Category: Daily Reflections

“If your hand is your difficulty, cut it off! Better for you to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and enter Gehenna with its unquenchable fire.” –Mark 9:43 Years ago, I had to change a flat tire at night. While attempting to remove the tire, the jack shifted unexpectedly, and the car fell off the jack. My fingers were pinned underneath the tire. Because the full weight of the car kept my fingers pressed to the road, I could not pull my fingers free, no matter how hard I tried. After some time, praise God, some passersby found...

“The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of men.” –Luke 9:44 Jesus said to His disciples: “Pay close attention to what I tell you” (Lk 9:44). Then He told them about the sufferings He would endure (Lk 9:44). The disciples did not grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words at all (Lk 9:45). In fact, they did not even want to understand the Lord. “They were afraid to question Him about the matter” (Lk 9:45). This unwillingness to hear the message of the cross continues to the present day. The message of the cross is the power of...

“Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes? But now take courage.” –Haggai 2:3-4 Since Vatican II, the Church in the Western world has seen the closing of parishes, high schools, seminaries, retreat centers, and other Catholic institutions. Some of these institutions the Lord wants to rebuild. For example, in 1999 Bishop Terry Steib of Memphis reopened five inner city schools. In 1998, the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska bought a hospital and converted it into a seminary. The diocese...

“Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” –Haggai 1:4 Timing is of the essence. “This people says: ‘Not now has the time come to rebuild the house of the Lord’ ” (Hg 1:2). They thought it was time to dwell in their own paneled houses while God’s house was in ruins. The prophet Haggai disagreed and prophesied: “Now is the acceptable time” (see 2 Cor 6:2). Now was the time to rebuild the Temple. The people’s timing was bad because they had their priorities wrong. Their priorities were wrong...

“In my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees.” –Ezra 9:5 Ezra was wretched, ashamed, confounded, and heaped with guilt (Ezr 9:5-6). He was so distraught because of mixed marriages. Many Jewish people had married Gentiles (see Ezr 9:2). In our society, where men are even trying to “marry” men and women trying to “marry” women, we find it hard to relate to Ezra’s anguish. However, in the new covenant, we have even more reason to be concerned about mixed marriages. In the old covenant, when Jews married Gentiles, they married those who were not...