A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

Vanity of Vanities, All Is Vanity

Jesus is clear-headedness in person.  He brings to light the vanity, the emptiness, of the life of those who love and serve money. Jesus grants and does not grant what a man who feels disinherited asks him to do.  For, in the first place, the Teacher says  “no.”  He...

Steadfast in their Prayers, and Trusting

Jesus is the reason why God does not hold back from those who are steadfast in their prayers the blessings they ask for with trust. The teaching today is that we should be steadfast in our prayers.  And it seems that what is good about being steadfast is that we annoy...

Host to Jesus, the Word Made Flesh

Jesus is God’s most tender call to us humans.  He is at the same time the warmest human host to God that waits at the door to be let in. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus stops where Martha and Mary live.  The sisters, not like those in Samaria, play host to him. Maybe...

Roundabout Ways We Take to Get Our Way

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  He is the roundabout way that means much more to us than all the other roundabout ways God has taken. Many, if not all, have taken roundabout ways.  The Hebrews, as God plans it, take a roundabout way as they leave Egypt....
Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Jesus himself is the proof that strength, becomes perfect in weakness. Christians, then, cannot but be weak, and so, strong (2 Cor 12, 9-10). Matthew, more than the other evangelists, speaks of the words of Scriptures reaching their fulfillment in Jesus. He portrays...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Greatness Really Means Littleness

Although great, Jesus becomes little for our sake. As we associate, as Jesus, with the little folks, we grasp the meaning of Christmas that greatness lies in littleness. In the beginning is the Word, the Word is with God, and is God. All things come to be through him,...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Help from the Always Faithful and True

Jesus Christ, our Savior, is Emmanuel, “God-with-us.” In him and through him, God goes with us and gives us the help that we need. Ahaz, the king of Judah, fears the combined armies of Syria and Israel. And yet he turns down God’s offer of help, for he refuses to do...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Proof of Our Really Belonging to Jesus

Jesus brings the Good News to the poor and makes it come true for them. Doing as our Master, we give proof that we are his followers. Last Sunday, we heard John the Baptist rebuke those he called “brood of vipers.” He asked them to bear good fruit as proof of their...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Out of Cycle, the Usual, the Customary

In the person of Jesus is revealed that God’s love prevails in the end (Advent 2002). Christians, then, cannot but break out of the cycle of hopelessness. For those who have a cyclical view of time, events simply come back. Nothing new comes out of the cycle. No new...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Forward March towards Our Lord Jesus

Jesus Christ is the leader and perfecter of faith. Fixing our eyes on him, we go forward with firm decision to reach what lies ahead. St. Paul says that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” The saying shows that, for him, time moves forward. That...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Discern and Welcome Christ’s Kingship

Jesus has come to serve and give his life as a ransom for all. Those who belong to him discern and welcome his kingship. The inscription on the cross proclaims Jesus as the king of the Jews. And it is the truth: he is the king of the Jews and of the universe. But who...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Overcome through Him Who Loves Us

Christ Jesus fully reveals the love of God. And since no one and nothing at all can separate us from this love, we more than overcome. Does not the reality or possibility of natural disasters and social unrests frighten us? Do we, then, not wonder if we could save our...

Strength of the Weak and Fearful

Alive by God’s Love in Christ Jesus

Jesus is the last and surest proof that God loves us. Because of this love, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; all are alive for him. The Sadducees deny that there is a resurrection or that the dead can be alive again because of it. So, with their...