Those Who Wish to be Great Must be The Servant of All In today’s Gospel, James and John ask to be given seats of honor when Jesus enters into his glory. Jesus notes their lack of understanding and predicts the suffering they will endure for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus says that the…
Seek God’s Wisdom In today’s Gospel Jesus encounters a rich young man who asks how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to sell all he has, give to the poor, and follow Him. This is a difficult command, but it highlights the challenge of detachment from worldly riches. The young man is saddened…
Love According to God’s Plan God has a plan for humanity, for the life of each one of us, and John Paul II called it “God’s original plan” for humanity, for men and women of all times. In that plan, we were created to relate to each other, to complement each other, to help…
Whoever is Not against Us is For Us In today’s Gospel, the disciple John questions Jesus about an unknown exorcist who was driving out demons in Jesus’ name. John’s question might have been motivated by jealousy. John’s question is further evidence that the disciples have not yet grasped Jesus’ words to them. They continue…
The Suffering Servant In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for what is to come. He identifies himself with the “just one’ in the Book of Wisdom which we heard in today’s first reading. He will be put to the test to give proof of his gentleness and patience. He will be…
The Kingdom of God How could Peter, the apostles, and Jesus’ other close companions have got his mission so totally wrong? We see it in this week’s Gospel, but the truth is that from the very beginning and right up to his death, the apostles were more or less clueless. That may sound a bit…
Listening to God Words In today’s reading, Jesus heals a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. This is a story about Jesus’ healing power, and in it we find clues about our understanding of sacrament. In the Sacrament of Baptism, water and oil are used to show the power of the…
God’s laws If we read today’s Gospel carefully, we will see a pattern in Jesus’ teaching method that will be repeated in the weeks ahead. Jesus’ first teaching is directed to the Pharisees who questioned him. Jesus’ words are then directed to the crowd, teaching that a person is defiled by his or her words…
Lord, to Whom shall we go? In today’s Gospel we are being asked to make a choice, as we are, to choose to follow Jesus or not. Will we choose to follow him for a while and see how things work out and if they don’t we can always opt out of our choice of…
I Am the Living Bread Who is Jesus for me? Who is Jesus for us? The early followers of Jesus had to struggle with the words that Jesus gave to them. Even more they had to struggle to understand and accept fully that Jesus is God. Jesus tells us that He is the living…