Friar Daily Reflection
Witnesses
This past September was my US Naval Academy 50th Class Reunion. As part of that celebration, we had a memorial service. My class graduated and commissioned some 900 Naval and Marine Officers, all of whom went on to serve the nation; many of whom served a full career....
Healing and Rejection
What an amazing story in today’s Gospel reading. What a challenge for us all. Jesus crosses to the far side of the Sea of Galilee which at the time was not part of Israel. Jesus goes out into this alien territory full of foreigners and pagans far from the people of...
How it is and will ever be
A new President and Congress in the United States. A truce in Israel and Gaza. A new regime in Syria. War in Ukraine. Political alliances in Europe realigning. Balance of power, geopolitical landscape, nations rise and fall, tipping the scales. This is how it is and...
Light and Future
The combination of these two very short parables is absolutely astounding. With these two simple, succinct teachings, Jesus outlines for us our mission as Christians and our future before God. Both of these teachings come with an added injunction from Jesus to pay...
Generosity and Persistence
In the traditional understanding of the parable of “The Sower and Seed,” the focus is often on the soil as a description of our hearts, of our openness to the word of God being sown into our lives. The soil/heart is described as a well-trod path, rocky ground, a...
Blasphemy
In today’s Gospel some of the Jewish scribes demonize Jesus. They accuse him of being in league with the devil. They cannot deny that Jesus has been performing healings and exorcisms, so they claim that he is able to do this not by the power of the Spirit but by the...
Love
Jesus spent a lot of time talking about love, especially in the Gospel of John. His actions, healings, meetings, and miracles are aimed at showing God’s love. So, when he is not talking about love, he is acting on love and showing us love in action. Even though we...
Our High Priest
In today’s first reading from Hebrews, we hear that Jesus is our high priest. The reading proclaims that Jesus is our heavenly high priest: “It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the...
Is It Lawful?
Jesus puts a key question to the Pharisees and to all of us in today’s Gospel: “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Some Pharisees have a rather strict interpretation of the Sabbath Law. Some are...
The Law
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...