Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 26, 2017, Year A
What did the man born blind do once he could see? He went back. Where? We don’t know. Why? Well, where else? John tells us nothing about his reaction to his new situation. He is totally unlike the lame man healed in Acts 3:8, “walking and jumping and praising God.” He was not even looking for Jesus, as far as we can tell.
Interview with Cardinal Parolin on the eve of the Treaties of Rome’s celebration: “Do not expect Christians to say what to do, but to show through their lives the way to follow.
Saint Joseph, a "good and upright man," heard God’s wishes by listening to his dreams. Common advice would have told him to divorce Mary, as he planned to do, but he was willing to do what was disapproved of by other people because he trusted God’s plan more than his own. When practicality would have said, "Stay in Bethlehem; Egypt is no place for a poor carpenter and his family," he also declined to rely on his own will, and thereby saved the life of Mary’s infant Son.
St. Joseph, Pray that we might be faithful to God's will in all things as you were.
On the 4th Sunday of Lent, we read in John’s Gospel about Christ healing a man blind from birth. We identify with the man who came to see and believe in Jesus as the Son of God. The Lord has anointed our eyes with His own divine hands and washed them with the waters of our baptism. Jesus used mud made with his own saliva, and told the man to wash in the waters of Siloam. Jesus did this because it was the Sabbath, the day, when it was strictly forbidden to make mud, spit, and wash. By breaking these Jewish ritual laws, Jesus proved that He is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath.
This is the committing title of a conference to be held on March 24-26 at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, promoted by the Centre for Dialogue with people of the Focolare that have no religious affiliation.
“The Word of God is a light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. This is how moral conscience is formed.” (CCC 1802)
Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
As the prophet Jonah came to realize, there are many persons who “don't know their right hand from their left.” (John 4:11)
Interview with the Custos of the Holy Land a few days before the Thanksgiving Celebration of March 22, for the restoration work.
Do we realize that God is doing us a great favor, with eternal ramifications, when he puts needy people in our lives?
You don’t need coffee to wake up when there’s a rousing homily at morning Mass. Msgr. Tom Richter, rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, North Dakota, was especially fired up one morning. He warned us about “going to hell” not once, but twice.
In the US, the little girl who, perhaps without knowing it, prefers Bergoglio to Susanita
Story of a little African American girl who gives up her six-year birthday gifts just to celebrate with Chicago's homeless.
With the 100th anniversary of Fatima, many people have heard about the “Miracle of the Sun” in the October 1917 apparition. But few realize that St. Joseph appeared in that vision.
