7th Sunday - C (February 24, 2019)

Way of Life of the Children of the Most High

Luke 6: 27-38

Luke continues his account of Jesus’ teaching of the new world order – the order of God’s world.

The one reason of this new world order is that we are “children of the Most High,” who “himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”

Moreover, Jesus is clear on who should follow his teaching: “you who hear.”

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6th Sunday - C (February 17, 2019)

Blessings and Woes

Luke 6: 17, 20-26

One possible way of dividing or interpreting the blessings and the woes in today’s Gospel is whether they can either lead us to dependence on God or on ourselves.

Wealth, satisfaction, laughter, good reputation are good things.  They become woes when we put our hearts on them or allow ourselves to depend on them, and not on God.  

Sufferings in themselves are never easy.  Yet, they can remind and challenge us to depend on God, who alone is true and lasting happiness. 

 

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5th Sunday - C (February 10, 2019)

“Lord”

Luke 5:1-11

Last Sunday, we heard people of Jesus’ own town rejecting him and his preaching.

Today, a chapter later, a different group of people was so eager to listen to Jesus that they were “pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God.”

Last week, people of Nazareth could not see Jesus beyond who they were familiar with, as “the son of Joseph.”

Today, having listened to Jesus and witnessing his power, Peter falls “at the knees of Jesus” and professes him as “Lord.”  Then, Peter and his friends leave everything to follow Jesus.

What is my attitude when Jesus speaks to me?  Who is Jesus for me?

 

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4th Sunday - C (February 3, 2019)

God’s Gracious Words

Luke 4:21-30

The way the people of Nazareth react indicates that Jesus was much more successful and better received in Capernaum. 

So why would Jesus return to Nazareth?

His mission is to bring God’s salvation to all people, regardless of the people’s attitude towards this gift.

The two prophets Elijah and Elisha foreshadowed this generosity of God.  They shared God’s goodness with foreigners, outcasts, and even an enemy of Israel (in the case of Naaman, the Syrian general).

Jesus came to bring God’s salvation to all of God’s children.

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Third Sunday - C (January 27, 2019)

Certainty of the Message

Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

This Gospel passage offer some points for consideration on our encounter with God’s words and the way we can share God’s words.

-       Today, even more precise, “in your hearing” – the present moment

-       Where we are – even if it is lowly Nazareth [1]

-       The power of the Holy Spirit

-       Jesus’ mission

-       The certainty of the Gospel message: Luke wrote this Gospel to affirm the faith of believers: “so that you may realize the certainty of the message you have received. “ 

It is in this place, today, at this moment of our life that God continues to come and reveal God’s salvation to us.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit is at work to empower us to continue Jesus’ mission.  With the Holy Spirit, at this moment and in this place, regardless of where the place might be, I can proclaim God’s words.

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[1] In Joh’s Gospel, when Philip told Nathanael of the hometown of Jesus, Nathanael responded “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

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2nd Sunday - C (January 20, 2019)

God Is There

John 2: 1-11

“There was a wedding at Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.”

We all know how the party went. 

Besides, in Scripture, marriage and wedding banquets are commonly used as a symbol of the relationship between God and God’s people (as in this week’s First Reading, Isaiah 62: 1-5).  Jesus also used the wedding banquet to preach about heaven. (For example, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” Matthew 22:2).

Looking at marriage in this way, we can even connect the two Sacraments of Marriage and Eucharist. 

God intends for family to be a place of love.  And “God is love” (1 John 4:16).  Therefore, where there is love, there is God.

The Eucharist is Jesus’ gift of love to us.  It is his loving presence with us. 

Consequently, when a family is conscious of the presence of Jesus and the Church in the family, as Jesus, Mary and the disciples were at Cana, when the members of the family strive to love, the family lives the mystery of the Eucharist.  The family becomes the reality of God’s love.  

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Baptism of the Lord - C (January 13, 2019)

You Are My Beloved Child

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

At Jesus’ baptism, the Father confirmed Jesus God’s beloved son.

By becoming human, and by his cross and resurrection, Jesus shares this identity with all humanity.  Peter professed this from the beginning of the Church.  When Peter realized that God had called Cornelius, a gentile, Peter said to Cornelius, his relatives and friends, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.  Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him” (2^nd reading).

God “has grasped” each of us “by the hand.  God “formed” us and has given us a share in Jesus’ mission.  Like Jesus, each child of God is “a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (1^st reading)

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