Friar Daily Reflection
On Living Waters
Part of the baptismal ceremony for infants is the blessing of the waters of the sacrament. It is a wonderful blessing that tells the history of salvation through the story of the living waters. It is a panorama of events from Sacred Scripture: At the very dawn of...
New Heavens and Earth
It has been said that a prophet is someone who “comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.” This saying describes well both Isaiah in our first reading and Jesus in today’s Gospel. Isaiah “comforts the disturbed,” Israel suffering in Exile in Babylon. The...
Commanding Love
The scribe's question in our gospel from St. Mark about the greatest commandment was not posed “to test” Jesus as is done in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. The question is, in fact, a familiar one from Jewish tradition: “Is there a way of summarizing the commandments?”...
The Voice of God
The prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading calls us to hear the Voice of God. Jeremiah becomes God’s mouthpiece, speaking the very words of God: “Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.” Today’s reading is taken from Jeremiah’s...
Hope
The Word of God in the Old Testament continually proclaimed the coming of the Messiah who would re-establish a right relationship between God and all creation. Many in Israel chose to live out their relationship with God as a simple completion of the rules and rituals...
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”...
Prophets
Who are the true prophets and what does a prophet do? True prophets are those who speak the word of God. Both Elisha in today’s first reading and Jesus in today’s Gospel are prophets. Elisha speaks not his own words but the words and message of God. Jesus not only...
Rejection
Both of today’s readings tell the story of rejection. In the first reading from Genesis, Joseph is rejected by his other brothers. His brothers “hated him” out of jealously because his father loved “Joseph best out of all his sons, for he was the child of his old...
Trust
Today’s readings are all about trust. Whom or what do we and should we trust? The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah challenges us to trust not in human beings but in the Lord. The prophet pictures those who trust in the Lord as trees, “planted beside the...
Disturbed
I am a bit troubled by today’s readings. The gospel is this uncomfortable sequence in which Jesus, for the third time, has told his disciples “Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to...