Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

Jesus points out to us today in the gospel of the mass the obligation to mind the lives of the others. A concrete manifestation of this is the duty to show concern for them by giving them fraternal corrections and suggestions.

We will hear Jesus emphasizing again the need to forgive the others, since God forgives us our sins and faults. That is the bottom reason for the Christian duty of charity to forgive and excuse the others. The Lord points out that there should be no limit to having to do this. Our divine Redeemer narrates the story about two servants. The first experienced being forgiven of the great debt he owed...

Jesus shows us today His idea of being humble. He connects it to becoming a child. Hence, He expresses His concern for the child, who shouldn't be despised or harmed. The other lesson is that He elucidates what to be the greatest in His Kingdom consists of. It is in becoming a child.

Today's gospel shows us an intimate picture of how Jesus treated St. Peter. Our divine Redeemer paid the required Temple tax for Himself and Peter.

The Lord's message is simple and direct. We must be prepared for the transition to the next life. We need to be because this life on Earth is merely a preparation for the definitive life in eternity.

The apostles were not able to cure the lunatic so of a man who approached Jesus for help shutter His disciples were unable to be of help for lack of faith. We need to rush to Jesus for help when we also experience our own version of "lunacy", in that we behave differently from what we need to be or do.

Jesus does not hide the need to follow Him in denying oneself and carrying our Cross daily. He makes it plain and clear. However, Peter is not in the same wavelength as Our Lord. Thus, He reprimands him by calling him Satan. Peter at that point had still much to learn.

Jesus is transfigured in today's gospel to celebrate the feast of His Transfiguration. What can we learn from this Luminous mystery of the Holy Rosary?

We celebrate today the memorial of the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major. It is the largest church in the world dedicated to God in honor of His Mother. It was constructed in the early 4th century on the spot where our Heavenly Mother let snow fall in the middle of the Roman summer. F for our gospel text we are brought to contemplate the interaction between Jesus and St. Peter.

Today, we celebrate the memorial of St John Vianney, patron saint of priests. We give thanks today for our priests in a special way. But why do we have priests? Take a listen to today's homily.

Little did the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary know that their daughter would become the Mother of Jesus. They simply did their duty as good parents. If we fulfill our ordinary everyday activities to the best of our abilities for the love of God, we would change the world for the better!

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. James, Apostle. The gospel brings to our attention the conversation between the mother of two apostles, James and John. She requested Jesus to install her sons in the highest positions of His kingdom. Listen to the homily about the vision Jesus has of the leadership roles in His kingdom.

Today's gospel enlightens us about our relationship with the Blessed Lord. Find out about it in the podcast.

We are called by the gospel today to be good ground for the seeds God does in our souls.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle. That's right! She is the first one asked by Our Lord to announce the Good News of Jesus' resurrection. He has triumphed over sin and death. This is totally unprecedented. She is a woman!

The gospel today tells us about signs. There were people, the scribes and pharisees, who asked our Lord for a sign. Check out His reply.

Today, we meet Martha and Mary at their home with Jesus as their guest. The two present to us two different ways of living our lives here on earth. We know that our stay here on earth is a preparation to be with God for eternity. Martha felt harassed and anxious about her working compounded by being alone without Mary not realizing she could be helping her. She asked Jesus for help. But the Lord h...

Today's gospel reveals the difference in the words we utter in response to different circumstances that happen to us. With bad things, we can curse. With good things, we react differently. The last line of the text tells us about reacting with hope. Listen to the homily to check this out!

Today, Jesus clarifies who is the Lord! This term was employed by the reverent Jews with respect to God's name. They preferred not to pronounce His Name and use another term. They applied the word the Romans used to refer to their Emperor. Thus, what the Jews did was actually subversive in the Roman Empire because Yahweh was the Lord. Anyhow, on the occasion of the controversy the Jews began about...

Jesus invites us in today's gospel to rest, and to rest in Him. He described how this looks like. We should imitate Him, in being meek and humble of heart.

Today's gospel message is too significant to overlook or to miss. It is so because we all want to become friends of Jesus Christ. For that to happen, we need what our Lord reveals today. We need to be childlike. Listen to the homily.

Today's gospel reveals to us a certain frustration of Jesus. Capharnaum became His second residence, after Nazareth. He adopted the city as His HQ for His public phase of His stay on Earth. He performed many miracles there, but still its population resisted Jesus and His message. So, our Lord makes it plain that they would suffer more than what Sodom and Gomorrah underwent when God sent fire and b...

Jesus explains clearly today what He wants from His followers. He does not mince words. He does not hide behind euphemisms. Nobody will be able to say that any of His demands or requirements were not clearly made plain. He employs strong words. His standards are clear. He demands that He is above every consideration: above family, above parents or any creature we may take fancy with.

The gospel today addresses these two very important questions, namely, eternal life and the identity of our neighbor. Let us be open to the words of Jesus so we could adopt whatever measure or make necessary adjustments in our lives to incorporate Jesus' commands in our circumstances.

Be not afraid! We address those bad fears in today's gospel!