Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Healing power had gone out from Him.” –Mark 5:30 According to the Old Testament, you would become unclean if a hemorrhaging person touched you (Lv 15:25-33). If you touched a dead person, you would also become unclean (Nm 19:11ff). An unclean, defiling power seemed to come forth from the bleeding or dead. However, when Jesus was touched by or touched the unclean, an unclean power did not defile Him. Instead, His healing, life-giving power went out from Him and made the unclean clean. Unlike everyone else, Jesus is contagious in the good sense. For instance, if you put a healthy...

“My serving boy is at home in bed paralyzed.” –Matthew 8:6 Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Mt 20:28). As followers of Jesus, we too come to serve others by providing both their physical and spiritual needs. Like Jesus, we wash the feet of others and commit ourselves to live and even die in love and service (Jn 13:5). Nevertheless, many of us are out of action, that is, “out of service.” Like Peter’s mother-in-law and the centurion’s serving boy, we are “in bed with a fever” (Mt 8:14) or “at home in bed paralyzed, suffering painfully”...

“God further said to Abraham: ‘As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her.” –Genesis 17:15-16 We all want certain things to change. The leper in today’s Gospel reading wanted Jesus to heal him. Jesus touched him, and “immediately the man’s leprosy disappeared” (Mt 8:3). Sometimes we want things to change not by disappearing but by appearing. For instance, Abram and Sarai wanted to have a child. We likewise want changes in our health, families, jobs, financial situations, churches, politics, and...

“So Sarai said to Abram: ‘You are responsible for this outrage against me. I myself gave my maid to your embrace.’ ” –Genesis 16:5 Sarai regretted telling Abraham to have children through her maidservant, Hagar. We likewise regret some of the decisions we have made, and we should especially regret our sins. When we regret our sins, we should not follow the example of Sarai and blame others (see Gn 16:5). Nor should we take out our regrets on others, as Sarai did to Hagar (Gn 16:6). Nevertheless, when we sin, we are inevitably tempted to commit more sins to...

“From my mother’s womb He gave me my name.” –Isaiah 49:1 Certain liturgical celebrations have taken on new significance in our “culture of death.” For instance, the feast of the Holy Innocents is more important than ever before. Also, the feasts of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Immaculate Conception, and the Birthday of St. John the Baptizer have added significance nowadays. These feast days show that the Lord is doing great works in and through our lives from the moment of our being conceived and continuing throughout the nine months in our mothers’ wombs. While in his mother’s womb, John...