Sunday Reflections

 Today’s solemnity begins a new year (2019) and this highlights its importance; it is a good way to begin our new year!  Today’s feast is very beautiful but it also gives rise to many important questions for us as modern Catholics and Christians. Let us briefly reflect, in God’s grace and great love, some of these questions so that we may be bearers of God’s light and gifts to all people. 

Unfortunately, our materialistic and consumer society has convinced many that this great Feast that we celebrate is all about giving and receiving gifts.  If we faithfully followed our Advent journey, we re-discovered the true meaning of Christmas – celebrating the great gift of the Father in Jesus his Son, the Saviour of the world.  This gift is for each and every one of us, for our happiness and holiness, for our peace and joy, for our salvation and eternal life with God.  What gift are we offering to the Lord Jesus at his birth?  The greatest gift that Jesus awaits is

We quickly come to the end of this Advent Season. It has gone by so very quickly! Were we (individually and collectively) able to welcome our Coming God whose darlings we are in grace? In this encounter, God does all the work and all we have to do is openly receive! If you and I have been delinquent in this matter, may I suggest a drastic needed solution?

  I have been thinking about waiting in this Advent season.  We wait a great deal.  The other day, I was driving and there was something that was holding up traffic on the highway.  We waited.  We did not know what had happened or for how long we would wait.  But, wait we did.  I tend to drive instead of fly whenever I can.  Why?  I hate the “hurry up and wait” in airports today.  Too much waiting for me!   I am sure that we have all had the experience where we are trying to resolve something on the telephone only to be told to “li

I believe there is a distinction between ‘to hear’ and ‘to listen’.  ‘Hearing’ is a physiological function, whereas ‘listening’ implies that I accept (and follow) that which I hear.  We hear John the Baptist today, but are we willing to listen?  Advent is all about preparing ourselves spiritually to celebrate the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.  The message of John reminds us of the changes, perhaps drastic, that this may require for us to be prepared for December 25.  We need to identify our ‘valleys’, ‘mountains’, ‘hills’ and ‘winding ways’ that keep us from f

With this Advent Season, we the Church move into a new liturgical year, Year C, when most of the Sunday Gospels come from the Gospel of Luke.  As we enter this Advent, we will experience it as going by very fast.  In our age of Future Shock and Technopoly, it will be over even before we even realize it.  We need to plan to use this time of grace well – otherwise it will disappear before we even realize it!

Gerhard Lohfink explains that the concept of the “Son of Man” comes from Daniel 7, where Daniel has a vision of four gigantic beasts rising from the sea. The first beast looks like a winged lion; the second is a bear with three ribs of the creature it is eating hanging from its mouth; the third is a leopard with four heads; and the fourth beast is the most fearsome, trampling everything in its path, with iron teeth and one of its horns containing human eyes.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, our Sunday readings point us to the end of time.  The reading from the Book of Daniel looks forward to an end for those faithful Jews who were persecuted by King Antiochus IV: “They shall live forever” and “shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament.”  Likewise, the reading from the Gospel of Mark reminds those faithful early Christians in Rome who were persecuted  that they “will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory,” who will “gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth

Jesus has show us – by his life, and by his suffering, death and resurrection – what it means to give.  True giving, inspired by Christ is generous and unconditional.  This is not as easy to achieve as it sounds.  Our gospel today invites us to reflect on what kind of giver we are – a grudge giver, a duty giver, or a ‘thanks’ giver.  Just as the widow in the gospel gave all that she had, in complete confidence in God, we are called to be givers who truly give from the heart, giving of ourselves as faithful stewards of God’s abundant gifts. 

Asking Jesus to name the greatest commandment is a trick question, for there were 613 laws (which included both the “written” laws and the “oral” laws).  Since this is the case, any one commandment that Jesus might pick could lead to a debate about what others might see as more important. However, Jesus surprises his questioners by combining a commandment from the Book of Deuteronomy and another from the Book of Leviticus in an answer that impresses his hearers.