A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

Thanks to God through Jesus Christ

Jesus it is who teaches us by word and by deed to give to God the right thanks that we owe him for the gifts we freely receive. The Samaritan, who sees that he is free of leprosy and goes back to give Jesus thanks, breaks the mold.  For he is a foreigner that Jews...

Freely You Receive, Freely Give Also

Jesus has redeemed us by his blood.  We do not pay, nor can we pay, for our redemption; we receive it freely. Faith is a divine gift (Rom 12, 3; Phil 1, 29; 2 Pt 1, 1).  Those who believe only have it by God’s grace; they receive it freely.  And it is safe to say that...

Crucible That Tests Our Hearts

Jesus is the only one that his disciples need to know and speak of.  From the cross, he proclaims that those who are his go through the crucible.  They thus get to be just like him. “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the one that tests...

Cut off from Us All Self-Sufficiency

Jesus is “God-with-us.”  And that is why disciples should not cut off God and their neighbor from their lives. The man whose life is one of luxury and show is very rich:  stylish clothes, lavish banquets.  He is cut off, for sure, from the beggar; the two are worlds...
Meaning and Quality of Human Life

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

Jesus is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He gives meaning to our lives. And he wants his followers to be and do the same. Seeing the crowds, Jesus pities them because they are troubled and left behind, like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9, 36). There...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

Meeting between Jesus and His People

Jesus is the fullness of revelation. Meeting him, we meet God. We also meet ourselves, for he lays bare the thoughts of our hearts. But we must welcome him first. The presentation of Jesus in the temple means the meeting of God’s Anointed with his people. And his...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

Following Jesus Christ Genuinely

Jesus opens our minds so that we may understand Scriptures. This understanding is crucial to our knowing and following Jesus. God calls us out of pure mercy though we are weak and fall down easily (SV.EN IX:284). And it is on God’s infinite goodness that we rely to...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

Boundaries That Needs Opening

Jesus is the salvation that God has prepared in the sight of all peoples. He opens boundaries: between God and human beings; between us and others. The Word has become flesh through the motherhood of Mary. And being thus uniquely God and man, Jesus becomes the one...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

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...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

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,...

Meaning and Quality of Human Life

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...

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