Scripture

April 24, 2019

May 5: Third Sunday of Easter

The Scripture readings for this Sunday continue the tone of exuberant joy just right for this time between Easter and Pentecost.

April 24, 2019

April 28: Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday

Holy Week this year was marked by a tragedy that seemed to affect the whole world — the terrible fire that ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, one of the most beautiful and historic buildings ever created.

April 10, 2019

April 21: Easter Sunday

Biblical scholar Dominican Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor once told me one of his memorable experiences giving a tour of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Known not only for his erudition but for his quick Irish wit, Murphy-O’Connor was a professor at Jerusalem’s Ecole Biblique and an expert on the history of the Holy Land.

April 10, 2019

April 14: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

With Palm Sunday we begin the most intense and solemn week of the church’s liturgical year. While each of the Scripture readings for today is rich and provocative, the Passion narrative tops the list. As we enact the drama of Jesus’ triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, which is the center of Jewish religious life then and now, we know that looming ahead is the dark tunnel of suffering that Jesus will have to endure.

March 20, 2019

April 7: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Thank God for the early Christian scribe who tucked the story of the woman caught in adultery into John’s Gospel. Virtually all Christian scholars believe that this account was not originally part of John’s Gospel because it is missing in some ancient manuscripts and is told in a Greek style that is quite different from the rest of the book. Some speculate it was part of the Gospel of Luke’ (who emphasizes Jesus’ mercy) and somehow was misplaced.

March 20, 2019

March 31: Fourth Sunday of Lent

What is your favorite passage in the Bible? I suspect that Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son read this Sunday in Lent would surely be in the top five.

March 20, 2019

March 24: Third Sunday of Lent

The first reading for this Sunday is one of the most famous passages in all the Bible. While tending his father-in-law’s flock in the Sinai desert, Moses sees a startling apparition. An “angel of the Lord” appears to the future leader of Israel amid flames engulfing a bush, but with the bush not being consumed by the flames.

March 7, 2019

March 17: Second Sunday of Lent

The first reading for this Sunday is the account of God’s covenant with Abraham, the father of many nations. God begins with the amazing promise that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God realizes this is a big number and gives Abraham an out — count them, “if you can.”

March 7, 2019

March 10: First Sunday of Lent

As we begin Lent, the Sunday readings place us in the desert, a region of great meaning for the Bible. The desert referred to is the Sinai desert — the trackless wasteland that separates Egypt from Israel (both bordering on Gaza, a tortured patch of land much in the news these days).

February 20, 2019

March 3: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The so-called “wisdom” literature of the Bible is represented in books such as Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes (also known as Qohelet), some of the Psalms and in Sirach, the book from which our first reading is taken this Sunday.
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