In today’s Gospel one of Jesus’ disciples, John, wants to protect his “tuft” and restrict where and how God can work: “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Acting like he is protecting...
Today we begin reading from the Book of Sirach also called Ecclesiasticus. The Jewish author, Jesus ben Sira, was a scribe living in Jerusalem around 117 B.C. His grandson wrote a forward to his work when he translated it from Hebrew into Greek and explained the...
A choice is put before us in today’s Gospel: the way of the cross or the way of earthly honor and glory. Jesus continues in today’s Gospel to teach his disciples that he is to be a suffering Messiah. In yesterday’s Gospel Peter rebuked Jesus for this teaching and...
Beware when you hear someone say: “I have it all figured out, I understand it completely.” I always find that right after I have “mastered” a subject I realize there is much more that I do not know or understand. Peter shows his understanding and his lack of...
Jesus’ words addressed to the Syrophoenician woman in today’s Gospel are very harsh: “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” This woman is a non-Jew, a Gentile. She came to Jesus asking him to...
