September 1, 2024 Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) The first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, or what Christians call the Old Testament, are also known as the Torah. These contain the laws, or more appropriately, the teachings which God gave to Moses and the people of Israel after the Exodus from Egypt. The readings for today present what appears to be a dichotomy over certain aspects of the law which deserves a bit of explanation. The First…..
Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) After a brief interlude to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, we return to the final verses of the Bread of Life Discourse in John (Jn. 6:60-69). Coupled with the First Reading from the book of Joshua (Josh. 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b), we find a theme that centers around making choices. In the portion of Joshua that we read today, the Israelites, under the command of Joshua and…..
August 15, 2024 The Feast of the Assumption (Year B) Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. It is the tradition of our Church that Mary, the mother of Jesus was assumed bodily into heaven after her death. She was immaculately conceived, that is born without sin, and so holy that God spared her body from the corruption of the grave. This feast was declared an official dogma of the Catholic Church in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. Although…..
August 11, 2024 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time This is the third week now that we are reading from the Bread of Life Discourse in the Gospel of John (Jn. 6) and associating it with a figure from the Old Testament. In the first week (Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time), it was a comparison between Elisha the prophet (2Kgs. 4:42-44) and Jesus (Jn. 6:1-15), who both perform a miracle, multiplying a scant amount of bread to feed a multitude of…..
August 4, 2024 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time This Sunday’s Gospel is a continuation of the Bread of Life Discourse (John 6) from last week’s reading. It is again a comparison between Jesus and a prominent figure from the Old Testament concerned with feeding the people. But this time it is Moses and the miraculous bread from heaven. As we meet the Israelites in this portion of the story of the Exodus (Exod. 16:2-4, 12-15), they have narrowly escaped sure…..
July 28, 2024 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) An interesting thing happens on this Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B in the Three-year cycle of the lectionary. We take a break from the near continuous readings from the Gospel of Mark and turn to the Gospel of John for a few weeks. In particular we read from one of the most important passages of John, which is the Bread of Life Discourse found in Chapter Six……
July 21, 2024 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) There are many symbolic images found in the prophetic books of Old Testament which quite frequently carry through to the New Testament, especially in the parables of Jesus. One of these is the image of God as a vine and Israel as the branches or a vineyard. Another is God as the Bridegroom and Israel as a bride. A third is one that we hear about today, the Good Shepherd…..
July 14, 2024 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) Last Sunday we looked at the way in which Jesus functioned as a prophet in comparison to Ezekiel from the Old Testament and the ways in which they lacked recognition from people of Israel who refused to heed their messages. Today’s readings follow a similar pattern as we meet the prophet Amos in his prophetic role, as well as the disciples being sent on a journey by the Lord to…..
July 7, 2024 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) In the Gospel for this Sunday (Mk. 6:1-6) Jesus refers to himself as a prophet. When we hear the word prophet we think of well-known names from the Old Testament, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. One might wonder what the ministry of Jesus, as the Son of God and Messiah, might have in common with the type of missions that we associate with the other prophets of the Bible. But…..
June 30, 2024 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) The topic for today’s readings is not a pleasant one – death. It is a fact of life, something unavoidable. Every person experiences it one way or another, especially considering the fact that we are mortal beings. But, as always, even with such a bleak subject, the Author of life has the final say. The First Reading for today gives the explanation for this plight of humanity. It comes from…..