I’d like to put the emphasis on today’s first reading, from Isaiah. The beginning of this reading is practical: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near.”
The Gospel today opens with a straight question from Peter. “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how
often should I forgive him?” The answer Jesus offers: Seventy times seven.
We hear a dark message from Jesus today. He is not the sweet Jesus we’ve come to know. He is brutally honest and straightforward: “I am going to Jerusalem to suffer and die.
Not many people are honest enough or brave enough to ask the question in today’s Gospel. Just think about you asking some friend, or perhaps, more courageously some enemy, “Who do you say that I am? What do people think of me?” Or take a step forward and ask yourself, “Who am I?”
We have a dramatic scene in today’s Gospel. Jesus and His disciples are walking along and a woman comes up to them, in hysterics. She is crying with the intensity of a mother whose child needs help. She is not a Jew, but she must have heard of this Wonder Worker who cures people.
On a dark winter night in a small Midwest community, the two-story home of a young family caught fire. The parents and children made their way through the smoke-filled home to the outside.
Today we read the story of the Transfiguration. I often wonder why the Apostles were so surprised by what they saw on that mountain. They discovered - beyond, behind and within - the Man they had known for so long. It was a moment of insight.
Some time ago, a magazine ran a story about a teenager who belongs to the Santa Clara swimming club. Every morning she gets up at 5:30 a.m. to hurry to an outdoor pool for two solid hours of swimming, after which, she goes to school.
When Jesus interpreted the parable of the weeds, He talked about the world with good and evil people. He specified that the task of weeding questionable people out of the community was not part of the disciples’ job description.