Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 25, 2026: The Lord is my light and my salvation...

The Lord is my light and my salvation…
 Is Jesus the light in your darkness? 

    In Biblical times, darkness often represented danger or evil. Speaking of a time when Israel will be delivered from the Assyrians who have degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the prophet Isaiah tells of God’s promise of a savior: Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness… The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. It is no surprise, then, that when, in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus goes to live in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, he is fulfilling the promise of Isaiah, embodying the very light of which Isaiah had spoken. Jesus is our light in the darkness, and when his future disciples see him, they immediately abandon all they are familiar with – their boats, their livelihood – to follow this light. He represents their opportunity to do as Psalm 27 suggests, to gaze on the loveliness of the Lord, and to dwell in his house forever. How beautiful would it be if we could always put ourselves in that place, recognizing God with us always, responding always from a place of love, God’s love, rather than from a place of the fear that all too often governs our lives. 

    It is because of the light of Christ, and in that light, that Paul can enjoin the Corinthians to seek unity, urging them to agree in what they say, with no divisions among them. The Corinthians have seen the light, by the grace of baptism, and need to focus on the good news, the truth of the passion, death, and rising of Jesus, the beacon of light who brings abundant joy and great rejoicing, and who dwells within them still. They, too, must recognize that the Lord is their light and their salvation, and act accordingly, living in the same mind and in the same purpose, ever attentive to the Lord revealed in their midst, responding with love rather than fear, that Jesus might continue to be the light in their darkness, as he is in our own. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation… 

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 26, 2025: All the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law...

All the people were weeping
as they heard the words of the law…
How do we respond to the Word of God? 

    The first time the entire Torah is presented to the people of Israel, it is quite a momentous occasion. The Book of Nehemiah recounts that a large crowd gathers – men, women, and those children old enough to understand – and listens as Ezra the priest reads out of the book from daybreak till midday. When Ezra opens the scroll, the people bow down and prostrate themselves before the Lord, for they know that God is revealed in its words. Indeed, hearing their own story causes the people to weep, but Nehemiah calls them to rejoice: Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, for today is holy to our Lord. Thereafter, when the people of Israel look for truth and wisdom to be revealed, they look to the Torah — the law – because they long to be in right relationship with God. And, as Psalm 19 clearly explains, if you are in synch with God and attentive to his words, that relationship refreshes the soul, gives wisdom, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eye. The psalmist knows that God’s words are Spirit and life! 

    Where the people of Israel found God’s law in the Torah, we see the Father revealed in Jesus, his Son, the Word of God Incarnate. The evangelist Luke knew how crucial it was to present a comprehensible narrative of the truth of Jesus’ life, death and rising, that his readers might realize the certainty of the teachings they have received. When Jesus goes into the synagogue in Nazareth on the sabbath day, he opts to read Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming hope, a prophecy fulfilled in their hearing: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. In this reading, God is revealed – although, unlike the people of Nehemiah’s time, the people of Nazareth will not hear the Word, will, in fact, fail to recognize Jesus for who he truly is. 

    When we hear – truly hear – the Word of God, it is fulfilled. If we take the Word into our hearts and speak it with our mouths, as the psalmist did, then we can be a source of sight for the blind, a source of freedom for the oppressed, for we are the hands, the feet, the Body of Christ. And all of those parts, as Paul tells the Corinthian community, are necessary: God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. To be effective, to effect real change in our world using the gifts of the Spirit, we must first listen attentively, as the people of Israel did, embracing the Word with the whole of our being, heart, body, soul and mind, that we might then be that Body, truly, in our world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 19, 2025: There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit...

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit…

How often do we see God at work? 

    At the end of the exile of the Israelites in Babylon, the author of Third Isaiah assures the people that, even now, the God whom they had abandoned has not given up on them. In fact, God will transform not only the reputation of the people – Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory, the prophet says – God will also transform his God’s relationship with them: you shall be called “my Delight” and your land “Espoused.” God’s mercy is a forgiveness that heals; the entire existence and identity of the people will be transformed by God’s action in their lives. The prophet calls the people to see God at work in their midst, and to follow the recommendation of Psalm 96: Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations with a new song, giving to the Lord glory and praise, the glory due his name.’ 

    In John’s Gospel, the story of the wedding at Cana is the beginning of his signs, signs that will reveal Jesus by showing God at work through him. Those present come to believe in him, with a growing confidence that Jesus is the one God sent, the one in whom all can put their faith. Taking six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washings, Jesus transforms them into something entirely new – the good wine. In so doing, Jesus is transforming not only Jewish practice but also the way the people present understand their faith in God; God at work in Jesus reveals his glory! 

    But God’s work didn’t stop with Jesus. As Paul reminds the Corinthians, There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. The Holy Spirit’s activity in and through the members of the Body of Christ is meant to be a manifestation of Christ himself in the world, through the transformation not only of the members themselves, but also of all those whom we allow God to transform through us. We reveal Christ whenever we allow the Spirit to work through us, thanks to our different gifts, which are manifestations of the Spirit given for some benefit. All that it requires of us that we remain open to allowing God to work, building the faith and hope that make us church, and revealing – what else? – God’s glory! Proclaim it!

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 21, 2024: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men...

Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men…

Are we ready to do the extraordinary, for God's kingdom? 

    The prophet Jonah was not excited about the mission God set before him; in fact, he initially ran in the other direction, away from the great city of Nineveh, where he was to announce the Lord’s message to the enemies of the people of Israel: Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed! Jonah expects to be rejected out of hand by the Ninevites; he is sure his efforts will be wasted in a futile attempt to change the minds of this enemy people. But after one day, everyone accepts the message, even the king. This is utterly beyond Jonah’s expectations – indeed, it’s mind-blowing, extraordinary! Jonah is slowly opening to change and learning the Lord’s ways, as described in Psalm 25; perhaps he will now remember that the Lord’s compassion and love are from of old, and always with extraordinary results. 

    Jesus’ call of his disciples is no less extraordinary, and with similarly extraordinary results. Simply approaching these fishermen, Jesus says, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men… and they do! Simon and his brother Andrew abandon their nets and follow Jesus; James and his brother John leave their father in the boat and follow Jesus as well. Like Jonah, they do not understand everything right away, but in Mark’s Gospel, they respond without question, ready to believe that, This is the time of fulfillment; the kingdom of God is at hand – a compelling message if ever there was one! The four men know a trade; their skills will be useful to the Lord as they shift their focus from capturing fish to capturing the hearts and the imaginations of their fellow human beings. Like the Corinthians to whom Paul writes, we would do well to open ourselves, following the model of Peter and Andrew, James and John, not contenting ourselves with doing what we are supposed to do, but rather acting as though we truly believed that the world in its present form is passing away, so that the kingdom of God might be realized fully. 

    God will ask us to do many things in this life, some of them easy, others hard. We don’t know, going into it, how any of them will be received. We know we are loved; we know we are called, but how much of our response to the Lord is based on whether we think we will be successful? Are we ready for our behavior to disrupt the status quo, the ordinary? Are we ready to be tremendously successful? If our mission to bring the good news to our world touches a single heart, that will be extraordinary! If we are thoughtful in all we do, conscious that Christ is at work in us, we will beat the odds in a world that doesn’t necessarily understand our mission… provided we are ready and open to doing the extraordinary for the Lord. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 22, 2023: They left their nets and followed him...

They left their nets and followed him…

How profound is our trust in the Lord? 

    Over the centuries, fear has always been part of human decision-making, and fear undermines our ability to trust. At the time of the writing of the Book of Isaiah, the people walked in darkness until King Hezekiah tries to rebuild a kingdom, the land west of the Jordan, destroyed by alliances with the Assyrians and others. Isaiah reminds Hezekiah that the people of Israel must trust in God, not in political alliances. When they do trust, they will know abundant joy and great rejoicing, for they have seen a great light, the light of God’s faithfulness to God’s people. As Psalm 27 says, The Lord is their light and their salvation, and so they do see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. They trust, and where there is trust, there is no room for fear. 

    Jesus quotes this very passage from Isaiah in Luke’s Gospel, but this time Jesus himself is the fulfillment of the prophecy, the great light that has shone. In the Incarnation, Jesus is doing God’s will, and he will call others to join him: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men, he says to Simon and Andrew. There is no reason for these men to follow Jesus, yet there is something about the power of Jesus’ invitation, its very radicality, that resonates with them, and so they leave their nets and follow him. Theirs is an extraordinary measure of trust in the Lord. 

    It is dangerous to remain comfortable in our Christianity if we fail to see Christ’s call to more. Paul reminds the Corinthians that it is important that there be no divisions among them, but that they be united in the same mind and in the same purpose. Jesus Christ calls us to deeper faith, and to a more profound response to his love in our world, a love for all, in union. But we can only say yes to this call if we trust, trust in him and in his love at work in us, trust in our baptismal promise, trust that, as we follow, we will one day grasp the depth of his love for us with abundant joy and great rejoicing! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 23, 2022: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life...

Your words, Lord, are spirit and life…

Does the Word of God speak to your heart?

   Psalm 19 suggests that the people of Israel believed that the law of God, as inscribed in the five books of the Torah, enriched their lives and improved their understanding of their relationship with God and with each other. The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye, the psalmist sings; when properly interpreted, Scripture gives wisdom to the simple. Unfortunately, the community that gathers to hear Jesus in his hometown, Nazareth, has no interest in Jesus’ interpretation of the passage he presents to them. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus reads in Luke’s Gospel, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. But his audience believes they have heard all they need to hear; once Jesus adds, Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing, they will make their rejection of him clear. They, like the Corinthians to whom Paul is writing, are too focused on themselves to understand the gifts they have been given, including the gift that is Christ, God’s Word itself; they will therefore remain at a distance from the Lord.

    Only the community described by Nehemiah seems ready to open fully to God’s words. When Ezra the priest reads out of the book of the law – the Torah – from daybreak to midday, all the people listen attentively. Indeed, they are so moved by the words of God that they weep with emotion. Ezra must interpret the law for then; like Luke the Evangelist, Ezra realizes that God’s words and Word need to be examined and understood anew in their context, and then expanded on, that all might integrate them into their daily life. This is precisely the function of the homily at Mass: to interpret God’s Word so that it makes sense to us in our time.

    Do we think about the prophecies of God being fulfilled in us now, because we are Body of Christ, united in his love, through one baptism? Can we hear God’s Word? That Word tells us who we have the potential to be, giving us hope. Prophecies are possibilities. We are commissioned at our baptism as priests, prophets and kings. As such, we must speak God’s Word, bringing glad tiding to poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and letting the oppressed go free… all of which is possible, if only the Word of God speaks to our hearts. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class. 
Image source:  www.wordclouds.com
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 24, 2021: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men...

Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men… 

Are you open to radical transformation? 

    The prophet Jonah is truly not thrilled with the idea of going to Nineveh – a pagan city – to do the Lord’s bidding. He is sure his message, Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed, will fall on deaf ears and actually he’s fine with that. Jonah can’t conceive that God would give this enemy people the opportunity to repent, yet repent they do, and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth and turn away from their evil ways and toward the Lord. It is a striking moment of metanoia in a completely unexpected place and time, resulting in the great gift of God’s mercy. The Ninevites have opened to the ways of the Lord described in Psalm 25: from a state of distance from God, they seek to bridge that gap and accept the call to repentance, so that they might receive forgiveness. Guide me in your truth, the psalmist sings, that I might turn to you, O Lord – another reference to the metanoia to which we are all called. 

    In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus comes to Galilee to proclaim: The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus, the manifestation of the kingdom of God’s rule, comes to call people to metanoia, so that God can rule their hearts. This is the time of fulfillment, Jesus says: his presence is the fulfillment of God’s promises, and something about him causes the fishermen Simon and Andrew, James and John, to abandon their nets and follow him. They too abandon their way of life in a radical moment of metanoia, a complete shift of how they see themselves and the world, a new sense of what is important. Paul asks the Corinthians to focus on what is important as well: not this world and its activity, but God’s activity, what God is doing in them. Like them, we too are to participate differently, focused on where the Lord is leading us. For those who have wives to act as not having them is to love past this world and its expectations, to have a new vision, to see life as a new life of possibilities. 

   We are all called to metanoia, to a radical change that comes of repentance of our past ways and embrace of God’s ways. That change is for this moment, now, not for the future, not for the past: metanoia takes place in the here and now. Like all of the figures in today’s readings, we too can know radical change, radical transformation, so long as we let go of what has been and what will be and embrace the will of God in this moment, always. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 26, 2020: Upon those who dwell in the land of gloom, a light has shone...

Upon those who dwell in the land of gloom, a light has shone…

Has the Lord dispelled your darkness?

  In Matthew’s Gospel, the ministry of Jesus begins after the arrest of John the Baptist.  Matthew recognizes that Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to live by Capernaum by the sea in order to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah had said, that in the region of Zebulum and Naphtali, a new light has arisen, dispelling darkness and gloom.  Jesus’ ministry – teaching, preaching, and healing – will be cause for abundant joy and great rejoicing – so great, indeed, that his call will be impossible to resist!  The first apostles, Simon and Andrew, leave their nets and follow Jesus at his simple request:  Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.  They abandon all that is comfortable, all that they know, to follow him, to follow that light.  It is unimaginable, and yet, it is what we are called to, too.  Like the psalmist in Psalm 27, who realizes that the Lord is his light and his salvation, we must recognize the Lord’s presence to us here and now, see God dwelling with us, here and now, finding refuge in the Lord, our light, a sense of security that he instills within us.  Confidence in the Lord right now is essential to our ability to abandon everything and follow him, united in purpose and in goal.

  The early Church struggled with that kind of unity.  Paul exhorts the Corinthians:  I urge…that there be no divisions among you, that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.  We gather for Eucharist to become of one mind and one heart; our common ground is Jesus Christ himself, as we are baptized in his name, joined as one body, to one unity.  Salvation is to be found in his love for all people, a love grounded in our recognition of the light and of the power of the love of God that it embodies in our lives.  Let us join with Jesus, united in the same mind and the same purpose, prepared to embrace all that Christ represents in our lives, ready to participate in something greater than ourselves as we embrace the cross of Christ, knowing that through it, and only through it, darkness has been dispelled, that we may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and follow him always.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com  

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 27, 2019: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life...

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life…

How are we transformed by the Word of God?

  When, in the Book of Nehemiah, the priest Ezra brings the law before the assembly, he is in fact introducing his congregation to the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible that had been brought together by a priestly source while the people were in exile, a text they may never have heard before.  Upon hearing the words Ezra reads from the scroll and listening to his interpretation of God’s law, the people weep, recognizing themselves in the story of salvation history and their failures to follow through on the law.  But their tears are to give way to joy in response to the extraordinary gift God bestows upon them once again:  covenant relationship.  The reading of holy scripture seals their identity as a community that blesses the Lord and rejoices in his presence in their lives.  For them, it is truly as Psalm 19 suggests:  Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

  In Ezra’s time, as in Jesus’ time and in our own time, an absolute openness to God’s words is the purest state we can hope for, one in which we are willing to embrace God’s will, unhindered, with nothing standing in the way of our finding favor before the Lord.  Like Ezra, Jesus will stand before his own community in Nazareth, where he had grown up, and read from holy scripture. In Luke's Gospel, the text he proclaims, from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, announces his own identity and invites his listeners to a common identity with him:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor,… to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, he says.  The text from Isaiah suggests that, if the people believe in the Son of God, if they recognize that the Spirit of the Lord is indeed upon Jesus, then they will do as he does and God’s love will be manifest in their lives.  They will become, as St. Paul will later tell the Corinthians, one body, restored to proper relationship with God through their other-centered activity, belonging to one another, and to God. 

  Jesus is our Spirit and life; we are all called to drink of the one Spirit, listening intently to his words, that we might enter more profoundly into God’s love, into the depth of relationship he calls us to.  May God’s words rejoice our hearts as we embrace the love they communicate, open to the life God promises.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com