Audio Divina

The greatest commandment: Bringing the conflict between Jesus and the leaders of Israel to an end, Jesus astounds them as they attempt to trap him in a debate over the most important law in Israel. He responds by taking them back to their Law, reminding them that Moses instructed that that they must love God (Deuteronomy 6) and love their neighbour (Leviticus 6). These laws have always been with t...

Give to God what belongs to God: The leaders of Israel take the initiative, sending representatives of the Pharisees and some Herodians to trap Jesus. Righteous Religion - the Pharisees - and political convenience - the Herodians - join to pose a question where whatever Jesus answers will be wrong. He will support the Roman tax, and thus offend the Pharisees, or reject it, and thus offend the Hero...

Invitation to a wedding feast: Through the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus continues his questioning of Israel's leadership. But this is no ordinary wedding. It is the wedding feast the king is giving for his son. Continuing the theme of last week's parable, the vineyard becomes a wedding feast. Those invited to the feast reject and even murder those who invite them to the wedding. The king sl...

The stone rejected by the builders that is the keystone: Jesus continues to challenge the leaders of Israel. Adopting the symbol of a Vineyard for God's chosen people, he accuses those who have been entrusted to care for it. They are only interested in themselves. When harvest time comes they refuse to deliver its fruits to the Master. Instead, they slay his messengers the prophets, and even slay...

Putting our lives where our words are: Jesus has now entered Jerusalem, and driven out those who would make the Temple into a robbers' den. He resumes conflict with the leaders of Israel: "the chief priests and the elders of the people." They are forced to admit that it is not so much what you say that matters, but what you do. True religion, as it has been lived by John the Baptist and the tax-co...

The Kingdom of Heaven is different: Jesus' final moment teaching his disciples is dedicated to increasing their understanding of the strangeness of God. The payment of a denarius is agreed between the Master of the vineyard and the workers at the beginning of the day. No further agreement is made. We can understand, and even sympathise with these workers as they see those who arrived late receivin...

Be compassionate as I am compassionate: Peter thinks that we can put a number on the people whom we forgive. Jesus continues to insist on the radical nature of Christian forgiveness with his parable on the behaviour of the two servants. Forgiveness must be practised everywhere and always. Compassion leads the Master to forgive incredible debt; anger and violence is used to deny forgiveness to anot...

See how they love one another: Today's Gospel comes from Matthew's description of to Jesus' formation of disciples. He delivers a discourse on how the Christian community is to behave in a hostile world. Jesus' teaching that we do our best to resolve conflicts among ourselves is challenging. We are to reach out endlessly, so that the community will be unified. Alone, we cannot do this. Thus, as ou...

The challenge of being a disciple of the Son of Man: The faith-filled Peter, the rock upon whom the Church is built, today becomes another rock: a stone, a stumbling block. Jesus must overcome this as he journeys to death and resurrection in Jerusalem. Peter is happy that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the living God. But he has not accepted all the implications of Jesus' being the Son of Man....

The gift of true faith in Jesus: We have seen Peter's little faith in the storm. Today he responds well - on behalf of all believing disciples - to Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" But his confession that Jesus is the Son of Man, the Christ, the Son of God - a faith that we all share - is not something he has arrived at through his own virtue and intelligence. It has been given to him...

Scraps from the Master's Table: Jesus has fed Israel from his table. But they prefer their own ways to his gifts. A Canaanite woman highlights their weakness, and point out the way of true faith to all of us. Aware that she brings nothing to the encounter with Jesus, all she asks is that he fills her emptiness with scraps from the Master's table. Her faith exceeds anything he has met in Israel, an...

"The Mother of My Lord": Immediately prior to this encounter in Luke's gospel tells of the annunciation of John the Baptist to Zechariah, and the annunciation of Jesus to Mary. Now the two mothers meet. The mother of John the Baptist salutes the mother of Jesus as "the Mother of my Lord." Mary's response is to cry out: "He  who is mighty has done great things for me, holy is his name." This Feast...

Jesus' presence to those of little faith: One of the most evocative Gospel stories follows immediately upon the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Jesus, after a moment with his Father, alone on the mountain, comes out of the darkness to his disciples who struggle with the stormy sea but they do not recognise him. After he reveals himself, Peter responds to his summons to come across the sea,...

No Place to Pitch a Tent:   The celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration breaks into the celebrations of the Ordinary Sundays of the year. Disciples have a moment when they experience Jesus as God's messianic son. They would like to stay in that moment forever. But they must come down from the mountain, and follow Jesus on his journey to death and resurrection. Jesus' journey of to glory ca...

You give them something to eat: The multiplication of the loaves and fishes at the lake is a foretaste of the Eucharist, but it is more. Jesus heals the crowds who seek him eagerly, but they must be nourished. The disciples want to send them away, but Jesus takes from their poor quality of loaves and fish, blesses it, and gives it back to them to feed the crowds. Then there are twelve baskets of r...

Treasures both old and new: Jesus has spoken of the inevitable victory of the Kingdom, and the fact that it is gathered from a mixed bag of believers and non-believers. Today Jesus pauses to reflect upon the wonder of the Kingdom but we must not think the Kingdom is a treasure or a pearl. Jesus says we should be prepared to give all we have and can do in order to possess it. But we don't, so he ad...

Growth in the midst of challenges: Jesus continues to teach in parables, so that he might unveil "what has been hidden since the foundation of the world." The presence of God's Kingdom and the presence of evil must always co-exist in our society. What was tiny grows into a great tree, a pinch of yeast produces a beautiful loaf of bread. We must accept that Christian lives have always lived in a mi...

Seed is sown. Will it bear fruit?: Jesus begins to tell a series of parables that will be received by some and rejected by others. The leaders of Israel remain "outside" the Kingdom because their hearts are hardened and yet, the seed is sown, and whatever its reception, an abundant harvest will follow. The growth and spread of the Kingdom cannot be stopped. Turning to his disciples, he explains th...

The necessary yoke and burden: As the Gospel of Matthew moves away from the description of Jesus as a preacher and a healer, he will begin to encounter opposition. Before that begins, we are told that Jesus is so crucial because only He can make God known to those who are open and receptive to his teaching. Once members of his family, we must take on the family discipline: a yoke and a burden that...

The costs and rewards of discipleship: Today's Gospel is dominated by the expression "anyone." That means all of us! We are first challenged by need to put the love of Jesus Christ before all loves, without playing down the centrality of love in our families and elsewhere. Then we are told that there is only one way to find true life, and that is by giving it away. The Gospel closes with examples...

Do not be afraid: Sent out as missionaries of Jesus, he instructs us that we must not fear. There will be difficulties, but we are to trust in God, who cares for the smallest and simplest creature. But we must be prepared to courageously witness to Jesus in society. He will then speak up for us when we come to meet our heavenly Father. Sisters and brothers of Jesus, we must show our preparedness t...

To be Missionaries of Jesus: After a long story of Jesus as a teacher on the mountain (Matt 5-17) and a worker of miracles for the less fortunate (Matt 8-9), Jesus turns to his disciples and commissions them to be missionaries as he is a missionary: dependent upon him, receiving without charge and giving without charge. Presented by world-renowned biblical scholar Rev. Professor Francis J. Moloney...

We are the eucharistic presence of Jesus Christ: All of the Gospels tell of Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and fish by the Lake of Galilee. John reports Jesus' words to his audience who cannot accept that his gift of bread is greater than the gift of manna, a body broken and blood spilt for the life of the world. Presented by world-renowned biblical scholar Rev. Professor Francis J. Moloney S...

The oneness that Love creates: This brief Gospel is one of the most famous texts from the Bible. Behind these few famous words of Jesus lies the secret of what we call the mystery of the Trinity. Try as we may, and many have tried over the centuries, the inner workings of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not known to us. We do know that God the Father so loved the world that he sent his...

The gift of the Spirit puts and end to fear: In the Gospel of John's account of the encounter between the risen Jesus and his disciples, they gather again in the upper room. Before he suffered and died he promised them that he would give them the Holy Spirit. After his resurrection, he comes to them, but they are gathered in fear, the doors firmly locked. Jesus sets them free. The gift of the Spir...