Easter Vigil, April 8

Easter Vigil, Year A

A reflection by BJ Brown

For a reflection on the gospel for Easter Sunday, please listen again to Fr. Walter Modrys’ reflection for Easter 2021:

Easter Sunday

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

2nd Sunday in Lent, March 5

Second Sunday in Lent, Year A

The greatest compliment one could receive in the time of Jesus was to be called a descendant of Abraham. Remember, that’s what Jesus calls Zacchaeus, the tax collector, when the two have dinner together and people are scandalized.
What makes Abraham such a heroic figure in the bible? That will be answered partially at least in our first reading.
Abraham is in the background of our gospel story of the Transfiguration, along with so many additional biblical references. All this biblical imagery in the gospel story is exquisitely organized to point us in one basic direction toward the future. What will happen to Jesus in the gospel and what happens to us in life.
The second reading is a stunningly beautiful summary of how we are transformed by the grace of Christ.  It puts in formal Christian language what the gospel story suggests in biblical imagery.  But this second reading echoes the gospel, too, when it speaks of the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 19

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

We modern day Americans think of “law” as regulations imposed by the state based on a legal constitution. The law has nothing to do with religion, which is entirely a matter of private conscience.
But in ancient Israel there was no such distinction. People believed that the law came from God. Obeying the law is what made them a nation and civilized their society.
In our first reading, we get a very small snippet of this Jewish law. One of the great triumphs of the human spirit is the Jewish law that originates at the very beginning of recorded human history.
In the gospel, we continue reading through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus reflects on this great tradition of Jewish law. He takes the law a step further by internalizing it. The law involves not just external conformity and legal compliance. According to Jesus, it applies to what his deepest within us, our motivations and real intentions. Ultimately, Jesus will argue for the law based not on obedience alone, but on love.
In the middle reading, Paul turns from his own identification, which has occupied him so far in the letter, to remind his listeners who they are, their true nature. Imagine someone in Paul’s audience living in a world that denigrates the dignity of the average citizen. Such a person lives in a city with fine buildings that serve as temples to the pagan gods, gods that have no regard for people and need to be constantly placated to avoid their wrath. But all of a sudden, he hears the pronouncement from Paul’s lips: “You are a temple of God.” How life transforming such a description of the human person those words can be if we can accept such a profound truth.
—Walter Modrys SJ

This Sunday’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.