THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

We’re fast coming to the end of yet another liturgical year.  Next Sunday, the Solemnity of Christ the King, is the last Sunday of this liturgical year; the following Sunday is already the first Sunday of Advent!  And, as you know, each liturgical year features one of the three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark or Luke.  This year, we’ve heard from the Gospel according to Luke.  As we have heard so clearly in this gospel, Jesus is the hope of the world.  No matter what, no matter […]

Today, we celebrate the dedication of the first Christian church which is also the pope’s cathedral and, as the inscription over its doorway reads, “Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput,” that is, “Mother and head of all the churches of the city and of the world.”  This great basilica, now dedicated to both Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, is also called “the Lateran” because it stands on the site of the palace of the ancient Roman Laterani family.  We celebrate this church today around […]

We have certainly experienced a real change in season over these past few days, haven’t we?  We’re clearly into fall now and, with all of the beautiful trees in our neighborhood losing their leaves, we experience, once again, nature shutting down for winter; it’s the natural cycle of life here on earth.  That seems to be the way of this world: life, death and life and death once again.  For us Christians, however – we who believe in an eternal and all-loving God – there is an important break in […]

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

What is truth?  We hear Pontius Pilate ask Jesus that question as Jesus stands before him in judgment.  And Jesus answers by dying on the cross, demonstrating a very dramatic and fundamental truth of our faith: God loves us so much that he would send his Son to die for us. 

In today’s gospel, we hear a Pharisee and a tax collector both stand before God, each expressing his own truth.  On one level, the Pharisee is correct in his self-analysis.  By all the […]