PAN DE LA SEMANA

--> 2 nd Sunday of Lent B March 2, 2015 THE BEST, EVEN FROM THE WORST! Being tested beyond one’s capacity to endure is all I can think of when I read the ordeal of Abraham (and Isaac!). God asked for the worst any human being can ever think of … the life of his one and only son, and through a cruel, painful death at that … from his own hands, no less! In our times, I feel like many of us (and most of my readers!) are being tested to the core … and to the limits. We read and hear about beheadings, burnings, and being buried alive. We hear almost to the day all about dishonesties and insincerities of politicians who always talk of the good of their constituents but whose behavior belies everything they utter. We also have faint, but almost morally certain suspicions that big businesses are nothing more than partners in crime of these same individuals who love to be called “honorable.” Things seem to go from bad to worse and there seems to be no stopping t...

Second Sunday of Lent (B) March 4, 2012 The readings today are all so rich a separate reflection for each one is in order. But one of the tasks of the homilist is to tie up all three in the light of the bigger mystery that the Catholic liturgy celebrates in all the liturgical seasons, Lent, most especially. I would like to begin with the obvious – the call to perfect obedience of Abraham, who was not just called to get out of Ur. A train of other calls came his way, from no less than the same God who called him from his ultimate “comfort zone” that was Ur. This time, though, the call pierces through the roof of reason, and asks him to do the unthinkable … that is, sacrifice his very own son Isaac. The fact that he had to go up the mountain definitely was no accident. The very call at this particular instance, is all an uphill climb, much more difficult than his journey through the plains from Ur to the land of promise. Moriah, the same mountain on which the temple would much...