Now Hebrews shifts gears. Having shown how Jesus summed up and far surpassed the the Mosaic Covenant, becoming “the leader and perfecter of faith,” the preacher now calls himself and his community to refocus, aim higher, and persevere in faith. Perseverance is needed to survive two kinds of challenges: opposition we face from sinners and…
Month: March 2021
O daughter Zion, your Savior approaches!
From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts– When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: “Hosanna! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.” Jesus found…
Sharing Life and Truth in the Body of Christ
Your justice I kept not hid within my heart; your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of; I have made no secret of your kindness and your truth in the vast assembly. Psalm 40:11 from Mass for the Solemnity of the Annunciation Mary was the one whose ears were “open to obedience” as Psalm…
Faith Wins–Suffers–Wins Hebrews 11:30-40
The preacher alludes to many other examples of faith after Moses: 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after being encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the disobedient, for she had received the spies in peace. 32 What more shall I say? I have not time to tell of Gideon,…
The Heart of the Matter Matters Most
The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. … I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts… Excerpt from first reading in Jeremiah 31:31-34 (12a) Create a clean heart in me, O God. Have…
Keeping the Law…and keeping faith?
Keeping the Law is not an alternative to living by faith. We can see this in the life of St. Joseph on this his day. He kept the Law, but God asked him for more than that. He wanted Joseph to follow a personal direction he would give him: to take Mary as wife and…
Moses, man of faith, not just a “law man”
Hebrews 11:23-29 23 By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 he chose to be ill-treated…
From Sunday: Facing our Sins
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not…
More filling! Tastes great! (unlike lite beer)
In today’s Gospel (Mark 12:28-34) we are instructed on all the Law and the Prophets: we are to commit our lives to God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and to live that out daily by loving our neighbors the same way we reflexively take care our ourselves. In the responsorial psalm for today, God…
The Four-fold Faith of Abraham, Heb. 11:8-22
Hebrews 11:8-22 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of…