(Gn.2:4-9,15-17; Ps.104:1-2,27-30; Mk.7:14-23) “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being.” In addition, “out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food.” These would feed the body of the man. But only spirit feeds the soul. Body and soul. They meet in man and become one, yet one is the cause of life while the other passes. When God formed man out ...
Feb 11, 2025•7 min
(Gn.1:20-2:4; Ps.8:2,4-9; Mk.7:1-13) “God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him.” At God’s word “the water teem[s] with an abundance of living creatures… birds fly beneath the dome of the sky,” and “the earth bring[s] forth all kinds of living creatures,” too. And “God saw how good it was.” Then God conceived the crown of His creation and said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And so, “little less than the angels He made him” and gave him “dominion over ...
Feb 10, 2025•5 min
(Gn.1:1-19; Ps.104:1-2,5-6,10,12,24,31,35; Mk.6:53-56) “How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all.” It is the Lord who “fixed the earth upon its foundation not to be moved forever,” and “with the ocean, as with a garment [He] covered it” – “the earth is full of His creatures.” By the Word of His mouth all comes into being, and is sustained, sustained in the goodness of God. Here as we read the beginning of sacred Scripture, we might do well to quote St. Bonaventure...
Feb 09, 2025•6 min
(Heb.13:15-17,20-21; Ps.23:1-6; Mk.6:30-34) “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” All things are cared for by the Lord; our work and our rest are in His hands. Nothing need we fear. No good desire goes unfulfilled – His sheep He loves. Brothers and sisters, “through Christ may [the God of peace] carry out in you all that is pleasing to Him.” Let Him guide you “in right paths” for the accomplishment of His will. In “good deeds and generosity,” in obedience to superiors, in every intention ...
Feb 07, 2025•5 min
(Heb.13:1-8; Ps.27:1,3,5,8-9; Mk.6:14-29) “I will never desert you, nor will I forsake you.” A series of parallels we have today between our first reading and our gospel. Paul instructs us in his letter to the Hebrews not to “neglect to show hospitality” to our “fellow Christians,” since we may be “entertain[ing] angels” thereby; but it is not angels Herod entertains at his birthday banquet, and a false sense of hospitality leads him to grave sin, as when Herodias’ daughter requests the Baptist’...
Feb 06, 2025•6 min
(Heb.12:18-19,21-24; Ps.48:2-4,9-11; Mk.6:7-13) “You have drawn near to MountZion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” “…to the assembly of the first-born enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.” Alleluia! “Great is the Lord and wholly to be praised in the city of our God.” And great is our call to dwell in His bles...
Feb 05, 2025•6 min
(Heb.12:4-7,11-15; Ps.103:1-2,13-14,17-18; Mk.6:1-6) “Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines; He scourges every son He receives.” Like His only Son we must be. For without discipline where would we be? Apart from the Lord’s chastising hand, into what state would we fall? Without the cross, how could we find the kingdom? If the Lord did not scourge us, we would be blind as His countrymen in our gospel today, who question even what their ears behold and their eyes see – dead to His presence we would ...
Feb 04, 2025•5 min
(Heb.12:1-4; Ps.22:26-28,30-32; Mk.5:21-43) “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith.” Like the woman in our gospel who saw Him in the crowd and with great confidence made her way toward Him but to reach out and “touch His clothing,” knowing in her heart that by this she “shall get well”; like the official of the synagogue who draws near and falls at His feet begging healing for his daughter, who even after being told, “Your daughter is dead,” does “not grow desp...
Feb 03, 2025•5 min
(Heb.11:32-40; Ps.31:20-25; Mk.5:1-20) “They broke the jaws of lions, put out raging fires, escaped the devouring sword…” In each of these descriptions of the powerful deeds of the men of old what is conquered is an instrument of death, and so what is indicated is the power of God – from whom these men derive their strength – to destroy death itself. This is made more obvious in the fact that “women received back their dead through resurrection” by their faith in God, and is apparent even in tho...
Feb 02, 2025•6 min
(Heb.11:1-2,8-19; Lk.1:68-75; Mk.4:35-41) “Why are you so terrified? Why are you lacking in faith?” “Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see,” our brother Paul would have us know, and realize. We all hope for something; there is ever something we all long to see. The eyes are set in the front of the human head and always he is looking at what is before him, straining to see what is ahead. And what is it we hope to see further along this...
Jan 31, 2025•6 min
(Heb.10:32-39; Ps.37:3-6,23-24,39-40; Mk.4:26-34) “You need patience to do God’s will and receive what He has promised.” Brothers and sisters, “we are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and live.” Whatever “great contest[s] of suffering” may be before us or behind us or upon us even now, we do not “surrender [our] confidence” in the Lord but stand strong, enduring all by our “trust in Him” and so coming by these means to the kingdom of God. My friends, we kn...
Jan 30, 2025•5 min
(Heb.10:19-25; Ps.24:1-6; Mk.4:21-25) “Since we have a great high priest who is over the house of God, let us draw near in utter sincerity and absolute confidence.” Let us shine our light without fear, for it is the light of the Lord and cannot be removed. “Let us hold unswervingly to our profession which gives us hope, for He who made the promise deserves our trust.” Do you think He will fail you in your commitment to Him? No, His love is always first to come; you need but follow. And let us “e...
Jan 29, 2025•5 min
(Heb.10:11-18; Ps.110:1-4; Mk.4:1-20) “I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.” He will plant His seed firmly upon “good soil,” and it shall yield fruit abundantly. Let us be open to receive His word each day. Today we hear Jesus’ well-known parable of seed sown in four places: “on the path,” “on rocky ground,” “among thorns,” and “on good soil”; and the Lord makes clear that only in the last place will the seed bear a profitable yield. And, of course, the Lord h...
Jan 28, 2025•6 min
(Heb.10:1-10; Ps.40:2,4,7-11; Mk.3:31-35) “I have come to do your will, O God.” But what is this will of God? How do we know it? How shall we live it? The will of God is known through the obedience of the Son, in His sacrifice for our sins; and all who seek to do the will of God must follow in His way, offering themselves freely, innocently, to the Lord for the sake of the Body of Christ. “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Jesus asks the crowd. Who enter into His fold, becoming children of God...
Jan 27, 2025•5 min
(Heb.9:15,24-28; Ps.98:1-6; Mk.3:22-30) “His death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions.” By his death Jesus has disarmed the devil; the Lord has destroyed Satan’s power by His holy sacrifice. Because of Jesus’ innocent blood, “Satan has suffered mutiny in his ranks and is torn by dissension,” for none of his adversarial accusations can stand before such pure love. “He cannot endure, he is finished”… and with him, sin also dies, for there is no longer anyone to accuse us of our si...
Jan 26, 2025•5 min
(Heb.8:6-13; Ps.85:8,10-14; Mk.3:13-19) “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” “Near indeed is His salvation to those who fear Him, glory dwelling in our land”; for absolute oneness do we find with our Lord and God through the ministry of His only Son. For the Lord has said of His new covenant, “All shall know me, from least to greatest,” promising: “I will place my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts.” There shall be no separation from His presence for those ...
Jan 23, 2025•5 min
(Heb.7:25-8:6; Ps.40:7-10,17; Mk.3:7-12) “Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through Him, since He forever lives to make intercession for them.” Oh how the people approach Him today, seeking healing, seeking grace: “a great crowd followed Him from Galilee, and an equally great multitude came to Him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon” – from all around they came to press upon Him, to press upon Him… “All who had afflictions kept pus...
Jan 22, 2025•5 min
(Heb.7:1-3,15-17; Ps.110:1-4; Mk.3:1-6) “Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.” We hear today more specifically about “Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God,” whose name means “king of justice” and also “king of peace,” who is therefore so like our King Jesus; it is in his line the Lord takes His place. “Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor,” King David dec...
Jan 21, 2025•5 min
(Heb.6:10-20; Ps.111:1-2,4-5,9-10; Mk.2:23-28) “I will indeed bless you, and multiply you.” God promised to bless Abraham, to make his descendants numerous as the stars; and “He swore by Himself,” “by oath,” to carry out His promise, thus giving an unshakable, “unchangeable” “firmness to [the] promise.” God does not go back on His word. And so, “after patient waiting, Abraham obtained what God had promised”; He became the father of many nations, of all those of faith. Now if God is so faithful, ...
Jan 20, 2025•6 min
(Heb.5:1-10; Ps.110:1-4; Mk.2:18-22) “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” Without beginning or end is the holy priesthood of our Lord; high above all sacrifices reigns His own. “Taken from among men” is Jesus our high priest “and made [our] representative before God.” Like others He is in this respect; yet the “gifts and sacrifices” He offers are infinitely greater than any that have ever been, for it is Himself He lifts up for our sins. “He is Himself beset by weak...
Jan 19, 2025•6 min
(Heb.4:12-16; Ps.19:8-10,15,Jn.6:63; Mk.2:13-17) “Nothing is concealed from Him.” In God’s eyes all men are sinners; this is what His penetrating vision cannot help but see. Yet it is just such sinners as we He has come to call, to call away from our sin. The Pharisees cannot bear this sword of truth to pierce their soul, and so they take up the sword of anger against those who are being redeemed, and He who is redeeming them. Let us not be as these hardened hearts, brothers and sisters, but exp...
Jan 17, 2025•5 min
(Heb.4:1-5,11; Ps.78:3-4,6-8; Mk.2:1-12) “The promise of entrance into His rest still holds.” But only those with faith in Him shall be made whole. Paul says of the Israelites in the desert, “The word which they heard did not profit them, for they did not receive it in faith.” Though they had seen “the glorious deeds of the Lord and His strength and the wonders that He wrought,” they yet became “wayward and rebellious, a generation that kept not its heart steadfast nor its spirit faithful to God...
Jan 16, 2025•5 min
(Heb.3:7-14; Ps.95:6-11; Mk.1:40-45) “Today, if you should hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Today we see Jesus continuing His healing ministry, and we see how it becomes “no longer possible for [Him] to enter a town openly” because of the public proclamation of His wondrous and powerful works. We see also how, though “He stayed in desert places… people kept coming to Him from all sides,” for His work must be accomplished. But we see most particularly the way we must come to Him to find o...
Jan 15, 2025•5 min
(Heb.2:14-18; Ps.105:1-4,6-9; Mk.1:29-39) “Since He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are tempted.” And help them He does. Die for us He must. Each healing is a move of love which takes His life as sacrifice for our sins. Jesus died on the cross for us, yes. He opened His arms and let His healing blood pour forth for all “the children of Abraham,” all those of faith. But His whole life, and especially His ministry of preaching and healing, is a dying, is a...
Jan 14, 2025•6 min
(Heb.2:5-12; Ps.8:2,5-9; Mk.1:21-28) “A completely new teaching in a spirit of authority!” Thus do the people exclaim at the power of the word which issues forth from the mouth of Christ, into whose hands “all things” have been subjected. The devils see Him and shriek: “I know who you are – the holy one of God!” They know Him and they fear Him, for He has indeed “come to destroy” them and whatever authority they seemed to have. He it is who has come to return man to his rightful “rule over the w...
Jan 13, 2025•5 min
(Heb.1:1-6; Ps.97:1-2,6-7,9; Mk.1:14-20) “This is the time of fulfillment.” Brothers and sisters, no longer does God speak to us “in fragmentary and varied ways”; this is “the final age,” in which “He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He has made heir of all things and through whom He first created the universe.” With full voice does He make Himself known now, for “this Son is the reflection of the Father’s being, and He sustains all things by His powerful word.” Jesus is the Christ, and in...
Jan 12, 2025•6 min
(1Jn.5:14-21; Ps.149:1-6,9; Jn.3:22-30) “The Son of God has come and has given us discernment to recognize the One who is true.” John’s disciples had difficulty recognizing “the One who is true.” They saw everyone “flocking to Him” and away from their master, so they came to their master questioning. But John was forthright: “I am not the Messiah,” he said, “I am sent before Him.” And now that He has come, the Baptist’s joy is complete. Brothers and sisters, “we know that we belong to God, while...
Jan 10, 2025•5 min
(1Jn.5:5-13; Ps.147:12-15,19-20; Lk.5:12-16) “Whoever possesses the Son possesses life.” What does our psalmist mean when he sings: “He has granted peace in your borders; with the best of wheat He fills you,” but that we are in Christ? What are those “borders” but the flesh of Christ? What is this wheat but the manna, the Sacrament of His Body He gives us to feed upon during our earthly journey? And this word which “runs swiftly,” what is it but the Spirit which enlivens the Body of Christ, whic...
Jan 09, 2025•5 min
(1Jn.4:19-5:4; Ps.72:1-2,11,14-15,17; Lk.4:14-22) “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Today the Son has come into our midst. Today He has “unrolled the scroll” of the Word of God and read aloud the words written of Him for all to hear. Today the WORD is brought to life. As “appealing” as is the discourse which flows forth from His gracious lips, so much greater is the Spirit that is upon Him. For by that Spirit and in His sacred flesh He shall “bring glad tidings to the ...
Jan 08, 2025•4 min
(1Jn.4:11-18; Ps.72:1-2,10,12-13; Mk.6:45-52) “If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is brought to perfection in us.” Jesus has just fed the five thousand men with the five loaves and two fish. He has performed a great miracle before the eyes of His disciples and through their hands. Yet “their minds were completely closed to the meaning of the events,” and when He comes walking toward them on the water in the middle of the night as their boat is tossed about by a storm, they ar...
Jan 07, 2025•5 min
