Category: Daily Reflections

“God has put us apostles at the end of the line.” –1 Corinthians 4:9 Mass Readings: September 3 First: 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Resp: Psalm 145:17-21;Gospel: Luke 6:1-5 Paul repeatedly published lists of the sufferings of Christians (see 2 Cor 6:4ff; 11:23ff). Paul described the apostles as “men doomed to die in the arena,” “a spectacle to the universe,” “fools on Christ’s account,” sneered at, “hungry and thirsty, poorly clad, roughly treated, wandering about homeless,” insulted, persecuted, and slandered (1 Cor 4:9-13). Paul stated that, in effect, Christians should expect to be treated as the world’s garbage; “that is the present...

“They will surely fast in those days.” –Luke 5:35 Mass Readings: September 2 First: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Resp: Psalm 37:3-6,27-28,39-40; Gospel: Luke 5:33-39 When we are baptized into the new life of Jesus and decide to live our Baptisms, “the old order has passed away; now all is new!” (2 Cor 5:17) Fasting, for example, becomes so new that the Lord uses our fasting to drive out the most entrenched demons (Mt 17:21, NAB), to initiate missionary outreaches (Acts 13:2-3), and to establish leaders for His Church (Acts 14:23). New Testament fasting is often frequent (see 2 Cor 11:27; 6:5)...

“I am a sinful man.” –Luke 5:8 Mass Readings: September 1 First: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Resp: Psalm 24:1-6; Gospel: Luke 5:1-11 After the miraculous catch of fish, “Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord. I am a sinful man’ ” (Lk 5:8). For Simon Peter, this was a flash of light in the midst of a life of self-deception. Peter was indeed a sinful man. He proved it by denying Christ three times (Lk 22:61) after boasting that he would die for Christ (Lk 22:33). Peter was a sinful man. Nonetheless, Christ chose him to...

“For as long as there are jealousy and quarrels among you, are you not of the flesh?” –1 Corinthians 3:3 Mass Readings: August 31 First: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Resp: Psalm 33:12-15,20-21; Gospel: Luke 4:38-44 The Corinthians were not able to function well as Christians because they were “infants in Christ” (1 Cor 3:1). They were spiritually weak because of spiritual malnutrition, for they could not take solid food (1 Cor 3:2). They were malnourished because they were divided (1 Cor 3:4), and vice versa. Division results in spiritual malnutrition, weakness, and deprivation. Thus, division is an extremely serious problem and...

“The spiritual man, on the other hand, can appraise everything.” –1 Corinthians 2:15 Mass Readings: August 30 First: 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Resp: Psalm 145:8-14; Gospel: Luke 4:31-37 The Spirit of God is teaching us everything we need to know (Jn 14:26) and guiding us to all truth (Jn 16:13). However, only the spiritual person can accept what the Spirit is teaching (1 Cor 2:13-15). The merely natural person “cannot come to know such teaching because it must be appraised in a spiritual way” (1 Cor 2:14). Yet we should be able to accept the Spirit’s teaching, since we are spiritual...