Throughout his Gospel St. Luke seems to be struck by the unresponsiveness and even the hostility of some people to Jesus. In today’s passage, Luke recounts the metaphor used by Jesus comparing his contentious contemporaries to petulant children—pointing to a kind of perversity that all of us indulge in or are inclined to indulge in […]

Today’s Gospel reading encompasses three separate incidents: the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law, the cure of sick and possessed people and Jesus’ departure from Capernaum. After Jesus spent a day extending healing to a great number of people, from Peter’s mother-in-law then to people afflicted physically and spiritually, he felt the need to move on. Very […]

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary In the year 451 AD bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople for the Council of Chalcedon. In preparation for this event, the Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring with him the relics of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, that they might be enshrined […]

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he fines a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” Exactly 150 years ago, August 1, 1868, Peter Julian Eymard breathed his last. Days earlier, he arrived at his home town, La Mure d’Isère, […]

In today’s gospel reading Jesus speaks of heavenly, spiritual mysteries being revealed to the childlike. That raises a question: How do we become childlike? The answer simply stated is: by becoming more like Jesus in the details of our daily life; and the more we become like Jesus, the more God the Father recognizes us […]

Today, Independence Day, is one of those days when a secular holiday seems to overshadow the liturgical calendar. These reflections are based on the readings of Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time. At the conclusion of today’s selection from Matthew’s Gospel, we hear that the Garadene townspeople begged Jesus to leave their district […]

There is a saying that goes: “Blowing your own horn is a sure way to produce sour notes.” In today’s gospel reading, Jesus teaches the spirit that should animate our good works, namely, that they never become a spurious display of religiosity but rather express a genuine piety, which tends to conceal itself. Jesus teaches […]

Today’s Gospel touches on a subject that is foundational to the Christian gospel, namely, the teaching on life after death and on the resurrection of our bodies from the dead. Jesus’ response to the Sadducees leaves no doubt about the fact that we live on after death and that we shall possess a resurrected body […]