Today's Scripture I am probably going to make a bunch of you mad today. A very popular piece of prose hanging in people’s homes is the ‘footprints’ poem. In it, the author talks about looking back on their lives and seeing two sets of footprints, but only one in difficult times. God then says that ‘it was then that I carried you’. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when God carries us, but Jesus describes a different way in which he helps us through the difficult times.

Today's Scripture We encounter something in today's Gospel called the Messianic Secret. After healing two blind men, Jesus warns them sternly: "see that no one knows about this." Then they go and tell everyone. I never considered that perhaps when instructing two blind men to 'see' that no one knows, you might expect less than stellar results. They had no idea how to 'see' anything. When considering Jesus' desire to keep His identity a secret, we can rightfully think of the r

Today's Scripture I am an avid DIY'er and have done many projects on my home and in the homes of others. In my mind there is an important dividing line in home projects: new work or old work. As I thought about today's scripture this difference came to mind in a very practical and real sense. I am actually going to first address the easy one: new work. New work is building something from scratch, new materials, a plan from the ground up - laid out just the way we want it to g

Today's Scripture I am going to apologize now for what I am about to do this Advent. I am going to continue to hammer home the point that Christian hope is not wishing, or desiring - it is expecting! It is why the image of Mary carrying Jesus in her womb is such a powerful example. When a young woman is with child, we don't say 'she is hoping to have a baby', we say she is 'expecting'. What God promises for us is not something for us to wish for, but something that we can exp

Today's Scripture My youngest daughter has been involved in Theatre for many years, and I have seen her spend time memorizing lines, practicing her delivery, even working on an accent or two. But if I'm honest, these rehearsals at home, this lengthy period or preparation and memorization is pretty far removed from the real thing. When I attend the play or the musical, I recognize the lines, but it is a whole different story playing out before me. In our Christian thinking, h

Today's Scripture What many casual readers of the Bible likely don’t realize is the amount of scrutiny that has been applied to every single chapter and verse in the Bible. Thousands of books have been written on each of the Gospels and even sometimes a chapter or two. Today’s Gospel is not only a passage that has received much attention, but it is also memorialized in a much more pivotal way: It is at the very center of the Catholic Liturgy: It has the pivotal words that w

Today's Scripture On the wall in my office, I used to have a framed piece of paper with this saying: A Grateful Life is a Great Full Life. I have tried to live it every day - some days better than others. I think that in today's Gospel, Jesus is sharing this message in a much more profound way. There is plenty to say about this whole Gospel, the nine other lepers, why did one foreigner come back, etc., but today I want to focus on two things "And one of them, realizing he had

Today's Scripture In today's Gospel, the apostles and the other followers of Jesus want to know when all of the chaos will happen. On top of that, they want to know what sign will tell them that it is time for these things to occur. The question that came to my mind was this: Why? Why do they want to know? What will they do with that information? In the early Christian church it was common for people to delay being baptized until the last possible moment. The reasoning: they

Today's Scripture The story of the Widow's Mite, or the Widow's Offering appears in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Uncharacteristically, Mark actually gives the event a longer treatment than Luke. Mark adds 'Many rich people came and put in large sums'. It occurred to me that the giving was not as discreet as it is today. If you put a check in the basket, no-one knows how much it is for. If you have a contribution envelope, it could have 5 or $500 and no-one knows. This i

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112125.cfm The Mediterranean world in the first century could be a noisy place. Markets always included people haggling, even arguing. The culture was one of open confrontation where loud challenge and riposte was not uncommon. It could be hard to find a place of quiet. Well, I guess the times they aren't a changing. As a place of community gathering, our churches can certainly be a place that is abuzz with good, healthy greeting and con

Today's Scripture Sometimes we might be tempted to want to know what the future holds, how things will turn out. This is even romanticized in movies (think Back to the Future). All of the movies about time travel and/or knowing the future begin to uncover an issue with knowing the future - what if it's not pleasant? Jesus seems to have a pretty good grasp on what will happen in the future, even if we're not sure when this started for Him. He knows He will be crucified and

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111925.cfm We all treasure something, don't we? There are things that we truly love and are truly devoted to in our lives. We act and react intuitively to seek, gain and protect these things (or people). Family, friends, job, our home, possessions, hobbies - the list is lengthy. It's good for us to take the time to ponder what we, without any provocation, seek and do and protect. There was one realization that really changed how I looked

Today's Scripture Here's the question: In today's Gospel reading, Jesus and Zaccheus meet and seem to instantly form a friendship. Who made the first move toward this friendship? Well, it seems obvious that Jesus first calls out to Zacchaeus, right? What always amazes me is that Jesus already knows his name. Perhaps Zachaeus was somewhat famous, or infamous? Maybe Jesus knew because well, He's Jesus. While it almost seems like Jesus had an intention to meet Zacchaeus, the Go

Today's Scripture One of the most ancient Christian practices is one that requires us to put ourselves within the context of the scriptures. The idea is that the Word of God is not static type on a page, but living and effective. This practice is called Lectio Divina and today’s Gospel is one that I love to use with people who are new to the practice of Lectio Divina because it provides a tangible, reachable example. I would love to share this with you today. There are four

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111325.cfm The Kingdom of God is among you. Sure it is. Jesus is certainly talking about somewhere else, right? He hasn't been at my workplace, has He? Has He seen the chaos at my family gatherings? Does He know about the vitriol being spewed back and forth on my phone each day? He must have been talking about the neighborhood that He was in at that time, right? Yes, He was. The reason that Jesus is emphatic about the Kingdom of God bein

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111225.cfm The daily challenge placed before us in scripture is to be able to see the thread that weaves the Old and the New Testament together. Today is a day when this might not easily be seen. When that happens, we can be tempted to just say 'Oh Well'. I often think of these days as a challenge issued. In our Original Testament reading from Wisdom, we hear repeatedly that God will judge them harshly because they are in powerful positi

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111125.cfm In our world, we are very used to having bible verses slapped on a poster or t-shirt or internet meme. Usually, they will be paired with an inspiring photo of nature or someone overcoming it (climbing a mountain seems quite popular). These can be great, but often, they cherry pick a particular phrase without considering the whole picture of the bible. In today's Gospel, we get a phrase that you will never see on a poster, meme

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111025.cfm Sometimes, Jesus is perfectly practical. He has a couple of completely logical and direct statements in today’s Gospel. They really center around how we help and support each other in our daily battle. Here’s the first: “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur.” So, we know that we will always be surrounded by things that will tempt us to sin. This observation need not drag us down though. Yes, there will be temptation and

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110825.cfm When I was a kid, my Dad played the piano, and particularly around the holidays we would gather and sing some songs. One of the funny songs my Dad would lead us in was “I aint gonna grieve my Lord no more”. The song, through funny verses, would talk about different ways that would not get you into heaven, for example: you can’t get to heaven, in a limousine, ‘cause the Lord don’t sell, no gasoline.” Or “you can’t get to hea

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110725.cfm Have you ever been caught red-handed? Maybe in a small way (hand in the cookie jar) or maybe in a more significant way. How did you respond? There are many options for response. One is to insist it didn't happen. One is to throw yourself on the mercy of others. One is to admit that something wrong happened and minimize the damage. It is this last option that the subject of today's parable pursues. First off, we have to und