6th Sunday - C (February 13, 2022)

 

Hunger for Jesus

Luke 6: 17. 20-26

 

St. Luke lets us know that the crowd of people who came to listen to Jesus kept growing in numbers and in their hunger for his teaching and healing. 

 

Two Sundays ago, Jesus was preaching in the synagogue of his home village of Nazareth.  Their reception went from curiosity to fury at him.   Last week, he was on the lakeside in Capernaum.  He needed to preach from a boat because the crowd was bigger and they were “pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God.” 

 

Today, “A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases”  (6: 17-18, v. 18 is not included in the passage used in Church).

 

More and more people were coming to be with Jesus, to listen to him, and to be healed by him.

 

Does my hunger and desire for Jesus grow with time?

 

 

 

5th Sunday - C (February 6, 2022)

 

They Followed Jesus

Luke 5: 1-11

 

Responding to Jesus, Simon said, “We have worked hard all night…, but at your command, I will lower the nets.”

 

Still, later in the passage, Jesus said, “from now on, you will be catching men.”  Simon now did even more.  At Jesus’ words, he and his friends, “left everything and followed him.”

 

Incredible faith!  Simon put his faith in the words of Jesus, which is the strong kind of faith. 

 

One can argue that Simon had witnessed Jesus’ power.  Nevertheless, he did not know what the future would hold.  Still, he followed Jesus.

 

How about me?

 

 

PS.  Today, World Day for Consecrated Life is observed in parishes.  Please pray for priests, brothers, sisters, lay consecrated people, and those God continues to call to follow Jesus in this way of life.  

 

Image source: www.agnusday.org

 

4th Sunday - C (January 30, 2022)

 

My Attitude toward God’s Gift

Luke 4: 21-30

 

The people of Nazareth “all spoke highly of” Jesus and “were amazed at his gracious words.”

 

The word “gracious” of course has the same root with “grace,” which refers to God’s free gift.

 

But the people did not seem to recognize that Jesus’ words are a gift.  They were not content.  They demanded Jesus to do more for them.

 

In our relationship with God, it is easy not to be grateful, to have a sense of entitlement, and to demand more from God.  We all can, and many probably have done that.  I want more.  I want you, God, to do this, or that for me.

 

Not receiving what they demanded, the people turned on Jesus. 

 

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus will never come back to Nazareth. 

 

Let’s this be our warning. 

 

Moreover, later on in this Chapter, Jesus moved on to other places to preach there also (4: 42-43).

 

God’s Good News is a grace.  We must always accept it with humble gratitude.  And it is not for us to keep.  God gives it to use to save us, and to share it with others, particularly the outsiders like Naaman, and the people who are poor and outcasts, like the widows in Zarephath.

 

Image source: www.agnusday.org

3rd Sunday - C, Sunday of the Word of God (January 23, 2022)

 

Today, in Nazareth

Luke 1: 1-4, 4: 14-21

 

Nazareth was not much of a place.  Even the people of Nazareth did not think much of it.  While they were “amazed” at Jesus’ preaching, they did not think he got it because he is one of them (Luke 4:22).  Other people did not think much of Nazareth either.  Nathanael expressed it when he said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

 

Yet, in the way of God, it was in Nazareth,

 

It was “today,”

 

Jesus proclaims, “This Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

So it is for us. 

 

Wherever our Nazareth is, today, God’s Good News of salvation is fulfilled for us and in us. 

 

2nd Sunday - C (January 16, 2022)

 

“They have no wine.”

John 2: 1-11

 

What do we do when we realize our limitations, shortcomings, and sins?

 

There is a natural tendency to hide or to deny them. 

Moreover, we are often told that we must overcome them – with our own efforts and strengths.  Successes and achievements receive greater praise when they are accomplished against greater odds. 

 

The Gospel passage of the wedding at Cana teaches us that the realization of our limitations, shortcomings, and sins is itself a blessing.  When we do not know ourselves, we might be tempted to think that we do not need God.  On the contrary, self-knowledge is God’s gift.  It teaches us that we need God.  It gives us the opportunity to see God’s great power and love for us. 

 

That’s the response of the disciples.  Having witnessed the power of Jesus, and that he took it upon himself to help the couple, the disciples “began to believe in him.”

 

It is also consoling that Mary, God’s perfect creature, was the first to notice that “they have no wine.”  She teaches us that God knows our limitations, shortcoming and sins even before we know them. 

 

And God does not use such knowledge to punish us.    

 

Out of love for us, God sent God’s only Son to save us, who otherwise, cannot save ourselves.  

 

 Image source: www.agnusday.org

 

Baptism of the Lord - C (January 9, 2022)

 Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

Background image: Maliz Ong, www.publicdomainfiles.com

Christmas

 

In Bethlehem, a Savior Was Born to Us

Luke 2: 1-14

 

As we read/listen to this familiar Gospel passage of the birth of Jesus, let’s compare three details.

 

First, the names of Caesar Augustus and Jesus.  Augustus defeated his opponents through military conquests and became the first Roman emperor.  He even called himself “son of God.”  Jesus, as we know, was born in poverty and obscurity, to an ordinary couple. 

 

Second, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, or Rome.

 

Third, the news of the birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds, not celebrities or important people of the society.

 

May we know the presence of our Savior in the ordinary moments, events, and people of our life.

 

The Savior has been born to us.  

 

 

Image source: Fray Juan Bautista Maino - Adoration of the Shepherds,

commons.wikimedia.org