Natural religiosity is a way of relating to God based on sacrifice, rigid observance of rules, judging others, and external signs of holiness. For many people in Israel their relationship with God had degenerated into the external forms and minimalistic observance of...
Today’s Gospel gives us insight into who Jesus is, the importance for us to maintain faith’ and our mission to announce that faith. In the times of Jesus leprosy was a terrible disease. It brought a physical, spiritual, and social death. The people sick with leprosy...
There is a lot going on in today’s Gospel reading, especially in the background. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus goes to the synagogue at Capernaum which was a city located at a crossroads and was a social, cultural, and economic center. The synagogue...
All this week between the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord, the readings concentrate on who Jesus is. Who is this Prince of Peace, this Christmas Christ Child born rejected, persecuted, and poor in a barn and placed to sleep in a feeding trough for animals? The...
Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love and compassion for all of us. God showed himself to Israel and to us constantly through indirect means: through the council and word of the prophets, judges, or kings; through occurrences in our personal lives or in historical...
