Friar Daily Reflection
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...
An interesting intersection
Today is an interesting intersection of national events. President Trump's return to the oval office after four years will begin today with his inauguration. The same day in which we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I have no doubt that pundits, journalists, and...
I Forgive You
The key question in today’s Gospel is about forgiveness and who has the authority and the power to forgive sins. Some of the Jewish scribes maintain: “Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus has just healed a paralytic lowered before him by his four friends:...
Sharing Our Faith Experiences
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...
Flesh and Blood
Jesus is one of us! Our first reading proclaims this perhaps surprising and even shocking message. Jesus, the Son of God, is one of us, our “flesh and blood.” He shared not only the life that every human experiences but also, the death from which no one can...