Sunday Gospel Reflections

‘Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.' Then Judas,
 his betrayer, said in reply, ‘Surely it is not I, Rabbi?’ (Matthew 26:24-25). Two awed apostles, two different…

‘What you are going to do, do quickly.’ (John 13:27) Humans instinctively seek to preserve their lives. We marvel and give honors to persons who put their life in jeopardy to save another. Jesus steps out of the very human pattern of…

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. (John 12:3) Many years ago, I remember passing a florist shop and thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great to give…

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. I will multiply them and put my sanctuary among them forever. (Ezekiel 37:26) On the floor at the rear of a church in San Salvador is a plaque…

'Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.' (Matthew 26:41) We are beginning the most spiritually moving and powerful week of the Church year. To me, this week has always felt different. During the rest of the year, we are fully…

Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. (Psalm 18:3) Spiritual combats are a certainty of life. We skirmish with disenchantment, discouragement, and darkness; battle with our desires for prestige, popularity, and power; and may even wage…

Both Abraham and Jesus stepped out in faith when God called. Abraham left his homeland and everything that was familiar, trusting that God would bring him safely to his journey’s end, wherever that might be. In the Garden of Gethsemane,…

'Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.' (Numbers 21:7) “Sister,” blurted frustrated 10-year-old Marion during language arts, “sometimes I get so mad life kinda chokes me.” Like young Marion and the Israelites, we all have personal…

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me. (Psalm 23:4) In 2004, a controversy arose in the Indiana community I covered as a newspaper reporter…

Like a trusting lamb led to slaughter. (Jeremiah 11:19) Unfortunately, I have known some people who have had their trust in others shaken to its core: a married woman with an infant is left by her spouse and left with no income; a child is…