A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings

Ruler and Savior, Lord and Messiah, Good Shepherd

Jesus is Ruler and Savior, Lord and Messiah.  Yet he lords over no one; he serves and is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. A ruler among Jesus’ own should not at all be like a ruler among the Gentiles. The latter lords it over others. The former, on...

Catch the Good News of Jesus Christ

The one who has risen is the same Jesus of Nazareth that the disciples have known, loved and followed on the roads of Galilee.  To be his witness means to see to it that other folks catch the Good News.  Those who make up a group can easily catch each other’s fears or...

Read the Signs of Jesus in Our Midst

Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.  To believe in him means to know how to read, to grasp, his many signs in our midst.  We read, as we come to the end of today’s gospel, “Jesus did many other signs.”  So then, we can take it that his rising from the dead is one of...

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...
Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Paradoxes: Signs of the New Creation

Jesus brings in the new creation. The paradoxes that he lives and teaches let us know what the new creation means. Jesus uses hard sayings and paradoxes to announce the Good News.  And there are, in today’s gospel, examples of these hard sayings and paradoxes. For...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Fears the Sent Ones Must Overcome

Jesus comes to his own people and they persecute him. This will also be the fate of his disciples. They waver due to their fears.  Jesus senses the fears that his apostles harbor. These are the twelve disciples he sends to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Sheep Who Do Not Have a Shepherd

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, seeks the good of the sheep.  He is not like those who steal, slaughter and destroy as they seek their own good. Jesus has compassion for the crowds, for they are troubled and abandoned like sheep that have no shepherd.  A circumstance, then,...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Table to Which Jesus Invites us

Jesus gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink.  To sit down at his table means to be one with him and with others. Jesus tells the Jews, that is to say, the Jewish religious authorities, that the bread he will give is his flesh.  This gives rise to a quarrel...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Savor the Love that God Has for Us

Jesus shows the depth of God’s love to the end.  To savor such love is to know the One who creates us and is with us and makes us breathe. Those who cherish the law, the Torah, savor it, for they find it to be sweeter than honey.  So, Jesus who fulfills the law and...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Emmanuel, That Is to Say, God-with-Us

Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, is Emmanuel, God-with-us.  He is with us always, until the end. The first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew proclaims that Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us.  And the last chapter narrates...

Ideals, Facts, Utopia, Reality

Defend Those Who Are Poor and Helpless

Jesus lives.  That is why they see him and live those who believe in him, and love him.  The Spirit of truth does not fail to defend them. Jesus takes leave of his disciples.  For comes the hour for him to give his body up and to shed his blood.  Hence, they are sad...

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