Sunday Scriptures

“What are we waiting for? And what are we going to do about it in the meantime?”

“Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'” Come out of the tomb. Come out of the darkness. Come out of the stench. Come out of death. “Lazarus, come out!” 

Have you ever found yourself dissatisfied while dining at a restaurant? Maybe a special entrée just didn’t live up to your curiosity, excitement and expectations. That bowl of Bolognese left you wanting something a little more.

Every character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece “The Lord of the Rings” faces the temptation to take the One Ring for him or herself. But there are two characters tempted by the Ring in whom we can see more clearly how we might respond to the temptation to sin.

In the Sermon on the Mount recounted in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus warns that the person who calls another “raqa” is answerable to the Sanhedrin, or court. But that was back then. We do not have a Sanhedrin now.

In 2005, Tom Brady was interviewed by 60 Minutes. At that point he had already won three Super Bowls (he’s won seven now).

For the next month and a half, our Sunday lectionary will make its way through the first three chapters of St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.

One of the highlights of a pilgrimage I took to the Holy Land with grandparents from our archdiocese three years ago was to celebrate Sunday Mass in one of the caves outside of Bethlehem where the shepherds were watching their sheep on Christmas night.