The BreadCast

(2Cor.9:6-11; Ps.112:1-4,9; Mt.6:1-6,16-18) "Keep your deeds of mercy secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you." In the ground, hidden and secret, the seed is planted. From the womb of the earth it sprouts, and gives its yield. We plant the seed; God provides the seed. And it is through His power that anything which we plant grows and increases. So it is with our generous acts, as...

(2Cor.8:1-9; Ps.146:2,5-9; Mt.5:43-48) "Love your enemies, pray for your persecutors." Our psalm today begins with praise of God and the proclamation of the happiness of those "whose hope is in the Lord," for it is He who "gives food to the hungry" and "raises up those that were bowed down." Freeing captives, giving sight to the blind, protecting strangers… such is our God and Father. And in our g...

(2Cor.6:1-10; Ps.98:1-4; Mt.5:38-42) "When a person strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer him the other." "Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!" Alleluia! And how do we know the salvation of the Lord except by the cross. This is our joy. These "difficulties, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, and riots"; the "hard work, sleepless nights, and fastings" – these crosses...

(Prv.8:22-31; Ps.8:2,4-9; Rm.5:1-5; Jn.16:12-15) "Everything that the Father has is mine." From the beginning Jesus is with the Father, one with the Father, the pure reflection of His being which cannot be separated from the substance of the Father. Through Him all things were made, and indeed He is reflected in all things. And it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, who takes from what is the Fath...

(2Cor.5:14-21; Ps.103:1-4,8-9,11-12; Mt.5:33-37) "The love of Christ impels us who have reached the conviction that since one died for all, all died." How strong is Paul's "yes" for the Lord. With what ardor does he cry out: "The old order is passed away; now all is new!" How purely he is led in the Spirit to call to our very souls, "In Christ's name: be reconciled to God!" He has no need to swear...

(2Cor.4:7-15; Ps.116:10-11,15-18; Mt.5:27-32) "While we live we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh." In our gospel we continue to see how the grace of Jesus supersedes the Law of Moses. Yesterday we were told not only must we not murder, but that we must not even be angry with or speak ill of another. Today Jesus t...

(2Cor.3:15-4:1,3-6; Ps.85:9-14; Mt.5:20-26) "See the splendor of the gospel showing forth the glory of Christ." Today the gospel is preached: Jesus, the image of God, has come among us, "glory dwelling in our land," and removed the veil from our understanding so that now we "are being transformed from glory to glory into His very image by the Lord who is the Spirit." The words of life are spoken b...

(2Cor.3:4-11; Ps.99:5-9; Mt.5:17-19) "Not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true." Jesus comes to fulfill the law and the prophets. The law watches over us while we are here in this world. It guards us and puts to death the sin that is inherent in our earthly nature. There is great glory in this blessed protection, as is w...

(2Cor.1:18-22; Ps.119:129-133,135; Mt.5:13-16) "God is the one who firmly establishes us." "Light of the world" and "salt of the earth" – this is what we are by the power of God. It is by Him we are "set on a hill" to give "light to all in the house"; it is we who preserve the integrity of creation. It is a holy call and a demanding one, and we should not waver in our resolve to follow the Lord an...

(2Cor.1:1-7; Ps.34:2-9; Mt.5:1-12) "Blessed are those persecuted for holiness' sake; the reign of God is theirs." Here is the core teaching of our faith. Here are the beatitudes, the call to sweet humility which flows like blessed honey from the lips of our Savior. And that teaching is that the humbled shall be exalted, that those who mourn and sorrow for the lack of love we find in this tainted w...

(Acts 2:1-11; Ps.104:1,24,29-31,34; Rom.8:8-17; Jn.14:15-16,23b-26) "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." The Spirit of God is with those who keep His commandments; and His Commandment is to love. In such love all become sons of God, all are made one in His Name. (Spirit of Love, anoint us.) In our first reading t...

(Acts 7:55-60; Ps.97:1-2,6-7,9; Rv.22:12-14,16-17,20; Jn.17:20-26) "I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me." The Father gave Jesus His glory. It is Jesus' own glory He owns, for He had it "before the foundation of the world," but now the Father has given it to Him anew in His incarnation as the Son of Man; and in His death and resurrection He s...

(Zeph.3:14-18 or Rom.12:9-16; Is.12:2-6; Lk.1:39-56) "Sing praise to the Lord for His glorious achievement; let this be known throughout all the earth." How can we capture the joy of this day? For here is the sign of our promised salvation; here we find the first apostolic act in Mary's bringing the Word of God, so recently conceived in her womb, to Elizabeth, and to her son John the Baptist. "Sho...

(Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Ps.67:2-6,8; Rv.21:10-14,22-23; Jn.14:23-29) "The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." And so is "the holy city Jerusalem" protected; and so are its boundaries defined. And so we come to the apostles to find the true teaching of Christ. When "there arose no little dissensio...

(Acts 14:21-27; Ps.145:1,8-13; Rv.21:1-5a; Jn.13:31-33a,34-35) "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race." This is the promise on which we set our hearts, this vision of John. This is the word which encourages us to look forward to the coming of our God in the fullness of His presence amongst us. How we long to be His bride in heaven! John indeed sees the "new Jerusalem, coming down out of he...

(Acts 9:31-42; Ps.116:12-17; Jn.6:60-69) "We have come to believe." Yes, Peter professes for the Twelve (except Judas, of course), "We are convinced that you are God's holy one." They have heard His words and seen His works, and despite the difficulty of this latest and most challenging of words – that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood – their faith is not shaken as is that of so many ot...

(Acts 13:14,43-52; Ps.100:1-3,5; Rv.7:9,14b-17; Jn.10:27-30) "The Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water." Joy is our promise in the Lord, brothers and sisters. Absolute, eternal, universal joy. And though we may suffer persecution now, "the time of great distress" upon us but provides the means, the water, by which all saints "have...

(Acts 5:27-32,40b-41; Ps.30:2,4-6,11-13; Rv.5:11-14; Jn.21:1-19) "You changed my mourning into dancing." Throughout our readings today we witness the glory the risen Lord effects by His sacrifice, the change of fate that comes by the Savior. In our first reading, though the apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin for persecution, they leave their presence rejoicing, happy to have "suffer[ed] dis...

(1Cor.15:1-8; Ps.19:2-5; Jn.14:6-14) "The man who has faith in me will do the works I do." What is the message the apostles preach "to the ends of the world"? What is "the glory of God" that "the heavens declare" and "the firmament proclaims"? It is none other than Jesus' words to Thomas: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me"; it is His answer to Ph...

(Acts 5:12-16; Ps.118:1-4,22-27; Rv.1:9-13,17-19; Jn.20:19-31) "When I caught sight of Him, I fell down at His feet as though dead." But Jesus "touched [John] with His right hand and said, 'Do not be afraid.'" Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" as he humbled himself at the sight of the risen Christ who had appeared before him, and so he was blessed with faith. The first believers "carried the...

(Dn.3:14-20,91-92,95; Dn.3:52-56; Jn.8:31-42) "The truth will set you free." Sin binds. Like the cords with which "the strongest men in [Nebuchadnezzar's] army bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego," sin fetters our souls and casts us "into the white-hot furnace." "Everyone who lives in sin is the slave of sin." But for those like these three faithful servants who "will not… worship the golden stat...

(Is.43:16-21; Ps.126:1-6; Phil.3:8-14; Jn.8:1-11) "Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal." In times past the Lord opened "a way in the sea" for the Israelites to pass through, while Pharoah's army He "snuffed out and quenched like a wick." Afterward, He "brought back the captives of Zion" from the lands to which they had been sc...

(Ex.32:7-14; Ps.106:4,19-23; Jn.5:31-47) "If you believed Moses you would then believe me, for it was about me that he wrote." As Moses wrote, so Jesus speaks. As Moses wrote, so Jesus is. The eternal life to which the Scriptures testify is now in our midst. The Word has come to life; the Law is now fulfilled. The "form [we] have never seen" now stands before us. The "voice [we] have never heard"...

(Jos.5:9a,10-12; Ps.34:2-7,9; 2Cor.5:17-21; Lk.15:1-3,11-32) "Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you." As the Israelites now realize their redemption from slavery in Egypt as they step into the Promised Land, so the prodigal son comes to his own redemption, his own release from slavery as a hired hand in a foreign land, as he returns to his father's house. Yes, as the Israelites "ate...

(Ex.3:1-8a,13-15; Ps.103:1-4,6-8,11; 1Cor.10:1-6,10-12; Lk.13:1-9) "The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed." Thus does the Lord God appear to Moses and call him to rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians. He has "witnessed the affliction of His people"; He has "heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers" and "know[s] well what they are suffering." And so, by th...