Isaiah 66:10-14; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

There is a theme of rejoicing in the readings for this Sunday, specifically in the first reading and the psalm. Indeed, the first reading includes the beautiful text in Isaiah from which Laetare Sunday in Lent drew its name: "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her!"

The entire first reading is filled with a message of joy and comfort from God to His people. The psalm continues this theme in a context of giving thanksgiving, and above all praise, to God. Throughout the reading and the psalm there is a consciousness that the great deeds God has done for His people ultimately serve the glory of God. This is always something for us to keep in mind, of course: God's gifts are not meant to terminate in my isolated self.

The theme of rejoicing is also picked up in a way in the Gospel, although you may not notice it if you hear only the shorter version of this Gospel at Mass. The shorter version omits the end contained in the longer version, in which the seventy-two disciples whom Jesus sent out at the beginning return to Jesus rejoicing. Jesus affirms that there is great cause for joy, while gently reminding them that they should rejoice primarily not over the power given to them, but at the greater and more fundamental gift they have received: "Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." It is the gift of a place in the kingdom of God that is the most fundamental cause for joy.  Read more »

I Kings 19:16, 19-21; Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62

The first reading and the Gospel this Sunday both present the demands of God's call in seemingly very stark and absolute terms. In the first Book of Kings, Elisha apparently must immediately drop everything, his whole life and family, in order to follow Elijah. In the Gospel, we hear Jesus saying, "Let the dead bury their dead," and telling someone who wishes to stop to say good-bye to his family, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what is left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."

This could be interpreted as something very harsh and unforgiving. However, obviously we know that Jesus precisely brings a message of mercy available to all who repent of their sins, so perhaps this passage should not be taken in the most absolute and literal way possible. A further indication of this is that the Church does not urge us to ignore bonds of human love and family, or reject traditions of respect for the dead. On the contrary, the Church herself enters into and upholds these realities as part of the faithful following of Christ.

Furthermore, in other places in the Gospel it is clear that Jesus felt particular compassion for those suffering loss of their family and loved ones. In particular, we can see in John 11 that Jesus was deeply troubled by the sorrow of Martha and Mary at the death of their brother Lazarus. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus did not warn Martha and Mary against looking to what was left behind. Indeed, Jesus Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus.  Read more »

Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-24; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, on which we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Resurrection is obviously a central event of great joy for all Christians, but it should be noted that initially this was not an experience of unmitigated joy for the disciples of Jesus. In fact, for many of them this seems to have been a time of fear and doubt, because they did not know what was happening. In the Gospel this Easter Sunday it says that Mary Magdalene, finding the tomb empty, reported to Peter and John: "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." Peter and John do not respond "Oh, of course, no one has put Him anywhere, surely He has risen from the dead." Instead, it seems that they can hardly even believe that the tomb is empty, for they rush to see for themselves if her story is accurate. Other Gospel accounts also show evidence of such doubts and misunderstandings among the other disciples. Indeed, we can read in Luke 24:37 (which is part of an alternative Gospel that may be read for some people at afternoon and evening Masses this Sunday) that when Jesus ultimately appeared to His Apostles in a group, "they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost."  Read more »

Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11

In the readings for this Sunday there is a theme of new beginnings brought about by God after times of sin and suffering. In the first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, God tells His people, "Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers." This passage comes from Isaiah 43, which is near the beginning of the second of the two major parts of Isaiah. Up until the fortieth chapter Isaiah is a relatively dark book, dealing primarily with the sins of Israel and their punishments, and with the suffering and exile of the nation in the Babylonian Captivity. The second section of Isaiah, beginning in the fortieth chapter, offers a message of hope and good news of deliverance from exile through God's saving love. Historically some of the prophecies in the second part of Isaiah can be understood as applying to the deliverance of Israel from exile in the Babylonian Captivity, but much of this section has also always been understood as applying above all to the coming of Jesus, who of course ultimately saves Israel from the exile of sin. In particular the famous "Suffering Servant" prophecies in Isaiah, describing one who suffers and dies for the sins of the people, clearly reach their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.  Read more »

Joshua 5:9, 10-12; Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 9; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

This Sunday is traditionally called Laetare Sunday. The priest may wear rose vestments, and flowers may be used to decorate around the altar. It is called Laetare Sunday after the beginning of the old Latin Introit (entrance song) for the Mass on this Sunday: "Laetare, Jerusalem: conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, quia in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae," or, "Rejoice, Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation." This Introit, which is based on Isaiah 66:10-11, offers a message of joy and consolation for Israel after sorrow, and this is the fundamental message of Laetare Sunday.

This Sunday, then, is meant in a special way to be a Sunday of rejoicing. Why? For one thing, it is thought to be helpful for Catholics to have a respite in the middle of Lent, liturgically speaking. Things like rose vestments and flowers are meant to give the liturgy on this day an especially joyful atmosphere, in contrast to the more somber liturgical tone seen during most of Lent. The reason for our joy, of course, is found in looking forward to Easter. Although during the season of Lent we remind ourselves particularly of our sharing in Christ's Passion and death, we also know that the Easter event to which we are looking forward has already occurred. We are sharing in the death of Jesus, but His Resurrection has already happened. Christ is risen, and we are redeemed. This is the foundation on which all Christian joy rests, and we are to reflect on this particularly this Sunday, as a source of encouragement during the penitential season of Lent.  Read more »

Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9

This Sunday I'll focus on the first reading, from the Book of Exodus. In this first reading we hear the story of the call of Moses, with the famous scene of the burning bush, and God revealing His name to Moses. Needless to say, there are a lot of points that could be developed out of this story. Indeed, this is one of the most pivotal moments in Scripture, the beginning of the Exodus, a set of events that is key to an understanding of the whole story of salvation history. After what seemed to be a long period of silence and inaction, God is finally moving to rescue His people. This is truly a dramatic moment.

In the midst of all this drama, however, it is instructive to stop and think about the circumstances here. Moses was tending sheep when he heard the historic call of God. Presumably, up until the point when God called him, this was a day like most of the other days in his life. For that matter, life for the whole Jewish people at the time of Moses was more or less as it had been for a very, very long time, and that means it was miserable. For about four centuries the Israelites had been in captivity in Egypt, where they were forced to do the hardest labor, and the Egyptians had made repeated attempts to slow or stop the growth of the Israelites as a people by killing their infants. Up until the moment when God intervened, there was no reason to think that tomorrow would be any different from yesterday, or next year different from this year. If anything, things might have seemed likely to get worse, as had consistently happened for the Israelites in Egypt for a long time. Then, suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, everything is changed.  Read more »

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Psalm 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 9:28b-36

The first reading and Gospel for this Sunday both show us mysterious scenes involving very direct divine manifestations, and both these stories are important for understanding the relationship of the mission of Jesus to the religious history of Israel before He came. Much could be written on this topic, but here only a few points will be made about these readings, and how they contribute to an understanding of the mission of Jesus.

The scene presented in the first reading might at first appear very mysterious to modern readers, even apart from the fact that God is speaking to Abraham, and showing His presence through the appearance of a fire pot and a torch. What is all this about slaughtering animals? Why would Abraham cut in two a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram? Why would God, represented by the fire pot and torch, pass between the two parts of each animal? It all probably seems rather gruesome and pointless to most of us. However, in this case the events are in a sense far less mysterious than they appear. This ceremony was a known covenant ceremony. Covenants were typically sealed with blood. Also, in this ceremony, walking between the parts of the animals symbolized the commitment of each party to the covenant. The implied statement was something like: "If I am unfaithful to the covenant, let me become like these animals are now." In fact, there is a reference to this aspect of a covenantal ceremony in Jeremiah 34:18-20:  Read more »

Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Psalm 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13

In the Gospel of Luke on this first Sunday of Lent we hear of Jesus' forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert, followed by the devil's efforts to tempt Him. The appropriateness of this reading for the beginning of Lent is obvious. The liturgical season of Lent is meant, among other things, for us in a particular way to imitate these forty days of prayer and fasting by Jesus.

Clearly, Lent is a season of penance. Catholics are required to obey fasting rules and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and to abstain from meat on all the Fridays of Lent as well. In addition, traditionally we offer up some other form of individual penance throughout Lent, such as giving up a favorite type of food or activity. Regardless of what individual penance is chosen, the Church encourages all of us to commit ourselves to prayer and penance in a special way during Lent. But what is the point of all this? Why are we giving up things that are undeniably good? For one thing, of course, when we do penance, we are making reparation for our sins. However, there is more at stake here than just "making up for sins," as it were. We do penance for our own good, to strengthen and raise our own nature to its proper level. The forsaking of specific material goods, at least temporarily, helps us to maintain a right ordering of ourselves towards God and His creation.  Read more »

1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38

The first reading, psalm, and gospel this week all place a heavy emphasis on forgiveness. In the first reading, David has an opportunity to kill Saul, who is leading an army to hunt David down and kill him. From a strictly utilitarian and selfish perspective, killing Saul would seem to be the only rational thing for David to do here. If he does not kill Saul, David has every reason to believe that Saul will continue to hunt him, and David will remain in a life of constant flight from danger, always fearing for his own life. David's companion Abishai is not being completely unreasonable when he urges David to let him run Saul through with a spear. However, David instead spares Saul, and implicitly displays trust that God will protect him from Saul. Afterward, David points out his own mercy to Saul, and says, "The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness."

The Gospel today, from Luke, also deals with forgiveness, and it is a difficult gospel. Love your enemies? Turn the other cheek? Lend expecting nothing back? That doesn't sound so great to me. Honestly, it sounds like a recipe for disaster. Why should Christians just open ourselves up for a lot of mistreatment? First, we have to recognize that Jesus is not exactly commanding his followers to be doormats. Most of what is said here is about two things: doing good even if we do not receive good in return, and not lashing back when we are hurt by others. Neither of these things actually means we are to walk right into persecution if we can avoid it. We are to be sensible, not self-destructive. Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek if a person strikes us, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to stay out of striking distance when we meet the person in the future.  Read more »

Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6 and 40:5a; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26

The first reading, from the prophet Jeremiah, focuses entirely on a comparison between a person "whose heart turns away from the LORD," and a person who trusts in God. This comparison emphasizes the barrenness of the person without faith, and the fruitfulness of the faithful one. However, it also points to an incentive, as it were, to faith: the person of faith "fears not the heat when it comes" and "in the year of drought it shows no distress," because "its leaves stay green" and it "still bears fruit." Trust in the eternal God helps us to overcome the fears that must be our constant companions if we rely entirely on the changing things of this world.

This theme of the prosperity of those who trust in God, and the failure of those who do not, is continued in the responsorial psalm. Here there is further development of what it means to trust in God, or to turn one's heart away from Him. We are told not only "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord," but also "Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night." In other words, faith and hope are demonstrated primarily through one's adherence to the law. The man who hopes in the Lord is contrasted here not merely with the person who does not trust in the Lord, but with sinners and the wicked. Faith and hope are only perfected in the person who knows, follows, and delights in the law. Since the moral law at its most basic calls us to love God and our neighbor, this shows us one of the most basic connections between faith and hope and love.  Read more »

Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8; Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

There is a commmon thread running through the readings for this Sunday concerning the concept of divine calling and grace, of sinful human beings being chosen and elevated by grace to respond to a call from God. In the first reading we hear of the calling of Isaiah to his prophetic mission. Notice that the immediate response of Isaiah to the presence of God is a protestation of fear and unworthiness: "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Isaiah's fear is hardly to be wondered at, since in his account (although this line is left out of the reading) he observes that the seraphim, the angels themselves, were veiling their faces and feet with their wings. However, an angel says to him, after touching an ember to the lips of Isaiah: "Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." Generally speaking in the Old Testament, when something that was clean came in contact with something that was unclean, the clean thing became unclean, not the other way around. However, here we see that through coming in contact with God Isaiah is said to be made clean, and once he is told this he offers himself in response to the call of God.  Read more »

Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14 (Luke 8:8); Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

In the readings for this Sunday we hear a great deal about seeds, and sowing, and growth. In the first reading, God speaks of the word which will give "seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats" and "shall not return to me void." The responsorial psalm also speaks of the preparation of land, fostering of plants, and an abundant harvest. The response, "The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest," is from the parable of the sower in the Gospel of Luke.  Read more »

Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30

A couple of different points about the human relationship with God occur to me from the Gospel for this Sunday. First, Jesus prays "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones." This is an interesting insight into the attitude human persons should have if we want to be able to receive fruitfully revelation from God, above all of course God's ultimate self-revelation in Jesus Christ. God reveals these things to "little ones" (some other translations give "children" or even "infants"). We are reminded here then, as can be seen in other passages from Scripture, that we are to have a childlike disposition towards God.  Read more »

2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Psalm 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

In the first reading and the Gospel this Sunday there is a theme of receiving servants of God. In the first reading, the woman of Shunem shows hospitality to the prophet Elisha specifically because he is "a holy man of God." In fact, the woman goes well beyond the ordinary requirements of hospitality, setting up a permanent guest room specifically for Elisha to use when he passes through town. When Elisha sees this, he wants to do something for the woman, and upon hearing that she has no son, he promises her a son in the next year.  Read more »

Hosea 6:3-6; Psalm 50:1, 8, 12-13, 14-15, 23b; Romans 4:18-25; Matthew 9:9-13

The readings for this Sunday focus tightly on the question of what God looks for from us, of what things in us are pleasing to God. At the end of the first reading, God tells the Israelites "it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts." First of all then, God wants us to know and love Him. Later Jesus refers to this theme again at the end of the Gospel for this Sunday, but the theme is also emphasized immediately after the first reading in the responsorial psalm.  Read more »

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; I Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58

This Sunday is the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, and there is a Eucharistic theme in the readings today. In the first reading, Moses reminds the Israelites of the manna with which God fed them when they were hungry in the desert. In a way, feelings of hunger such as those felt by the Israelites are a good thing, because they alert human beings to a real need for nourishment. Far more so are feelings of emptiness and spiritual hunger which we may experience without God a true blessing, because they alert us to a need for God, which only God can fill, and which God does miraculously fill when we receive the gift of Jesus in His full divinity and humanity in the Eucharist. Apart from God life is a desert, and only if God is with us can the desert be made fruitful. When Jesus came to sacrifice Himself for us, and gave us Himself in the Eucharist, He truly gave us "a food unknown to you and your fathers," a food that could never have existed without His infinite generosity. In Moses' speech here in Deuteronomy, we find already language that is almost more accurate in foreshadowing the Eucharist than in referring to manna. Moses tells the people that the Lord gave them this food "in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord." Jesus, of course, is the Word of God, and we live by Him, not by bread alone, even though we receive him under the appearance of bread.  Read more »

Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 or 21:1-14

In the Gospel for this Sunday, we see Peter and some of the other disciples in an encounter with Jesus after His resurrection. They had been fishing during the night, with no success, but when Jesus came at dawn and told them to lower their nets again, on the right side of their boat, they followed his instructions and caught so many fish that they were unable to haul the net into the boat, but brought it ashore. This is just one of many instances in the Gospels in which we see that remarkable results can flow from following Christ even in small and simple ways. In every area of life, the only real measure of whether we are on the road to success is whether we are obeying Jesus Christ. Because we are flawed human beings, it is easy for us to forget this principle, even in the things that are most central to our Faith.  Read more »