Sunday Scriptures

Truly he is risen, alleluia!

Banksy, the anonymous English street artist and vandal, once said, “You die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.”

One of the most helpful insights I gained in seminary was learned from therapist Paul Ruff during a talk he gave on the importance of friendship in the priesthood: the deepest desire of the human heart is to love and be loved, to know another and to be known by one whom we love.

Several years ago my car was broken into, and they stole a bag that contained all of my personal information.

In our readings for this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are reminded what a great gift freedom is in our lives.

We are accustomed to thinking of our Catholic religion as the “fulfillment” of the Judaism that came before it, and rightly so. But it would be a one-sided interpretation of the idea of “fulfillment” to mean by it simply “superiority” with respect to Judaism. In a very real sense Christianity is in fact a different religion from Judaism as it was practiced in the time of Jesus.

Last weekend’s readings marked both the first Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, concluding the celebration of Christmastide. It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that the Gospel for this Sunday is not taken from Matthew and also recounts John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus in the Gospel of John. Nevertheless the first reading, psalm and Gospel assigned for this weekend all invite us to consider what it means to be the Servant of God.

The Thanksgiving week snowstorm caused me to do something I had planned to do for months: set up all the bells and whistles on my TV.