In the Gospel passage of today, those who evaluated Jesus remained limited. They did not go beyond human reckonings, affiliation and estimations. Thus they began to consider his place of birth, the social status of his parents and family relations. Since all these are of humble background, they were surprised at what Christ displayed; they…
Month: January 2023
Steadfast Trust – January 31, 2023
We must never lose hope when God is involved. We must persevere in faith and be steadfast in trusting the Lord. The Letter to the Hebrews in the first reading gives us the example of Christ himself, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, was steadfast, and endured…
Power Over Evil – January 30, 2023
Before Jesus came among us, exorcists at the time had the task of learning the names of the demons that possessed people. And through the manifestations of the possessed person they could gleam that it was this particular demon or that demon that was responsible. And so they began to name the demons they thought…
The Beatitudes – January 29, 2023
The beatitudes, which we read in the gospel today, give us a portrait of who the disciple of Jesus must be. They call on us to stand out as different from and opposed to the norms of the frenetic tenor of our society that hinges on materialism and consumerism, and the sheer moral decadence that…
Faith – January 28, 2023
Faith in prayer and in our lives is the message we get from the readings of today. St. Thomas Aquinas, whose memorial we celebrate today, in his reputed hymn to the Holy Eucharist, the Tantum Ergo, says, “Faith will tell us Christ is present when our human senses fail.” In this, we see the nature…
Our Tiny Mustard Seeds – January 27, 2023
In the parables of the seed growing by itself and the mustard seed, which we read in the gospel of today, we see first the nature of the kingdom of God, how it is God’s initiative. And secondly, we see how God himself turns our little efforts into the realization of his manifold will and…
Share the Gift of Faith – January 26, 2023
Saints Timothy and Titus, whose memorial we celebrate today, were close companions and cooperators with Paul in his missionary journeys. In St. Paul’s admonitions to Timothy, as we read in the first reading, we are reminded still of the gift of faith which we received at baptism and the added gifts of the Holy Spirit….
The Conversion of St. Paul – January 25, 2023
The life of St. Paul and the readings of today, considered together, present us a movement of the Christian life that goes from encountering the Lord, to conversion which entails repentance, then to baptism, and to being sent forth to become agents through which the Lord is encountered. And so goes the movement again and…
The Will of God – January 24, 2023
The Letter to the Hebrews in the first reading explains how the new covenant, steeped in the blood and sacrifice of Christ, is an act that expresses the doing of the will of God. Jesus our Lord, the high priest of the new covenant, would not do his will but the will of the Father…
Sins Against the Holy Spirit – January 23, 2023
The sin against the Holy Spirit, as Jesus our Lord says in the gospel, has no forgiveness. This is not because there is a particular sin that is beyond the mercy of God, but because we reject the very mercy of God, we reject the Holy Spirit of God. The sins against the Holy Spirit…
The Light – January 22, 2023
Jesus, in the gospel reading, fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah about the great light that shines in the land of deep darkness, which the prophet mentions as the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. The light, which is Jesus, comes preaching repentance for the kingdom of God and calling the first four disciples to follow him…
Martyrdom – January 21, 2023
‘The blood of martyrs,’ the saying goes, ‘is the seed of Christianity.’ Today Agnes of Rome, whose memorial we celebrate today, is given us as an example of one such martyr. Agnes, a twelve-year-old, would not allow herself to be defiled. In a heroic faith she maintained her virginity and sanctity until death. She follows…
The Evening Chapel 