Today is World Mission Sunday, and we thank God for His mercy on all missionaries, and the people they serve around the world. Today, we highlight the great commission of Jesus, who as he ascended into heaven commanded his disciples: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20a). We are the recipients of that teaching, which was handed…
Today we are given two images of the Kingdom of Heaven. The first is from the prophet Isaiah, who describes God’s holy mountain, a reference to Jerusalem. It is a reminder of the prosperity of the Kingdom of Israel and how Jerusalem was at the heart of that prosperity, not simply from an economic standpoint, but because of the holy presence of God in the Jerusalem Temple. It is God who destroys the veil that veils all peoples; it is God who wipes away tears from every face; it is God who saves.…
The last few weeks, we have heard Jesus address the chief priests and elders of the people with parables that describe their own actions in the sight of the Lord. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses the same image as the prophet Isaiah does in the first reading: The landowner, and his vineyard, which has been entrusted to tenants. In both accounts, however, those tenants fail to care for the vineyard as the landowner has required. The requirement was simple: The tenants were to bear good fruit…
There is a single theme woven through our readings today. It is a message that has been spoken by the prophets of old, by John the Baptist, by Jesus, by St. Paul, and countless men and women of faith throughout the history of salvation. That message is: Repent. It seems to me this word has little meaning in our culture today, so let’s do a word study.
