PAN DE LA SEMANA

[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD] November 15, 2015 33 rd Sunday OT_B LEARNING LESSONS FROM TREES Many years ago, students literally studied under the shade of trees. Back in the day when the public school system was just getting started, there was a dearth of classrooms, so they held classes out in the open. Years later (and I mean now!)   thousands of students may actually be virtually learning from under the shade of trees and lean-to structures, for the lack of classrooms are actually worse than it was a hundred years ago. The good Lord today reminds us to “learn a lesson from the fig tree.”   He was actually talking, not about the situation that our country and people are in now, but about our capacity to read signs, to discern, the ability to watch out for signs that point to greater and bigger realities that go beyond the pale of the ordinary and the common place. I grew up surrounded by trees. I actually knew what it means to plant bananas,...

--> First Sunday of Lent (A) March 9, 2015 Matthew today tells us of the three temptations of Christ. It sure makes one think of a smorgasbord. Jesus was given three choices, and all three have to do with something that touched him to the core. Who doesn’t want food after fasting so long? Who does not want to be served and protected by minions who would surely come to your rescue at all cost? Who among us would not want a promotion beyond imagination and be able to control all nations and kingdoms? The offers all sound - pardon the pun – very tempting indeed. Food is good anytime, all the time, especially that time when you have foregone it for so long. Being catered to and protected by others is always good, for anyone, for everyone. And being on the saddle is always better than being at the beck and call of someone else. Wait! These are all ephemeral goods. Food is good, yes, but it is not the only good. Honor and prestige are both go...

Epiphany Sunday January 5, 2014 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WISE AND THE DISCERNING Isaiah was profuse in joy a-coming: “See, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, dakrness covers the earth and thick clouds the peoples; but upon you the Lord shines.” Isaiah, too, was wise. He said wise things and foretold the coming of caravans and dromedaries “bearing gold and frankincense.” The psalmist was emphatic in his wise prophecies, too: “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” But Paul, in his own right, was also wise about what he discovered late in his life: “the mystery was made known to me by revelation … that the Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” I have doubts, however, whether the Magi were as wise as Matthew appears to have reported they were. They were worldly-wise, to be sure. They knew how to read maps and astrological signs. They could s...

BAPTISM OF THE LORD January 13, 2013 FOR THE GRACE OF GOD HAS APPEARED! Today’s feast definitively closes the Christmas season. Gone ought to be all the tinsel and the foil, the trimmings and trappings of a romanticized Christmas, that is, for the most part, meant to be for kids, to perk up their sense of wonder at the miraculous “Christ-event” that has changed the course of world history. But the child not only grows in age and wisdom. We, too, ought to rise above the childish level of tinsel and foil, and claim for ourselves the responsibility that the Christmas and Christ-event has imposed on us. Let us look for some clues straight from today’s readings! First, the reading from Isaiah, it must be admitted, sounds like soothing balm to aching hearts and like much needed prop-up support to our sagging spirits. “Comfort, give comfort to my people … her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.” Is this a repeat, the...