The Gospel is a wonderful encouragement for us today. We have been given gifts and they are now to be brought out and seen and heard. We ourselves are gifts, lights, meant to be seen and so reveal the Giver of all good things. "Let those who have ears, let them hear."...

Today’s gospel from Mark includes a very familiar parable – the Sower and the Seed. In this story, Jesus likens seeds, and the ground on which it falls, to how people hear the Word. As some seed falls along the path and is eaten by the birds, so some people hear the...

When I was in theology one of my professors of New Testament said that the most remarkable thing about Jesus for the people of his time and place was that he was not remarkable or even noticeable at all. I thought this rather puzzling but the professor went on to say...

In the 16th century mystical poem, “The Dark Night,” the poet, St. John of the Cross, used the metaphor of darkness to signify soul’s journey to union with God. “The main idea of the poem can be seen as the joyful experience of being guided to God. The only light in...

One might ask, "We live in a broken, messy world; how can we be joyful?" Christ answers that question in today's gospel by telling us that He is the new eternal life. He is the Savior of all humankind! The reading today implies old and new things do not mix well...

Once, a monk saw a man searching for something on the ground outside his house. He asked the man, "What are you searching?" "I am looking for my key", he said. The monk also joined in the search and after a few minutes he asked the man: "Where exactly did you drop...

The alleluia may serve as the title for today’s Gospel: “The Lord Sent Me to Bring Glad Tidings to the Poor.” Mark tells us that Jesus encountered Levi, the Tax Collector, and asked him to come and eat with him. Since the crowd also included scribes who were...

What is “hardening our hearts” if not a willful softening of our resolution to follow Christ? If we read the Bible carefully, as the author of the letter to the Hebrews had, we will see this theme of hardening and resistance appear over and over again. Apparently...

Faced with human need, Jesus’ heart is moved to do what he can to alleviate their suffering. He frees those who are possessed by demons and heals those who are sick, including Peter’s mother-in-law As Paul will much later tell his friends in Ephesus using an otherwise...

After our time of celebrating the Christmas season, we return to observing Ordinary Time - or, more precisely, "counted time" between now and the beginning of Lent. For the next eight weeks, we will move through the first ten chapters of Mark's gospel. It is a...