top of page

The Word today, Lent3B24

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Mar 1, 2024
  • 3 min read


March 04 - March 09, 2024


St Casimir


2 Kings 5:1-15 A very lively, realistic story prepares us for the Gospel reading. There are comic elements: the disappointment of Naaman and the utterly sensible advice of his servants.


Luke 4:24-30 Our reading is really the second part of an integrated scene in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus preaches in Nazareth and is initially well received. What we really have here is a symbolic tableau, giving us the whole Gospel story of Jesus in a nutshell. The last elusive line points to Easter.


St Kieran, bishop


Daniel 3:25, 34-43 The context for this wonderful prayer can help a great deal. The book of Daniel was written during a time of brutal persecution under the Syrian ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Under the guise of the time of the earlier Babylonians, the book of Daniel really reflects this later, highly dangerous situation. The three main characters have been thrown into the fiery furnace and one of them, Azariah, prays this great prayer.


Matthew 18:21-35 Our first reading was a prayer for mercy from God. The Gospel is also about mercy, but in another perspective. Mercy is given to a great debtor, who begs precisely for mercy. But he in his turn refuses mercy to a fellow servant, who begged him. It is all a comment on the words we pray everyday: forgive us out trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.



Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 Our reading reflects on God’s grace to Israel and on the consequent responsibility of the Israelites to live lives consistent with that grace. It was true long ago in Judaism; it is true today in our Christian proclamation.


Matthew 5:17-19 Matthew can disconcert with his quite conservative attitudes. It is important to remember that the Law (the Torah) meant three things at the time: the Pentateuch, the moral law and the ritual. The moral law is, if anything, sharpened.


Sts Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs


Jeremiah 7:23-28 The ministry of Jeremiah encountered tremendous opposition. In fact, his book is divided into two parts, the first devoted to a rehearsal of the collapse of the independent kingdom of Judah. Within that, Jeremiah points out that the very faithlessness of the people was one of the causes of that calamity.


Luke 11:14-23 Just as the prophets encountered opposition, so did the Jesus. In the case of Jesus, the opposition accuses God’s prophet of aligning himself with the forces of evil. Already in Luke’s Gospel, we hear the story of the temptation, wherein Jesus resolutely rejects the devil.


St John of God, religious


Hosea 14:2-10 Hosea wrote in the 8th century BC, at a time of immense pressure from Assyria. He can be trenchant but is also a marvellous poet of the love of God. Listen by letting any of the moving metaphors touch our hearts.


Mark 12:28-34 This great passages takes us to the hear to of the preaching of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.


St Frances of Rome, religious


Hosea 5:15-6:6 This is really a sarcastic reading. But, behind the biting sarcasm, is the beating heart of God, reaching out to us again and again.


Luke 18:9-14 The risk for us in reading this parable is that we find ourselves sitting in judgment on the Pharisee—that is, copying him in sitting in judgment on the tax collector. The heart-felt prayer for mercy is at the centre: can I make it my own?


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024v, March 3). Third Sunday of lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030324.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/


 
 
 

The Word today, W3B24

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Feb 26, 2024
  • 3 min read

Updated: Sep 27, 2024



January 22 - January 27, 2024


St Vincent, deacon and martyr


2 Samuel 5:1-7, 10 This is a key reading for two reasons. David is “elected” as king and secondly he make Jerusalem his capital.


Mark 3:22-30 It can still shock that some of Jesus contemporaries proposed he was doing the work of the evil one. The thinking may have been like this: he is doing powerful deeds, but we do not believe he comes from God. Therefore…!



2 Samuel 6:12-15, 17-19 The ark represented the presence of God on the move with the people. The settling down, so to speak, of God’s presence in Jerusalem, even without a temple, was indeed a momentous choice.


Mark 3:31-35 Our reading can feel a little unsettling because it sounds like Jesus is dismissing his family, including his mother. However, it is really an affirmation of the essence of discipleship.


St Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor


2 Samuel 7:4-17 Today we read from one of a few absolutely central texts from the Old Testament. Earlier in the chapter, David made a proposal to build God a house. Through Nathan, God refuses David for the substantial reasons given. Nevertheless, a tremendous promise is made to David and his “house”, a mark of God’s love and faithfulness through time.


Mark 4:1-20 This long reading can be tricky. The original parable is given first, a parable from the lips of Jesus. The later explanation of the parable comes from church tradition, a kind of allegorical reading. The allegory narrows the original meaning of the parable. In between, the question of the disciples is difficult. It seems to be answering a later issue: how was that that most of Jesus’ fellow Jews did not recognise him as the Messiah?


Conversion of St Paul


Acts 22:3-16 The conversion of St Paul had huge consequences for early Christianity. He was a man of terrific energy and physical courage, inspired by a deep desire to do God’s will. His encounter with Jesus placed his great gifts of intellect and spirit at the service of the Christian movement, to its lasting enrichment up to today. He himself tells of his conversion in his own words in Galatians 1.


Mark 16:15-18 Note: this passage comes from one of proposed endings to Mark, none of which comes from the head of the evangelist.


Our reading today is chosen for the very first words which capture something of the ministry of Paul, who went out to the whole known world of his time, that is, the Roman Empire around the eastern Mediterranean.


Sts Timothy and Titus


2 Timothy 1:1-8 The tone of encouragement is always needed and today, more than ever, we need the reminder to fan into a flame the gift of God.


Mark 4:26-34 A further few seed parables illuminate the Gospel. The parable of the farmer asleep is especially encouraging: just let things grow. Cf. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (1Corinthians 3:6)


St Angela Merici, virgin.


2 Samuel 12:1-7, 10-17 Because of David’s adultery with the wife of Uriah and his subsequent murder, the prophet Nathan is sent by God to accuse David of his sins. The prophet begins by tricking the king into righteous anger and then very cleverly catching him out. The electric words are “You are the man.” David wasn’t the first or last person in the world to have been a hypocrite or to have acted inconsistently.


Mark 4:35-41 Already at the hands of Mark, the calming of the storm is to be read symbolically. The later church, under tremendous pressure during the Jewish War, questions the presence and even the concern of Jesus. The final question is one we need to ask again and again.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2024j, January 21). Third Sunday in ordinary time. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012124.cfm

-unday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/


 
 
 

The Word today, Advent4B23

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Feb 26, 2024
  • 3 min read


December 25 - December 30, 2023



Isaiah 62:1-5 - For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch. Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD. You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem held by your God.    No more shall people call you “Forsaken,” or your land “Desolate,” but you shall be called “My Delight,” and your land “Espoused.” For the LORD delights in you and makes your land his spouse. As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you;    and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.


Acts 13:16-17, 22-25 - When Paul reached Antioch in Pisidia and entered the synagogue, he stood up, motioned with his hand, and said,  “Fellow Israelites and you others who are God-fearing, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors 

and exalted the people during their sojourn in the land of Egypt. With uplifted arm he led them out of it. Then he removed Saul and raised up David as king; of him he testified, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.’ From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise,  has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel; and as John was completing his course, he would say, ‘What do you suppose that I am?  I am not he. Behold, one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’”


St Stephen, the first martyr


Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59 As you listen, you may notice in the account of Stephen’s death many echoes of Jesus’ death in Luke’s Gospel, such as praying for his enemies.


Matthew 10:17-22 It is clear from Matthew’s Gospel that becoming and being a Christian sometimes caused tremendous family upheaval. But the message is reassuring: in the moment of testing, the Holy Spirit will be with you.


St John, apostle and evangelist


There is a consensus in critical biblical suites that the apostle and the evangelist are two different persons. For some, this may be news and perhaps a shock. For others, it means we celebrate twice!


1 John 1:1-4 This passage from the first letter of John is very poetic and uplifting. It reminds us a little of the prologue of the Gospel of John.


John 20:2-8 Readers will notice the start contrast between the reactions of Peter and that of the Beloved Disciple. The Beloved Disciples is symbolic, showing that the “charismatic” arrives more quickly at the truth


Holy Innocents


1 John 1:5-2:2 Our reading today is both highly spiritual—God is light—and immensely practical—we all do sin.


Matthew 2:13-18 The tragic note struck by this story in Matthew’s Gospel reminds us that Christmas is also about the cross. The writer echoes the birth of Moses as well as the history of the Exile in Babylon.


St Thomas à Beckett


1 John 2:3-11 How old and how new is the Gospel? The command to love is hardly new as such—see Deut 6:4-6. But it is newly possible in the light of Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of the Spirit.


Luke 2:22-35 Today we hear a delightful vignette of the best of Jewish piety. Simeon—one of the few old people in the New Testament—is a model of piety and faith.



1 John 2:12-17 The reading addresses the hearers directly but needs careful handling. The “world” does not mean creation as such but whoever in creation is opposed to God.


Luke 2:36-40 Matching the story of Simeon, we hear the story of Anna, daughter of Phanuel. She too is a model of Jewish piety and trust in God. As a prophetess, she proclaims Jesus to all who long for deliverance.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2023b, December 24). Fourth Sunday of Advent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122423.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-b). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings/


 
 
 
bottom of page