PAN DE LA SEMANA

A most blessed and Happy Easter to my faithful readers and followers!

5 th Sunday in Lent Year C March 13, 2016 GOD, GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL We remember a lot of things. Scientists say – and this is proven by experience – that there is more to our remote memory than what our recent memory bank contains. Older people remember a whole lot from their childhood, but often forget what they just did a few weeks or months back – nay, even what they had for breakfast this morning. But we do remember past hurts. We hold on to grudges. We remember very well the times someone else pulled a fast one on us, and walked all over us. We remember the tears. We remember the pain. We remember the sufferings untold. And we hold on to anger. And, to be honest, who among us did not at least once give in to the desire to take revenge? Today, the Lord upsets our usual memory. And He does so, right from the first reading: “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago, consider not.” Notice the insistence? The li...

--> [BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] 4 th Sunday of Lent   Year C March 6, 2016 BROKEN AFFINITIES; RESTORED RELATIONSHIPS Last week, if you remember, we talked about the overflowing mercy and love of God. That love, we said, was tender and true. But the same love was equally tough. It was expected to bear fruit. It was a love not meant to be verbally acclaimed, but   concretely experienced, by both the lover and the beloved. This Sunday, fourth in the season of Lent, we seem to have a sequel. We are told in the first reading: “Today, I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” The chosen people, we are further told, ate no longer free but boring manna, but from the “produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain.” The people’s brokenness was nourished back to wholeness. What was old and shameful was replaced by something new and wonderful. This much, St. Paul assures us now in the second reading: “Whoever is in C...