Tagged: message of the day

“Many will come from the east and the west and will find a place at the banquet in the kingdom of God.” —Matthew 8:11 Happy Advent and new Church year! God is doing big things. We can grow accustomed to thinking of the Christian life in terms of small gains seemingly no larger than mustard seeds; we likewise think of large difficulties, many crosses and failures, and rejections of the Lord by our loved ones. In the readings from the first Monday of Advent, we hear that “many will come” from all directions (Mt 8:11) to the Lord. They will...

Jesus “watched two brothers, Simon now known as Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. He said to them, ‘Come after Me and I will make you fishers of men.’ ” —Matthew 4:18-19 In the Greek Church, St. Andrew is revered as the “Protoclete,” that is, the “first called” (see Jn 1:40). Andrew should also be revered as the “first who called,” for, after being called by Jesus, “the first thing he did was seek out his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah!’ ” (Jn 1:41) We need to...

“The king…refused to eat.” —Daniel 6:19 On this Thanksgiving Day in the USA, a day of great feasting, the Church reads to us about not eating. King Darius couldn’t eat out of concern for the doomed Daniel (Dn 6:19). The hungry lions couldn’t eat, since God was protecting Daniel (Dn 6:23). This physical inability to eat has its counterpart in the spiritual life. Spiritually anorexic people won’t eat the spiritual food they need. They have so stuffed themselves with the things of the world (Phil 3:19) that they fail to realize that their souls are starving to death for lack...

“King Belshazzar gave a great banquet.” —Daniel 5:1 King Belshazzar gave a last supper for his friends (Dn 5:1). This banquet featured revelry, blasphemy, idolatry (Dn 5:4), insolence, pride (Dn 5:20), terror (Dn 5:9), betrayal (Dn 5:30), and finally, the death of the host (Dn 5:30). King Jesus also gave a Last Supper for His friends (Lk 22:8ff). Like Belshazzar’s banquet, this last supper also featured betrayal (Lk 22:21) and the death of the Host (Mt 26:31ff). However, Jesus’ Last Supper featured selfless love (Lk 22:15), humble service (Jn 13:4ff), the Bread of Life, a new covenant in Jesus’ blood...