'Today' is the day
It is the age between our Lord's first coming and His last. We live in the new world begun by His life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, by the sending of His Spirit upon the Church. But we await ...
Body building
Why commemorate a church dedication that happened in fourth-century Rome? First, because St. John Lateran is no ordinary church -- it's the cathedral church of the pope and still known as "the mother ...
All souls
When St. Paul talked about the resurrection of the dead with the philosophers at Athens, many laughed and mocked him (Acts17:32). The Gospel, he would later write, is "foolishness" to the wise of this ...
No favorites
Jesus draws a blunt picture in today's Gospel. The Pharisee's prayer is almost a parody of the thanksgiving psalms (see for example Psalms 30, 118). Instead of praising God for His mighty works, ...
Hope from on high
The Lord is our guardian, beside us at our right hand, interceding for us in all our spiritual battles. In today's Psalm, we're told to lift our eyes to the mountains, that our help will come ...
Returning thanks
A foreign leper is cleansed and in thanksgiving returns to offer homage to the God of Israel. We hear this same story in both the First Reading and Gospel today. There were many lepers in Israel in ...
Life by faith
Because of his faith, the just man shall live. We hear in today's First Reading the original prophetic line made so central by St. Paul (see Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). We are ...
A great chasm
The rich and powerful are visited with woe and exile in today's Liturgy -- not for their wealth but for their refusal to share it; not for their power but for their indifference to the suffering at ...
