Making Friends With The Lord Jesus

The Gospel today narrates for us the miraculous catch of fish where we find Jesus boarding the boat of Simon. We should read that as an image of Our Lord boarding our lives. Shall we be as docile as St. Peter in going to the deep waters and in throwing the nets for a catch when it was not the time to fish? With the miraculous catch Simon was moved to ask our Lord to depart from him because he was...

Our Lord today in the Gospel spends bonding time with his apostles. They have been working hard, so hard that they did not even have the time to eat. In any case, he brings them to another part to be by themselves. However, the crowds were there already waiting for him. What is striking is that they according to the good Lord were like sheep without a shepherd. Hence, he renewed his teaching activ...

King Herod shows us the dangerous situation we put ourselves in when we think and act in an intoxicated way. During his birthday he and his guests were pleased by the sensual dance of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who was recently stolen by Herod to be his consort from being Philip's wife.  Herod asks Salome what she would want him to give her for the entertainment. Upon the advice of her mom...

Wordliness teaches us to trust in the world. Trust in God is moved to the margins. Hence, our blessed Lord forbids his apostles from bringing certain necessities when they went out commissioned by Jesus to help him evangelize by curing the sick and expelling devils. Thus, God also deprives us of certain things in life to help us exercise this trust.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Mary and Joseph were very law abiding Jews and they fulfilled the obligation to present to the Lord their first born son. This is a practice we need to adopt or to continue with great love and devotion. The best for the Lord! Then, we need to trust God in venturing forward in life although we are sure that there wil...

We are sent by the Church to this Gospel scene with Jesus who meets Jairus begging him to come to visit his daughter who was dying and in the trip over there his encounter with the woman who had been suffering from a haemorrhage for twelve years. Both stories and miracle enlightens us about the faith Jesus taught us about. We only need to trust in the Lord!

Our Lord shows his command over the wind and the sea in this episode of the Gospel. He had been sleeping at the stern of the boat when a sudden gale tossed their boat like it were a toy. The disciples were frightened so much and the they ran and woke Him up. They asked him whether he cared for them. Of course, he does care for them. He got up and quieted the waves and the wind. We should not doubt...

As usual Our dear Lord uses parables to explain the deepest mysteries. One of these primary mysteries is that about the Kingdom of God that he has been inviting everyone to join. From the very beginning of his public ministry he vectors everyone there by repenting. He compares this Kingdom to a mustard see that mysteriously is able to sprout and grow from being a tiny seed to a big tree with branc...

Today's Gospel enlightens us regarding the nature of Christ. He is light for us. Since he is the Truth he sheds light on our knowing faculties so we may see and understand better reality. Without light it is difficult for us to see our way, to find objects we are looking for and impossible for us to see the direction and goals we are trying to achieve. We cannot keep our Lord away from us. Otherwi...

Today the Lord tells us a parable, that of the sower and the seed. He points out the importance of checking what kind of place these seeds fall onto. Depending on the quality of the reception will the seed bear fruit. We are responsible for taking care that we are receptive, open, attentive, focused and so forth to God's Word. He looks for the fruits of his investment of seeds in our souls.

The Gospel today reminds us of the instructions of our Lord Jesus Christ just prior to his ascending to Heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father from where he shall come to judge the living and the dead. This remind is for all of us, not that we are supposed to do exactly the same thing, but to evangelize through our different circumstances, talents, education, culture, etc.

Today's Gospel introduces us into another show of envy by Our Lord's enemies. This time they claim that Jesus casts out devils in the name of the devil himself. He discusses with the people the ludicrousness of this proposition. He tries to bring them to understand that such stance in looking at him is a sin against the Holy Spirit, i.e., they reject God and his overtures to bring us salvation and...

The Scriptures are what constitutes the written Word of God. This is what St. Luke started out to do culling content from their experiences with Jesus. He recorded in an orderly manner the events of our dear Lord's life. So the New Testament did not just come out from thin air, made without a context or done without some supervision of some kind. Hence, Our Lord established a Church with his autho...

The Gospel today presents the relatives of our dear Lord to be very concerned with him because he did not have any time to eat anymore because of the work he had, the crowds and sick needing his help and cures. This work included his preaching and teaching. No time to eat! They were convinced that Jesus was out of his mind. We too have some madness for a creature on earth. There are those crazy ab...

Today we see our dear Lord thronged by so many people. They recognized him as someone very special since he cured so many. But at the end of the Gospel he forbade them from making him known. This is understandable because he did not want the people to think that he was merely after becoming a king in the earthly sense. But also we may understand that the Lord wants to teach us to be aware of our w...

In the Gospel today we see a confrontation again between Jesus and the Pharisees who were on the lookout for Jesus first mistake, error or failure so that they could have something to accuse him with. This could remind us of how we sometimes look at the others with envy eager to find something to gossip about, talk badly about, accuse of, be judgmental about, etc. We should  imitate Jesus who...

Jesus teaches us today that fasting needs to be done. He points out that there is no need of fasting when the bridegroom is around, i.e., Himself. But there comes a time when the bridegroom is taken away and then there will be the need to fast. This refers to the Passion and Death of Christ. We cannot expect not to fast because Our Lord himself undergoes his Passion and suffering for our salvation...

We continue reading from St. Mark's account of Our Lord's life. After spending so much time with those physically sick, he pivots around the account about the paralytic. With this last case, he first forgives his sins and seeing his faith. Notice, these are invisible and spiritual realities that the Lord is dealing with now. His claim to be able to forgive his sins startled the Jews who know that...

He came to banish evil. Hence, he cured Simon's mother-in-law of the fever she had. Later in the day, many came with all kinds of diseases and ailments that he cured. He banished demons from peoples' bodies. He also prayed and He gave this example to the people and to all of us reading this Gospel and throughout His life.

When Jesus Christ comes again to judge the living the dead he would be looking for solid deeds of faith, hope and love in each of us. Our life as Christians as the Lord said in the Gospel today is that we listen to his words and live according to them. This part of acting on the Lord's words is crucial. Without this, we would be theoretical Christians and not real sure followers of the Blessed Lor...

The Gospel today provides us the features of Christ the King, the Solemnity we look forward to this coming Sunday. He walked on water, He enabled St. Peter to walk on the water, He saved Peter from sinking and He calmed the winds that terrified His Apostles in the boat. Thing is that Our Lord prayed before all this display happened. He teaches us that if we pray we can access this tremendous power...

The Parable of the Talents is an allegory of our lives. God seen in the master of those servants who leaves each of them an amount of money with the instruction that they do business with it to make more money. To the ones who increase their money he rewards them with more responsibilities. The last one who did not do anything with the money he was entrusted with is punished. And so we shall also...

Our Lord invited himself to Zacchaeus' house. This senior tax collector was overjoyed and not only that he repented of this shady practices by promising to do restitution to the ones he defrauded. We all need our Lord to be saved.

Our Lord insists with us that we should not falter in praying. This is not only about petitions to him but also the praying praising him, thanking him and asking pardon from him for our sins and the sins of the others we know of. This persistence is a manifestation of faith in God. Such faith is a relationship with him which is the underlying reason for our praying to him. Either getting our wishe...

We all wonder what and where the Kingdom of God will be. Jesus announced it. St. John the Baptist announced it. All our direction is towards it. But to get there we need to repent as Jesus said to the people. Interestingly, Jesus claims that the Kingdom of God is among you. It is among us. It is here and we are in its midst. We don't see it or feel it yet. And our lives is all about getting to enj...