In this week’s Gospel, Luke continues his Sermon on the Plain (which parallels the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s). It is a challenging passage that prescribes a defining Christian characteristic: a universal call to mercy and forgiveness.

In today’s Gospel, we see Jesus coming down to a level place to speak to his disciples and the crowd. This small detail is powerful. Though Jesus is God, He meets people where they are. God is not distant or unreachable, but present and relatable. This is what makes the God the Son component of the Holy Trinity so powerful.

This Sunday’s Mass readings illustrate a pattern that emerges throughout Sacred Scripture in the encounter with God: a sinful man finds himself before God and, glimpsing the magnitude of his glory - the vastness of his power, his goodness and his splendour –recognizes the fundamental truth of the abyss that lies between him and his Creator. In the face of God we are confronted by the reality of our sinfulness and unworthiness before Him.

In today’s gospel, Mary and Joseph bring their newborn baby Jesus to be presented in the temple according to Jewish custom. At this time, the people of Israel were awaiting the coming of the promised Messiah, the One of whom the Old Testament prophets spoke, as we hear in the first reading from Malachi today: “And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. This is a bold claim from Jesus, who just read from the scrolls of the prophet Isaiah. We know this scripture from the Old Testament book of Isaiah “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” (Isaiah 61). The people of Jesus’ time would have known this scripture referred to the Jews’ liberation from Babylonian captivity. Imagine the absolute shock the people in the synagogue must have experienced from this proclaimed statement- Jesus is their freedom and salvation. In a reflection on this Gospel, Venerable Fulton Sheen shares how Jesus took the language surrounding this exile of His people and put it around Himself: “The ‘poor’ being those who had no grace and lacked union with God; the ‘blind’ were those who had not yet seen the Light, and the ‘captives’ being those who had not yet purchased true freedom”.

On the seventh day of Jesus' opening week of public ministry we hear about his first miracle, the wedding feast at Cana. When the wine gave out, Mary was more concerned with the guests than the wine-steward; for she was the one who noticed the shortage. Upon noticing this, she quickly turns to Jesus who responds by calling her Woman. Although it might offend the standards of modern etiquette, this was a title of respect and endearment in antiquity. Jesus' further response, "how does your concern affect me?" is a Hebrew idiom typically presupposing some perceived tension between two parties having contrary perspectives. Within this context we can find the beauty within this dialogue between mother and son.

It is within this interaction that Mary is giving us her Son…

One of my favorite quotes about Jesus from St. Irenaeus says, “He who was the Son of God became man, so that men might become sons of God.” This simple quote contains a profound mystery. That Jesus came not so that we could be mere spectators of his mission and of his relationship with the Father, but so that we could be active participants in that mission, and true sons and daughters of the same Father. We are so accustomed to calling God our father that I think sometimes we can forget how wildly amazing that claim is. God loves us so much that he sent his Son to become one of us, to call us out of the slavery and brokenness of sin, and to make us co-heirs and children of his kingdom. The Baptism of Jesus is special because it marks the beginning of Jesus’s mission of salvation, but also because it calls us and confirms us in that same mission.

What an occasion we have to rejoice “exceedingly with great joy,” just like the Wise Men did when they saw the star (Mt 2:10 RSV). Unto us a Savior is born! Moreover, God has graciously gifted us the beginning of a new year. Pause for a moment and reflect on all the reasons He has given you to rejoice this past year. How generous and merciful is our God! That He would humble Himself and come to us as a child, a child that would be threatened by others like King Herod. Nonetheless, this child was a guiding light to the Three Wise Men, and still is our guiding light in the darkness. Just like the Wise Men desperately sought to find Jesus then, we should desperately seek to find and know Jesus now, for apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5 RSV).

Happy Feast of the Holy Family! It’s almost impossible to imagine what life was like for this small and poor, yet royal and heavenly family. That being said, I’d like to pay attention to one line that I think has something for all of us to note in our different, yet incredible, Christian lives.

“... and [Jesus] was obedient to them [Mary & Joseph].” - Lk 2:51

May the Joy of His Nativity be with you!! Take some minutes to feel the spiritual atmosphere of Christmas. Breath in the great joy of our Lord’s birth. Open your senses, open your eyes, your ears and smell to the many symbols and signs that bring you back to your inner child. Only becoming like children can we access the mystery of the grotto of Bethlehem. The Christmas lights decorations on the streets, buildings and churches speak about the baby who is the Light of the World radiating purity and warmth in the cold and dark winter of the human soul. The Christmas Carols evoke the wonder at the paradoxical arrival of the Newborn King, echoing the invitation of angelic hosts to harken and join a cosmic renewal.  In the Christmas tree we may contemplate the dancing joy of every plant, bush and flower that wants to stretch upwards orienting its praise heavenwards. In the stars you can recall the guiding power of the firmament for the three wise pilgrims that left kingdoms behind for the beginning of a new era. The smell of hot chocolate and typical pastry, and the fragrance of pine trees wake up memories that are the starting point of true maturity. 

This week’s Gospel passage culminates the Advent season by bringing together the three principle characters of the great advent expectation—John the Baptist, Mary, and Jesus himself.

Mary, with her generous spirit, went out to help her older cousin Elizabeth, and we are given a glimpse into what must have been the most joyful of greetings—an Advent joy that penetrated into the very wombs of the expectant mothers. It was a very real first encounter of the one who will prepare the way and the one whose way he will prepare.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, and today we wear pink! Well…rose. But why this color? This color symbolizes joy and the anticipation of joy! And why joy?

As we see in today’s gospel, St . John the Baptist is gaining followers because of the hope he is preaching of. This hope is not just hope in an idea or in an event - but it is hope in a PERSON. That person is the Christ, the Messiah, Emmanuel, Jesus, your lover, my lover, our bridegroom...

Advent is a season of preparation - preparing our hearts for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. Confession is a sacrament that allows us to invite God into all the dark corners of our hearts and to be filled with His grace. By having a disposition of humility, we repent and seek forgiveness for our sin, heeding the words of St. John the Baptist. As the forerunner of Christ, St. John the Baptist is the perfect model of preparation. A notable theologian, Romano Guardini, writes that not only was proclaiming the advent of the Kingdom of God St. John's mission, it was his greatness. The Lord called John the greatest of those born of women - let us ask St. John the Baptist to intercede for us this Advent!

Advent is a time to return to the basics of our faith, a season of waiting and preparation that invites us to refocus on what truly matters. It’s an opportunity to grow in our desire for the Lord in our lives, to long for Him with the same fervor expressed in the beloved hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. As we sing this hymn throughout Advent, its words resonate deeply, reminding us of our need for Jesus—not just as a distant figure but as the Savior who comes to transform our lives and redeem us.

On December 11, 1925, Pope Pius XI published Quas primas, the encyclical that officially established Christ the King as a principal feast on the liturgical calendar. Five months earlier, on July 18, 1925, Hitler published his autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf.

Pius XI lived during a time when many central powers were rejecting Christ and eradicating Him from all areas of life. In the wake of World War I, he cried out, “I won't stand for this! We need a King – One who brings true peace! Oh what happiness would be ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations would but let themselves be governed by Christ!”

Only the Father knows “of that day or hour.” He wills it so in order that we don’t remain fixated on the circumstances of our lives but rather on the One who holds the circumstances of our lives in his hands and who guarantees us life beyond any circumstances and who in all circumstances returns to us and remains God-with-us, Emmanuel.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is moved by this poor widow who gave 2 coins out of her deficit, as this was her gift of self to the temple, to the Lord. This Gospel paired with the first reading from 1 Kings helps emphasize Jesus’ message of stewardship and the total gift of self. As in the first reading, Elijah asks a lot of this widow, who barely has enough to provide for herself and her son, but then reassures her that God’s generosity cannot be outdone.

It is important to know that God’s reason for asking, sometimes difficult, things of us is not because He wants to take good things away from us; on the contrary, He wants to give us even better than we can imagine. At times, all we know and focus on are gifts that we currently have. We hold on to them so tightly that God can’t give us more of what He really wants us to have.

In today’s Gospel we have this beautiful convergence of old and new—the subtle fulfillment of the sacred law Israel. At the time of Jesus the Israelites had over 600 laws, and there was a desire to find a command that might summarize or act as a guiding principle. Thus we have a

well-meaning scribe asking Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commands?”

There are many areas in my life where I am blind, where I don’t have what it takes, where I am in need of Jesus’ help and healing. But I don’t know if I bring these petitions to Jesus with the faith and the urgency of Bartimaeus. In our first reading today, we hear the Lord promise countless amazing miracles to those who seek him. We have a generous, faithful God who wants to heal us and give us what we need; like Bartimaeus, sometimes all we need to do is ask.

Over the past two Sunday Gospel’s, the Church has been going through Mark 10. Jesus has been getting swarmed with questions from people of marriage and divorce and other time by the rich man asking how he can inherit eternal life. This week is a captivating question from James and John. “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left”. [v. 35]. Quite a booming questions coming from the Sons of Thunder.