Category: Bible Reading & Meditation
“A presbyter must be irreproachable, married only once, the father of children who are believers and are known not to be wild and insubordinate.” –Titus 1:6 If you are a parent, you certainly want your children to be “believers,” “known not to be wild and insubordinate” (Ti 1:6). Yet some of the most committed Christians have children not under the lordship of Jesus. Why are many Christian parents unable to pass on their faith in Jesus to their own children? Perhaps we may have compromised with the world. God’s Word tells us: “Have no love for the world, nor the...
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“The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.”–2 Maccabees 7:9 Both today’s first reading and the Gospel deal with life after death. Both show that we humans have no idea of what risen life will be like. In today’s Gospel, the Sadducees demonstrate this by their misguided assumptions. They were “badly misled” and failed “to understand the Scriptures or the power of God” (Mk 12:24). The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an historical fact. It is not merely an idea. Throughout the centuries after Jesus rose from the dead, people have given their lives in...
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“If you can trust a man in little things, you can also trust him in greater; while anyone unjust in a slight matter is also unjust in greater.” –Luke 16:10 Think of something you believe God wants you to do. You have thought about this for some time, but you have never been able to do it. What is the problem? Possibly you have not been faithful in small matters (see Lk 19:17) so that God has not promoted you to greater things. For example, for decades we have been trying to stop abortion, reverse the seemingly relentless march of...
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“Be imitators of me.” –Philippians 3:17 St. Paul’s statement to the Christians in Philippi to imitate him sounds a bit overconfident (Phil 3:17). He likewise told the Christians of Corinth: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). Yet St. Paul has a marvelous point. Faith is more often caught than taught. Mothers and fathers are clearly in such a position. Children naturally imitate their parents. Often we see children doing exactly as their parents do, both for good and for bad. Jesus realized that He was setting “an example” for His disciples (see 1 Pt 2:21). When He...
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“Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.” –Philippians 3:7-8 Philemon lost a slave named Onesimus (Phlm 11); when Onesimus ran away, it was a loss of an asset to Philemon. But then through the ministry of St. Paul, Philemon gained a brother in Christ (Phlm 16). Onesimus was lost as a slave and then was found as a brother (see Lk 15:32). We lose our lives for Christ and,...
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