(Mic.7:14-15,18-20; Ps.103:1-4,8-12; Lk.15:1-3,11-32) “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was deeply moved.” “He ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.” Amen. Such is the forgiveness of the Lord, that even while we are far from Him, yet while we are sinners, He sees our hearts turn to Him and welcomes us into His embrace. We have all “sinned against God,” brothers and sisters. We are all as the Prodigal Son who has “squandered his ...
Mar 21, 2025•6 min
(Gn.37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Ps.105:5,16-21; Mt.21:33-43,45-46) “They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” “The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure.” Hear what Scripture says. As he who was “sold as a slave” by his brothers became “lord of [the king’s] house and ruler of all his possessions,” so He whom the elders of the people could call “our brother, our own flesh,” whom they “seized… dragged… outside the vineyard, and killed,” has beco...
Mar 20, 2025•5 min
(Jer.17:5-10; Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5; Lk.16:19-31) “He is like a tree planted beside the waters, that stretches out its roots to the stream.” “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.” For he shall be like the tree “that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.” He shall never be “like a barren bush in the desert” or “like chaff which the wind drives away.” Never shall he know the “place of torment,” for “the heat when it comes” shall do him no harm. This m...
Mar 19, 2025•6 min
(Is.1:10,16-20; Ps.50:8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt.23:1-12) “To him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” “Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good.” For it is only following in the way of the Lord we shall be saved; for mere words, vain pretense, the Lord has no patience. Indeed it is so, what Isaiah proclaims: “Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.” Forgiveness is offered forth generously by the Lord to the nation tha...
Mar 17, 2025•5 min
(Dn.9:4-10; Ps.79:8-9,11,13,103:10; Lk.6:36-38) “Deliver us and pardon our sins for your name’s sake.” It is a cry for forgiveness our psalmist makes to our compassionate God. “Remember not against us the iniquities of the past,” he begs, seeking release from sin’s prison for himself and his people. And Daniel does the same; acknowledging with full throat the sins of Judah and all Israel, he seeks the merciful hand of the Lord upon the people, interceding in their stead. Though he himself is an ...
Mar 16, 2025•5 min
(Dt.26:16-19; Ps.119:1-2,4-5,7-8; Mt.5:43-48) “You will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God.” The promise made to the Israelites through Moses is also a command, and is fulfilled in the command of Jesus. In our first reading Moses tells the people the Lord will raise them “high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations,” but makes it clear that this shall be so only as long as they “walk in His ways and observe His statutes, commandments, and decrees” – only if they “hearken to...
Mar 14, 2025•5 min
(Ez.18:21-28; Ps.130:1-8; Mt.5:20-26) “Settle with your opponent while on your way to court with him.” We are all on our way to court, brothers and sisters. The judgment of the Lord awaits us all on the Last Day, and the Last Day is upon us here at the end of the age. There is no time to lose; we must be “reconciled with [our] brother”; we must turn from sin today and find the Lord’s grace. “With the Lord is kindness and plenteous redemption; and He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities” ...
Mar 13, 2025•5 min
(Est.C:12,14-16,23-25; Ps.138:1-3,7-8; Mt.7:7-12) “My Lord, our King, you alone are God. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you.” In our gospel we have today a few of our Lord’s most famous words: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.” Jesus encourages us to faithfulness in prayer, assuring all that our “heavenly Father [will] give good things to anyone who asks Him.” How beautiful are His words, and how true. And how well Queen Esther ...
Mar 12, 2025•5 min
(Jon.3:1-10; Ps.51:3-4,12-13,18-19; Lk.11:29-32) “At the preaching of Jonah they reformed.” Let us learn from the people of Ninevah, who heeded the message of repentance given Jonah. At Jonah’s cry they “believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” Even the king “laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes” in hopes of averting the destruction he knew God held in hand for his wayward city. He decrees that “every man shall...
Mar 11, 2025•5 min
(Is.55:10-11; Ps.34:4-7,16-19; Mt.6:7-15) “Give us today our daily bread.” Our daily bread comes from the mouth of God; it is His Word that nourishes us. His Word “water[s] the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats.” By His Word our spiritual lives are anointed with holiness; the breath of His mouth makes us whole, and so we become fruitful in His Name. Yes, we are sharers in His Word; it is His Word the just speak in their time of need. “Cr...
Mar 10, 2025•6 min
(Lv.19:1-2,11-18; Ps.19:8-10,15,Jn.6:63; Mt.25:31-46) “As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Such is the golden rule and the second of the greatest commandments, which is like unto the first: Love God. And the union of the two is made evident by Jesus in our gospel today; He makes clear that what we do to others we do to Him, and so to love God and neighbor become one and the same. So tied is the Lord to His creation ...
Mar 09, 2025•5 min
(Is.58:9-14; Ps.86:1-6,11; Lk.5:27-32) “Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “restorer of ruined homesteads.” “Levi gave a great reception for Jesus in his house,” but it is Jesus who invites him, and all sinners, “to a change of heart” and to join Him in the home He makes for us all in heaven. As Levi (or Matthew) has done, so must we all: we must leave our “customs post,” that which roots us to this world – we must stand up and follow Him. “You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, aboundi...
Mar 07, 2025•5 min
(Is.58:1-9; Ps.51:3-6,18-19; Mt.9:14-15) “Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!” Brothers and sisters, in this day of fasting and penance, first we must “acknowledge [our] offense” as David in our psalm. We must cry out to our God: “Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” This is our leaven of truth. “A contrite spirit, a heart contrite and humbled” the Lord cannot resist. It is this heart the Lord answers; it is prayer of this soul...
Mar 06, 2025•6 min
(Dt.30:15-20; Ps.1:1-4,6,39:5; Lk.9:22-25) “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.” In our first reading, Moses makes clear the choice we all must face: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.” “By loving the Lord… heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him,” the Israelites will be blessed with “long life” in the Promised Land; they “will live and grow numerous” by “loving Him and walking in His ways.” This will be life for them....
Mar 05, 2025•6 min
(Sir.35:1-12; Ps.50:5-8,14,23; Mk.10:28-31) “The just man’s sacrifice is most pleasing, nor will it ever be forgotten.” Peter is moved today to voice his fear that all that he and his fellow apostles have offered, even their very lives, will not be enough to secure the kingdom of God. But Jesus reassures all who serve Him: “I give you my word, there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children or property, for me and for the Gospel who will not receive in this...
Mar 03, 2025•4 min
(Sir.17:19-27; Ps.32:1-2,5-7,11; Mk.10:17-27) “Jesus fixed His gaze on them and said, ‘For man it is impossible but not for God.’” With these incisive words and particularly with this intent look, Jesus “encourages those who are losing hope.” His disciples are “completely overwhelmed” at His statement: “It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” and to keep them from falling into despair at the impossibility of such a proposition, He...
Mar 02, 2025•6 min
(Sir.17:1-15; Ps.103:13-18; Mk.10:13-16) “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them.” O how the Lord “looks with favor upon [our] hearts, and shows [us] His glorious works”! And because “His majestic glory their eyes beheld, His glorious voice their ears heard,” so the “people were bringing their little children to Jesus to have Him touch them,” so they were offering their precious loved ones into the arms of the Savior. And should we not all come to Him, should we not all run into His ...
Feb 28, 2025•5 min
(Sir.6:5-17; Ps.119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk.10:1-12) “They are no longer two but one flesh.” How much more clearly could the Lord speak of the unity found in marriage and so the respect due this sacrament? How better could He get His point across to you that marriage is indissoluble, that it is not to be played with, that you commit adultery as you consider divorcing your spouse? “At the beginning of creation God made them male and female.” And by this Jesus does not mean that two separate creatur...
Feb 27, 2025•6 min
(Sir.5:1-8; Ps.1:1-4,6,40:50; Mk.9:41-50) “Mercy and anger are alike with Him; upon the wicked alights His wrath.” “The way of the wicked vanishes.” It must vanish. It cannot but vanish, for there is no place for wickedness in the kingdom of God. And so, what is wicked must “be thrown into Gehenna”: what is to “enter life” must be purified. Thus does the Lord command – Cut off your hand! Cut off your foot! Tear out your eye! Remove even with violence whatever causes you to sin to preserve your l...
Feb 26, 2025•6 min
(Sir.4:11-19; Ps.119:165,168,171-172,174-175; Mk.9:38-40) “Those who serve her serve the Holy One; those who love her the Lord loves.” Such is wisdom, she who “instructs her children and admonishes those who seek her,” she under whose counsel we become the children of God. And I cannot help but think as I contemplate this personification of wisdom, how well and how appropriately she is embodied by our Blessed Mother, she who was immaculately conceived, she under whose mantle even Jesus our Savio...
Feb 25, 2025•6 min
(Sir.2:1-11; Ps.37:3-5,18-19,27-28,39-40; Mk.9:30-37) “My son, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.” Is Jesus not “teaching His disciples in this vein” when He speaks of His imminent death, a death they shall share, and calls them to “remain the least one of all and the servant of all,” even as He is? Their arguing about importance reveals that they have not understood who they are, and so He would remind them that “in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible ...
Feb 24, 2025•5 min
(Sir.1:1-10; Ps.93:1-2,5; Mk.9:14-29) “There is but one, wise and truly awe-inspiring, seated upon His throne: It is the Lord.” “The Lord is King, in splendor robed,” and He alone knows “wisdom’s root” and all “her subtleties”; for it is He who created her and “poured her forth upon all His works.” And so He alone, whose “throne stands firm from of old,” He alone understands all things, and can answer any question. And should we not be awestruck by His presence? That the Lord is robed in splendo...
Feb 23, 2025•5 min
(Gn.11:1-9; Ps.33:10-15; Mk.8:34-9:1) “What profit does a man show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?” Listen to what the men of old said among themselves at a time when “the whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.” As they were migrating, they stopped in a valley and declared: “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” Hear how thei...
Feb 20, 2025•6 min
(Gn.9:1-13; Ps.102:16-23,29; Mk.8:27-33) “The children of your servants shall abide, and their posterity shall continue in your presence.” In our first reading from Genesis, God remakes the world. As once He sent forth Adam and Eve upon their creation, so now He blesses Noah and his sons with the same words: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.” Here we are reminded that “in the image of God has man been made,” and once again God calls man to “abound on the earth and subdue it,” giving h...
Feb 19, 2025•6 min
(Gn.8:6-13,20-22; Ps.116:12-15,17-19; Mk.8:22-26) “Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.” A return to earth, the flood waters having ceased. A new day dawns in this “the first month, on the first day of the month.” The world is made anew, and it shall last, and man shall last upon it, until the last day comes. Here is the second Creation, the first re-creation… the new generation extending from Noah. After the cleansing rain, a soft white...
Feb 18, 2025•6 min
(Gn.6:5-8,7:1-5,10; Ps.29:1-4,9-11; Mk.8:14-21) “The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the Lord, over vast waters.” “Mighty” indeed is the voice of God, but who can hear it? Who listens to its “majestic” ringing in their ears? In the time of Noah the Lord’s “heart was grieved,” for He “saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil.” So great was the Lord’s grief over man’s disobedience that He uttered the saddest words we c...
Feb 17, 2025•6 min
(Gn.4:1-15,25; Ps.50:1,8,14,16-17,20-21; Mk.8:11-13) “Sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.” Thus does the Lord encourage Cain not to hang his head at his failures in worship but to learn from his errors and be strong. Here already in Scripture we see how redemption is possible, how God gives us power to conquer sin. But Cain does not fight off the demon at his door but instead attacks his brother Abel, killing him who has overcome sin. The jealou...
Feb 16, 2025•6 min
(Gn.3:9-24; Ps.90:1-6,12-13; Mk.8:1-10) “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Because of the fall we come face-to-face with this truth: our own mortality, our own humility, that we are but a creature made from the dust of the earth. And this truth we must understand. Because we have “eaten from the tree of which [God] had forbidden [us] to eat,” “thorns and thistles” the earth brings forth for us and “by the sweat of [our] face shall [we] get bread to eat,” until we learn our place – for...
Feb 14, 2025•7 min
(Gn.3:1-8; Ps.32:1-2,5-7; Mk.7:31-37) “The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.” How different this opening of the eyes of Adam and Eve is from the opening of the deaf man’s ears in our gospel; for our first parents’ eyes were opened unto blindness, but the deaf mute’s ears and tongue only to light. Why this difference? Why such contrast in the freeing of the senses to receive their signals? Why is one evil and the other good? The opening of the eyes of the m...
Feb 13, 2025•6 min
(Gn.2:18-25; Ps.128:1-5; Mk.7:24-30) “A man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.” And Jesus leaves His Father’s side and His mother’s care, and takes to wife His chosen people. From His side indeed we are born, and become His holy family. To the “sons of the household” Jesus comes; among the Israelites He walks, calling them to His table to eat the food of eternal life, of eternal union with Him and His Father. Those who were conceived by God,...
Feb 12, 2025•6 min
