March 28, 2021 Palm Sunday (Year B) The readings for Palm Sunday are very familiar to most of us. We tend to consider them as the culmination of Christ’ s mission and the precursor to his resurrection, as well as the climax of the New Testament. However, few may know or consider how many parts of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures of Jesus, are an integral part of these readings. It starts with the passage that is read at…..
March 21, 2021 Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year B The readings for this Fifth Sunday of Lent contain a theme which is key for understanding our observance of Lent and, more so, vital to our understanding of God’s plan of salvation. At the very beginning of God’s revelation to us in the Bible we find God making a pact with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1-25). They are promised an existence of blessings and joy with the only restriction being they…..
March 14, 2021 Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year B) There is a saying that goes, “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” This may be useful to consider as we delve into the readings for this Fourth Sunday for Lent. In these readings, we see Jesus continuing to complete the creation first begun by God way back in the book of Genesis. This is where we find the creation narrative which states, “In the beginning, when God…..
March 7, 2021 Third Sunday of Lent (Year B) The First Reading and the Gospel for this Third Sunday of Lent hold a common theme, one that has been a longstanding teaching of the Catholic Church inherited directly from the tradition of our Jewish ancestors. Yet, although both readings are very familiar to us, at first glance the commonality between the two may not be readily apparent. When we get to the reading from the book of Exodus (Exod. 20:1-17),…..
February 28, 2021 Second Sunday of Lent (Year B) In last week’s readings we saw the way in which the covenant God made with His people at the time of Abraham was completed and fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This same theme appears again in the readings for this week although it may not seem readily apparent. In fact, when we look at the readings for this Second Sunday of Lent, we find what appears to be…..
February 21, 2021 First Sunday of Lent (Year B) As we begin our Lenten journey on this first Sunday of the season, we are reminded by the readings that it is a time of repentance. We see it in the Noah story where the earth and its inhabitants are cleansed by the great flood. Some see this story as a prefigurement of the repentance offered through Baptism (1Pt 3:21). We also hear about repentance from Jesus in the Gospel when,…..
February 14, 2021 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) In the Gospel reading from Mark for today (Mk. 1:40-45) we see Jesus continuing his healing ministry throughout the land of Galilee as he encounters a leper who seeks to be healed. It is a passage which demonstrates quite well the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. But more so, it is a story which holds a mysterious theme of secrecy. The leper in the story kneels…..
February 7, 2021 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) As we proceed through the readings for Ordinary Time in Year B, we continue to see one of the unique, literary aspects of the Gospel of Mark. Being the shortest of the gospels, the stories of Mark are more or less strung together with very little narrative in between. This makes Mark’s Gospel very fast- paced, filled with a lot of action happening in a very short period. We can…..
January 31, 2021 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) The beauty and depth of God’s word in scripture can be seen in the infinite number of ways various passages can be interpreted. They can be viewed with an historical critical method, unpacking them according to genre, historical circumstances of the specific time period, and the author’s intention for the original audience. A second way to interpret is a moral approach, from a standpoint of sin and grace, as well…..
January 24, 2021 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) This weekend we have Mark’s version of the call of the first apostles (Mk. 1:14-20) which we read last week from John. We hear about Andrew, with his brother Simon, and also John, the son of Zebedee, this time mentioned specifically by name, along with his brother James. We see again how readily they respond to the call of Jesus. They simply abandon their nets and follow him (Mk. 1:18)……