26th Sunday Ordinary Time Today, Jesus’s disciples complain about an outsider driving out demons, something they had failed at earlier in the chapter. But their complaint is not that this person was healing or does so in Jesus’s name. They … Read More
25th Sunday Ordinary Time To get the full irony of the disciples’ argument today—who among them was the greatest—we need to know what happened in the section before and what we’ll hear in the following section of Mark’s ninth chapter. … Read More
24th Sunday Ordinary Time Today’s Gospel reading is the turning point in Mark’s narrative, where we hear for the first time since Mark 1:1 Jesus referred to as “Christ” and the cost of following him. From now on, Jesus’s road … Read More
23rd Sunday Ordinary Time “Be opened,” Jesus says to the man who was deaf and mute. But be opened to what? First, be opened to fullness of life. The man’s inability to hear or speak cut him off from the … Read More
22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – B In Ordinary Time, the second reading usually does not relate to the other readings since it is semi-continuous, proclaimed from one chapter to the next over a course of weeks. On this Sunday, however, … Read More
21st Sunday Ordinary Time – B Five Sundays ago, the crowd wanted to make Jesus king. Now, most of those who have stayed through his long sermon about bread from heaven and eating and drinking his own flesh and blood … Read More
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – B Virgin Mother, Bride of Christ, Mother of God—these are rich, profound, true titles for Mary. But the Magnificat gives us another, one just as true and deep. [T]he root of the name … Read More
19th Sunday Ordinary Time – B A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. The knowledge itself is not dangerous—we should always strive to grow in knowledge—but relying on our knowledge alone is. That’s how today’s Gospel begins, with … Read More
18th Sunday Ordinary Time – B In today’s revelation of Jesus’s true identity, the crowd (who stands in for us) misses the boat entirely. They keep asking Jesus the wrong questions: When did you get here? What can we do? … Read More
17th Sunday Ordinary Time – B Today we shift to John’s Gospel for a series of Sunday reflections on the bread of life. We will hear these passages as eucharistic, leading us perhaps to focus primarily on Communion. However, John … Read More