The institution of the Eucharist and of the priesthood took place at the Last Supper. It took place within the context of a Passover meal about which we just read in the First Reading. This meal commemorated the core experience of the people of Israel, their deliverance from slavery in...
Was there something that struck you in the face, in the heart, or in the guts as you listened to the Passion reading today? Was it the cunning malice of the chief priests and scribes who were seeking by some trick to kill Jesus? Was it the touching scene of...
In the sacred scriptures God has his day and the devil has his hour. Until that hour came neither Satan nor his servants could do anything to harm Jesus. (John 7:30): They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand...
Many chapters of the Book of Exodus concern the preparations for setting up the Tent of Meeting which the Hebrews carried around with them and set up each time they made camp in the desert. Inside this Tent, in the most holy and inner part of it called the Tabernacle,...
In the reading from the book of Genesis that we just heard the author tell us that God put Abraham to a test. To be honest with you, I have a problem about that. My question is why would God need to test Abraham? Moreover, why would God need to...
The first command of Jesus’ public ministry is not forgive, serve, or even love – it is: Repent. Of all the words he could have chosen it was this word, this challenge, this command which he spoke – Repent! Without preamble it refers us to the reality of sin and...
Both the first reading of today taken from the Book of Leviticus and the Gospel, speak about leprosy. I have often wondered why this particular sickness is mentioned. I am sure that people suffered from different types of ailments, yet leprosy seems to have had such an impact in the...
In the First Reading, we heard of God’s promise to Moses that He would raise up for us a prophet. This is only one of God’s many promises that were made and are found in the Old Testament, each of them having been fulfilled through Jesus Christ as revealed in...
During today’s First Reading from the Book of Jonah, we heard how Jonah answered God’s calling. Jonah was called by God and told to get up and to go to Nineveh, that great city, where he was to proclaim the message of the Lord. In obedience to the Lord God,...
The theme of the readings this week and this weekend is crystal clear: God calls us. If we had ears we would hear God calling all day long. He calls adults, children, sick people, people at work, people on holidays, sinful people, holy people. God never stops calling – all...