Thomas McLaughlin, the OFCYM staff member and author of these weekly reflections on the Sunday gospels, offers them to you to use as you will. Visit them each week after hearing the Word on Sunday to renew your own reflection on the gospel. Print them to a separate page by clicking the printer icon at the bottom of the column. Share them with catechists or parents or parish staff and leaders. If they help anyone to have a greater Gospel focus in their lives, it is good.
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November 8 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
As we come to the end of the Church year and begin a new one with the season
of Advent the gospel readings present us with pictures of the end times and
the kingship of Jesus. Before we get to those readings, however, the gospel of November 8 gives us a last glimpse of the teachings of Jesus.
The context of today’s reading in Mark’s gospel is the growing tension between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. Jesus warns the crowds not to betaken in by the false example of the scribes who like to be seen as being religious while they defraud widows of their livelihood. As he says this a widow enters the temple to make an offering of two copper coins, an amount less than a penny. Jesus points out that while the rich may give a bit from their excess. She has given all that she has to live on.
This can be a lesson to us. We can give from our excess. That is not a bad thing to do. But better is to give from what we need to live on. This goes beyond generosity to become an act of trust in God to provide for what we need. Jesus himself is our model for this in his ultimate act of trust in God as he gives his life for us.
November 15 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today is the second to the last Sunday of the Liturgical year. As we approach the end of one cycle to begin a new one on the first Sunday of Advent the gospel invites us to consider Jesus’ teaching about the end of the world.
In Mark’s gospel Jesus’ discussion of the end times is put into the context of his own coming passion and death. But it is also put into the context of the return of the Son of Man in great glory to gather the elect from the ends of the earth into his kingdom.
Jesus' words are not spoken to frighten his disciples, and they should not frighten us. Rather, they are offered to prepare us for the changes we will experience during our lifetime following a savior who shows us that it is in accepting the cross that we find true redemption. Jesus’ concluding words at the end of this section, which we do not read in the liturgy, is “Watch.”
November 22nd Feast of Christ the King
On the last Sunday of the liturgical year we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. As we see happen often in year B, the year of Mark, we turn to John’s gospel on major feast days. This portion of the passion reading from John is part of the longer gospel reading proclaimed each year on Good Friday.
This feast is relatively new. It was first declared by Pius XI near the end of the holy year of 1925. In 1969 Paul VI moved the feast was made a solemnity and moved from the last Sunday of October to the last Sunday of the liturgical year.
In today’s passage from John we hear one of two dialogues between Jesus and Pilate reported in that gospel. ‘King of the Jews” is not a title that became popular in Christian usage. But it is a title that is prominent in all four of the gospels. This suggests that perhaps it played a part in the historical events of the crucifixion. Though the Jewish authorities would have found Jesus guilty of saying he was greater than the temple and of equating himself with God the political authorities who put him to death would have found a political claim a much stronger reason for the death penalty.
Pilate questions Jesus about the charges brought against him. Caiaphas and the high priests have charged Jesus with a political crime, one that would require a punishment of death. But Pilate distances himself from the Jewish leaders who accuse Jesus. He is not a Jew, and he seems to want little to do with this Jewish affair.
In Jesus’ responses to Pilate's questions John takes the opportunity to distinguish Jesus’ kingdom from the political powers of this world. Jesus is king, but not the kind of king we might imagine or expect. He was certainly not the kind of king Pilate feared he might be. In today's reading, we see Jesus identify the final proof that his kingdom is not of this world. If his kingdom were of this world, then there would be people fighting to save him. Jesus came into the world, but the world did not know him. In John's language, the world prefers the darkness, but yet the light will not be overcome by the darkness. Those who know the truth will recognize Jesus as king and will know how to interpret this insight. Those who have the eyes of faith are able to see. As modern disciples of Jesus, we also struggle at times to recognize Jesus as king. Today's Gospel invites us to see with eyes of faith that we might recognize that Jesus, through his crucifixion and death, is indeed king and Savior of all.
November 29 1st Sunday of Advent
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. The Advent season is a time of preparation for celebrating the coming of the Lord: the final coming of the Lord in glory at the end of time and the incarnation of the Lord in time and space at the birth of Jesus.
In this new liturgical year, the Gospel of Luke will be the primary Gospel proclaimed (Lectionary Cycle C). Today's Gospel is taken from the last chapter before the passion narrative in which Jesus is teaching in the Temple. We hear Jesus speak to his disciples about the need for vigilance and prayer as they wait for the coming of the Son of Man in glory. This passage marks the conclusion of a lengthy dialogue in which Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, warns about the persecution and tribulations to follow, and identifies the signs that will signal the coming of the Son of Man in glory. Though Jesus indicates that others will be frightened; Jesus' disciples are not to fear. They are to stand tall. Jesus does not promise deliverance from anxiety or tribulations. But he encourages his disciples to pray for strength.
The early Christian communities did not find consolation in the promise of a utopia, nor should we. Instead, we find in our Christian faith the means by which we witness to God's unfailing love for us in all circumstances. Like the first Christians, we may encounter events and circumstances that could lead us to despair. Through prayer, however, we find strength and consolation in Jesus' words and in his continuing presence with us to endure all things and to witness to the action of God in our world.
December 6 2nd Sunday of Advent
Luke 3:3-6
After a two-chapter infancy narrative the ministry of Jesus in Luke’s gospel begins with the preaching of John the Baptist. The first sentence of the chapter is a long list of rulers of the region, beginning with the emperor in Rome and ending with the high priests. Such a list would help the gentile readers of Luke’s gospel see this new religion firmly rooted in the Roman Empire and not just a small religion from far off Palestine. Then we meet the very Jewish John, coming in from the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He fulfills what Isaiah proclaimed in chapter 40. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. … Then shall all human beings see the salvation of God.” John is the one called by God to prepare for the inauguration of a new period of salvation brought by Jesus.
John the Baptist points the way to Jesus, not a meandering way but a direct way, first to Jesus and then to God. How do we follow this road that starts with repentance and leads to forgiveness in the waters of Baptism? True, we have all been baptized. But conversion is not something that we do once and then are done with it. Conversion must become the recurring pattern of our life. No matter how many times we get lost on the winding roads and in the rough ways we must have the courage to turn again to the path that leads us straight to God. This is the message of John the Baptist.