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Peter, in last weekend’s gospel account, made his profession of faith, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God,” in a place surrounded by pagan images and Roman power. This was a difficult place, to say the least, to profess your faith in the one, true God. Jeremiah, in today’s first reading, also struggles and succeeds, like Peter, in speaking God’s truth as a prophet. He felt he was too young and inadequate for the job God was asking of him. God reminded him that He ...

A little bit of context usually helps us understand the Word of God better. Here goes. Hezekiah was a good king in Judah. Although appointed by the pagan emperor in Rome, the king in Judah was still a Jewish king, and he looked after the interests of his Jewish brothers and sisters making sure they could still practice their faith in the one, true God with little interference from Rome. Unfortunately, Hezekiah’s chief of staff, the highest ranking official in the king’s court, Shebna, was not so ...

Historically we have said that, as a Church, the two major ways our faith is passed on is through Scripture and Tradition. Scripture is what was huddle around each time we gather for liturgy and each time we open and read our Bibles at home. It is God’s Word preserved, interpreted, and passed on so that we can know how God called our ancestors to live back then and how God calls us to live here and now. Tradition, on ...

The Scripture stories we have today are about the importance of discerning the voice of God and about the importance of community.

A little context to help us enter the first reading. The prophet Elijah lived some 900 years before the birth of Jesus. At that time the Jewish people were divided into two sister countries, Israel in the North and Judah in the South. In the North, where God had called Elijah to preach, the Jewish king, Ahab, had married a woman named Jezebel. (That ...

Of all the miracles Jesus performed this is the only miracle found in all four gospels. The Early Church must have thought this story was indispensable in the lives of people. They just had to tell this story. In fact, it is found twice in the Gospel of Matthew.

Opening lines are very telling. This is the opening line of today’s gospel account: When Jesus heard that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. ...