Introduction to the Liturgy – Vanishing Wealth – In this rather sardonic way, Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes’ Hebrew name) looks at experience and sees nothing but irony in the fact that those who work hard to achieve a certain position in life end up leaving everything to someone who has made little...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Importuning God – Like a shrewd customer at a bazaar, Abraham presses the Lord to bargaining limits in today’s first reading. To determine how far the Lord’s will to save will go, he works skillfully to save as many citizens of Sodom as possible. The...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Importuning God – Like a shrewd customer at a bazaar, Abraham presses the Lord to bargaining limits in today’s first reading. To determine how far the Lord’s will to save will go, he works skillfully to save as many citizens of Sodom as possible. The...

Introduction to the Liturgy – The Concreteness of Faith – The call of faith is anything but esoteric or abstract.  The will of God, says Deuteronomy, is within hearing distance.  The decrees and commands of the Mosaic law now resided within the human heart.  They were as near as the...

Introduction to the Liturgy – The Joy of Fulfillment – Happiness carries the day in the scriptures this Sunday.  Religion was never meant to be gloomy or solely duty-oriented.  In Christianity there is every reason for joy.  Isaiah sees joy in the fulfillment of God’s promises to mother Jerusalem as...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Journey of Commitment – The word conversion is derived from a Hebrew word meaning a basic change of direction.  Commitment follows conversion. There is no turning back. Elisha’s discipleship meant a last farewell at home and then an unwavering allegiance to Elijah.  Today’s gospel builds...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Cross-Bearing – In the Zechariah text, as difficult to translate as it is the interpret, the Davidic house and Jerusalem look upon an unknown sufferer as they grieve over the one they have pierced.  Suffering is a central motif of the gospel as well, as...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Spirit as God’s Wisdom – A major theme of these readings for Trinity Sunday is that of the Spirit as God’s wisdom.  Proverbs’ personification of wisdom finds her present with God in the entire process of creation.  In John’s gospel today, Jesus speaks of the...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Birth from Above – There are a number of options for the vigil’s first reading, The Genesis Babel narrative is selected here because of its connection with the Pentecost account in Acts.  The reading from Romans looks at our future destiny in the light of...

Introduction to the Liturgy – Come, Lord Jesus – In today’s first reading, Stephen, shortly before his death, sees Jesus as the eschatological Son of Man who is to return on the clouds of heaven.  The sense of expectation of that return runs high in the reading from Revelation today. ...