Category: Bible Study

“You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake.” –Leviticus 19:16 Lent prepares us to celebrate the Resurrection. But it’s hard for someone starving to death to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. It’s also hard for Christians to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection victory when they are at the same time allowing people to starve. “How can God’s love survive in a man who has enough of this world’s goods yet closes his heart to his brother when he sees him in need?” (1 Jn 3:17) Jesus...

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, then returned from the Jordan and was conducted by the Spirit into the desert for forty days.” —Luke 4:1-2 Lent is imitating Jesus’ forty days in the desert. Jesus began His “Lent” filled with and led by the Holy Spirit (see Lk 4:1). He also came out of the Lenten desert “in the power of the Spirit” (Lk 4:14). The Holy Spirit directed Jesus every step of the way through the “first Lent.” Are we letting the Spirit direct us this Lent? (Gal 5:25) Are we fasting, praying, giving alms, and evangelizing in the...

“The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up.” —Isaiah 58:12 When Levi decided to be a tax collector (see Lk 5:27), he separated himself from his people and his family. This perhaps showed that his family relationships were in ruins. But if his family relationships were not yet completely ruined, Levi proceeded to ruin them by becoming a tax collector, an accomplice of the Roman oppression and an enemy of the Jewish people. After Levi followed Jesus and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this man whose house had...

“When the day comes that the Groom is taken away, then they will fast.” —Matthew 9:15 Jesus promised that after His Ascension His followers would fast. Consequently, throughout history Christians have fasted frequently, regularly, and joyfully. Pope St. John Paul II has even taught that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil (The Gospel of Life, 100; cf Mt 17:21, NAB). Fasting is a powerful privilege through which we can be in the forefront of the Lord’s great plan of salvation. The Lord has made fasting so important that the devil attempts...

“The Son of Man…must first endure many sufferings, be rejected by the elders, the high priests and the scribes, and be put to death, and then be raised up on the third day.” –Luke 9:22 Jesus describes a journey through the swamps of suffering, the cliffs of rejection, the valley of death, to the tomb of Resurrection. Then He asks who would be willing to follow Him on that journey. Whoever wishes to become His follower “must deny his very self, take up his cross each day,” and follow in Jesus’ steps (Lk 9:23). Our inner self is repelled by...