A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

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...

Miracles, Prodigious Signs of the Messiah

Jesus preaches the Good News to the poor and works miracles for those who are sick and hurting.  He is the Messiah Israel waits for.  Miracles, wonderful deeds, spectacular events, both attract and frighten most of us humans. So, it does not come as a surprise that...

Beginnings in Eden and in the Desert

Jesus obeys to the point of death on a cross.  He does so to lead us to God and to the beginnings in Eden and in the desert, and to make us all just, washed in the waters of new birth.  Jesus stays in the desert for forty days, which sends us back, in the first place,...
Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Recognize Jesus Who Is in Our Midst

Jesus is in in our midst. Do we Christians get to recognize him? Do we give witness to him by the way we are, live and act?  Priests, Levites and Pharisees grill John as if they were in court. And he does not hesitate to recognize simply that he is not the Messiah nor...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Go out of the Old World of Old Men

Jesus sees fit to go out of the bosom of the Father to announce the Good News to the poor and to bring in the new heavens and the new earth.  It seems that John, like Jeremiah, has the Lord’s word in his heart as a fire one cannot put out. It makes the son of...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Tasks for the Servants of Jesus

Jesus has chosen and brought us to his house.  And he has assigned us tasks that we have to carry out as we wait for him to come back. There are not a few of us who do not do not fulfill our assigned tasks.  Is this due to our not being of those who are wise,...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Brother Especially to the Outcasts

Shepherd and King, Jesus leads us and saves us.  He is a brother to all, especially to those who are poor.  He wants us to be brothers and sisters to all as he is. Our Leader and Savior is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.  This, of course, means that he is...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Fire up Our Whole Selves with Love

Jesus makes known by words and deeds that we cannot love God without loving our neighbor.  We Christians seek to fire up ourselves with love. The Church asks us today to keep watch. For we do not know the day or the hour when the Son of Man will come back. And to keep...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Slaves in the Same Way as Jesus

Jesus takes the form a slave and becomes like us.  We who seek to follow him are to become lowly slaves in the same way that he is.   For us who try to be and live as Jesus, to be first means to be slaves (Mk 10, 43-45). And today’s gospel teaches the same lesson. ...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Sweat in Seeking the Other’s Good

Jesus shows us how to love in truth God and our neighbor.  Out of love for them, he has to sweat blood and give himself wholly. To strive and to sweat.  This is what love for God asks of us who are of the Vincentian Family (SV.EN XI:32).  That is to say, it is not...

Bear Much Fruit Means Die with Christ

Reflect the Creator and Owner of All

Jesus is the image of the God whom no one has ever seen.  Hence, he cannot but reflect God who is merciful, kind, and faithful. No doubt, we Christians want to reflect Jesus.  And we believe, of course, that to reflect him means to reflect also the very God whose...

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