A Word of Hope

Jesus healed a man who could not hear nor speak, to extend to him the compassion of God. May we extend this compassion to the deaf in our day, but also to those who won't listen to the word of God or never speak about it.

After calling a foreigner a "dog," Jesus is moved by the woman's chutzpah and cures her daughter. Can the pain and suffering of others move us beyond our own prejudices to help the most needy we encounter?

Jesus taught his disciples that nothing that enters us from without can make us impure. Rather, the malice and bad thoughts in our hearts that come out in our words and actions make us impure. This is a call to us to let go of the superficial things of religion and examine our own hearts and actions.

In today's Gospel, Jesus has an argument with the scribes and Pharisees over Jewish purity laws. As Christians, we need to know when to let holy things be holy and when to go out into the world not letting purity laws hold us back from doing the work of God.

In today's first reading, we hear the beginning of the story of God creating the heavens and the earth, of which we were put in charge. Every time we see a beautiful sunset or sunrise, we are reminded of our call to participate in God's ongoing work of creation.

After a miraculous catch of fish, Peter tells Jesus, "Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man." Instead, Jesus invites him to be his disciple and opens him up to be more than he thought he ever could be. That is what grace can do for us.

In an extra video for today, we hear about the call of the Prophet Jeremiah. God knows Jeremiah better than he knows himself, and Jeremiah will discover his own strengths as he lives out this call. Let us find ourselves by following our call.

Today we celebrate the great Saint Josephine Bakhita, a former slave who converted to Christianity and joined the Canossian Sisters, and was known as a saint in her own day because of her faith and cheerfulness. In today's Gospel, Jesus and the apostles try to get away to a quiet place, but the crowd finds out and are assembled when they arrive, so Jesus teaches them because "they are like sheep without a shepherd." In our troubled, chaotic times, the world needs more shepherds.

An extra video for today. When Jesus and his disciples were in a storm at sea, Jesus chastised them for their fear and then calmed the waters. Let us pray for faith like Jesus' and use what faith we have to overcome our fears.

Herod had John the Baptist killed because he felt cornered by previous bad choices. Sin reduces our possibilities, leading us into one bad choice after another. Grace opens us up to see the infinite possibilities for the good that exist at any moment.

Jesus sent out the twelve two by two to proclaim repentance and to heal people. Most of us know something in us is not what we want it to be. This call of repentance is a joyful wake up call to us that Jesus is ready to help us overcome our own darkness.

In today's Gospel Jesus returns to his hometown. After being initially impressed, the town turned suspicious of him, and Jesus could not do any great miracles because of their lack of faith.Two lessons: 1) jealousy is not helpful and not of God, and 2) we have to trust God in faith for God to be able to heal us.

In today's Gospel we have a healing within a healing. On the way to heal Jairus' daughter, Jesus heals a woman who suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years, and gives us a glimpse of what it means to be holy in the midst of chaos and distractions.

Jesus healed a Gerasene demoniac who then wanted to follow him. Instead, Jesus sent him back to his own family. The healing that comes from Jesus doesn't just cover over our sins, but empowers us to reunite with those we have hurt and bring them with us back to God. Is there someone with whom you need to reconcile?

As Jesus is presented in the Temple, the prophets Simeon and Anna see that his presence points to something beyond the moment—it point to eternity. Today we also celebrate consecrated religious persons whose lives point as well to the blessings of God in eternity.

We cannot imagine the Reign of God, and yet we are invited into it every day, again and again, through our engagement with scripture, our service to one another, through liturgy, and through our call to the apostolic life. Let us live in the Reign of God, even though we cannot understand it.

Jesus told many parables of the Reign of God. As we listen to them, the Reign of God grows within us so that our actions naturally become reflections of the Kingdom.

Jesus told his disciples to let their light shine and not hide it under a bushel basket. Light easily overcomes darkness. It only takes the light of one candle to overcome the darkness of a room. So if we put our light on a lampstand—the light he gave us—darkness has no chance.

Today we have the Parable of the Sower, where the Word of God is planted like seed on different kinds of soil. Some of each kind of soil is inside each of us. So let each of us dig deep and find the good soil in our own hearts and work to cultivate the good soil in other people's hearts.

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us that whoever does the will of God is his mother, brother and sister. As related by Fr. Scott, Fr. Brendan tells us of an interreligious group founded my muslims in the Chicago area that does amazing work bringing God's compassion to war-torn areas of our world. Certainly, these people are Jesus' mother, brother, and sister.

In today's scripture we hear of Jesus establishing a new covenant with his own blood, one sacrifice with the power to save "the many," and we ponder how many might be able to be saved by this one act.

Today we celebrate Word of God Sunday and hear how Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, found the passage "I have come to bring good news to the poor," and declared that he was fulfilling that passage that very day. Scripture tells us who we are, giving us roots, but every time we return to it scripture also gives us wings, sending us out to fulfil its promises in our own age.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of Paul, whose conversion was both based on his own experiences and choices, and made possible and fostered by the people around him. This was not unusual, and it seems that all conversions are both individual and communal.

In our Gospel today, Jesus calls the 12 apostles to be with him, to preach, and to cast out demons. Only demons are their enemies, not people who disagree with them or even oppose them. For these people, the apostles should give witness to their joy and friendship with Jesus to perhaps win them over. This is good advice for us today as well.