PAN DE LA SEMANA

N.B. I have been so taken up with so many tasks these days that I could not come up with my usual Sunday reflections for Pan de la Semana. I am reposting something that I originally posted in January 31, 2010. A familiar and favorite biblical character meets us as the Liturgy of the Word unfolds with the first reading in today’s celebration – Jeremiah – young, innocent, inexperienced, intimately loved by the Lord who, on account of that same love, called him and sent him to speak against “kings and princes, priests and people.” We know that despite his initial and later protestations, Jeremiah did as the Lord had told him. He spoke to a fickle people whose attitudes ranged from crying unabashedly as the Law of Moses was read (as we heard last week), raising their hands proclaiming unalloyed Amens to the same Law, to fighting and flailing against God’s emissaries the prophets, complaining as they also did to Moses during their wanderings in the desert.  Jeremiah was sent to ...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 3 rd Sunday OT_C FULFILLED RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! There was a motley crowd before Ezra like we are told in the first reading … men, women, and children.   We are told, furthermore, that “all the people listened attentively to the book of the Law.” No one was considered dispensable. Each one was deemed important and not disposable. But so, too, was the Word of the Lord. Every word, every phrase, every sentence counted. Every member, every part, every person counts, too, as far as all three readings are concerned. This much, St. Paul assures us: no part of the body that makes up one whole can say “I quit,” without affecting the totality, the whole, the integrity of the one body that makes up who everyone is, in God’s plan. Totality … integrity … wholeness … completenens … these are all words that come in handy in today’s reflection on the readings. This is the same integrity and fullness that the Word of the Lord carries …...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] Baptism of the Lord January 10, 2016 SENT FOR MISSION; CALLED TO MINISTRY Christmas season officially ends today with second Vespers. But endings do not just refer to closings. Endings are beginnings, too. And nowhere else is this made clearer as in today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Christmas ends, but the spirit of the celebration goes on with even stronger impetus. Christ is born. For … for others … for mission … for ministry … for service … for the salvation – the life, if you will – of the world steeped in darkness, but which has seen in His birth, a marvelous light. Isaiah loses no time and is never ambivalent about whom he refers to – the “chosen one with whom [God] is well pleased.” He is called “for the victory of justice,” “as a covenant for the people,” “a light for the nations,” … along with a longer list of “to do’s”. He was sent for mission. And mission connotes a lis...

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] Solemnity of the Epiphany January 3, 2016 EPIPHANY: CHRISTMAS+ The liturgy goes for a splurge today. There is much allusion to light, to brilliance, to shining and rising splendor and the refulgence of God’s glory. The Church pulls out all the stops today and celebrates what used to be the original Christmas feast – with more than just a twist! We celebrate much more than the birth of the Savior. We also celebrate the “unveiling,” the “manifestation” – the epiphany, for short – of who the Child is – for us and in Himself. He is Savior. He is Son of God. He is the human visible face of the invisible God, who had been revealing Himself gradually in and through the unfolding events in history. Once upon a time, a technique in painting called “chiaroscuro” was the fad. It was basically a technique that played on a contraposition between two seemingly opposing elements: light and shadow, clarity and cloudiness. Today’s feast,...