Sunday Reflections
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Pharisees have, on the whole, had a bad press, but we have to be careful about blanket condemnation of the group. Nicodemus was a pharisee and Joseph of Arimathea may have been one. Gamaliel (…
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Pharisees should have been very pleased that Jesus had silenced the Saducees (Matt. 22:23-33) who differed with them on the doctrine of the resurrection. However, their anger with Jesus made…
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Pharisees and Herodians were normally antagonistic towards one another but for different reasons they both wanted to trap Jesus. The Pharisees liked to parade their virtue but many of them…
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The late Enda Lyons described Jesus as a self-portrait by God. Who could describe God better than the second person of the Trinity? Jesus had been painting a picture of his heavenly Father in the…
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Once more Jesus uses the image of a vineyard in his parable. It echoes the passage from Isaiah. God had nourished his chosen people as a vine-grower nourishes his vineyard. In Isaiah’s account…
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The image of a vineyard was used very often in both the Old and New Testaments. It described the people of Israel (Luke 13:6-9) doing God’s work (Matthew 20:1-16) or was a metaphor for the…
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus told many parables to describe his heavenly Father. It is all too easy to attribute human qualities to God like those of a stern judge, a tyrannical king or a teacher assigning grades. Much…
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Peter probably thought he was being very generous in suggesting to Jesus that he might forgive his brother seven times. Rabbinical teaching had required only three times. Forgiveness, however, was…
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ezekiel was one of the major prophets. He lived in the sixth century BC and was a priest who was attached to the temple staff in Jerusalem. He was taken into captivity by the Babylonians when…
Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus is beginning to prepare his disciples for his coming death. He must have known that his challenges to the establishment of the day would bring this about. As we see constantly in our present…