Category: Daily Reflections

“You have heard the commandment, ‘You shall love your countryman but hate your enemy.’ My command to you is: love your enemies.” –Matthew 5:43-44 Mass Readings: March 11 First: Exodus 32:7-14; Resp: Psalm 106:19-23; Gospel: John 5:31-47 Alexander Pope captured in a few words a great Biblical insight when he wrote: “To err is human; to forgive divine.” It is humanly impossible to forgive. Yet God, Who forgives by His divine power, offers us the grace to forgive. This is obvious because the Lord commands us to forgive: immediately (see Mt 5:25), repeatedly, even 70 x 7 (Mt 18:22), sacrificially...

“What I say to you is: everyone who grows angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” –Matthew 5:22 Mass Readings: March 10 First: Isaiah 49:8-15;Resp: Psalm 145:8-9,13-14,17-18;Gospel: John 5:17-30 Although there is such a thing as righteous anger, most people are not righteously angry, but sinfully angry. By God’s grace, we must repent of anger immediately, or we will “be liable to judgment” and risk “the fires of Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). Until we repent of anger, we cannot proceed with worship and prayer (Mt 5:23-24). In anger, we stop communicating with God, which causes our faith to erode...

“When I called, You answered me; You built up strength within me.” –Psalm 138:3 Mass Readings: March 9 First: Ezekiel 47:1-9,12; Resp: Psalm 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; Gospel: John 5:1-16 Queen Esther’s whole race was scheduled to be exterminated. The Jewish people were so pitifully weak that they couldn’t do anything politically or militantly to stop the genocide. They had “their backs to the wall.” They were alone and had no help but God (Est C:14). So Esther, on behalf of her people, prayed: “Save us by Your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but You, O Lord”...

“The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” –Jonah 3:5 Mass Readings: March 8 First: Isaiah 65:17-21; Resp: Psalm 30:2,4-6,11-13; Gospel: John 4:43-54 One-hundred-and-twenty-thousand very wicked people converted to the Lord in one day through a one-sentence prophecy from Jonah, a vengeful, reluctant prophet. And we “have a greater than Jonah here” (Lk 11:32). We have Jesus, the Savior of the world, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Son of God. In fact, not only is Jesus greater than Jonah, but each Christian is greater...

“This is how you are to pray: ‘Our Father in heaven…’ ” –Matthew 6:9 Mass Readings: March 7 First: Joshua 5:9,10-12; Resp: Psalm 34:2-7; Second: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Gospel: Luke 15:1-3,11-32 The “Our Father” is not only a prayer but the Lord’s pattern for all authentic prayer. In the “Our Father,” the Lord teaches us how to pray. St. Augustine taught that the “Our Father” is not only the pattern of prayer but also the criterion for all authentic prayer intentions. Therefore, we should not pray for something unless it fits into the “Our Father.” St. Thomas Aquinas taught that...