FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 15:1-3, 11-32Dear Friends, Today’s parable enjoys the popular name of the Prodigal Son. This title loses much of the drama and message of the parable. It is definitely about three persons. Each character has much to teach us. Luke’s magnificent parable, by whatever name, continues this Lent’s theme...

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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 13:1-9Dear Friends, We begin Lent each year with a clear message, “Repent and believe in the gospel!” After having measured Jesus’ temptations and his Transfiguration in light of our life experience and struggle, we now journey three weeks in Luke’s Gospel on the theme of repentance. Today’s gospel...

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THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Lk 9:28-36Dear Friends, Each Lent, we have the Transfiguration story on the second Sunday. This tantalizing peak at the glorious Christ offers us a challenge to move deeper into the reality of a Suffering Messiah and our own life. We are relentlessly pulled in an opposite direction of the Cross by the...

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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Luke 4:1-12Dear Friends, We began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday with the command, “Repent, and believe in the Good News.” Lent, we need to remember, is a time to enter within, to examine the hidden depths of our heart. As we enter more deeply within, we will find our brokenness but also a real...

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EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:39-45Dear Friends, Today, Luke again addresses the incredibly demanding task of being fair and just with our neighbor. Luke is reminding us of the severe difficulty of honest, healthy and caring relations between human beings. Only with severe difficulty do we really know what is going on inside...

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SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:27-38Dear Friends. Today’s gospel selection offers more of Luke’s challenging message of the Sermon on the Plain. The passage could hardly be more demanding. Turn the other cheek, offer the tunic as well, do not demand the loan to be repaid and respond to a curse with a blessing: all of these commands...

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A JOURNEY OF LOVE

From Contemplative Prayer to Contemplation:Many people of goodwill share a common desire to become more contemplative. This generally means a desire for a deeper spirituality. This move to a more profound level is called for by our pastors and religious leaders, by our friends and spouses and, in our...

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SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:17, 20-26Dear Friends, Luke’s Gospel has a very strong theme of reversal. In his view of salvation, there truly is “Good News” for the poor and marginalized. Likewise, as Mary proclaimed the Magnificat, we read:“He has shown might with his armAnd dispersed the arrogant of mind and heartHe has thrown...

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Luke 5:1-11Dear Friends, In today’s gospel there is a phrase that Jesus uses that is especially pregnant with meaning. When he tells Peter to try again after a futile night’s work where he failed to catch even a few fish, Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4) Peter follows Jesus’ command. ...

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 4:21-30Dear Friends, Today’s gospel passage offers a dramatic turn of events. It is a look back and a plunge into the future. It is hard to grasp the incredibly rapid transformation from “All spoke highly of him.” (Lk 4:22) to they “led him to the brow of the hill…to hurl him down headlong.” (Lk...

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21My Dear Friends in Christ, In today’s gospel passage Luke has us experience Jesus’ message to his townsfolk. They gather in anticipation, and with a bit of apprehension, to encounter this Jesus that was causing a bit of a stir.Luke uses this troubled homecoming to bring us into the...

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Jn 2:1-12Dear Friends,John’s Gospel always is never in short supply of many new variations and unforeseen developments to its message. John is particularly strong in revealing the eternal in the mundane events in Jesus’ activities. Today’s text centers on Mary and Jesus’ intervention in a small crisis...

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THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

Lk 3:15-16, 21-22Dear Friends in Christ, we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. This feast concludes the season of Christmas in the Church Year. The secular message of Christmas is all finished with the special sales in the few days after the 25 th . The Church has a totally different schedule and a...

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THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY

Mt 2:1-12Dear Friends, The Gospel message of the feast is that all peoples are invited to the heavenly banquet. This beautiful manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles is peculiar to the Gospel of Matthew. His community was Jewish and they had become followers of Jesus. They struggled with their identity....

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FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

Lk 2:41-52Dear Friends. It is important to cast off the plastic-statue image of Mary to discover her true beauty in the many trials in her life. She was not walking through life with a pre-arranged script. For her, as for us, life is a long, searching struggle passing through the confusion and brokenness...

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CHRISTMAS REFLECTION

Christmas means He has come to turn the darkness of our night of violence, war, poverty, destruction of our environment, hopelessness and ambiguity into a burning light of freedom, healing, hope and love. Christmas is about the Child that is born among us. It is the celebration of the most consequential...

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Lk 1:39-45Dear Friends, Advent looks at the coming of Christ in two ways. The first is in the completion of the redemptive reality in the Second Coming. The second is recalling the great coming in Christ’s birth. The season of Advent, like every season of the Church Year, invites us into the great mystery...

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THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Zephaniah 3:14-18…Philippians 4:47…Luke 3:10-18Dear Friends,The rose candle in the Advent wreath is a symbol of rejoicing expressed tin today’s readings. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil4:4) We are coming close to the coming of the Lord, the day of salvation....

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Lk 3:1-6Dear Friends, The Advent Season, connecting the end times and the coming of the Lord, addresses the Christian understanding of time. We call it Salvation History.Today’s Gospel heralds the Good News of Jesus coming at a specific time as Luke delineates the political and religious leaders of...

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36Dear Friends, Advent is not primarily a time to prepare for Christmas. The first part of the holy season, up till December 16th, is about the final coming of the Lord, the end of the human venture in its present historical form. The final nine days seek to guide us in celebrating...

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