A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

Set Free, out of Love, the Oppressed

Christ is risen!  This goes to show that to go from here to there to preach the Good News to the poor, to cure the sick and to set free the oppressed, to love, is to please God. God anoints Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. And he, then, goes about to do good...

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...
Sap of Life, Strength and Fruitfulness

Commit to the Poor of Flesh and Blood

Jesus goes about doing good; he loves in deed and truth.  He does not just commit to an ideology.  St. Vincent is like him. St. Vincent wants those who follow him to commit with zeal to those who are poor (SV.FR XI:133-137).  And it seems that he himself cannot but...

Sap of Life, Strength and Fruitfulness

Admire the Thoughts and Ways of God

Jesus makes known to us God, who is good to all and has mercy on all he has made, and whose thoughts and ways we are to admire. The landowner is good to the jobless.  But there are those who, rather than admire him, grumble.  These are the ones who have worked for...

Sap of Life, Strength and Fruitfulness

Reach by Grace the Unreachable Star

Jesus is not of the world.  Nor are his true disciples.  They get to reach what we who are humans find hard to reach. There is no doubt that the way Jesus teaches is not the same as others’ way.  For he teaches with authority, not as the scribe.  Also, there is such a...

Sap of Life, Strength and Fruitfulness

God-with-us in Our Joys and Our Griefs

Jesus, God-with-us, is the first of the brothers and sisters who rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. There is a report that fewer folks in the U.S. believe in God and, one can guess, in God-with-us. For the number of believers in the U.S. is...