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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 9th, 2025

• (compiled by Dave Cushing)

Presentation of the Lord in the Temple
February 2, 2025

• Focus
  Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon…and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law…he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace…my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”
  
  One-Minute-Homily
  > It may be hard for us to imagine what it was like in earlier times when the flickering flame of a candle was the only light in a darkened room.  Today, we have light inside and out at the flick of a switch and, except perhaps during a power outage, we rarely wonder what it would be like to live in darkness.
  > In today’s Gospel we hear the testimony of the wise old man called Simeon who recognized the young Jesus as the “Light to the World” – a truth to which the Evangelist John attests in the Prologue to his Gospel: “the Light that shines in the darkness.”
  > As disciples, we realize that the Scriptures are talking about something much more important than the physical phenomenon of light. This Light is the light that banishes the darkness that pervades our human existence because we cannot believe that we are loved, completely and unconditionally, by the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the Light to the World.
  > The Eucharist is our encounter with the community of faith graced and enlightened by the Light of the World.
  
  For Additional Discussion or Journaling
  > Question for Children: Why are people afraid of the dark?
  > Question for Youth:  Have you experienced moments of darkness in a time of life that is usually considered an exciting and hopeful time of growth and change?
  > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities: Are we people of light—the kind of light which helps others confront the darkness of pain, suffering, injustice and sin in themselves and in the world?
  
  Learn More
  • Read Sunday's readings
  • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
  • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel
  • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
  • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 26, 2025

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  Focus
   He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
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   One-Minute-Homily
   > In recent years we have become more and more familiar with “mission statements.”  Business writes them, churches write them, organizations write them, even individuals write them.  Mission statements explain, simply and succinctly, why we exist and what we intend to do.
   > In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims his “mission statement”, using a passage from the prophet Isaiah.  It amounts to nothing less than a total transformation of social, political, economic and religious systems which reward some and marginalize others.
   > As his disciples, Jesus’ mission becomes ours.  It begins with how we treat individuals, but it must include our support for, and advocacy of, attitudes, policies and programs which insure the essential moral dignity of every person, especially the losers--the vulnerable and the marginalized.
   > The Eucharist reminds us that Jesus suffered, died and was buried … because he associated with sinners.
  
  For Additional Discussion or Journaling
   > Question for Children: Why is it hard to accept other people as equals when they look or act different?
   > Question for Youth:  How do you continue to respect and value other people in a society which cares only about the winners--the people who are the best, the most outstanding, the most successful?
   > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities:  Do we recognize and advocate for the dignity of every human person—a dignity the church teaches cannot be denied or surrendered?
  
  Learn More
   • Read Sunday's readings
   • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
  • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel
   • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
   • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective
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• Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
  January 19, 2025

  

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  • Focus
    There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee ….  When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine”….  Now there were six stone water jars there…each holding twenty to thirty gallons.  Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water”….  When the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine…., [he] called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first,…but you have kept the good wine until now."
    
    One-Minute-Homily
    > People say every cloud has a silver lining.  And even if it’s not always true, it’s our way of recognizing the fact that often enough some good comes out of adversity – something unexpected, which turns out to be just as good or even better than we expected, in spite of, or even because of, the suffering.
    > In today’s Gospel, Jesus turns water into wine, rescuing the wedding couple from a humiliating situation.  In a way, this Gospel is a template for the whole New Testament: God rescues us from misunderstanding, sin and death by becoming human and showing us the true way to salvation.
    > In the Christian tradition, we call this the “Paschal Mystery”—out of suffering and loss come new life.  Our task as disciples is to keep this hope of something new and unexpected alive, even in the most difficult times, and to help others believe by sharing the new life they might otherwise never experience.
    > The Eucharist is the ultimate sign of the Paschal Mystery.  “Once you were no people,” Peter wrote, “but now you are God’s people.”
    
    For Additional Discussion or Journaling
    > Question for Children: Can you think of a time when something good happened, even though you were expecting something bad?
    > Question for Youth:  “No pain, no gain,” people say.  There is a lot of pain in growing up – unexpected setbacks, mistakes, rejection.  What helps you keep going even when things don’t turn out the way you expected?
    > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities:  Do we give people the impression that they deserve the pain and suffering they experience, or do we help them see it as a pathway to fuller life?
    
    Learn More
    • Read Sunday's readings
    • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
    • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel
    • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
    • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective
  
  
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• Baptism of the Lord
  January 12, 2025

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• Focus
  After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven,  "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
  
  One-Minute-Homily
  > We begin life and often end life totally helpless.  We depend on someone else – representatives of the family or community – to provide for our basic needs like feeding, clothing and bathing.  Bathing someone has become a sign of affection and love in almost every religious culture.
  > John the Baptist, like the disciples of Christ who followed in his footsteps later, adopted the ancient Jewish tradition of bathing as a sign of cleansing, new life, and affection.  Jesus submits to this ritual so that God might reveal that he was in fact God’s beloved son.
  > We Catholics use the sacrament of Baptism as a ritual by which the community assures us that we, too, are beloved by God.  God is well pleased with us despite our imperfection, frailty and sin.  The challenge is to live as people who are loved and to act in ways which help others believe that they too are loved and capable of loving.
  > “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” the priest announces at Mass. It is another way of saying, “Behold my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”
  
  For Additional Discussion or Journaling
  > Question for Children: Have you ever helped someone bath a baby?  Did it remind you of your baptism?
  > Question for Youth:  As we grow, the community or family of people who love us and care about us expands.  Who outside our immediate family shows me that I am loved and lovable?
  > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities:  In what ways do we show others that they are beloved?  In what ways do we show them that God is well pleased with them?
  
  Learn More
  • Read Sunday's readings
  • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
  • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel:
  • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
  • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective

• Solemnity of the Epiphany
  January 5, 2025

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• Focus
  …[B]ehold,  magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,  "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage”…. And behold, the star…preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.  On entering the house…they prostrated themselves and did him homage.  Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
  
  One-Minute-Homily
  > We learn important things from other people all the time; sometimes things we would prefer not to know.  It’s especially difficult when we are informed by strangers -- people we don’t know, don’t like, or disagree with.  It undermines our confidence, our influence, our power.
  > In today’s Gospel Magi arrive from the East, and they reveal a truth that King Herod (and, as it turned out, the Jewish religious establishment) did not want to know: the Messiah had been born, a new kind of king had arrived.  It was an event sure to upset the balance of power and influence in Israel.
  > The lesson here for all of us is that from the beginning the deepest truths or mysteries of the faith were often first grasped by the outcasts and strangers who had no status, no privilege, no authority, institution or ideology to defend.  So where are the truth-tellers in our communities today?  And who are the Magi in our lives?
  > It’s worth remembering that the roots of Eucharist are in the fellowship meals which Jesus shared with outcasts and sinners -- occasions which the holy people found scandalous.
  
  For Additional Discussion or Journaling
  > Question for Children:  How do you think people felt when they saw the three kings arriving?
  > Question for Youth:  Who are sources of truth in your life?  Are some of them from outside the community of peers where you are most comfortable and familiar?
  > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities:  In what ways does defending the status quo prevent us from recognizing the truth?  Who are the strangers whose testament we reject?
  
  Learn More
  • Read Sunday's readings
  • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
  • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel
  • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
  • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective
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Feast of the Holy Family

December 29, 2024

• Focus
  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers….  When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him,  “Son,….  Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  And he said to them, “Why…?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.
  
  One-Minute Homily
  > Every parent worries about losing their child – not just in a physical sense when they are young, but in other ways as they grow older: an adult child becomes estranged from home and family, or moves far away, chooses an unexpected career or a difficult partner, abandons the practice of their faith.
  > Mary and Joseph were no doubt relieved to at last find the young Jesus in the Temple, but it might have occurred to them even then that he would be lost to them in a more troubling sense as he went about his Father’s business.  Perhaps they even surmised then that it would not turn out well.
  > As we enter a new year, let us remember our children and grandchildren who seem to have lost their way making choices which worry and confuse us.  Let us trust that they, too, are about their Father’s business in these changing and challenging times. Perhaps they have something to teach us, however unlikely or painful it may seem to us.
  > It is always possible that the Eucharist becomes too routine and familiar.  Sometimes we have to stop and remind ourselves that it is in fact a very radical – even frightening – event.
  
  For Additional Discussion or Journaling
  > Question for Children: Can you recall – or imagine -- a time when you were lost and relieved to see your parents?
  > Question for Youth:  Sometimes growing up requires choices that are not welcomed by parents; are you making unwelcomed choices in order to being doing what God is calling you to do?
  > Question for Adults, Families and Faith Communities:  Are we people and communities who are patient and trusting with people who are making difficult and confounding choices?
  
  Learn More
  • Read Sunday's readings
  • Read a reflection on Sunday’s readings
  • Explore the cultural context of the Gospel
  • Reflect on an image for Sunday's Gospel
  • Hear the Gospel from a Third World perspective