Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: Luke 1: 1-4, 4:1 4-21

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Saint Luke was a physician. Anyone who’s a doctor understands a special part of Luke’s heart and history.

They understand the pressure he felt – how much people depended upon him, as well as the joy he’d experience from saving a life one day, or the sorrow of losing a life the next.

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We who are baptized can share a deeper dimension of Luke’s heart by empathizing with Luke the believer, the disciple, the physician of souls. His love for medicine was transformed by his passion for the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught Luke that, no matter how bleak life may seem, it can never be lost again. Even in the face of death, the resurrection dawns.

While Luke may have continued practicing medicine after Pentecost, we can be sure that part of his “in-take” was asking each patient if he or she had heard the Good News and was baptized.

His desire to heal people never changed; it deepened. Instead of just recommending herbs, spices, or hot compresses, Luke would also quote the words of the Lord while ministering to the sick and suffering:

 “Do not be afraid. I have overcome the world.”

“Why are you weeping?”

“Rise and sin no more.”

Luke’s medicine became Gospel medicine, often applied through the power of words. Beneath those words was the Person of Jesus Christ, who did the deeper healing.

This is how the ministry of our Lord continues to this day, through the power of speech. Whenever we speak the words of scripture, Christ comes to life. For example, it’s Christ who says through the priest:

“This is my Body… This is my Blood.”

“I baptize you.”

“I absolve you.”

Not me, but him.

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Jesus inaugurates his public ministry the same way in Luke’s Gospel, using the power of speech.

Immediately after being baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit drives the Lord into the desert, where he’s tempted by Satan for forty days and forty nights.

After overcoming each of these initial temptations, the Lord is ready to begin his ministry. So, he returns home to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he studied the scriptures as a boy. 

Asking the attendant to hand him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus unrolls it and locates the passage where Isaiah foresaw a Jubilee Year, an appointed time when:

Debts would be forgiven; captives would be set free; the blind would see; and the lame would walk. 

Then Jesus makes a bombshell announcement. Speaking publicly for the first time in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says, “TODAY this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

With one word, an 800-year-old prophecy comes to life. Everything Isaiah foresees, Christ will do in his ministry, revealing his identity as the Messiah.

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Ironically, Christ’s listeners take offense at the idea that the anticipation is over; that God’s Word is fulfilled in their hearing; that the scriptures have come to life in their presence.

They are not offended by the well-worn words of hope from Isaiah. They’re upset by the idea that the time for healing and repentance is now. 

And God’s appointed servant sent to inaugurate this age of peace and reconciliation is Jesus, the familiar, bone-and-flesh son of Mary and Joseph, a nobody carpenter from Nazareth.

How could it be, they wonder, that in the Old Testament no one could see the face of God and live…yet, somehow, this man claims to be filled with God’s Spirit! How can Jesus be the Messiah, the Son of God?

To the locals who know him well, it sounds preposterous. But the rejection Jesus experiences in the synagogue is a small taste of the larger rejection to come.

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Like the locals from Nazareth, how often are we reluctant to embrace the idea of Jesus coming to us through his Word, the Sacraments, or a friend, saying to us what he said to them, “today”?

We all want to be healed, to grow in faith and holiness, to leave poor or destructive habits behind, and to follow the path of love, but somehow real change often sounds better tomorrow than it does today. 

Yet the Psalmist proclaims, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.”

What might the Lord be saying to us? Is God inviting us to leave something behind? To try something new? To take a leap of faith? Or to change in some way?

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Saint Luke uses one word to set the Lord’s ministry in motion: today.

It might be the same word God is saying to us:

Do whatever he tells you.

Not tomorrow.

Today.

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Image credits: (1) The Fight of Faith (2) FreePik (3) Prodos Games

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Gospel: Mark 3: 13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted
and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There are an estimated 225,000 Catholic parishes around the world today. Along with 1.4 billion Catholics, 650,000 religious, 5,000 bishops, 400,000 priests, 50,000 deacons, and 1 pope.

The work of the Catholic Church in terms of charity, outreach, and evangelization is mind-boggling. No other institution in human history has made such a positive difference in the lives of ordinary people – the sick, the poor, the hungry, those seeking Truth – than we have. 

While this religious institution founded by Christ is far from perfect, it has also changed the lives of billions of people for the better.  

Certainly, mine.

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What’s fascinating about the growth of the Church throughout history is the fact that it began with 12 ordinary disciples, whom Jesus calls in today’s Gospel. They weren’t highly educated or wealthy, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

After Pentecost, the Lord sent them out to share the Good News of salvation in what was – and remains – a hostile world.

The Apostles had no TikTok, no Facebook, no media outlets to use. No way of sharing their message instantly, or documenting miracles for hundreds of millions of people to see. 

But they had courage, grit, an unshakeable love for Christ, and a message worth dying for: Jesus has been raised from the dead! Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

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Perhaps two important truths can be distilled for us today.

First, Christianity began with a group. Christians have always understood themselves to be part of the Body of Christ on earth. There are no renegades; we’re in this together.

Secondly, this Body of Christ is diverse. The band of the Apostles was a microcosm of how diverse the Church is – and should be – today. 

For example, there was Simon the Zealot, a fiery nationalist, and Matthew the Tax Collector, who was seen as being in cahoots with Rome.

These men were as different as different could be, yet they worked together because they were drawn to a higher ideal – the salvation of souls. 

It’s that same sense of teamwork – and strength in diversity – that will fuel the Church’s growth today.

1.4 billion Catholics.

What might be your contribution to this human, yet divine, Body today?

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Image credits: (1) Vocation of the Apostles, Domenico Ghirlandaio (2) Shutterstock (3) Go Make a Difference, YouTube

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Gospel: Mark 3: 7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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We’re at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, yet he already gives the impression of Jesus’ public ministry going global.

People are coming from the north, south, east, and west, at least from 100 miles away. His fame and popularity only grow from here.

In fact, the crowds are so large that Jesus has his disciples prepare a boat for him in the event that he must escape a stampede.

His power to cure stands in stark contrast to the frailty of his human nature, which threatens being crushed by a mob of people desperate to touch him.

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One of the greatest miracles of Jesus’ public ministry is the fact that he stays alive as long as he did. 

There was not only the threat of being swallowed up in a stampede, but also the sinister plans of the religious authorities, who are already plotting his death. 

Worst of all, there’s the threat of being misunderstood by the crowds.

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Notice it’s the demons who first recognize Jesus as, “the Son of God.”

This was a term used often enough in the ancient world. For example, Roman Emperors considered themselves to be “sons of God,” as did Egyptian kings. 

There were enough Jewish nationalists at that time that, if rumors spread about Christ being an earthly king like the Romans or Egyptians, then riots could erupt throughout Galilee as people would fight for Jewish freedom.

Such a stunning misunderstanding of Christ’s ministry would evaporate his momentum, ruining the entire purpose of his incarnation.

This is why Jesus quiets the demons, forcing them into silence. What he needs more than anything is privacy with his disciples to teach them about who he really is. 

They, too, are harboring hopes of him being a political savior – a hope that lingers all the way to his crucifixion.

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Misunderstandings of God, Jesus, even the Church he founded upon the rock of Peter, continue to this day. 

God is neither a distant figure uninterested in the world he created, nor a divine vending machine, willing to give us anything we want.

God is a loving Father who sent his Son to wash away our sins so that we might live with him – not here – but forever in his kingdom.

May we follow him, each in our own way, today.

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Image credits: (1) Strengthened by Grace (2) Bible Gateway (3) Centered on Christ – Substack