The telling of this encounter seems straight forward: (a) Jesus encounters a group of lepers on the road to Jerusalem, (b) they ask for his mercy, (c) they are cured, but (d) only one returns to thank Jesus and that one is a Samaritan. A simple miracle story, yes? A narrative about faith as the foundation of healing? Such simple summaries, even if true, miss several key aspects of the encounter and the chance to reflect further on our own life of faith in Jesus.

Take a moment and consider all that Jesus’ parable has to offer.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

Jesus Healing Ten Lepers | James Tissot, 1886 | Brooklyn Museum | PD-US 

This parable is a twin of the parable of the neighbor in need (11:5-8). Both are used to illustrate the importance of persistence in prayer. Both present a person in need persistently pressing a request, and both parables call for reasoning from the lesser to the greater: If a neighbor or an unjust judge will respond to the urgent need and repeated request, then will not God also respond? It is an argument from lesser to the greater by which Jesus affirms the faithfulness of God – He will assuredly act on behalf of the righteous. But it is also about persistence in the face of injustice.

Take a moment and consider all that Jesus’ parable has to offer.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

Братья Белоусовы (Палех), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jesus addressed his parable to “those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.”  In the well known parable of the Pharisee and a Tax Collector in prayer, we are offered two sides of the same coin: prayer and righteousness. The cast includes two very different people from very different circumstances offering very different prayers. There is a lot going on in what seems like a simple story of contrasts.

Take a moment and consider all that Jesus’ parable has to offer.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

The Pharisee and the Publican | Tissot, 1886 | Brooklyn Museum | PD-US

The well known story of Jesus and Zacchaeus is one of the more popular stories that appears in animation and in children’s illustrated Bible story books. There is far more to the story than Zacchaeus climbing in the tree. It is an account that serves as a capstone narrative to the five or six stories that appears in Luke – but not as a Sunday gospel. The fullness of Luke’s account is far more than a children’s narrative.

Take a moment and consider all that Jesus’ parable has to offer.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

Image credit: Zacchaeus | Niels Larsen Stevns (photo: Gunnar Bach Pedersen) | Randers Museum of Art, Randers, Denmark | Public Domain

This week the “Back Porch” takes a different look at All Souls Day. The Church encourages the faithful to pray for the souls of the Faithful Departed, as it is believed that such prayers can aid in their purification process and hasten their entrance into eternal life. That raises the topic of prayers for the dead, purgatory, indulgences and a lot more. The “Detailed Commentary” below walks you through a complete Catholic Understanding of all those topics and more. Hopefully we all come to know this Commemoration as a whole lot more than “fondly remembering” for loved ones.

Take a moment and jump right in.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

All Souls’ Day | Jakub Schikaneder, 1888 | National Gallery Prague | PD-US

The feast celebrates the Lateran Basilica as the “mother church” of Christianity: ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput – of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head. The readings selected for the celebration are Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple and its flowing waters that renew all life and John’s account of Jesus cleansing the Jerusalem Temple. In the first reading it is the world that is cleansed. In the gospel it is the Temple itself. There is a lot going on in these readings.

Take a moment and consider all that Jesus’ parable has to offer.  Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

USCCB, Patron Saints

Jesus has arrived at Jerusalem after last Sunday’s gospel about Resurrection. Here Jesus makes a third prediction of his death – and the Apostles note the splendor of the Temple. Jesus notes that earthly things don’t last – and in apocalyptic language and imagery describes the tumult introducing a age to come. As usual, there is a lot going on.  Take a moment to dive in the Word of God.

Do it from the comfort of your back porch!

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

Flevit super illam (He wept over it) | Enrique Simonet (1892) | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Creative Commons

The Church celebrates Jesus as King of the Universe and then makes sure we understand what kind of King He is. The gospel for Christ the King Sunday is the crucifixion scene from the Gospel of Luke. The King has ascended to his throne – the Cross. He descended from Heaven to be one of us and show us the way home to the Father. Now he ascends to show us the gateway to eternal life for all who would believe into Him.

Take some time on your back porch to ponder the great gift of our Savior.

Full Text of the Sunday Readings
Detailed Commentary

Stained glass window at the Annunciation Melkite Catholic Cathedral in Roslindale, Massachusetts, depicting Christ the King in the regalia of a Byzantine emperor CC-BY-SA 3.0; January 2009 photo by John Stephen Dwyer