Come away by yourselves Last week we saw Jesus sending the apostles two by two to preach the Gospel, to announce the kingdom of heaven. Today we see them coming back, excited by all the good things that happened to them, the people they healed and the devils they cast out. They couldn’t stop talking about their adventures. They were all talking at …

Two by two apostles Last week Saint Paul told us about the thorn in our flesh, a reminder of our fallen nature. This week in his letter to the Ephesians he tells us about our dignity: “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” There is always the danger of falling into one extreme or the oth…

Thorn in my flesh Today, in the second reading, from the second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, the Apostle talks about a thorn in his flesh. After talking about his vision of heaven, he says that God gave him a thorn not to become proud. Even though he managed to have a glimpse of eternity, he couldn’t forget about his human nature. He sa…

Sick woman We can imagine the scene. We have seen it on the tv news from the Middle East, a religious leader surrounded by men, people trying to touch him, to get some power from him. The apostles were shielding Jesus, pushing people away. They say that when people try to touch a person in this way, the arms and hands are scratched, specially by wo…

Calming of the storm I love this Gospel. We can see ourselves in the boat with Jesus, surrounded by a beautiful lake. It is still there; these natural elements don’t change. But it can become ugly. It is our experience of life. The sea in the Bible represents man depending on God’s mercy; anything could happen, we are not in control. We all have ex…

The mustard seed Today Jesus tries to explain the kingdom of heaven through two parables, using a comparison about seeds. He loves using natural images from the fields, from the human experience of farmers of that time. Unlike us, seeds were very important to them. We don’t normally buy seeds and plant them in the ground, unless you have a vegetabl…

Jesus’ relatives It was very difficult for Jesus’ relatives to understand him, to figure out what had happened to him. For thirty years he had been the carpenter’s son, a good worker, a bit introverted, maybe shy, never married and liking going out on his own to pray in solitary places. Suddenly Jesus began his public life, preaching the Gospel, pe…

Corpus Christi It took time for the early Christians to grow in their awareness of the real presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. At the beginning of Christianity they didn’t have tabernacles; they just celebrated the Mass normally in their own homes. They didn’t have churches because of the persecutions. After Mass sometimes they kept the Blessed…

Holy Trinity When Jesus came, he revealed to us the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It was his most important secret, his gift to us, which had been guarded for many centuries. In the Old Testament God didn’t want to show us this truth about himself, because he was afraid the Israelites would worship multiple gods. They did it regardless. The first ti…

Pentecost A young man was walking down the street and came across a shop with a sign that said: Happiness. He came in and saw that angels were serving the customers. He was very surprised and asked one of the angels: “What do you sell here?” He answered: “Anything that brings happiness to humans.” The young man got excited and began to ask a list o…

The Ascension The church that marks the place where tradition says Jesus left the earth flying up to heaven has an octogonal shape, with a circular dome. In the old days the roof was open and you could see the sky. On the floor there is a glass covering the rock where Jesus’ feet touched our ground for the last time. It is a reflection of how we sh…

Love one another Today in the Gospel Jesus lifts the level of his message to an impossible height: love one another as I have loved you. God loves us with divine love, without measure; his love is infinite. He even gave his life for us. But how can we love others with his love, if we are not God? Precisely, when we love God, he lends us his love. G…

The Vine and the Branches Jesus loves to talk in parables. He finds us a bit slow to grasp things and tries to find comparisons for us to understand better and deeper the things of God. It is not easy for him to talk about the other life. A vineyard was very precious in the ancient world. People risked their lives to possess them. For us it is just…

The Good Shepherd Today we look at Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It is a beautiful image that comes from the Old Testament. King David was a shepherd before he became a king, and Jesus called himself the son of David, because he was a direct descendant. The Gospels give us plenty of details about who the Good Shepherd is. Jesus says of himself: “I am…

Serenity The apostles were afraid and locked themselves into the upper room for fear of the Jews. Their leader had been killed and now his opponents were going for his minions. In spite of some news about Jesus’ resurrection, they were huddled in fear behind locked doors, all together not knowing what to do. We too are afraid of the future, worried…

Thomas On Sunday morning the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came in through the wall. He stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his wounds, all opened in front of them. He didn’t want to hide them. There they were, naked without shame. They wer…

Easter Sunday Saint John arrived first at the tomb because he was younger and could run faster. Saint Jerome says that the wings of celibacy allowed John arrive first. But he did not go in, out of deference to Peter. This is an indication that Peter was already regarded as the leader of the Apostles. “He saw and believed.” What did he see? The line…

Holy Thursday Today is an important day for the Church. We priests celebrate two Masses. In the morning all priests of the Diocese go to the Cathedral to concelebrate with the bishop what we call the Chrism Mass. Two things happen during this Mass. First we priests renew our commitments, to place Jesus first in our lives, to obey our bishop, and to…

Palm Sunday Today we begin Holy Week. Palm Sunday is the gate. We enter into the most holy week of the year. We need to walk slowly; we are on Holy ground. Put off your shoes and walk on tiptoes. Hit the brakes and try to follow Jesus’ footsteps. We should try to keep to Jesus’ pace, not too slow, and not too fast, not to miss him, not to overtake …

Lent 5 B The grain of wheat In today’s Gospel some Greeks went to Phillip and told him that they wanted to see Jesus. We too ask the same; we long to see his face. We follow the responsorial psalm: “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” We need a pure heart to be able to see him, clear eyes without any obstacles. How can we see Jesus? He tells us his…

Lent 4 B Nicodemus Today in the Gospel we see Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, the upper class of the political elite, a teacher of Israel, an intellectual, an educated man, a ruler of the Jews. He was a lover of truth, searching for what is right, humble, and, unlike others, he acknowledged that Jesus performed miracl…

Lent 3 B Cleansing of the Temple In today’s Gospel Jesus is going to the Temple to pray, but he is going to do something completely different. It was the feast of the Passover, the most important day for the Jews and the temple was overflowing with people. They had to offer a sacrifice of an ox or a sheep, if they were wealthy, or two pigeons if th…

Lent 2 Transfiguration of Jesus The transfiguration is an Icon of contemplation. We need to climb the mountain to become part of this body of elite souls who are contemplatives. Not many people are ready to climb up through the path of sacrifice and docility to God’s will. You need to leave many things behind and travel light. Most of us carry too …

Lent 1 Temptations of Jesus Every Lent we try to accompany Jesus into the desert. We don’t like it, but it is the best way for us to return to God, to have a small conversion. We go down from Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, below sea level. Jesus wanted to stoop down to our human level, surrounded by a very rough terrain.…

Ash Wednesday Today we begin Lent, a special time to grow, a time for a small conversion. Our Mother the Church opens the flood gates of its abundant graces, to shower what we need in our parched soul. It is a time to look towards how we are growing in our love of God. Maybe we have been slowing down, stopped or even went backwards. It happens in t…

The curing of a leper The first reading of the Mass tells us about Jewish customs and leprosy. Because it was a contagious disease, the Law declared that lepers were impure and they had to leave society. They lived together and had to show that they were lepers, sounding a bell or shouting “unclean.” Leprosy was seen as a punishment from God. The h…

Peter’s mother in law After leaving the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went to Peter’s house with Andrew, James and John, to dine together. We can imagine those meals with Jesus. Peter’s mother in law was sick and she couldn’t wait on them. Maybe she was upset with her son in law for joining Jesus and leaving his wife behind. Jesus healed her, won h…

The unclean spirit Today we see Jesus teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum. Jesus centred his public ministry in this town, at the shores of the lake of Gennesaret. He didn’t want to stay in Nazareth; a prophet is not well liked in his home town. Apart from Jerusalem, there is no other place like Capernaum that contains more memories of Jesus in …

The calling of the first apostles In the Gospels of these first Sundays we are at the beginning of Jesus’ public life, when he calls the apostles. Today we see Jesus calling the first four, Simon and Andrew, John and James. Last Sunday we saw the first meeting of Jesus with John and Andrew. Today Jesus is formally calling them, together with their …

Two disciples of John Today, our second Sunday of ordinary time, we begin another year with the Gospel of John telling us how he met Jesus for the first time. In the first reading of the Mass, God is calling Samuel, but he doesn’t know what to do. Eli tells him how to answer: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” This should be our response…

Epiphany Pope Francis in one of his homilies talks about the three actions the Magi undertook to reach the baby Jesus: seeing, setting out and bringing. Those three actions can guide our journey towards the Lord this year. We need the three of them. One or two are not enough. We need to see, we need to move and we need to bring ourselves. If we don…

Holy Family B The first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. Once we have a baby, we have a family. Before we had a couple, Mary and Joseph, just married. Now we have three persons, and this constitutes a family. It reminds us of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of which the family is a reflection. Marriage, the love of…

Christmas The life of Jesus is an open book from the beginning to the end, from his birth at Bethlehem until his death on the cross. We can learn from every page, from every sentence. He teaches us graphic lessons through his words and his actions; everything in his life has a meaning for us. Today we contemplate him as a baby, his first professori…

Fourth Sunday of Advent B The three most important events in history are the conception, birth and death of Jesus Christ. Today we witness the first one, what we call the incarnation, the taking of the flesh, God becoming man. It happened in a most natural, quiet and discreet way. God began his human existence, like each one of us, as a little, tin…

Third Sunday of Advent B Today in our second reading, from the letter of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, we read: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.” They say that this letter is the earliest New Testament text we have. These words are placed at the very end of the letter, as final words of encouragement. If S…

Second Sunday of Advent On the second Sunday of Advent the Church presents to us Saint John the Baptist as a preparation for Christmas. He began to follow his vocation within his mother’s womb. Benedict XVI says that you find your goodness following the plan God has prepared for you. Nowadays people are afraid of discovering God’s plan for them. Th…

First Sunday of Advent The Advent wreath is a Christian tradition that symbolises the passage of the four weeks of Advent. It is a reminder that time passes, every Sunday a new candle, and we need to be ready for when Our Lord is born in our soul on Christmas Day. The lighting of a candle can be accompanied by a Scripture reading, some prayers and …

Christ the King We arrive today at the end of the liturgical year. In the Church we have, in a sense, two years, the normal year, which follows the feast days of Jesus, Mary, angels and saints, and the year that follows the liturgical seasons, Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter. We finish the ordinary time with this beautiful feast day of Christ th…

Parable of the talents At the end of the year, the Church brings to our consideration the parable of the talents. It is not easy for us to grasp what a talent is. A talent was not a coin but a measure of value, a unit of account, worth about fifty kilos of silver. It was a lot of wealth. With a talent, a family could live for 30 years. It is so muc…

Parable of the foolish virgins It is difficult for us to understand this parable because we are not familiar with the customs of Jewish weddings. The bridegroom would go to the bride’s house to fetch her and take her to his home. The bride would be accompanied by her maiden friends with their lamps on, to light the way. To be waiting for the brideg…

All Saints Once a year in November the Church on earth as a good mother helps us to remember our brothers and sisters who have made it into eternity. On the first of this month, the saints in heaven; on the second, the souls in purgatory. They say there are around 10.000 saints recognised by the Church. It is impossible to count all the saints in h…

The first Commandment Chapter twenty two of Matthew’s Gospel is question time. We saw last week about the tribute to Caesar, then a question about the resurrection of the dead and today about the greatest commandment. It is a lawyer who asks to test him. He wanted to know how much Jesus knew about the law. Be careful with lawyers. Don’t forget Jesu…

Giving to Caesar The Pharisees wanted to catch Jesus. They planned a clever trap. How silly! Sometimes we think that we can fool God. Other times we get upset with Him. We blame Him for things that are our own doing. We bring God down to our level to wrestle with Him. If we knew the infinite difference between us and God, we wouldn’t dare to mentio…

Parable of the marriage feast God has invited us to a wedding banquet in the kingdom of heaven. We are all invited; he wants all us to be saved, to be with him. No one is left out of his invitation. But He respects our freedom; it’s only an invitation, it is not compulsory to accept, even though it is for our own good. It is a wedding banquet. For …

Parable of the wicked tenants Today’s readings talk about how much God has done for us and our failure to correspond to his love. The first reading from the book of Isaiah is a song exulting the vineyard. An orchard with vines was very precious in the Mediterranean area. It produced grapes, fruit for the time, wine, a good healthy drink with no bug…

Parable of the two sons Last Sunday, today and next Sunday we have the parables of the vineyard. Israel is described in the Old Testament as the vineyard of the Lord. It represents the care God has for his people. A vineyard demands a lot of work to produce the right wine. The first miracle Jesus performed was to convert water into wine. Wine is co…

Labourers in the vineyard We can relate to this parable in South Africa. So many people looking for work. Often you see them at roundabouts, with a sign announcing their skills: electrician, plumber, carpenter, painter. All waiting for somebody to hire them for the day. We can pray for these people that they find work to feed their families. And pr…

Parable of the unforgiving servant The parable of the unforgiving servant is at the heart of the Gospel. It is an example for us to learn how to forgive and forget. We know by experience that it is not easy. Until we forgive the other person from the heart, we won’t be able to forget. If the grudge keeps coming back to our mind, it is a sign that w…

Fraternal correction Today Jesus talks to us in the Gospel about fraternal correction. We are all brothers and sisters in the faith and we need to help each other. Last week we saw Jesus correcting Peter. You could say that during his life with us he actually spent three years correcting his apostles, forming them, passing the Gospel on to them, pr…

Take up his Cross Last week Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which he was going to build his Church. Today he calls him Satan. What happened? Last week Peter called Jesus the Christ, the anointed one; today he tries to discourage him from suffering and dying on the cross. Last week he was inspired by God; today he looks at things as we huma…