St. Matthew 22:1-14 Dear Friends, Today’s gospel highlights the call, the invitation to the heavenly wedding feast. In the Bible, the theme of the invitation or call is repeated often. Abraham is the first, then Moses, David and the prophets. In the New Testament it is Peter and the Apostles and finally, Paul. We all join that very prestigious group in our own lives. We are invited to the wedding feast. All are honored guests with whom God will share the heavenly banquet. Everything is ready. Therefore, it is urgent that we attend to God's invitation and resp...

Matthew 21:33-43 Dear Friends, Our liturgical year continues to move on. There is no stopping the clock. Our journey with the Gospel of Matthew is moving to its conclusion. In the next few Sundays, we will have selections that highlight two things: Jesus’ conflict with the Jewish leaders and His call to choose life in following in his footsteps.Down through Church history these final chapters of Matthew have been distorted to produce an antisemitism that has been a dreadful distortion of the gospel. This misrepresentation of Jesus’ message has led to activities that...

Matthew 21:28-32 Dear Friends, Today’s events from Matthew emerge just after Jesus’s glorious entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The cleansing of the Temple escalates the already intense hostility between Jesus and the religious leaders. The impact of these events set the scene for even deeper conflict. With today’s parable of the two sons, Jesus is not subtle in accelerating the tension.An important point to remember right at the beginning is that the order of the challenge to the two sons eliminates a strong prejudice held over the centuries that the pe...

Matthew 20:1-16Dear Friends, Each Sunday, in the readings of the Mass, we encounter the values of Jesus. We are told that the last shall be first, the leader is to be the servant of all, and we need to be the one who washes our neighbors’ feet. The response to violence is not revenge but to...

Mt 18:21-35 The Forgiving Community Forgiveness is at the heart of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and lived. At the very beginning, he said, “Repent, the kingdom is at hand” (Mt 4:17)! Those who accept the invitation into the kingdom need to understand its demands. God’s intervention is unleashing an overwhelming explosion of divine mercy and forgiveness. This calls all to both absorb and share the lifegiving current of the new reality that Jesus is setting free. This great blessing of mercy is a healing power that must be shared. Forgiveness is to be e...