The Lectionary for Daily Mass does not frequently use readings from St. Paul’s Letter to Titus. Other than the three excerpts that we will hear this week, it is also cited as the second reading of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. In fact, the last paragraph of the reading that we proclaim today is the same excerpt that we will proclaim at the Christmas...
The Scriptures for this 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time present us with the stories of two different widows. In order to understand these stories, it is important that we understand the reality of a widow’s life in Israel at the time these stories were first written. First of all, the word “widow” in Hebrew means “silent” or “voiceless”...
St. Paul speaks of people who regard their stomach as their God and their shame as their key to glory. In our context, we might immediately think of people who are gluttonous or who take pride in their lustful ways. However, St. Paul is actually referring to the Jewish people who insist that Christian converts must follow the dietary laws of Judaism and also continue the practice of male...
One theme that reappears time and again in St. Luke’s Gospel is that of table fellowship or table communion. Jesus is found to be eating in this particular Gospel more than in the others. However, it is not the act of eating that is of importance; rather the importance lies in the people with whom Jesus is eating.
Today’s Gospel text begins with the observation that the tax...
St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon have one thing in common; namely, they were all written while St. Paul was imprisoned. That St. Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and in prison the first at Caesarea Maritima in Palestine and then in Rome is clear from several chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. This would mean that these letters were composed later in St....