Category: Bible Reading & Meditation
“Naaman went away angry.” —2 Kings 5:11 “At these words the whole audience in the synagogue was filled with indignation.” —Luke 4:28 In today’s first reading and Gospel passage, the word of prophecy was rejected, as it was met with anger and pride. Both Naaman and the people of Nazareth were right on the brink of being transformed and healed. However, being close wasn’t sufficient. The pride and anger of the people of Nazareth prevented them from receiving a great blessing from the Lord. If not for his humble servants, Naaman likewise would have walked away from a miracle when...
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“God proves His love for us.” —Romans 5:8 The Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s well at about noon after all the other villagers had come to use the well (see Jn 4:6). She was possibly trying to avoid meeting people who despised her. She may have even despised herself and wanted in her self-hatred not to be seen in public. However, Jesus was already at the well — waiting all by Himself to give amazing revelations to this most unlikely candidate. He spoke to her of God’s gift of living water (Jn 4:10), becoming in her “a fountain … leaping...
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“Who is there like You, the God Who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of His inheritance?” —Micah 7:18 Guilt is the spiritual counterpart to physical pain. Both pain and guilt cry out to be stopped as soon as possible. The only good way to stop guilt is to repent and believe that the Lord treads underfoot our guilt, casts “into the depths of the sea all our sins” (Mi 7:19), and removes our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps 103:12). If we don’t go on a “guilt trip” to the...
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“They took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry. Then they sat down to their meal.” —Genesis 37:24-25 The hardness of the human heart is fully portrayed in today’s readings. The brothers of Joseph moved quickly and easily from cold-blooded plotting of their brother’s death, to throwing him in the cistern to die, to sitting down to eat their dinner. It’s no different today, as an abortionist and his attendants can murder multiple babies in a day’s work, and then head out to a restaurant to enjoy their supper. Sadly, this even happens in the...
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“I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart.” —Jeremiah 17:10 I have just returned from a vacation in the rocky desert of the American Southwest. Fantastic rock formations there have been eroded by rushing waters over time. The waters of these streams and rivers continually probe the rock for the weak spots, and flow downhill following the path of least resistance in the rock. This relentless probing by the waters eventually erodes the rock, cutting away slabs of rock and wearing it down piece by piece. In a similar way, the relentless love of the Lord continually...
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