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In a world still fractured by walls of enmity and distracted by the urgent noise of the present hour, Christ our peace calls us to keep our lamps burning and our hearts ready. Today is Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time. It is also the optional memorial of St. Paul of the Cross, the eighteenth-century Italian priest and founder of the Passionists, whose life was spent keeping the memory of the Cross alive as the true source of reconciliation and peace. The first reading from Ephesians 2:12-22 reminds us who we once were and who we have become. Once “far off,” strangers to the covenants and “without hope and without God in the world,” we have been brought near “by the blood of Christ.” He is our peace: in His flesh He broke down the dividing wall of hostility, abolished the enmity, and created “one new person” in place of the two, reconciling both to God in one body through the cross. We are no longer strangers but “fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of ...

An exegetical reflection on the Gospel of the Fourth Sunday of Lent B (John 3:14-21) March 18, 2012 By Msgr. Lope C. Robredillo, SThD WHEN a ship wanders off course in a stormy night, what gives life and hope to its passengers and crew is the lighthouse that beacons. If one is lost in the forest, he gains hope when he finds a footpath, and there is hope for him as long as he follows it. When one walks the boulevard at night, he is assured of safety as long as he does so along the lighted path. The more he wanders from it, the greater the danger of losing his life. In these instances, the image of the lighthouse, the footpath and the lighted path describes an opportunity which one must not miss or neglect if he is to be saved, if he is not to perish. In today’s Gospel, which is really a part of the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus that turns to a monologue, John stresses a similar point. The image he uses for this purpose alludes to an event in the Old Testament in which a b...

Brothers and sisters: In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word. When he had accomplished purification from sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say: You are my Son; this day I have begotten you? Or again: I will be a father to him, and he shall be a Son to me? And again, when he leads the first born into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God worship him. ShareThis Blogs commenting Fr. Jessie's post