In the Desert, Jesus is Tempted by the Devil In each of the three Synoptic Gospels, after his baptism, Jesus is reported to have spent forty days in the desert, fasting and praying. The devil tempts Jesus to use his power to appease his hunger, he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if…
The gospel reading today reminds us that the moral value of our actions in community really does relate to actual, material outcomes. This doesn’t mean there’s no room for mistakes. Sometimes our intentions are good, but things don’t work out. Sometimes a situation is beyond our control. Sometimes there’s information I’m missing. If repeatedly, over…
Jesus Calls Us to Love Whether we are interacting with friends or enemies, our attitude, from which our actions follow, should be one of love. None of us have a problem loving the friends and family members we get along with; it’s loving the enemy that challenges us. Our enemies are those who purposefully and…
Like a Tree Planted Near Running Water Today’s scriptures emphasize is that God’s smile rests upon those whose desire is for God, whose longing is for life with God. God promises that this desire will always be satisfied. Interestingly, both the prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist offer us the same image of what life looks like…
What does it mean to be a leader? In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about the truth of the enduring presence of God in human affairs. The crowd is spellbound by his teachings. And his words find concrete expression in the miracle of the fish, as despondent fishermen became astonished and overjoyed with their catch.…
The Light You Lit in My Life Still Burns Jesus in the gospel begins his public ministry and faces opposition and rejection. Here, we find an all too human reality—the failure to clearly see the presence of God in others, the failure to recognize what God is doing in our lives, and the failure…
Bring Glad Tidings to the Poor In today’s Gospel Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returns to Galilee and reads from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue of Nazareth. His proclamation that the spirit of the Lord is upon him, anointing him to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim…
How Can We Serve Christ’s Mission? This Sunday’s gospel reading about the wedding at Cana. Jesus and Mary are at this wedding as guests. It is important to note that a guest at a traditional Jewish wedding feast was not to step outside their role and start operating as if they were father or…
Jesus is Baptized by John In today’s Gospel, as in the other Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism, we hear John the Baptist address the confusion of the people who thought that John might be the Messiah. In response, John contrasts the baptism that he performs with the Baptism that Jesus will inaugurate. John the…
The Magi Seek Out Jesus and Do Him Homage The visit of the Magi occurs directly before the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. Matthew’s Gospel tells a version of Jesus’ birth that is different than the one in Luke. Of the actual birth of Jesus, Matthew tells us little more than,…