Dear sisters and brothers, Jesus employs very strong words in the Gospel today. We are called to repentance. We must break free from our slavery to sins and seek to do good. Jesus is very clear with us: if we do no repent, we shall perish. The Book of Exodus recounts for us the encounter [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, What would you do if you witnessed a phenomenon in the heavens such as has been reported at Fatima or Lourdes or Medjegorie? Would you fall down on your knees? Or would you turn away in disbelief? Even skeptics are often mesmerized by what they cannot explain. We profess faith in [...]
My sisters and brothers in the Lord, Can you remember the last time you struggled to successfully complete a task at home, at work, or at school? Do you remember the relief that you felt when it was done, particularly to the satisfaction of a spouse, parent, boss, or teacher? The hours of work, perhaps [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, Just as an orchard is judged by the quality of its fruit, so a person’s talk shows what kind of person he is. (First Reading) This links with what Jesus says in the Gospel: ‘A tree is known by its fruit…the words of the mouth flow out of what fills the [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, Jesus says, ‘Be compassionate---Do not judge---Do not condemn—Treat others as you would like them to treat you.’ These words are taken from today’s Gospel. How many of us could say that we treat others in this way? (pause) The Lord himself shows us the way. Because of the great success on [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, Compared to the majority of people in the world, most of us who are reading this are relatively rich. We rarely, if ever, experience involuntary hunger or serious maltreatment by others. Hearing Jesus's "woes" for the rich, full, and respected, then, may be a little unnerving. It should be! His stark [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, The first Reading tells of the call of Isaiah to the ministry of prophecy. In a vision in the Temple God reveals himself to Isaiah as the All-holy One. The vision evokes in Isaiah a sense of his own sinfulness. But then, cleansed of his sin, he responds without hesitation to [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, Like so many prophets before and after him, Jesus was rejected by his own people. They couldn’t take the truth he was telling them. Let us reflect for a moment on the fact that we too have no great appetite for the truth, and often reject the messengers God sends us. [...]
Dear sisters and brothers, The challenge for all of us is to hear the Gospel as though it were new every day. We get so used to hearing the stories about Jesus and the Gospel narratives that we can block them out from having any new meaning in our lives. It is almost as if [...]
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, The first reading comes from the so-called Third Isaiah and is essentially an oracle of salvation. It consists of a prophetic promise of deliverance developed through the use of marriage imagery. In the earlier part of the book, Isaiah spoke about the nearly unredeemable relationship between the people [...]
