Sunday Reflections
Fourth Sunday of Lent
The society in which Jesus lived seemed to have clearly marked out certain groups of people as sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes being among them. The rest presumably thought themselves free…
Third Sunday of Lent
Two plants appear as symbols in today’s readings. The first is the burning bush, which Moses observed when he was tending the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro. It marked the beginning of his…
Second Sunday of Lent
Peter had proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah in response to his question: “But who do you say that I am?” (Luke 9:20) It was after this that Jesus led the three disciples up the mountain. It is not…
First Sunday of Lent
Even God made man had to face the shadow side of himself. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, talked about shadow being the parts of ourselves that we repress, which then go down into the…
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are nearing the end of what is sometimes known as the “sermon on the plain,” where Luke pictures Jesus coming down from the mountain to sit among his people and to teach them. He uses this…
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
In the first reading, David spared Saul’s life in spite of the fact that Saul intended to kill him. The theme of this story is continued in the teachings of Jesus, who placed great emphasis on the…
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In St Matthew's account of the beatitudes, Jesus preaches from a mountain, which in the bible signifies the nearness of God. In Luke’s account, Jesus descends from the mountain to a level place.…
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s theme is the different ways in which God calls people to his service. Isaiah lived in the eighth century BC. The first reading gives the context of his vision. King Uziah had just died. He…
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God and the Lord has chosen you to be a people of his own possession, out of all the nations that are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)…
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
One of the themes of today’s gospel and Old Testament reading is “return”. In about 536 BC Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Nehemiah, a Jew who had been an…