Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“You Pharisees! You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within you are filled with rapaciousness and evil.” –Luke 11:39 Would you eat off of a dirty dish? Would you eat food that had fallen on the floor? Would you eat in a restaurant where you know the cook is careless about washing his hands? Most of us are understandably concerned about at least minimal standards of cleanliness. Jesus warned that we should be much more concerned about interior cleanliness. The same person who is squeamish about eating off a dirty dish may be unconcerned about being “filled with...

“At the judgment, the citizens of Nineveh will rise along with the present generation, and they will condemn it. For at the preaching of Jonah they reformed, but you have a greater than Jonah here.” –Luke 11:32 When Jonah spoke, 120,000 wicked Ninevites listened and repented (Jon 3:10; 4:11). When Solomon spoke, the queen of the south “came from the farthest corner of the world to listen” (Lk 11:31). When Jesus speaks through the Church, in the Mass, through the Bible, and in our families, do we listen? How many of us are devoting ourselves to the apostles’ instructions, that...

“One day [Jesus] was praying in a certain place.” –Luke 11:1 “One of [Jesus’] disciples asked Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples’ ” (Lk 11:1). Jesus answered with a ‘Yes’ and a ‘No’: “Yes, I’ll teach you to pray.” “No, I won’t teach you as John taught his disciples.” Jesus teaches us not to imitate St. John’s disciples, pagans (Mt 6:8), or anyone else when we pray. We learn most things by imitation, but we cannot learn to pray this way. Prayer is not primarily an activity but a relationship. Every relationship is unique. We...

“A woman named Martha welcomed Him.” —Luke 10:38 St. Martha seems to have been a person excessively into controlling circumstances and people. She wanted everything “just so” for the dinner she was preparing for Jesus. Mary, Martha’s sister, was not cooperating, for she was more preoccupied with Jesus than with Martha’s agenda (Lk 10:39). Consequently, Martha instinctively tried to manipulate Mary into helping with the dinner. Martha did this by trying to manipulate Jesus into commanding Mary to get to work (Lk 10:40). Martha tried to move Jesus with the lever of self-pity. She complained that she had been “all...

“I am amazed that you are so soon deserting Him Who called you in accord with His gracious design in Christ, and are going over to another gospel.” —Galatians 1:6 St. Paul was amazed that the Galatian Christians were so soon deserting the Lord. Paul warned Christians: “Do not be haughty…but fearful. If God did not spare the natural branches (the Jewish people), He will certainly not spare you” (Rm 11:20, 21). “My fear is that, just as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted and you may fall away from your sincere and complete...