The Bread of Life Discourse II - John 6, Part 4 (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video for the Mass Readings Explained is now out.  Check it out below.  You can subscribe here and get a 14 day free trial if you'd like to see what this series is all about.

Strength for the Journey: 19th Sunday in OT

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, the hero Frodo, a hobbit or “Halfling”, while on his long and arduous journey through the land of shadows governed by the Satan-figure Sauron, finds sustenance in lembas, the elven-bread given to him by Galadriel the elven-queen in Lothlorien, the mystic land of the Elves.  Each loaf of lembas is round and flat and tastes slightly of honey, and strengthens a man enough for a day’s journey.  While wandering with his faithful companion Samwise Gamgee in a land of monsters, demons, goblins, and giant spiders, Frodo stays alive on the sweetness of the elf-bread that breathes the odor of the golden woods and the beauty of the elf-queen.

The Bread of Life Discourse I - John 6, Part 3 (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video is now out as we move through John 6 in the lectionary.  Check it out below.

The New Manna from Heaven (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video is now out for The Mass Readings Explained.  Check it out below.

The Bread of Life: 17th Sunday in OT

This weekend we begin a five-week stretch of meditation on John 6, a kind of summer Eucharist-fest that comes around every three years.  The rationale for this is that we are in Year B of the Lectionary, which covers the second Gospel, the Gospel of Mark.  Now, Mark is the shortest of the Gospels, so in order to fill it out, the Church inserts John 6 into the middle of the Lectionary readings, near Mark 6, which recounts the same event, the Feeding of the 5,000.  John’s account, however, is much longer and includes a long discourse on the theme “Bread of Life” after recounting the miracle itself.  John doesn’t have its own lectionary cycle year, but rather most of the Fourth Gospel is read during Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter or other significant feast days.  John 6, however, doesn’t fit naturally into either the Advent-Christmas cycle or the Lent-Easter-Pentecost cycle, so the Church shoehorns it into the middle of Ordinary Time in Year B. 

The Feeding of the 5,000 (The Mass Readings Explained)

For the next 5 Sundays, the Church will take us through John 6 in the Gospel readings.  Video 1 was just released for this Sunday's Mass Readings.

Good Shepherds and the Sheep: 16th Sunday in OT

At this time in the Church year, we are working our way through the Gospel of Mark, approaching the record of the Feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6).  In the next five weeks, we are going to take a break from Mark in order to meditate on John’s account of the same event (John 6), which will provide a lengthy opportunity to reflect on the theology and biblical basis for the Eucharist.  This Sunday, however, we will only read the introduction of the account of the 5,000, and focus on the issue of leadership for God’s people rather than the Eucharist itself.

1.  Our first reading comes from the prophet Jeremiah:

 Jer 23:1-6:

Unlikely Candidates for God's Service: The 15th Sunday of OT

Ancient Photo of Amos Found Among the Dead Sea Scrolls (colorized)

The readings for this upcoming Sunday are united by the theme of God’s choice of his messengers.  And, as is typical for God, he chooses some unlikely candidates. 

1.  Our first reading is from the prophet Amos 7:12-15:

A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament is Shipping!

The Catholic Introduction to the Bible that Dr. Pitre and I have been working on since 2012 has finally appeared in physical reality!  What you see in the picture is one of the fifty copies that magically appeared on my porch late last night.  I've heard that the printer has delivered them to Ignatius and Ignatius is trying to fulfill the orders as quickly as possible.
This book started with a conversation between Dr. Pitre and myself in a hotel room at what I believe would have been the 2009 SBL Annual Meeting in New Orleans, if I remember correctly.  We discussed the need for a biblical introduction for Catholic major seminarians and masters-level students that was on par with the introductions provided to Protestant seminarians and graduate students.  It took two years to gather the necessary funding and arrange the sabbaticals to have the time to write, but I began the first draft of the Old Testament volume in January 2012.  I would have had it completed by December, but in October of that year the birth of my special-needs son Niklaas, after a high-risk complicated pregnancy, really cut into my productivity and delayed the project, and when I went back to full time teaching in Jan 2013, I could make hardly any progress.  Although I was almost done in December of 2012, just the last two chapters, on The Twelve and Maccabees, took about six months, until around June 2013.  It took Dr. Pitre another year to make his editorial additions (largely the Patristic exegesis portion of each chapter, but many other improvements as well), and in July 2014 we sent the "final" draft to Ignatius Press.  That was about a year and a half later than planned, which caused difficulty with the press, as they had several high-profile books in the works that took priority. The project lay dormant until Spring 2016, when Ignatius began the layout and editing process in earnest.  That involved a great deal of work on the part of Dr. Pitre and I, as multiple drafts went back and forth, cleaning up images and footnotes, revising text, etc.  Finally, at the beginning of 2018, it felt like we were getting close to seeing this become a reality, the "light at the end of the tunnel," and now finally it is out, in time for adoption as a text for Fall classes, for those so inclined.
This book is a labor of love, and if it is long, it is because love wants to linger.  St. Josemaria said, "You think the Mass is long because your love is short."  The same concept applies to this book for those who might think it is too long.  Dr. Pitre and I well understand the need to be succinct and pedagogical, and I challenge any other Bible scholar to write something more succinct than my Bible Basics for Catholics, for example.  However, this book is not for the same audience as Bible Basics.  This is for serious Catholic students, who want to move on from milk to meat, so to speak.  It's written for persons who presumably have a strong grasp of English written rhetoric, some familiarity with the Scriptures, and a strong desire to embrace the Scriptures more fully with mind and heart.
Every single book of the Old Testament is precious to Dr. Pitre and I, and we treated each one with loving care, like a father who proudly lines up his children to introduce each one in turn to a respected guest who has come to visit.  Each biblical book is a universe in itself, and the Gospel can be found in each, though each time painted in different tints and hues.  We hope this book will find a warm reception from Catholics who love and are in love with God's Word, who have the patience and time to sit with the Word and develop a relationship with him.

Jesus Calls the Twelve Apostles (The Mass Readings Explained)

The latest video for this upcoming Sunday's Mass Readings is now out.  Jesus sends his twelve apostles, the prophet Amos is rejected by Amaziah, and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick are all covered in the Scripture readings for this Sunday's Mass.

Neck Stiff? Heart Hard? Get Jesus! 14th Sunday of OT

This Sunday’s readings draw a comparison between three groups: (1) stiff-necked Israelites in the time of the prophets, (2) the townsfolk of Nazareth in the days of Jesus, and (3) you and I sitting in the pew.  The message to us is: repent, and believe the Good News.

1. Our first reading comes from near the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, when that great prophet was receiving his initial call from God:

The Brothers of Jesus (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video is now out below for The Mass Readings Explained.

Pilgrimage to Holy Land and Qumran, May 16-25, 2019

To coincide with the release of my new book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus and the Scrolls: The Jewish Roots of the Church (Random House; April 2019), I'll be leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with special attention to Qumran and the Scrolls.  The specifics are here. I hope to have an electronic sign-up form available soon.  Till then, you can contact me for a pilgrimage application.

The Goodness of Life: The 13th Sunday of OT

The readings for this Sunday focus on the theme of death, and God’s power over it.  They discuss God’s relationship with, and intentions for, the natural world: topics that resonate with Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment Laudato Si. The first reading poses some issues that have to be discussed:

Reading 1 Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24

Jesus the Healer (The Mass Readings Explained)

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Birth of a Glorious Failure: The Nativity of John the Baptist

This Sunday we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, a great saint and biblical character who led a very difficult life and ministry. 

In hindsight, the conflict that led to his demise and martyrdom has a strangely modern ring to it: he was jailed by Herod Antipas for speaking out on marriage (Mark 6:17-18).  Specifically, John the Baptist held to the principle of one man, one woman, for life—a theology of marriage founded in Scripture (Mal. 2:13-16) and reflected in the Essene movement at Qumran (CD 4:19–5:2) and in the teachings of Our Lord (Matt 19:3-12).  This got him into trouble with the nation’s chief executive, Herod Antipas, whose own views on marriage had evolved: he had wed Herodias, his divorced ex-sister-in-law, who was also his niece.  John the Baptist said the marriage was unlawful.  Herod invoked executive privilege to have John arrested and detained for expressing his intolerant views on marriage in public.  Eventually, Herod had him beheaded at the request of his wife Herodias’ daughter Salome, who gave a “hot” hip-hop performance for the king and his cabinet that earned her a political favor (Mark 6:14-29).

The Nativity of John the Baptist (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video is now out for The Mass Readings Explained on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

Now Seeds, START GROWING!: The Readings for the 11 Sunday of OT

In this week’s Mass readings, Jesus teaches us about himself and the Church using agricultural images.

We have to get re-oriented to what is going on in Ordinary Time of Year B.  The Gospel is moving ad seriatim (sequentially) through Mark.  We are going to read a substantial amount of Mark this year by the end of November, with the exception of the Passion and Resurrection accounts (Mark 14-16), which were already read at Palm/Passion Sunday and Easter.  

The second reading is moving through Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians.  

The first readings for the rest of the year are selections from the Old Testament chosen to complement the Gospel reading.

The Parables of the Growing Seed & the Mustard Seed (The Mass Readings Explained)

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The Reality of Satan: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday we return to Ordinary Time for the first time since February 11.  That was the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, but the seventh, eighth, and ninth Sundays were overridden by Pentecost, Trinity, and Corpus Christi.  So we pick up with the Tenth Sunday in Year B on this Lord’s Day.  We are still near the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, following Our Lord’s early ministry.  On this Sunday, the readings are tied together by the theme of defeating Satan.

1. Our First Reading recalls the sorry introduction of Satan’s influence into human history: Gn 3:9-15:

The Unforgivable Sin against the Holy Spirit (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's Mass Readings Explained takes up the famous passage of the "Unforgivable Sin."  Hope it is helpful!

Scandal of Divine Intimacy: The Readings for Corpus Christi

This is a truly joyful time of the Church year as we conclude the long sequence from Advent to Pentecost with these great feasts celebrating central truths of our faith: the Trinity last Sunday, and the Eucharist this week, followed by the Sacred Heart on Friday.

One might ask, What is the relationship between the Trinity and the Eucharist?  Why does the one feast follow the other?

There is, of course, a strong inner unity between the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of the Eucharist.  It is striking, for example, that Jesus’ clearest teaching on the Trinity—the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is all delivered during the Last Supper Discourse (John 13–17), in the context of the institution of the Eucharist.  In a sense, it is in the Eucharist that the reality of the Trinity becomes most personal to us, and is applied to each one of us.  Yes, we speak of receiving Jesus “body, blood, soul, and divinity” in the Eucharist, but we must remember that in Christ we also receive the Father, for “the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38), and the Spirit, who is the bond of love between the Father and Son.  So there is a sense in which the whole Trinity comes to live within us through the Eucharist: “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” and, “the Spirit of Truth … dwells with you, and will be in you” (John 4:23 and 4:16).

The readings show us that the Eucharistic meal is the culmination of a tradition of sacred covenant meals throughout salvation history.

1.  The first reading is Exodus 24:3-8:

Corpus Christi (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video is now out for Corpus Christi.  Check it out below.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.  While the Trinity might evoke a “Ho-hum, don’t we know that already …” response from many Catholics, the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to—and distinctive of—the Christian faith and is vital to our daily prayer and walk with God.  The doctrine of the Trinity touches on who God is; if one has this doctrine wrong, one has the wrong idea of God and may in fact be worshiping a god who does not exist.

The Feast of Pentecost!

(For a better biblical-theological understanding of Pentecost, it’s best to read the commentary on the Vigil readings below.)

Now let’s turn to the Readings for Pentecost Sunday Mass during the Day.

The First Reading is, finally, the account of Pentecost itself, from Acts 2:1-11:

The Vigil of Pentecost: Gathering the Family of God

Pentecost is a very important feast in the liturgical life of the Church, and it has it’s own vigil.  Not only so, but the Readings for the Vigil are particularly rich.  I cannot think of another that has such a wide variety of options, for example, for the First Reading.  Even though only one First Reading will be proclaimed in any given Mass, it is well worth pondering them all, in order to come to understand the significance of Pentecost more deeply:

The First Reading Options for the Vigil:

Pentecost (The Mass Readings Explained)

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A Royal Priesthood: Readings for the 7th Sunday of Easter

(Readings for Ascension Day are below)

Those of you fortunate enough to live in a diocese where the Ascension is observed on its proper Thursday will be able to hear proclaimed this Sunday the proper Readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Pre-empting this Sunday by the Solemnity of the Ascension is a bit unfortunate, because it damages the pattern of the Lectionary.  During the later Sundays of Easter, we read from the Last Supper Discourse (John 13-17), culminating in the Seventh Sunday, on which we read the grande finale of the Last Supper Discourse, namely the High Priestly Prayer (John 17).  Ironically, although John 17 is important enough that it is read on the final Sunday of Easter in all years (A,B,C), due to the transference of Ascension Day, this remarkable and beautiful chapter—the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in Scripture!—is never read at a Sunday Mass.  A passage that the framers of the Lectionary wished the faithful to hear every year is thus never heard.  Hopefully some kind of adjustment will be made in the future. 

God Mounts His Throne with Shouts of Joy: The Readings for Ascension Day

In the Diocese of Steubenville, as well as in most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this Sunday.  I wish the traditional observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is what it is.

Therefore, this weekend we will look at the powerful readings for Ascension Day. 

Jesus Prays for Unity (The Mass Readings Explained)

This weeks Mass Readings Explained is now available for the 7th Sunday of Easter.  In it we discuss Jesus' prayer for unity among his disciples and the casting of lots in Acts to replace Judas with Matthias.

Mary Arose!

Although it is the Easter Season and this might be more appropriate for Passion Week, I thought I'd share this beautiful song, "Qamat Mariam," ("Mary Arose"), sung by Fairuz, who is something like the Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand of Lebanon.  It was sent to me by someone who spent 8 years in a Syrian Catholic monastery, serving the Syrian Catholic community.  

Here is the English translation:

All You Need is Love! 6th Sunday of Easter

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.”  It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for high school band.  It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications.  In fact, they actively distorted the real implications.

Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could serve as the theme for this Sunday’s readings, but as we will see, the Readings define “love” in a far more demanding way than the Beatles would have. 

1.  The first reading is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Roman centurion, Cornelius:

Jesus’ Commandment: Love One Another (The Mass Readings Explained)

My latest video for The Mass Readings Explained is now out.  You can check it out below.

How Do You Know That You Are Saved? 5th Sunday of Easter

Back in the nineties, when I was serving as an urban pastor/missionary in West Michigan, I did a lot of door-to-door and contact evangelism.  I was trained to talk with people and hone in on their assurance of salvation: the key question was, “If you died tonight, are you sure you would go to heaven?”  This would often lead to a follow-up where I would share some Scriptures with them that seemed to show that you could know with certainty that you were saved provided you “believed” in Jesus. 

Book on Work Comes Out

I was delighted to find in my mail today my contributors copy of the book Work: Theological Foundations and Practical Implications (eds. R. Keith Loftin & Trey Dimsdale; London: SCM Press, 2018).

I was given the opportunity to write the first chapter of the body of the book (after the intro), on the theology of work in the creation narratives and the Pentateuch. 

This was a lot of fun, as the other contributors included luminaries like Miroslav Volf (Yale), Jay Richards (CUA), Jürgen von Hagen (Bonn) and Darrel Bock (Dallas Seminary).

I thoroughly enjoyed writing the chapter, and am indebted to my colleague Jeff Morrow, who has written several similar essays.  As is often the case, I started off with some ideas I knew were present in Genesis 1-2, but as I pursued those themes through the canon, many new insights arose that I had never seen before.  Human work is an important theme in Scripture and is an integral part of salvation.  I really encourage economists, theologians, Bible scholars, and those interested in social justice to pick up a copy of this essay collection.

Cajetan and His Continued Relevance

A student who is something of an expert on Cardinal Cajetan sent me a brief essay that I found very edifying and relevant for Catholic believers soldiering forward nowadays in this valley of tears, so I thought I'd share a portion of it:

The Scandal of Jesus: The 4th Sunday of Easter

The readings for this Sunday’s Masses are truly “scandalous” in more ways than one. Our English word “scandal” comes ultimately from the Greek skandalon, “a stumbling block.”  A “scandal” is something that causes people to “stumble,” i.e. that offends or injures them in some way.  As we will see, the exclusive claims made for and by Jesus in the readings for this Sunday are scandalous to the “inclusive” and “diverse” culture we live in today, which does not recognize the possibility of a religious truth binding on all humanity.

1.  The first reading is Acts 4:8-12:

Jesus the Good Shepherd (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's The Mass Readings Explained is now out.

Salvation History as a Good Movie: The 3rd Sunday of Easter

One of my favorite movies is M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs.”  It’s a cross between Robert Benton’s “Places in the Heart” and Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day,” and probably a couple other movies I’m forgetting at the moment.  Anyway, one of the marked features of the movie is its foreshadowing.  Shyamalan introduces all sorts of strange themes associated with the different characters who surround Fr. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), an (Anglican?) priest who’s lost his faith and left his ministry: the strange last words of his dying wife, his brother’s obsession with hitting home runs, his son’s asthma, his daughter’s water-drinking compulsion.  The significance of these motifs does not become clear to the viewer until the final scenes, where one discovers that a strong hand of Providence was guiding the life of Fr. Hess through it all.

The Risen Jesus is Not a Ghost (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's video for The Mass Readings Explained is now out.  See below.

The Readings for Divine Mercy Sunday

Behind the readings for this Sunday lies a Gospel text which is never read, but whose influence is felt and whose concepts and images serves as a link between the texts that are read.  That passage is John 19:34:

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.  35 He who saw it has borne witness — his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth — that you also may believe.

The blood and water flowing from the side of Christ is the background for the Divine Mercy image seen by St. Faustina. 

This “river” that flows out from the side of Christ is understood in the Church’s spiritual tradition as a river of mercy, but there is also a rich biblical background to this passage of John.  

Divine Mercy Sunday (The Mass Readings Explained)

The latest Mass Readings Explained video is now out for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Easter Sunday Readings

The Mass of Easter Day is one of the most joyful in the Church calendar, as the Church basks in the afterglow of the most remarkable intervention of God into human history, the resurrection of his own son. 

1.  The First Reading is Acts 10:34a, 37-43:

Easter Vigil Readings

The Readings for the Easter Vigil recount the history of salvation by focussing on the various covenant stages throughout the Biblical storyline.  My book Bible Basics for Catholics follows this same pattern, using stick figure drawings to illustrate these various stages.

I'll proceed to point out how all these covenants appear in various forms in the seven Old Testament readings that form the backbone of the Liturgy of the Word for the Vigil.

1. The First Reading:

Readings for Good Friday

Every year on Good Friday, we read St. John’s account of the Passion from John 18-19, together with Isaiah 52-53  and Psalm 31.

One of the themes that runs through these reading is the Priesthood of Christ.

1. There is priestly language already in the First Reading, from Isaiah 52 & 53, the famous “Suffering Servant” Song:

The Readings for Holy Thursday

The Readings for the Holy Thursday Mass focus on the continuity between the ancient Jewish Passover and the institution of the Eucharist.  As the Passover was the meal that marked the transition from slavery to Egypt to the freedom of the Exodus, so the Eucharist is the meal that marks the transition from slavery to sin to the glorious freedom of the children of God.

1.  Our First Reading is from Ex 12:1-8, 11-14:

Easter Vigil (The Mass Readings Explained)

The video for this week's Easter Vigil is now out.  Have a holy Holy Week.

Why Have You Forsaken Me? The Readings for Passion Sunday

How could the Messiah die?

Despite a few mysterious prophetic texts that seemed to intimate this possibility, the idea that the Messiah could arrive and subsequently be killed was radically counter-intuitive to most first-century Jews. 

Yet the conviction of the early Christians, based on Jesus of Nazareth’s own teachings about himself, was that the radically counter-intuitive impossibility was actually prophesied, if one had the eyes to see and the ears to hear it in Israel’s Scriptures.

The Readings for this Mass offer us two of the most poignant prophecies of the suffering of the Messiah.

Palm Sunday (The Mass Readings Explained)

This week's Mass Readings Explained is now out for the readings on Palm Sunday.  Hope it is helpful!

The New Covenant: The Fifth Sunday of Lent

In this Lent of Year B, we are taking a survey through the Old Testament of the great covenant moments. We have seen the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the covenant failure of Israel resulting in exile, and now finally, on this fifth week, we witness the promise of the New Covenant through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah.  In the Gospel, Jesus speaks in ominous terms about the coming suffering that will be necessary for him to undergo in order to establish that New Covenant.  

The Grain of Wheat and Jesus' "Hour" (The Mass Readings Explained)

Check out the latest video in The Mass Readings Explained series for this Sunday's Mass Readings.  The 14 day free trial is still available.  God bless.

Parish Mission in Alexandria, LA

If you're in the Alexandria, LA, region, I'll be giving a parish mission at Our Lady of Prompt Succor parish on Tuesday-Wednesday nights this upcoming week: