Loving Like the Samaritan (15th Sunday - Cycle C)

Today, a four-lane modern highway leads from Jericho to Jerusalem, partially following the route of the ancient road that connected the two cities at the time of Jesus. In that period, the road was known to be dangerous, with robbers often lying in wait to despoil vulnerable travelers. People often journeyed in caravans to minimize the risk, unlike the man in the parable in this Sunday's Gospel reading, who was braving the road by himself and was overcome by robbers.

The story has come to be known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. After two millennia of Christianity, the phrase "Good Samaritan" has a positive connotation for us. We even have Good Samaritan laws to protect people who help those in danger selflessly. However, the audience of Jesus would not have reacted positively to the idea of a Samaritan being the hero of the parable.

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What Does Discipleship Look Like? (14th Sunday - Cycle C)

In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Jesus sends the disciples on a training mission so that they can experience the sense of being sent out before the fullness of their mission begins. Their journey highlights a number of the characteristics of a Christian disciple. We can also learn much about discipleship from the First and Second readings.

We see in the Gospel passage that we are to focus on God rather than on our gifts. Jesus says to the disciples "do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). God gives us many gifts as a part of our spiritual journey, both for our own use and to share with others. The temptation for us is to care more about the gifts than God, the giver of the gifts, thereby developing an exaggerated sense of self-importance, as if we were the source of the gifts ourselves, rather than God himself. Some truly gifted evangelizers have fallen from grace by giving in to that temptation. Our primary focus must always be God. We should acknowledge his gifts and thank him with deep gratitude, rather than allowing pride to take hold.

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The Peace of Christ vs the Peace of the World (St. Peter and St. Paul - Cycle C)

To understand the Gospel reading for this Sunday more fully, we need to consider the geographical location where the passage takes places. Jesus goes with the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a town situated in the modern day territory of the Golan Heights in Israel. The area had many pagan temples and was notorious for the rituals practiced there.

The most horrific of these rituals was performed at the mouth of a cave known as the Gates of Hell. Here parents performed child sacrifice, killing their own children, in order to obtain favors from their gods. The very idea of visiting this area would have been shocking to the disciples.

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Self-Sacrifice is at the Heart of the Eucharist (Corpus Christi - Cycle C)

Years ago, I was teaching a class where I was discussing going on pilgrimages to Marian apparition sites, when someone asked me why we need to go to such places, since everything we need spiritually is right here in our church at home. My response was that sometimes we need to go to a faraway holy place to be open to the grace to appreciate what we have at home. Little did I know that I was talking about myself.

When I journeyed to the Marian apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time, I received the grace to see the gifts of the Church in a whole new light. I realized that God supplies us with everything we need spiritually through the day-to-day life of our parish church. The sacraments, the prayers, the devotional life - all these are there for me.

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The Holy Trinity Is Our Only Fulfillment (Trinity Sunday - Cycle C)

Catholic theology starts with the premise that God is one. God has one, indivisible nature. At the same time, we also believe that God has three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are distinct from each other and yet share that one indivisible nature. We do not have three Gods, but only one. At the same time, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are not merely modes of expression in God, but are actual persons. So God is both indivisibly one and yet has three distinct persons.

One way to try to conceptualize the mystery of the Holy Trinity is to start with the premise that God is infinite love. Love, by its very nature, requires a love dynamic. In God, there is the Father, who is the One Who Loves. His love is received and reciprocated by the Son, who is the Beloved. The love that exists between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is an eternal exchange of infinite love, which is not bound by time, but takes place in the eternal timeless now of God’s infinite nature.

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Making Each Day Like Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday - Cycle C)

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples hid away behind locked doors for fear of suffering the same fate themselves. When Jesus rose from the dead and revealed himself to them, the disciples still remained in hiding. But on Pentecost they went forth to proclaim the Good News and they kept on proclaiming it, despite threats and persecution. In fact, eleven of the twelve apostles were martyred for their faith.

What made the difference was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Once they received the Holy Spirit, they had the courage and the strength to go forth. They were empowered for ministry. In the same way, we too derive our spiritual strength from the grace we receive through the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of the Church.

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What the Ascension Enjoins Upon Us to Do (Ascension Sunday - Cycle C)

In Greek mythology, the belief was that gods could become incarnate for short periods of time. They could take on human or animal forms just for a day or two and then could shed their incarnate shapes as if nothing had happened. The Catholic understanding of the incarnation is quite different. As Catholics, we believe that the incarnation was not a temporary, passing action of Christ, but a permanent act, which transformed the whole history of creation.

God is love and he created the world out of love to share his love with his creation. Humanity was created good and lived in the blessed state of Paradise in the beginning. But through the sin of our first parents, humanity fell from grace, resulting in a wedge between God and his creation. But even when human race was in darkness, God did not abandon us. He became incarnate as Jesus Christ - that is, he came among us as one of us, taking on a human nature, becoming like us in every way but sin.

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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - Spectacular Grand Finale Offers Deep and Hopeful Message

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the latest and (for now) the last entry in the series is darker, grittier, gorier, and more somber than the prior Dead Reckoning and the franchise in general, but the tone fits the weighty doomsday topic - the impending destruction of the world as we know it by an AI entity.

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Living in a Time of Preparation (Easter VI - Cycle C)

The first debate in the early Church was whether or not gentiles could become Christians and, if so, how. All of the first Christians were Jews and they understood Christianity to be the fulfillment of Judaism. As the Apostles preached the Gospel, more and more gentiles were also converting. Would they need to embrace all of the customs and practices of Judaism in order to follow Christ?

After a period of debate, the answer of the Church, as guided by the Holy Spirit, was that gentiles did not have to become culturally Jewish in order to be Christian. As Christians, we need to follow the teachings and practices established by Christ, which are rooted in and are the fulfillment of the Old Testament. We live according to the Old Testament in the way Christ reinterpreted the Old Testament teachings and practices for us.

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How to Love as Christ Loves (Easter V - Cycle C)

In my home, we have what we call the Wall of the Dead, where my wife and I display pictures of family members and friends who have died. As the years go by, the area keeps getting larger. But though we remember and pray for relatives who have passed, the sad reality is that in life we sometimes found it challenging to interact with some of them. Needless to say, all families experience such strife.

But what of the command of Jesus to love one another as he loves us? Did we love all our deceased loved ones with such a profound sense of love while they were still alive? Unfortunately, most of the time, we did not. I would love to go back in time and show all those relatives the true love with which we are supposed to love them, but of course that is not possible. But I believe that if we are so blessed as to be admitted into Heaven, there we will love one another as Christ loves us.

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Who Are the Sheep of Christ? (Good Shepherd Sunday - Cycle C)

After Pentecost, when the Apostles began to proclaim the Gospel, their initial understanding was that they were being sent only to the Jewish people. They would spread the Good News of the coming of Christ to all of the people of Israel and then Christ would return, still within their lifetimes. Only gradually did the Apostles start to understand that their mission entailed much, much more. They had to learn that Christ, the Good Shepherd, has far more sheep than just the Israelites.

The first step was the mission to the Samaritans, who lived between the Jewish territories of Galilee and Judea. The Samaritans were the closest to the Jewish people ethnically and religiously, but the two groups were archenemies. Despite the history of acrimony, the Samaritans were receptive to the message of Christ proclaimed by the Apostles and many of them soon joined the early Church.

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Loving with Full Love (Easter III - Cycle C)

I have often joked that feasting at Easter is very biblical because when Jesus returned from the dead, he ate with the disciples. Of course, feasting on joyful occasions is very much a biblical value. But Jesus eating after the resurrection means more than just a celebration.

When the Gospels were written, a philosophical movement called Gnosticism was popular in some circles. Gnostics believed that there were two gods, an evil god who had created the material world and a good god who had created the spiritual world. They believed that humans were a part of the divine spiritual spark that got trapped in the evil material world and that the goal of life was to be freed from matter and return to the spiritual realm. They considered marriage and procreation to be evil because having children perpetuated the entrapment of the spiritual spark in evil matter. The Gnostics had no organized structure of their own, but instead they infiltrated the religious organizations of others and reinterpreted the existing tenets and practices of those groups to suit their outlook.

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The History of the Universe Speaks of God's Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday - Cycle C)

The Old Testament is usually seen as focusing on the punishment of humanity. But the Church has always read the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, as the preparation for the coming of Christ. Looked at it from that perspective, we can see that the Old Testament is, in reality, an elaborate preparation for God's most merciful act.

God became incarnate, becoming one of us, taking on our human nature. He then offered himself up as a sacrifice upon the Cross to atone for the sins of humanity, for all of our sins. From the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis, the entire Old Testament is a preparation for the Incarnation, for Christ coming among us and redeeming us through his death and resurrection.

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How Easter Transformed the Universe (Easter Sunday - Cycle C)

We see in the Book of Genesis that God created a perfect world, free of any defect or imperfection. Clearly, however, we do not live in such a world today. Reflecting on the human condition might leave us with bleak thoughts. Our lives are beset with sorrow. Society is in the grip of destructive forces. The natural world tends toward decay. Our brief journey upon the earth ends in death. But there is much more to our story than such despairing thoughts. The message of Easter gives us true hope, true meaning.

The Fall of humanity had marred all of the world. But the death and resurrection of Christ changed the course of human history and set in motion the transformation of the entire universe. The restoration and renewal brought about by Christ has three aspects: our personal salvation, the healing of society, and the remaking of the natural world.

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Two Powers Opposed Each Other on Palm Sunday (Palm Sunday - Cycle C)

As the Passover approached, two opposing powers entered Jerusalem. The first was Pontius Pilate, with a strong force of Roman soldiers. The Romans always strengthened their presence in the city in preparation for the Passover feast. The Passover celebrated the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery by the miraculous intervention of God, when Moses was given the power to lead the Israelites to safety.

But at the time of Christ, the Israelites were celebrating the great feast of their liberation under the foreign occupation of the Romans. Unrest was very likely. The city was like a tinderbox that could go up in flames any moment. The Romans made a show of raw military power to reinforce their occupation and the oppressive order that the Empire had imposed upon the land. Pilate himself, the local Roman governor, was in town to oversee the demonstration of dominance.

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The Flaw in Our Compassion (Lent V - Cycle C)

Whenever the religious leaders come to Jesus to ask him a question in the Gospels, they are setting a trap for him. They present him with a situation where no matter how he answers, he is bound to give a response that they can use against him. In the case of the woman caught in adultery, the penalty prescribed by the Mosaic Law was death by stoning. If Jesus tells them not to stone the woman, they can accuse him of breaking the law. If he tells them to proceed with the execution, they can claim that his message of mercy was hollow and meaningless.

In each of the traps set by the religious leaders of his time, Jesus deflects the attack by responding in an altogether different way from what his antagonists are expecting. In the situation involving the woman caught in adultery, Jesus replies by exposing the hypocrisy of the men seeking judgment against her.

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Which Son Are We? (Lent IV - Cycle C)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, is one of the most celebrated and commented on passages from the New Testament. The story is the third of three parables about God's boundless forgiveness in the Gospel of Luke, the first two being the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. These specific lessons are not necessarily instructions on how we are to manage human affairs but are about how God acts towards us. All three parables depict the unfathomable love of God for us.

Interpretations of the Parable of the Prodigal Son have usually focused on the younger, dissolute brother, as evidence by how the parable is named. But Pope Benedict XVI had proposed that we rename the passage to the Parable of the Two Sons, since they both show problematic behavior. The sins of the younger son are certainly more glaring. In his cultural context, respect for and deference to elders was paramount. A person's identity was, moreover, defined by belonging to a family and by attachment to ancestral land. By leaving his family and the land behind, he cuts himself off from all his relations and friends. By asking for his inheritance up front, he shows that he wishes his father dead and destroys completely their relationship.

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Christ Is the Only Source of Eternal Life (Lent III - Cycle C)

In the First Reading for this Sunday, God reveals his name to Moses, saying, "I am who am" (Exodus 3:14). At first blush, the name might sound evasive or dismissive, as if God didn't really want to give his name. But a closer consideration shows that God's words to Moses convey a deep philosophical and theological meaning.

God doesn't just exist. He is existence itself. He is being itself. The world exists only because God wills it to exist. All of reality is rooted in God's existence.

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The Cross Comes Before the Glory (Lent II - Cycle C)

Over the years, I have traveled to many holy sites, including the Holy Land, Rome, Assisi, and various historic Marian shrines. Of all the places I have visited, the one that stands out the most is the Marian shrine at Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a place I have visited five times. Why? Because of a deep, all-pervading sense of peace that reigns in the whole town. When I am there, I wish that I would never have to leave.

My desire to stay in Medjugorje is perhaps similar to Peter's desire to stay on the mountain with Jesus. He experiences an intimation of Heaven -- of the glory, the beauty, the joy, and the peace that await us in eternity. But much like I have always had to return from Medjugorje to the day-to-day vicissitudes of life, Peter too must come down from the mountain and face what is to come next.

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How the Tempter Seeks to Destroy Us (Lent I - Cycle C)

In the Gospels we see that, before starting his public ministry, Christ goes into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, praying and fasting as he prepares for all that is to come. At the end of his sojourn, he is tempted by Satan. Jesus came among us to be like us in every way but sin. He too undergoes the experience of temptation so as to enter into the human condition fully and also to show us a model for how to resist such spiritual attacks.

Jesus is presented with three temptations - food, power, and glory. Each temptation is a warning to us about a specific spiritual danger and brings to the fore an idol we might be drawn to worshipping in the place of God. Each temptation is furthermore designed to derail Christ's mission as the Messiah in a specific way.

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Prudence, Hypocrisy, and Biblical Law (8th Sunday - Cycle C)

The First Reading, a passage from the Book of Sirach, is from a part of the Bible collectively known as Wisdom Literature, which offers a rich treasure trove of advice for daily living. One of the primary considerations of Wisdom Literature is prudence in speaking, as well as the damage imprudent words can do in life. I am sure we have all regretted many things we have said in unguarded moments.

Needless to say, falling into indiscreet speech is all too easy. But our culture tends to drive us even further in that social media and the entertainment industry both elevate shock value speech. The more outrageous and extreme someone gets, the more attention they receive, which can come with a financial reward.

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The Most Radical Message in Human History (7th Sunday - Cycle C)

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus gives us this command: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). His words might strike us as a tall order. How could we possibly even approximate an attribute of God?

The Second Reading for this Sunday points toward the answer. We are to bear the image of Christ in our being. The more we are rooted in Christ, the more we allow the grace of God to fill us, the more God's attributes will shine out from us. To be like God, we must conform ourselves to Christ, who is God incarnate.

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The New Values Christ Gives Us (6th Sunday - Cycle C)

The teaching of Jesus in this week's Gospel passage has historically been known as the Beatitudes, from the Latin word for blessed. The Beatitudes appear twice in the New Testament, once in the Gospel of Matthew, where they are spoken in the context of the Sermon on the Mount and the other time here, in the Gospel of Luke, where they are a part of the Sermon on the Plain.

In both Gospels, Jesus presents the Beatitudes at the beginning of his ministry. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus focuses only on the blessings of certain conditions of life, and does so more extensively than in Luke. In the speech recounted in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus also reflects on the woes that come with the opposite of those conditions. The Beatitudes can be seen as the opening statement of the public preaching of Jesus, encapsulating a number of the core values he would teach about in his ministry. But, we might ask, why would Jesus consider poverty, hunger, sorrow, and exclusion blessed states?

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How to Discern Our Calling (5th Sunday - Cycle C)

Each of the Scripture readings for today contains a call narrative. In the Bible, call narratives are what the name suggests, an account of how God calls a person for a specific mission and how that person responds. In the first reading, Isaiah sees a vision of God's holiness. He realizes his own unworthiness and yet God still sends him forth to deliver his message.

As the saying goes, God does not call the equipped. He equips the called. We are not expected to be perfect before we can respond to God's call in our lives. We need to respond wherever we are in our spiritual journey. Then, if we fully submit to God's will, he will give us the graces we need to carry out what he wants us to do.

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The Rich Heritage of February 2 (Presentation of the Lord - Cycle C)

February 2 is a feast with a rich heritage in the Catholic Church, involving a wide variety of local cultural customs, including special foods and celebrations. As the Gospel reading for today indicates, the feast commemorates the day when St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary took the baby Jesus to Jerusalem to be presented at the Temple 40 days after his birth. Today, February 2 is known as the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Historically, the day has also been called the Purification of the Virgin Mary, the Feast of the Holy Encounter, and Candlemas - each name emphasizing a different aspect of the same biblical event.

Traditionally, February 2 has also been the end of the Christmas cycle. Families would keep their Christmas decorations up until this feast. A vestige of this tradition continues in the custom of keeping the Nativity scene out until February 2, which is observed especially in Eastern Europe and at the Vatican.

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Rejoicing in the Law (3rd Sunday - Cycle C)

The First Reading and the Psalm for this Sunday show us how much the ancient Israelites rejoiced in the law they had received from God. The Mosaic Law or the Torah, as the law code God had given them through Moses was called, had two main functions.

One was highly practical. Many of the precepts of the Mosaic Law provided protection for the Israelites amid the harsh vicissitudes of ancient desert life. The other function of the law was to set the Israelites apart from the nations around them. By following the law, the Israelites could not blend in with the surrounding cultures, which had various depraved customs, such as child sacrifice and perverted religious rituals.

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Jesus Gave Mary the Choice (2nd Sunday - Cycle C)

We might find the tone of Jesus puzzling in today's Gospel reading. He seems to dismiss his mother, the Virgin Mary, rather harshly. What are we to make of his words in this passage? As always, we must look at the theological, cultural, and biblical context of the passage to understand what Jesus is saying.

To begin, let us recall the 4th Commandment, which mandates that we honor our father and mother. If Jesus had disrespected his mother, whether in public or in private, he would have been guilty of a sin. We know that, being God Incarnate, Jesus was completely free of all sin. Thus we should dismiss the idea that his words to the Virgin Mary might have been disrespectful in some way.

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Baptism Is the Foundation (Baptism of the Lord - Cycle C)

At the time of Jesus, baptism was already a custom showing repentance and a sense of recommitment to the spiritual life. Culturally, ritual bathing could be the sign of inner spiritual cleansing. Of course, Jesus himself had no need of cleansing. Being God Incarnate, he was free of all sin. So why did he need go through baptism? In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist himself wonders why Jesus would want to be baptized by him, given that Jesus is the Lord.

Two reasons come to the fore as to why Jesus had John baptize him. One was to set an example for his future followers. Jesus made baptism the foundational sacrament of the Church, the entryway into the new life of salvation he offers to all of humanity. Even though Jesus did not need to get baptized, he underwent baptism to show the way.

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The Magi Knew the Answer (Epiphany - Cycle C)

The Feast of the Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the Three Wise Men, also known as the Three Kings or the Magi, who traveled a long distance, most likely from Persia, to see the child Jesus. The visit of the Magi has deep theological significance. Jesus was born among the Jewish people and was the fulfillment of the ancient Hebrew prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. However, the Magi recognized that his mission was not just to the people of Israel, but to the whole world. His work of redemption was to be for all of humanity.

When they find the child Jesus, the Magi prostrate themselves before him, which is a sign of worship. Thereby, they recognize Jesus as the true power in the world. They do not reverence Herod, who is the local king, installed by the Roman Empire, which controlled the area. Nor to do the Magi show worship to the Roman Emperor, who was regarded as a divine figure. Persia was outside the control of Roman Empire and the Magi show no sign of bowing before the power and majesty of mighty Rome. Instead, they single out the child Jesus for their obeisance. The true power in the world is not the emperor controlling formidable armies but the child Jesus, who is God Incarnate.

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