The BreadCast

(Gn.15:5-12,17-18; Ps.27:1,7-9,13-14; Phil.3:17-4:1; Lk.9:28-36) "A cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud." As darkness thus covered the three apostles, so "a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him." Both find themselves surrounded by darkness and filled with fear. In just this way the Lord brings His revelatio...

(Dt.26:4-10; Ps.91:1-2,10-15; Rom.10:8-13; Lk.4:1-13) "To His angels He has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways." Can there be any doubt that the Lord God will bear Jesus up through His temptations in the desert, that He "will deliver Him and glorify Him"? For if "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," will the Father leave His Son "in distress"? If He...

(Sir.35:1-12; Ps.50:5-8,14,23; Mk.10:28-31) "The just man's sacrifice is most pleasing, nor will it ever be forgotten." Peter is moved today to voice his fear that all that he and his fellow apostles have offered, even their very lives, will not be enough to secure the kingdom of God. But Jesus reassures all who serve Him: "I give you my word, there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sis...

(Sir.17:19-27; Ps.32:1-2,5-7,11; Mk.10:17-27) "Jesus fixed His gaze on them and said, 'For man it is impossible but not for God.'" With these incisive words and particularly with this intent look, Jesus "encourages those who are losing hope." His disciples are "completely overwhelmed" at His statement: "It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdo...

(Sir.27:4-7; Ps.92:2-3,13-16; 1Cor.15:54-58; Lk.6:39-45) "Be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord." Brothers and sisters, "in the Lord your labor is not in vain," for "the just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow." If you are "planted in the house of the Lord," "vigorous and sturdy" shall you ever be, "bear[ing] fruit even in old ag...

(Sir.17:1-15; Ps.103:13-18; Mk.10:13-16) "Let the children come to me and do not hinder them." O how the Lord "looks with favor upon [our] hearts, and shows [us] His glorious works"! And because "His majestic glory their eyes beheld, His glorious voice their ears heard," so the "people were bringing their little children to Jesus to have Him touch them," so they were offering their precious loved...

(Sir.6:5-17; Ps.119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk.10:1-12) "They are no longer two but one flesh." How much more clearly could the Lord speak of the unity found in marriage and so the respect due this sacrament? How better could He get His point across to you that marriage is indissoluble, that it is not to be played with, that you commit adultery as you consider divorcing your spouse? "At the beginning o...

(Sir.5:1-8; Ps.1:1-4,6,40:50; Mk.9:41-50) "Mercy and anger are alike with Him; upon the wicked alights His wrath." "The way of the wicked vanishes." It must vanish. It cannot but vanish, for there is no place for wickedness in the kingdom of God. And so, what is wicked must "be thrown into Gehenna": what is to "enter life" must be purified. Thus does the Lord command – Cut off your hand! Cut off y...

(Sir.4:11-19; Ps.119:165,168,171-172,174-175; Mk.9:38-40) "Those who serve her serve the Holy One; those who love her the Lord loves." Such is wisdom, she who "instructs her children and admonishes those who seek her," she under whose counsel we become the children of God. And I cannot help but think as I contemplate this personification of wisdom, how well and how appropriately she is embodied by...

(Sir.2:1-11; Ps.37:3-5,18-19,27-28,39-40; Mk.9:30-37) "My son, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials." Is Jesus not "teaching His disciples in this vein" when He speaks of His imminent death, a death they shall share, and calls them to "remain the least one of all and the servant of all," even as He is? Their arguing about importance reveals that they have not understood who...

(Sir.1:1-10; Ps.93:1-2,5; Mk.9:14-29) "There is but one, wise and truly awe-inspiring, seated upon His throne: It is the Lord." "The Lord is King, in splendor robed," and He alone knows "wisdom's root" and all "her subtleties"; for it is He who created her and "poured her forth upon all His works." And so He alone, whose "throne stands firm from of old," He alone understands all things, and can an...

(1Sm.26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23; Ps.103:1-4,8,10,12-13; 1Cor.15:45-49; Lk.6:27-38) "Who can lay hands on the Lord's anointed and remain unpunished?" This does David say of Saul the king of Israel – of him who has come into the desert to hunt David down and kill him – even as he stands beside a sleeping Saul, well able to "nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear." But even though it seems tha...

(1Pt.5:1-4; Ps.23:1-6; Mt.16:13-19) "On this rock I will build my Church." And Simon's name is changed to "Peter", which means "Rock", to signify that here is the chief shepherd of the Church, upon whom the Church on earth rests. It is he to whom Jesus gives "the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Though all the apostles are given the power to bind and loose, it is Peter who leads – "a fellow elder"...

(Gn.11:1-9; Ps.33:10-15; Mk.8:34-9:1) "What profit does a man show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?" Listen to what the men of old said among themselves at a time when "the whole world spoke the same language, using the same words." As they were migrating, they stopped in a valley and declared: "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky,...

(Gn.9:1-13; Ps.102:16-23,29; Mk.8:27-33) "The children of your servants shall abide, and their posterity shall continue in your presence." In our first reading from Genesis, God remakes the world. As once He sent forth Adam and Eve upon their creation, so now He blesses Noah and his sons with the same words: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth." Here we are reminded that "in the image of G...

(Gn.8:6-13,20-22; Ps.116:12-15,17-19; Mk.8:22-26) "Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up." A return to earth, the flood waters having ceased. A new day dawns in this "the first month, on the first day of the month." The world is made anew, and it shall last, and man shall last upon it, until the last day comes. Here is the second Creation, t...

(Gn.6:5-8,7:1-5,10; Ps.29:1-4,9-11; Mk.8:14-21) "The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the Lord, over vast waters." "Mighty" indeed is the voice of God, but who can hear it? Who listens to its "majestic" ringing in their ears? In the time of Noah the Lord's "heart was grieved," for He "saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but...

(Gn.4:1-15,25; Ps.50:1,8,14,16-17,20-21; Mk.8:11-13) "Sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." Thus does the Lord encourage Cain not to hang his head at his failures in worship but to learn from his errors and be strong. Here already in Scripture we see how redemption is possible, how God gives us power to conquer sin. But Cain does not fight off the...

(Jer.17:5-8; Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5; 1Cor.15:12,16-20; Lk.6:17,20-26) "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all." For His reward is in heaven; His kingdom is not of the earth. And our faith is in His resurrection. It is not to this world we come, not in the things of the earth we make our boast, for he "who seeks his strength in flesh" is he "whose heart turns...

(Gn.3:9-24; Ps.90:1-6,12-13; Mk.8:1-10) "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." Because of the fall we come face-to-face with this truth: our own mortality, our own humility, that we are but a creature made from the dust of the earth. And this truth we must understand. Because we have "eaten from the tree of which [God] had forbidden [us] to eat," "thorns and thistles" the earth brings forth...

(Gn.3:1-8; Ps.32:1-2,5-7; Mk.7:31-37) "The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked." How different this opening of the eyes of Adam and Eve is from the opening of the deaf man's ears in our gospel; for our first parents' eyes were opened unto blindness, but the deaf mute's ears and tongue only to light. Why this difference? Why such contrast in the freeing of the s...

(Gn.2:18-25; Ps.128:1-5; Mk.7:24-30) "A man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." And Jesus leaves His Father's side and His mother's care, and takes to wife His chosen people. From His side indeed we are born, and become His holy family. To the "sons of the household" Jesus comes; among the Israelites He walks, calling them to His table to eat...

(Gn.2:4-9,15-17; Ps.104:1-2,27-30; Mk.7:14-23) "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being." In addition, "out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food." These would feed the body of the man. But only spirit feeds the soul. Body and soul. They meet...

(Gn.1:20-2:4; Ps.8:2,4-9; Mk.7:1-13) "God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him." At God's word "the water teem[s] with an abundance of living creatures… birds fly beneath the dome of the sky," and "the earth bring[s] forth all kinds of living creatures," too. And "God saw how good it was." Then God conceived the crown of His creation and said, "Let us make man in our image,...

(Gn.1:1-19; Ps.104:1-2,5-6,10,12,24,31,35; Mk.6:53-56) "How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all." It is the Lord who "fixed the earth upon its foundation not to be moved forever," and "with the ocean, as with a garment [He] covered it" – "the earth is full of His creatures." By the Word of His mouth all comes into being, and is sustained, sustained in the goodness...