A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

Deny, Slap, Beat, Crucify Jesus

Jesus, in life and in death, is one with those who are poor, who have no power, whom others cast out. Hence, we cannot but deny him if we turn our backs on them. We read that many give false witness against Jesus before the Sanhedrin but that they do not agree in what...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Jesus loves others to the end, to being lifted up on the cross. His death proves true that the grain of wheat that dies cannot but bear much fruit. Those who die with him bear much fruit also.  Most of us, if not all, want to bear much fruit, to succeed as best as we...

Lift up the Son of Man on the Cross

Those in power lift up Jesus on the wood of the cross.  In letting them do so, he proves true his word that God so loves the world that he gives his only Son, so that those who believe in him may have eternal life.  The Lord tells Moses to lift up on a pole a serpent...

Adore the Father in Spirit and Truth

Jesus shows us how to adore the Father in Spirit and truth. To learn from him, then, means to keep the true religion.  At Sinai, God tells the Israelites that they are not to adore other gods. Yet they later adore a molten calf. And they hail it as Israel’s god that...
Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Splendor of Christ on the Cross

Hanging on the cross, Jesus is clothed with the splendor of self-emptying love.  He thus is the source of blessings. Jesus was deeply troubled as he told his disciples that one of them would betray him.  This and the thought that he would soon suffer and die must have...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Revive the Faith of The Faltering

Jesus feeds us with his word and his body and blood.  He makes us live and seeks to revive the faith of those who falter.  For sure, Jesus did revive the hopes of those who longed to see their homeland free from the rule of Rome.  If he did not do so, the crowds would...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Send Jesus, Send the Disciples

Jesus is God’s Sent One to announce the Good News to the poor.  And the Sent One, in turn, does not hesitate to send his disciples. Jesus tells his disciples that for him to send them is to give them a share in his own mission.  For he says to them, “As the Father has...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Risen from among Those Who Are Dead

Jesus, who died on the cross, has risen.  Hence, we cannot look for him among the dead, but among the living. Early in the morning, following the Sabbath right after Jesus’ death and burial, Mary of Magdala goes to the tomb.  Knowing what Mark and Luke say, we can...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Feed Other Humans First of All

Jesus seeks to feed us with his body and blood, so that we may have life to the full.  He loves us, yes, to the end. For sure, the thirty pieces of silver cannot but feed even more Judas Iscariot’s greed.  But does the traitor sell Jesus for a trifle, asking no high...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Open the Eyes of Those Who Cannot See

Jesus is the light of the world.  That is why to open the eyes of the blind is part of the task that his Father has entrusted to him. Jesus decides on his own to open the eyes of a man blind from birth.  The latter gets to see so clearly that he recognizes him to be a...

Advocate, Teach, Remind and Lead

Visions of a Better Future of Glory

Jesus is the risen Son of Man.  And he is so, for, though the Son of God, he was a servant and obeyed to death on the cross.  He makes our visions of glory come true. Peter does not like what Jesus says about his visions of what is to come.  They seem terrible to...

FAMVIN

FREE
VIEW