Sunday Reflections
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus had probably shocked his disciples by the severe warnings about leading others astray and by his insistence that there was no limit to forgiveness (Luke 17:1-4). The disciples reacted by…
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lazarus is the only character with a name in Jesus’ parables. Lazarus is the Greek version of the Hebrew "Eleazar", which means “God will help”. The rich man is sometime referred to as Dives. This…
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s parable is very strange, because the steward is praised for his shrewdness in acting dishonestly. How could Jesus praise sinfulness? His audience would have consisted of pharisees as well…
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The story of the prodigal son must be one of the best-loved that Jesus told. We know it so well and yet, as our lives unfold, we can gain new insights. In the first reading, the God of the Old…
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
The images Jesus chose for his teaching were very powerful. A tower is a very striking feature in a landscape. The picture above shows a church in Hamburg, which was left as it was after being…
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus seemed to have really enjoyed having meals with people. “Companion” literally means “bread fellow”, someone with whom you share bread. It implies an intimacy. Our Lord would use that image…
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Jews were the chosen people and because of this some of them felt sure of salvation. The Pharisee in the parable felt so pleased with himself that his prayer consisted of giving God a list of…
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fire was often used as a symbol of God’s presence in the Old Testament. Moses saw a bush burning without being consumed, and had his first encounter with God (Exodus 3). The message of God…
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Life in the west is very different to that of Jesus’s time. Only very rich people have servants. In first-century Palestine, however, many people would have been employed either as servants or -…
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Greed and its futility seem to be the theme of today’s liturgy. Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books of the bible, and the extract for today points out that all worldly gain, though it may be…