16-17; Ps.25:1-9; Mk.12:18-27) “He is the God of the living, not of the dead.” Rich readings. First of all, we see the striking similarity between the story woven by the Sadducees to thwart the wisdom of the Lord and the situation in which Sarah finds herself. In both cases, seven – the number representing fullness – husbands have died. In one the wife has also died; in the other, she wishes for death. And in both there have been no children, no fruit, no new life. Death in its fullne...
Jun 06, 2023•5 min
(Tb.2:9-14; Ps.112:1-2,7-9; Mk.12:13-17) “The heart of the just man is secure, trusting in the Lord.” Today in our reading and gospel we find just men put to trial and testing. Our Lord is steadfast before the devious inquiry of the Pharisees and Herodians, answering them with a wisdom greater than Solomon’s; for what can Jesus, who is Himself the Word made flesh, do but take refuge in the Father with whom He is one. And so wisdom is His to answer His foes, and He is unmoved, indeed moving with ...
Jun 05, 2023•6 min
(Tb.1:1-2,2:1-9; Ps.112:1-6; Mk.12:1-12) “The stone rejected by the builders has become the keystone of the structure.” First, Tobit is not a parable; it is not a “story”. A parable begins, as does Jesus’ own in our gospel, with a statement such as, “A man planted a vineyard…” It is always “a man”, a generic man, never a particular man in a particular place at a particular time, as is the case with Tobit. For parables deal expressly with the universal. Though one may derive universal significanc...
Jun 04, 2023•5 min
(Sir.51:12-20; Ps.19:8-11; Mk.11:27-33) “When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom. She came to me in her beauty, and until the end I will cultivate her.” Oh how Sirach speaks of his love, of the wisdom that is the light of his life! He is “resolutely devoted to her” and does “never weary of extolling her.” To his teacher he gives “grateful praise,” for he treasures her sweetness above all things. “I will ask you a question. If you give me an answer, I will tell you on what authority I do t...
Jun 02, 2023•5 min
(Sir.44:1,9-13; Ps.149:1-6,9; Mk.11:11-26) “They are as though they had not lived, they and their children after them.” This line from Sirach could refer well to the Jewish nation symbolized by the fig tree “withered to its roots.” For “never again shall anyone eat of [its] fruits”; its temple now destroyed shall never be rebuilt. And yet Sirach speaks not of those who have perished in sin, and so are never to be known again in the sight of God, but of “godly men” of Jewish ancestry who, though ...
Jun 01, 2023•7 min
(Sir.42:15-25; Ps.33:2-9; Mk.10:46-52) “As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the Lord fills all His works.” “How beautiful are all His works! even to the spark and the fleeting vision!” “Can one ever see enough of their splendor?” Yet how blind is man to their glory! How much we need to receive the Lord’s vision. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made; by the breath of His mouth their host”; “at God’s word were His works brought into being.” And so, bathed in His grace what...
May 31, 2023•6 min
(Heb.11:1-7; Ps.145:2-5,10-11; Mk.9:2-13) “Rabbi, how good it is for us to be here.” In yesterday’s gospel Jesus promised, “Among those standing here there are some who will not taste death until they see the reign of God established in power.” And today we witness the keeping of that promise, as upon “a high mountain” Jesus is transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James, and John. In all His glory does the Christ appear, with Elijah and Moses standing near and the voice of God the Father speak...
Feb 17, 2023•6 min
(Heb.9:2-3,11-14; Ps.47:2-3,6-9; Mk.3:20-21) “Behind the second veil was the tabernacle call the holy of holies.” To this holy of holies in the temple of Jerusalem only the high priest could come, and only once a year. So holy was it deemed. This tabernacle contained the ark of the Lord with the two tablets upon which the commandments of God were written, and some manna from the Israelites’ travels through the desert. This was truly sacred ground for God’s chosen people, a place they held in awe...
Jan 20, 2023•6 min
(1Jn.5:14-21; Ps.149:1-6,9; Jn.2:1-12) “He hears us whenever we ask for anything according to His will.” In our gospel, the waiters come to Mary; their misfortune is witnessed by her compassionate heart: “They have no more wine,” she tells her Son. She knows what she is saying, she knows what she is asking… and Jesus knows, too. And though He seems not prepared to answer her concern (you see, our concern is her concern, and she makes it His), yet she says to the servants standing by the words wh...
Jan 06, 2023•5 min
(Is.56:1-3,6-8; Ps.67:2-3,5,7-8; Jn.5:33-36) “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Truth has come, and all nations are drawn to Him. None is excluded in the House of God; His holy Temple is a place where all take refuge, where all find fulfillment, where all find joy. He only asks that we heed His testimony, that we see the works which He performs and act in accordance with His holiness. “Observe what is right, do what is just, for my salvation is about to come, my ju...
Dec 15, 2022•4 min
(Is.54:1-10; Ps.30:2,4-6,11-13; Lk.7:24-30) “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.” We are “the barren one who did not bear,” the “wife married in youth and then cast off” by our God. Once “forsaken and grieved in spirit,” blushing for the “shame of [our] youth,” now the Lord takes us home and promises us His love. “My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken,” the Lord in His mercy assures us. Though we be as those in the days o...
Dec 14, 2022•5 min
(Is.45:6-8,18,21-25; Ps.85:9-14,Is.45:8; Lk.7:18-23) “There is no just and saving God but me.” Jesus is “He who is to come”; His deeds speak for themselves. “There is no other!” “Justice shall walk before Him, and salvation, along the way of His steps.” How evident this is in Jesus’ life, for wherever He goes He teaches wisdom; whomever He touches He heals. God created the world “not to be a waste” but “to be lived in,” and so Jesus sets free all captives – the blind, the lame, the deaf… He rele...
Dec 13, 2022•4 min
(Zep.3:1-2,9-13; Ps.34:2-3,6-7,17-19,23; Mt.21:28-32) “I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord.” All have been “rebellious and polluted”; all have been as she who “hears no voice” and “accepts no correction.” But the Lord now comes to “change and purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.” Who is it who hears the voice of the Lord to “not be ashamed of all...
Dec 12, 2022•4 min
(Rv.22:1-7; Ps.95:1-7,Rv.21:20; Lk.21:34-36) “Remember, I am coming soon!” And when He comes what blessings there shall be for those who have been faithful to Him. They shall eat of “the trees of life which produce fruit twelve times a year,” which grow either side of “the river of life-giving water, clear as crystal” flowing from “the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Healed entirely shall they be by the medicine of their leaves. Then, brothers and sisters, if we wish to eat of this blessed, holy...
Nov 25, 2022•4 min
(Phil.4:10-19; Ps.112:1-2,5-6,8-9; Lk.16:9-15) “Well for the man who is gracious and lends.” “Lavishly he gives to the poor; his generosity shall endure forever; his horn shall be exalted in glory.” Such is the man who knows the proper use of this world’s goods, that is, to give them all as “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.” This shows that he “fears the Lord,” that his heart is not set on the things of earth but the riches of heaven; and so to these shall he come...
Nov 04, 2022•5 min
(Phil.1:18-26; Ps.42:2-3,5; Lk.14:1,7-11) “When you are invited by someone to a wedding party, do not sit in the place of honor in case some greater dignitary has been invited.” At the feast of the marriage of Christ to mankind, we are the lesser party, and must act humbly before our God. Jesus comes among us as a guest to eat a meal in our house; He humbles Himself to sit at our table. And this guest who sits in the lowest place among us is in fact the Host of the banquet of which all are invit...
Oct 28, 2022•6 min
(Eph.1:11-14; Ps.33:1-2,4-5,12-13; Lk.12:1-7) “What you have whispered in locked rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.” What we have whispered and what has been whispered to us, the teaching of the Lord, the truth of the Spirit, is destined to grow unto praise of God – to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth. What begins here in a small way in Jesus the Messiah, shall proceed in His disciples to all nations. In the dark, first it is but whispered. It sinks deep into the locked rooms of ...
Oct 13, 2022•5 min
(1Cor.15:35-37,42-49; Ps.56:10-14; Lk.8:4-15) “Just as we resemble the man from earth, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” It is not difficult to recognize our earthly bodies. They are with us always, and make themselves known in the “weakness” that befalls us. Adam’s sin is upon us his children and reminds us always that we are human, of the earth. But as we know this body of the earth so “subject to decay,” so “ignoble” in itself, so we should know the “spiritual body [that]...
Sep 16, 2022•6 min
(1Cor.10:14-22; Ps.116:12-13,17-18; Lk.6:43-49) “Is not the cup of blessing we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” The Body and Blood of Christ we have upon our altar and in the Word of His teaching. It is these which set a firm foundation within ourselves, these by which we bear fruit in His Name – these by which we come to be as He is. Paul tells the Corinthians today “to shun the worship of idols,” not because they are real, ...
Sep 09, 2022•6 min
(Ez.43:1-7; Ps.85:9-14; Mt.23:1-12) “The temple was filled with the glory of the Lord.” Certainly the vision of Ezekiel is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus and His founding the Church, the New Jerusalem, here amongst us. In this Temple He has “set the soles of [His] feet”; here He “dwell[s] among the Israelites forever.” For though the temple in Jerusalem shall be restored, it shall again be destroyed, and forever. In the Catholic Church now does His presence remain. Through it and through its t...
Aug 19, 2022•5 min
(Ez.12:1-12; Ps.78:7,56-59,61-62; Mt.18:21-19:1) “As captives they shall go into exile.” “The prince who is among them shall shoulder his burden and set out in darkness, going through a hole he has dug in the wall, and covering his face lest he be seen by anyone.” O the woe of the “rebellious house”! How their sins eat away at their souls like hands digging holes in a wall; how they must hide their faces from the light of day and from the Lord’s glorious face. Into what hell they cast themselves...
Aug 10, 2022•4 min
