Friar Daily Reflection
More than Remembering
The connection between the first reading and the Gospel becomes much deeper when we notice how the Servant imagery in Isaiah quietly anticipates the way Jesus speaks about Himself in John’s Gospel. I think the two connections are especially striking. Isaiah 49 belongs...
Missionary Zeal
For the first three hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus, the Christian faith spread across the Mediterranean through the missionary work of the first apostles and disciples. The Christian communities at that time were generally small and often persecuted up...
Signs and Wonders
In John’s Gospel Jesus performs signs and wonders, also called extraordinary deeds or miracles in the other Gospels. These signs lead to faith but ultimately faith comes through an encounter with Jesus and looking beyond these signs and wonders. Jesus in John’s...
Forgive One Another
The readings today go right to the core of Christian life: forgiveness. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus repeats the centrality of forgiveness – in teachings, parables, and conversations with his disciples. Today we see how Jesus even puts forgiveness into the Our Father,...
The Finger of God
God is in our midst but sometimes we refuse to listen to him and refuse to see his hand at work. This is the message of the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading and the message of Jesus in our Gospel. In today’s Gospel Jesus is doing an extraordinary deed, he is...
Old and New
Today we listen to another portion of the Sermon on the Mount which is the central core of Jesus’ project for human beings. Tradition was extremely important for the Jewish people and rabbis of that time. Each rabbi taught exactly what he had received from his...
The Bulwark
We should certainly hear an echo of the Lord’s Prayer in today’s gospel: ““Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” The mention of “forgiveness”...
Prophet
In today’s Gospel Jesus recognizes that is it hard for a prophet to be recognized in his hometown. “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Even when the people of Jesus’ hometown recognized his wisdom and the “extraordinary” healings he...
Rejection
In today’s Gospel Jesus both quotes a Scripture text from the Psalms and alludes to a passage in the prophet Isaiah. Jesus quotes Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our...
Lazarus and Conversion
This year Pope Leo in his annual message for Lent invites us to listen and fast through Lent. He connects those two practices. It is so easy for us to walk through life blind and deaf to everything that is going on around us and concentrate on our own needs. Fasting...