FRESHImage Sunday Gospel Reflections with Tony Crescio

Among the spiritual works of mercy is the admonishing of sinners. Though not a work of mercy many of us would choose to carry out, it is precisely the work Jesus calls us to in the Gospel this Sunday. As Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, in addition to providing us with step by step instruction as to how to go about this work of mercy, the readings for this weekend teach us wh...

On this Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus teaches us a very difficult spiritual lesson in his rebuke of St. Peter. The only way to grow in holiness is to die to our false selves, the selves that we have created, so that we might rise as the unique image of God our loving Creator has created each of us to be. As Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, above all, this means...

This Sunday we witness St. Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This famous passage is often at the heart of interdenominational debates surrounding papal primacy. However, as Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains in his reflection for this weekend, there is also something more fundamental about human identity being revealed to us in this scene. Tha...

In the Gospel for this 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear of Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman, who comes to plead with Jesus on behalf of her daughter who is possessed by a demon. In his reflection, Tony Crescio ( @anthonycrescio ) explains that there is a twofold lesson in this episode, one having to do with the life of prayer and the other dealing with authentic inclusivity. In the end...

In his reflection for this 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) discusses the episode of Jesus walking on water to the disciples in the middle of the stormy sea in light of the Prophet Elijah's encounter with God on Mount Horeb. As Tony explains, when we read these episodes in light of one another, the message God speaks to us today is one of His attentive and...

This Sunday we celebrate the Transfiguration of the Lord. As Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, what we see taking place in the life of Christ on the mountain of the Transfiguration is what God intends for each of us to experience as members of Christ's Body, the Church. But how do we know if this transfiguration is taking place? Tony suggests that reflecting upon one's life in...

In the Gospel for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus teaches us once again about the Kingdom of Heaven through parables. As Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, three parables we hear this Sunday speak to the absolute priority God must have in our lives and how to live daily life accordingly. Far from living a life of flight from the world, today's parables call us to...

This Sunday Jesus teaches us about the Kingdom of Heaven through three distinct parables. As Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, the parables Jesus teaches us about the Kingdom are analogical in nature. This does not mean that they are not true, but rather that none of them in and of themselves can capture the reality of the Kingdom in its fullness. The three parables we hear to...

On this Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear Jesus' parable of the sower and the seeds. As Tony Crescio (@anthonycrescio) explains, each of Jesus' parables teaches us something about the nature of the reality in which we live through the use of images. And this image in particular both speaks to us of the great mercy of God, and that if we are to live life to its fullest, we must be receptiv...

In our Gospel reading for this Sunday, Jesus calls us to be meek and humble. These are two virtues sorely missing from our society today. And, as Tony Crescio explains, when they are, the result is a narrow imagination. This narrow imagination prevents us from seeing the beauty of human life and leads us to moves us to claim the role of God for ourselves. In contrast, when we possess the virtues o...

In his reflection for this Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Tony Crescio reflects on what Jesus tells us today about what our love for Him must be like in light of what it means to live as a member of the Church. To do this, Tony discusses St. Paul's teaching of the Church as the Body of Christ. While what this means may be difficult to understand, when we take the time to do so, it becomes cle...

In his reflection for this 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Tony Crescio reminds us that in our pilgrimage with God this side of eternity, there is no such thing as what we normally would think of as ordinary time. Tony explains this in light of our first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Therein, we find an individual totally committed to God and to living out His Word, regard...

On this Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear Jesus calling His twelve disciples. As Tony Crescio explains in his reflection, there is deep significance to the calling of the twelve on both communal and individual levels. On one level, the twelve symbolize the ongoing work of God's redemption of the human family, and on another, the fact that Jesus calls the disciples by name indicates the uni...

In his reflection for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Tony Crescio ( @anthonycrescio ) examines Jesus' teaching in the Bread of Life Discourse in light of the manna provided by God for the People of Israel in the Book of Exodus. This reading makes two things clear. First, the Eucharist is indeed the new manna, and second, the effect Jesus says the Eucharist has upon the one who receives it leaves...

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Tony Crescio discusses one of two central doctrines of Christianity, doctrine of the Trinity. As Tony explains, discussion of the Trinity requires that we keep in mind that God is ultimately mystery, and therefore whatever is said about God falls far short of Who God Is in Godself. Nevertheless, because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us out of love...

In his reflection for Pentecost Sunday, Tony Crescio ( @anthonycrescio ) reflects on the episode of the descent of the Holy Spirit as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles in light of the Old Testament accounts of creation and the Tower of Babel episode in the Book of Genesis. As Tony explains, when these episodes of salvation history are brought into conversation with one another, the very basics...

Though perhaps not often thought of in this way, the bodily Ascension of Christ is a central tenet of the Christian Faith professed in the Creed. Moreover, together with the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, Christians experience the re-presentation of the Ascension at every Eucharistic Liturgy. By bringing the episode of the Ascension into conversation with the People of Israel's journey throug...

In our Gospel for this Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus says to us, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Such words may sound to postmodern ears as coercive language. However, as Tony Crescio (  @anthonycrescio  ) explains, Christians should hear in these words a call to live the rules of the Heavenly Father's House. In other words, it is by living the commandments...

In his reflection for this Fifth Sunday of Easter, Tony Crescio reflects on the meaning of Jesus telling us that He is going to prepare the way for us in His Father's House in light of the Cross of Christ. As Tony explains, this reading reveals the way prepared by Christ and the eternal life wherein those who follow Him shall dwell eternally. In the end, both are lived only through, with, and in t...

In the Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we hear Our Lord use two images to describe our relationship to Him, a Shepherd and His sheep and a Gate. As Tony Crescio explains, by using these images Jesus is making radical and totalizing claims about human life. Most basically that we neither finally belong to ourselves or anyone else, but to Him alone, and He is the only way to the fullness of...

On this Third Sunday of Easter, Tony Crescio brings the episode of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus into conversation with the episode of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. As Tony explains, when we attend to the parallels of these episodes the modus operandi of the Son of God as the One Who relentlessly pursues the human family out of love appears. Hosted on Acast. See...

The Second Sunday of Easter is known as Divine Mercy Sunday. On this Sunday we hear the well-known story of “doubting Thomas.” However, in his reflection for this Sunday, Tony Crescio suggests that closer attention to the scriptural account results in a very different reading of Thomas. Far from a simple doubter, Thomas is in fact exemplary in his faith, struggling with doubt but with a firm...

In our time and place the bodily Resurrection in Christ is called into question by many. And even among those who believe that Christ did indeed rise bodily from the dead, most don’t seem to think the Resurrection has anything to do with them. In his reflection for Easter Sunday, Tony Crescio affirms the bodily Resurrection of Christ as the central tenet of the Christian faith, and explains w...