Friar Daily Reflection
Jesus and God
In today’s first reading from Colossians Paul is probably quoting from a very early Christian hymn. This hymn sings and teaches us about Jesus and therefore about the one true God. First, we hear that “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God.” From the Greek...
Deep Water
The life of professional fishermen does not change much. There is the repetitive flow of the seasons and the work of casting nets, repairing nets, and hauling fish. Peter, James, and John knew all the secrets of their craft. They knew where, when, and how to cast the...
Preaching, Healing, Prayer, and Then…
It is interesting to see how Jesus started his public ministry. In Luke’s Gospel after his baptism by John and the temptations in the desert, Jesus begins his public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth. He was not accepted there as a prophet nor was his message...
The Day of the Lord
“The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2) - so proclaims our first reading. I have to admit “like a thief in the night” is a disturbing simile. But the point is not the comparison to the Lord and a thief - but it is indeed meant...
Fulfilled in your Hearing
Today our Gospel begins a largely continuous reading from the Gospel of Luke at the weekday masses. Today’s Gospel is often referred to as Jesus’ inaugural or programmatic address. He attends the weekly synagogue service as a good Jew. After the reading of the...
The Heartbreak of John the Baptist
In today’s gospel we heard the well known account of the beheading of John the Baptist. I have to admit, I wonder if John should have played the long game. He didn’t need to call out King Herod. It is not as though Herod was popular with Jewish people. He was thought...
Thanksgiving and Prayer
In today’s first reading we continue with Paul’s First Letter to the Christian Community in the Greek city of Thessalonica. This is probably the first letter that Paul wrote and indeed the earliest written document in the New Testament. This letter was written in...
Weal and Woe
In today’s Gospel Jesus continues to pronounce a sevenfold woe against the scribes and Pharisees: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites….” Today he again accuses them of hypocrisy because they neglect “the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy...
The Inside of Our Cup
Today Jesus starts off by sending “woe” to the hypocritical religious leaders. To me, this saying always seems like a Jesus is sending a curse on them. According to Google and Bing woe means great sorrow, grief, misery, pain, deep distress or lamentation over...
We have even more…
A starting note about language. “Woe to you.” We are conditioned to understand the phrase “Woe to you” as one of condemnation, or at least as a warning of the coming condemnation. The phrase calls to mind the evangelical preacher admonishing the backsliding,...