Naaman's dignity is revealed with the healing waters of the Jordan. Likewise, the ten lepers were reunited with their family and community celebrating their dignity. Can we see a parallel meaning in our baptism? Washing may not have happened in a river, but it is an image of cleansing, an experience that celebrates our dignity.
Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
We see the impossible being done everyday by healthcare workers and laborers on farms and factories, by teachers finding ways to bring forth learning, by innovators and imagineers able to see possibilities never considered before. Without faith, so much remains impossible and untried. With faith, miracles happen because faith opens our eyes to the awe and wonder of what God has done and is doing in our midst.
Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Our Catholic faith teaches us that there are two ways in which we can fall off the wagon – so to speak – on our pilgrimage through life. One is by the deliberate, conscious and willful choices we make to do harm, cause injury, inflict pain by word or thought or action. The other is more subtle, more hidden perhaps, more damaging in the long run – and that is the failure to do something positive where the opportunity presents itself.
Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Christ then sums it all up by saying: “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or be attentive to the one and despise the other.” As followers of Christ we have a wonderful creed. We profess a marvelous faith. What we need to do is line up our lives with what we say we believe.
Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Like the father, the shepherd and the woman in Jesus’ parables, Moses ventures out to bring back what has been lost. It is more than just seeking or offering forgiveness. Moses and the brother’s father do not merely stand and wait for something to happen. They make it happen. They take the action needed for reconciliation
Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
The Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ, fortifies and strengthens us to keep moving forward, pointing us towards the necessary corrections we need to make in our lives when we have taken a wrong turn, when we sin. Scripture functions as the most reliable guidebook for us in keeping our commitment to dying to Christ over self.
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
In the Old Testament, a prophet (in Hebrew, nabi, which suggests “madman”), is one who speaks for another and challenges the community in its unfaithfulness. Called to challenge the community to faithfulness when it has strayed from God’s commands is not a popular message. So the desire to silence the prophet, one way or another, is clear. But the prophet must be faithful to the call no matter what, even if it brings rejection and suffering.
Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
If there is any fear connected with the coming of the Son of Man it will be so for those who have lost sight of the Jesus of the Gospels who welcomed the little children, forgave the adulterous woman and healed the lame and the blind and the deaf. If, however, we have worked to develop a relationship with Jesus during our pilgrimage on earth, we will, indeed, be prepared for his coming again, which will remove all fear forever.
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
"How much is enough? By the world’s standards there are never enough material items. For the man in the Gospel today we can see that there was never enough in material wealth. As Qoheleth says in the first reading it is all Vanity. To think we can find happiness in material things alone and in our ability to accumulate is pure vanity. What he was missing was the only thing that can fill us up: the presence of God."
Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
No one can blame Martha for what she chose, yet what Mary chose is different, is better. Martha bore the burden of service that day. What Martha chose is good, yet what Mary chose is better. Again, Augustine: “While what Martha does keeps one busy out of need, what Mary does keeps one sweet out of love.”
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year C
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity • Year C
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity • Year C
The Feast of the Holy Trinity we celebrate today is total mystery and is not clearly explained in the Bible. Our belief has been coined by the early Church based on data from the Sacred Scriptures. Jesus prayed to the Father and promised to send the Holy Spirit; thus revealing the Trinitarian mystery.