The BreadCast

(Jas. 4:13-17;   Ps.49:2-3,6-11,Mt.5:3;   Mk.9:38-40) “Anyone who is not against us is with us.” And whoever is not with the Lord is against Him.  There are only two ways by which a man may walk.  We choose to place our lives in the hands of God, or we worship the things of this earth. Indeed, anyone who “perform[s] a miracle in [His] name” is with Him, for a tree is known by its fruit.  If indeed...

(Jas.4:1-10;   Ps.55:7-11,23;   Mk.9:30-37)  “In the city I see violence and strife; day and night they prowl about upon its walls.” The violence this world holds is known most poignantly, of course, in “the Son of Man… [being] delivered into the hands of men who… put Him to death,” but exists most pervasively and fundamentally in our own bodies, insofar as they are conformed to the spirit of the...

(Jas.3:13-18;   Ps.19:8-10,15;   Mk.9:14-29)  “The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye.” What is the wisdom of which James speaks in our first reading but this enlightening of the eye and the mind by following the command of the Lord?  It is the words and the wisdom of Jesus, reflected clearly in the Lord’s own life, James relates to the waiting ear this day.  What does he instruct...

(2Sm.15:13-14,30,16:5-13;   Ps.3:2-7;   Mk.5:1-20)  “Many are saying of me, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’” Today David’s sins rise to his neck, and he is persecuted for them.  But in accepting the persecution as chastisement from the hand of God, David regains his kingly stature, becoming once again humble and obedient to the Lord. David’s son Absalom has successfully led a rebellion aga...

(1Jn.5:5-13;   Ps.147:12-15,19-20;   Mk.1:7-11) “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”  How reassuring John is to us who believe – “I have written this to you to make you realize that you possess eternal life” – for how easily we can forget the grace that is ours “in the name of the Son of God.”  How sure he is.  How clear in his explanation.  How loving.  One has little reason t...

(1Jn.3:11-21;   Ps.100:1-5;   Jn.1:43-51) “We should love one another.”  In our gospel, “first [Jesus] came upon Philip” – whose name means “love” – and invited him to follow Him.  Love brought with him one in whom “there is no guile,” and he (Nathanael) declared openly to the Lord: “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”  And so we must all be of love, and be without deceit.  We mus...

(Is.35:1-10;   Ps.85:9-14,Is.35:4;   Lk.5:17-26)   “A highway will be there, called the holy way.”   Jesus is the highway; holy is He!  He is the stream that “will burst forth in the desert.”  It is He who “strengthen[s] the hands that are feeble [and] make[s] firm the knees that are weak,” that they might walk along His way.  It is He who forgives sins.  For “no one unclean may pass over” the saf...

(Rm.11:1-2,11-12,25-29;   Ps.94:12-15,17-18;   Lk.14:1,7-11)   “The Lord will not cast off His people, nor abandon His inheritance.”   Today the gifts and call of the Israelites, which are “irrevocable,” are spoken of beautifully in our readings. Indeed, the majority of Jews rejected and even persecuted Jesus and His followers.  But as Paul tells us, the Lord has always and will always leave a rem...

(Rm.8:18-25;   Ps.126:1-6;   Lk.13:18-21)   “Hoping for what we cannot see means awaiting it with patient endurance.”   We cannot see the coming of the kingdom of heaven.  It comes so gradually; it rises imperceptibly, “like yeast which a woman took to knead into three measures of flour.”  It grows like the tiny mustard seed, which “became a large shrub and the birds of the air nested in its branc...

(Rm.4:13,16-18;   Ps.105:6-9,42-43;   Lk.12:8-12)   “All depends on faith, everything is a grace.”   Faith is our father; it brings us to life for it makes us children of “the God who restores the dead to life and calls into being those things which had not been.”  By faith we entrust ourselves into God’s hands and become as Abraham, who is “our father in the sight of God in whom he believed.”  “H...

(Zec.8:20-23;   Ps.87:1-7,Zec.8:23;   Lk.9:51-56)   “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”   God is with us, brothers and sisters.  And though all upon earth turn their faces from Him now, though in ignorance they reject Him and our preaching of His Word – there shall come a day when all nations find their home in Him.  In that day the Lord shall reign. As Jesus sets His fac...

(Zec.8:1-8;   Ps.102:16-23,29;   Lk.9:46-50)   “The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in her streets.”   “Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts.”  Sometimes we lose sight of the kingdom of heaven.  Sometimes our faith fails because of the difficult circumstances in w...

(Col.1:24-2:3;   Ps.62:6-7,9;   Lk.6:6-11)   “We admonish all men and teach them in the full measure of wisdom, hoping to make every man complete in Christ.”   It is Paul’s desire to see the nations “enriched with full assurance by their knowledge of the mystery of God – namely Christ – in whom every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden.”  It is his desire for us all to be filled with this w...

(Nm.13:1-2,25-14:1,26-29,34-35;  Ps.106:4,6-7,13-14,21-23;  Mt.15:21-28)   “They forgot the God who had saved them.”   But He did not forget them.  Though He curses them in our first reading for their lack of faith, and though they shall indeed all – except for Joshua and Caleb – die in the desert over forty years, their children shall enter and take the Promised Land from the five tribes which in...

(Jer.28:1-17;   Ps.119:29,43,68,79-80,95,102;   Mt.14:22-36)  “Let those turn to me who fear you and acknowledge your decrees.” Hananiah does not fear the Lord; he cares nothing for His decrees.  And so he prophesies that the Lord will bring “the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the exiles back from Babylon” within two years, though the Lord has not said this.  And he refuses to turn to Je...

(Ex.20:1-17;   Ps.19:8-11,Jn.6:69;   Mt.13:18-23)   “What was sown on good soil is the man who hears the message and takes it in.”   “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul…  The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye…  More precious than gold” and “sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb” is the word of God.  How beautifully our psalm speaks of the words of everlas...

(Gn.22:1-19;   Ps.115:1-6,8-9;   Mt.9:1-8)   “God put Abraham to the test.”   And so is his faith in the living God made known.  And so we see to what faith and obedience we are called.  All that we hold back from the Lord, all that is due our God – and our neighbor – we must give without hesitation at the voice of His command. In Leviticus 5, a ram is prescribed as the sacrifice for those who hav...

(Gn.17:1,9-10,15-22;   Ps.128:1-5;   Mt.8:1-4)  “Can Sarah give birth at ninety?” Abraham laughs to himself as he asks the question; and indeed many scoff at the idea today, or simply choose to reason the possibility away.  And can a leper be made clean in an instant, just by a touch of Jesus’ hand and the words “Be cured”?  Is the arm of God, who created the universe, somehow shortened to such mi...

(Gn.13:2,5-18;   Ps.15:1-5;   Mt.7:6,12-14;)   “How narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!”   In our first reading today, the way Abram walks with God is contrasted with the path Lot chooses for himself.  Though the road seems wide and clear, this gate leads to damnation, and indeed, as our gospel states, is one which is chosen by the traveler...

(Tb.12:1,5-15,20;   Tb.13:1-2,6;   Mk.12:38-44)  “Almsgiving saves one from death.” We must give alms, yes; and the greatest of alms is the gift of ourselves to God. In our gospel we hear of perhaps the most famous example of almsgiving: the poor widow who gave her two copper coins to the temple treasury; and in our first reading we complete the Book of Tobit, he who is himself a great biblical mo...

(Tb.11:5-15;   Ps.146:2,7-10;   Mk.12:35-37) “The Lord gives sight to the blind.” Now in His teaching Jesus truly begins to open the eyes of the people.  We have witnessed this week His fielding their questions regarding theology and the law, but He now takes a step further, revealing to them and to us the Truth itself – that He Himself is the Son of God.  “The majority of the crowd heard this wit...

(Tb.6:11,7:1,9-14,8:4-7;   Ps.128:1-5;   Mk.12:28-34)  “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two great commandments rest all the Law and the Prophets.  By them we shall be “not far from the reign of God.”  In them the Lord leads us into His bridal chamber, where we shall be made one with Him in glory forever.  Here on earth we dimly mirror the love of the Lord for...

(Tb.3:1-11,16-17;   Ps.25:1-9;   Mk.12:18-27)  “He is the God of the living, not of the dead.” Rich readings.  First of all, we see the striking similarity between the story woven by the Sadducees to thwart the wisdom of the Lord and the situation in which Sarah finds herself.  In both cases, seven – the number representing fullness – husbands have died.  In one the wife has also died; in the othe...

(Tb.2:9-14;   Ps.112:1-2,7-9;   Mk.12:13-17)   “The heart of the just man is secure, trusting in the Lord.”   Today in our reading and gospel we find just men put to trial and testing.  Our Lord is steadfast before the devious inquiry of the Pharisees and Herodians, answering them with a wisdom greater than Solomon’s; for what can Jesus, who is Himself the Word made flesh, do but take refuge in th...

(Tb.1:1-2,2:1-9;   Ps.112:1-6;   Mk.12:1-12)   “The stone rejected by the builders has become the keystone of the structure.”   First, Tobit is not a parable; it is not a “story”.  A parable begins, as does Jesus’ own in our gospel, with a statement such as, “A man planted a vineyard…”  It is always “a man”, a generic man, never a particular man in a particular place at a particular time, as is th...